Cexing

Cè (Whip, 策) or Cexing (whip star) is a traditional Chinese star name representing the horsewhip, located beside the asterism Wangliang (王良) and closely associated with both Wangliang (王良) and Tiansi (天駟). It belongs to the Gān school. A name variant is Tiance (celestial whip).

The name Cexing was adopted by WGSN for the star designated Kappa Cassiopeiae in 2025.

Concordance, Etymology, History

The main asterism here is Wangliang, a legendary general sitting in a chariot driven by four horses (quadriga).

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  Bronze chariot in Qin dynasty (220 BCE -206 BCE). This chariot was unearthed in 1980 to the west of the burial mound of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in Lintong, Shaanxi Province. After its excavation, it was housed in the Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the First Qin Emperor. In May 2021, the second bronze chariot was relocated to the Bronze Chariot and Horse Museum of the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor.

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  (Left) The end of jade horsewhip in late Shang and early Zhou dynasty and (Right) the demonstration of the horsewhip. (credit: Palace Museum in Taiwan)

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  Wangliang and Ce in Cheonsang Yeolcha Bunyajido

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  Wangliang and Ce before 17th Century in Stellarium

IAU Working Group on Star Names

The name Cexing was proposed for Kappa Cas in 2025. After reviewing the literature and deliberation, WGSN adopted for the name for Kappa Cas for the Catalog of Star Names on 12 November 2025.

Cexing is a distant blue supergiant at a distance of about 1000 parsecs. The star served a spectral standard star of type B1Ia (Morgan, Abt, Tapscott 1978, "Revised MK Spectral Atlas for Stars Earlier than the Sun"). The star is a bright example of an Alpha Cygni-type variable star, as a hot supergiant showing variability at the ~0.07 mag level with a periodicity of 2.6 days. The star is a "runaway star" which is ploughing through its neighboring gas and dust, illuminating a bow shock nebula detected in the infrared by the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Weblinks

• "The Shocking Behavior of a Speedy Star" https://www.nasa.gov/missions/spitzer/the-shocking-behavior-of-a-speedy-star/

Reference

• References (general)
• References (early modern)
• Ian Ridpath's website (Star Tales )