White Tiger (Chinese astronomy)

White Tiger
Bái Hǔ sculpture on the eaves tile
Chinese name
Chinese	白虎
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Bái Hǔ Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization baak6 fu2 Jyutping baak6 fu2 Southern Min Hokkien POJ pe̍h-hó͘
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	Bạch Hổ
Chữ Hán
Korean name
Hangul	백호
Hanja	白虎
Transcriptions Revised Romanization Baek-ho
Japanese name
Kanji	白虎
Hiragana	びゃっこ
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn Byakko Kunrei-shiki Byakko

The White Tiger is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. It is sometimes called the White Tiger of the West (西方白虎, Xī Fāng Bái Hǔ), and is known as Bai Hu in Chinese, Byakko in Japanese, Baekho in Korean and Bạch Hổ in Vietnamese. It represents the west and the autumn season.

As the other three symbols, there are seven astrological mansions, or positions, of the moon within White Tiger. The names and determinative stars are:

In Chinese culture, the tiger is the king of the beasts and has been presented with a on his forehead for centuries. According to legend, the tiger's tail would turn white when it reached the age of 500 years. In this way, the white tiger became a kind of mythological creature. It was said that the white tiger would only appear when the emperor ruled with absolute virtue, or if there was peace throughout the world. Because the color white of the Wu Xing theory also represents the west, the white tiger became a mythological guardian of the west.