Bathrobe's Days of the Week in Chinese, Japanese & Vietnamese
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Days of the Week in Japanese >

 

Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto
in Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese

 

The three outer planets, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, were discovered much later than the five planets known in antiquity and bear names in Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese that are direct translations of the Western ones, namely:

English Uranus Neptune Pluto
Chinese characters 天王星 海王星 冥王星
Chinese reading Tiānwángxīng Haǐwángxīng Míngwángxīng
Japanese reading Tennōsei Kaiōsei Meiōsei
Vietnamese Sao Thiên Vương Sao Hải Vương Sao Diêm Vương
Meaning King of Heaven King of the Sea King of the Underworld

Note that the roots used in the Vietnamese names for the planets are the same as for Chinese and Japanese, except for Pluto, where Vietnamese uses the word Diêm (equivalent to / / Ch yán, J en) instead of Minh ( Ch míng, J mei). The meaning is basically the same, referring to the underworld.

Incidentally, the names deriving from the Five Elements were not the earliest names for the planets in Chinese. Some earlier or alternative names were:

English Mercury Venus Mars Jupiter Saturn
Current name 水 星 金星 火星 木 星 土星
Chinese characters 辰星 太白星 熒惑 / 荧惑 歲星 / 岁星 鎮星 / 镇星
Chinese reading Chénxīng Taìbáixīng Yínghuò Suìxīng Zhènxīng
Japanese reading Shinsei Taihakusei Keiwaku Saisei Chinsei

 

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