Gouguo (狗国)

Authors: Lyu Haocheng, ASE Tech Team, Susanne M Hoffmann

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Gouguo

Asterism Info
Native	狗国
Translation	Territory of Dog
Position (2000)
Right ascension	300.6645021
Declination	-27.70984435
Area	0 sq. deg.
Stars
Bright stars	1
Bayer/Flamsteed stars	1
Stars brighter than 3.00m	0
Brightest star	Gouguo (4.58m)
Taxonomy
category of asterism	IAU-Star Name
IAU- constellations	Sgr

Gouguo in Stellarium

Gouguo (狗国)

Asterism Info
Native	狗国
Romanisation	Gǒu Guó
IPA	/koʊ˨˩˦.kwo˧˥/
Translation	Territory of Dog
Position (2000)
Right ascension	... to ...
Declination	... to ...
Area	xx.xx sq. deg.
Stars
Bright stars	4
Bayer/Flamsteed stars	4
Stars brighter than 3.00m	0
Brightest star	59 Sgr (4.53m)
Taxonomy
category of asterism	constellation
IAU- constellations	Sgr

Gǒu Guó (狗国, Territory of Dog), is a traditional Chinese asterism belonging to the Dou (斗 / Dipper) lunar mansion. Within the "Three Schools" of ancient Chinese astronomy, it is classified as a Gan School (甘氏) asterism. Gou Guo consists of four stars located to the southeast of Jian (建) (建星 / Establishment Star). In modern constellation boundaries, Gou Guo lies within Sagittarius.

Since August 2026, the name Gouguo is an IAU-star name for c Sgr (62 Sgr), the determinative star of this constellation in the early time, before Tang Dynasty.

Concordance, Etymology, History

The name "Gou Guo" literally means "territory of dog". This asterism corresponds to the non-Han peoples of northern and northeastern China.

Gou Guo belongs to the Dou (Dipper) mansion, which is part of the Northern Black Tortoise in the Four Symbols system — positioned precisely at the boundary between the Eastern Azure Dragon and the Northern Black Tortoise. Gou Guo itself lies in the northeastern sector of the sky, and thus corresponds to the non-Han peoples of northeastern China. Similarly, other asterisms representing non-Han peoples elsewhere in the sky are generally aligned with the geographical directions associated with their respective Four Symbols.

The Gan Shi Zan (Gan's Eulogy) records:

"Gou Guo governs the Xianbei (鲜卑), Wuhuan (乌丸), and Okjeo (沃沮)."

The Song Shi, Tianwen Zhi (Treatise on Astronomy in the History of Song) provides a more detailed account, stating that Gou Guo:

"governs the Samhan (三韩), Xianbei, Wuhuan, Xianyun (玁狁), Okjeo, and their like."

These peoples—Xianbei, Wuhuan (乌丸/乌桓, alternative transcriptions of the same name from different periods), and Okjeo—were all ancient ethnic groups inhabiting northern and northeastern China. The Gou Guo stars were used for divining the fortunes and misfortunes of these northern "barbarian" states. The Huangdi Zhan (Yellow Emperor's Divination) states:

"If the stars of Gou Guo are not complete, there will be great bandits in the realm."

The Song Shi, Tianwen Zhi similarly notes:

"If the stars are not complete, there will be bandits; if they are dim, all is peaceful; if they are bright, border bandits will arise."

In other words, if these stars appear incomplete in number or abnormally bright, it portends great banditry or border troubles.

Corresponding Historical Peoples

The name "Gou Guo" was not originally an asterism name but a legendary ethnonym from the pre-Qin period, possibly related to the ancient Quanrong (犬戎, Dog Rong) tribe. Works such as the Yi Zhou Shu (Lost Book of Zhou) and the Western Han Huainanzi, Dixing Xun (Treatise on Topography) mention "Gou Guo" as a "Rong-Di" (戎狄) state to the west or north of the Central Plains.

As an asterism, however, Gou Guo's meaning is not directly inherited from these ancient legends. The Gou Guo asterism symbolizes the Xianbei, Wuhuan, and Okjeo—peoples that were active in northeastern China from the Han through the Wei-Jin periods.

Xianbei (鲜卑)

Northeast Asia in the 2nd Century AD: Eastern Han, Xianbei, Wuhuan, and Okjeo

The Xianbei were an ancient nomadic people of northern East Asia, belonging to the Donghu (Eastern Hu) lineage. After the Donghu were defeated by the Xiongnu around the Qin-Han transition (late 3rd century BCE), the Xianbei retreated to the Greater Khingan Range. As the Xiongnu were crushed by the Han dynasty (chiefly during the 1st–2nd centuries CE), the Xianbei rapidly expanded westward into the vacuum left by the Xiongnu and rose to become the new steppe overlords. During the Wei-Jin period (220–420 CE), the Xianbei reached the height of their power, founding multiple states including the Former Yan (337-370), Later Yan (384-409), Southern Yan (398-410), Western Qin (385-400, 409-431), Southern Liang (397-414), and most notably the Northern Wei (386-534), which unified northern China. The Xianbei were one of the most influential northern peoples in Chinese history.

Wuhuan (乌桓/乌丸)

The Wuhuan were a proto-Mongolic people of the Donghu lineage, dwelling south of the Xianbei. Their name first appears in the Shiji, Xiongnu Liezhuan (Records of the Grand Historian: Biography of the Xiongnu). During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141-87 BCE), the Wuhuan submitted to the Han and were relocated southward to the region beyond the Great Wall in the five commanderies of Shanggu, Yuyang, Youbeiping, Liaoxi, and Liaodong—a frontier zone between agricultural and pastoral regions. Consequently, the Wuhuan long remained a people caught between the Han dynasty, the Xiongnu, and the Xianbei. In the late Eastern Han (late 2nd-early 3rd century CE), the Wuhuan grew powerful but were eventually subjugated by Cao Cao in 207 CE; their population was largely absorbed into the Xianbei and Han populations. In post-Wei-Jin historical texts, "Wuhuan" (乌桓) is often written as "Wuhuan" (乌丸)—the two are variant transcriptions of the same ethnonym.

Okjeo (沃沮)

The Okjeo, also written as Woqie (沃且), were an ancient tribal state in northeastern Asia, distributed mainly around the Tumen River basin and the Sea of Japan coast of the northern Korean Peninsula. They were divided into Eastern Okjeo and Northern Okjeo; Eastern Okjeo is sometimes referred to simply as Okjeo or as Southern Okjeo. The Okjeo were once subject to Wiman Joseon (c. 194-108 BCE) and later to the Han dynasty's Four Commanderies, specifically the Xuantu (玄菟) and Lelang (乐浪) commanderies, before eventually coming under the sway of Goguryeo. Their territory encompassed parts of present-day eastern Jilin Province in China, the Hamgyong provinces of North Korea, and the Primorsky Krai region of Russia.

13th-19th centuries

This detail from the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu (Complete Map of the Myriad Countries), a world map co-produced by Matteo Ricci and Li Zhizao in 1602.The label "狗国" (Gou Guo) appears in the red box at the upper right, placed near the northeastern tip of Asia, roughly where the Chukchi Peninsula lies today. However, given the limited surveying technology of the time and the inaccuracies of many neighbouring labels on the map, this annotation should not be taken as definitive evidence that Gou Guo corresponds to the Chukchi Peninsula.

After the Wei-Jin period, ethnonyms such as Xianbei and Okjeo gradually disappeared from the historical stage, but "Gou Guo" persisted as an asterism name and divinatory object. From the Yuan through the Qing dynasties (13th–19th centuries), Chinese sources referred to the peoples of the middle and lower Amur River basin as "Gou Guo" or "Shi Quan Bu" (使犬部, Dog-using Tribe), corresponding primarily to the modern Hezhen (Nanai) people. This later "Gou Guo" derived its name from the local practice of using dogs for sled transportation—for instance, the courier stations established along the lower Amur River in the Ming dynasty were called "dog stations" (狗站)—and has no direct connection to the asterism of the same name.

Identification of stars

After the Huangyou reign period (1052 CE) of the Northern Song dynasty, the four stars of Gou Guo were fixed as ω Sgr, 60 Sgr, 62 Sgr, and 59 Sgr. Subsequent star charts and catalogues have consistently affirmed this identification.

However, in pre-Huangyou star charts—such as the Cheonsang Yeolcha Bunyajido and the Dunhuang Star Chart, as well as pre-Huangyou star catalogues like the Jingyou Star Catalogue—the position of Gou Guo differs; it was likely located near 52 Sgr in earlier times. The scholar Yang Boshun, through data correction and identification of the 3rd-century Chen Zhuo star catalogue, found that the determinative star in the early observational records corresponds to 62 Sgr, the same as in the later period. This suggests that the asterism underwent more than one change over the course of its history, and its final position was the result of a long process of adjustment.

Star Names or Orders(Qing)	Ho PENG YOKE	Yi Shitong Based on catalogue in 18th century	Pan Nai based on Xinyixiangfayao Star Map	Pan Nai based on catalogues in Yuan dynasty	SUN X. & J. Kistemaker Han Dynasty	Boshun Yang before Tang dynasty	Boshun Yang Song Jingyou(1034)
1st	ω Sgr	ω Sgr	ω Sgr (Determinative)	ω Sgr (Determinative)	ω Sgr	ω Sgr	56 Sgr (Determinative)
2nd	60 Sgr	60 Sgr	60 Sgr	60 Sgr	60 Sgr	60 Sgr	52 Sgr
3rd	62 Sgr	62 Sgr	62 Sgr	62 Sgr	62 Sgr	62 Sgr (Determinative)	χ1 Sgr
4th	59 Sgr	59 Sgr	59 Sgr	59 Sgr	59 Sgr	59 Sgr	50 Sgr

Maps (Gallery)

historical map	modern identification (Yang 2023)	same in Stellarium 24.4
Gouguo in Cheonsang Yeolcha Bunyajido	Gouguo before Tang Dynasty reconstructed by Boshun Yang (2023)	Gouguo before Tang Dynasty in Stellarium
Gouguo in Dunhuang Star Chart Gouguo in Gezi yuejin tu	Gouguo in Song Dynasty (Jingyou period) reconstructed by Boshun Yang (2023)	Gouguo in Song Dynasty (Jingyou period) in Stellarium reconstructed by Boshun Yang
Gouguo in Suzhou Star Map Gouguo in Yixiang kaocheng Star Map (18th century)	Gouguo in Song Dynasty (Huangyou period) reconstructed by Pan Nai (2009)	Gouguo after Song Dynasty in Stellarium

IAU Working Group on Star Names

In 2026, the name of the historical constellation "Gouguo" was suggested to be used for 62 Sgr in this constellation for it may be an early determinative star.

Decision: ...

References

References (Chinese)