Crux in Chinese astronomy

The modern constellation Crux is not included in the Three Enclosures and Twenty-Eight Mansions system of traditional Chinese uranography because its stars are too far south for observers in China to know about them prior to the introduction of Western star charts. Based on the work of Xu Guangqi and the German Jesuit missionary Johann Adam Schall von Bell in the late Ming Dynasty, this constellation has been classified as one of the 23 Southern Asterisms (近南極星區, Jìnnánjíxīngōu) under the name Cross (十字架, Shízìjià).

Possibly Acrux (Alpha Crucis), Mimosa (Beta Crucis) and Gacrux (Gamma Crucis) are bright stars in this constellation that never seen in Chinese sky.

The name of the western constellation in modern Chinese is 南十字座 (nán shí zì zuò), meaning "the southern cross-shaped constellation".