The modern constellation Pavo 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,[1] this constellation has been classified as one of the 23 Southern Asterisms (近南極星區, Jìnnánjíxīngōu) under the name Peacock (孔雀, Kǒngqiāo).
Peacock (Alpha Pavonis) is the brightmest star in this constellation. It is never seen in the Chinese sky.
The name of the western constellation in modern Chinese is 孔雀座 (kǒng què zuò), which means "the peacock constellation".