As you all are by now very much aware, there are four gods in the world of the ShijinTenchiShyou. There is the Black Tortoise of the North (Genbu) protecting Hokkan, the Blue Dragon of the East (Seiryuu) protecting Kutou, the White Tiger of the West (Byakko) protecting Sailo, and the Red Peacock of the South (Suzaku) protecting Konan. These correspond with the actual cartography of ancient Japan and China. There were four animals, each associated with a season and a cardinal direction. Genbu (North) represents Winter, as Seiryuu (East) does Spring, Suzaku (South) is Summer, and Byakko (West) represents Fall. However, there was traditionally also a fifth cardinal direction, the Center, which is represented by the Earth. I found it interesting to note that although Genbu is traditionally the opposite of Suzaku, in Fushigi Yuugi, it is Seiryuu that Suzaku is contending with.

Each of the four cardinal directions represented by the animals is also associated with seven "lodges" or "palaces" which mark the positions of the moon among the stars. The constellations associated with these lodges are what correspond to the seven seishi. All of the seishi have two characters to their names. The first part is based on the Chinese character that represents their constellation, and the second character is always the kanji for the English word "inn", obviously an acknowledgement of the fact that they represent the "lodges" associated with each season, and hence each god. It is interesting to note that in Fushigi Yuugi, only the Seiryuu seishi have the word "boshi" in their names, the Japanese word for "star" (Amiboshi, Suboshi, Miboshi).

I was basically looking for correlations between the Chinese character that each seishi represents and his/her role or personality in Fushigi Yuugi. One thing I found is that the constellation for Chichiri is also the constellation for Gemini. Hmm... Anyway, here is a chart with all of the characters (both kinds). I wasn't able to find any glaringly obvious correlations, but what do you think?