Zodiac of Ganzhi calendar

The Origin of the Zodiac and Its Relationship with Earthly Branches

The Book of Songs is the earliest record of the zodiac in the existing literature. There are eight words in The Book of Songs Xiaoya Jiri: "Jiri Wugeng means poor horse", which means it is a good day to ride a prancing horse and hunt. This is an example of afternoon horse collocation. It can be seen that the corresponding relationship between earthly branches and twelve kinds of animals has been established and spread around the Spring and Autumn Period.

1975, the bamboo slips unearthed from TombNo. 1 1 in Shuihudi, Yunmeng County, Hubei Province, further prove that the twelve zodiac signs existed before and after the Spring and Autumn Period. There is a chapter named "Thief" in the bamboo slips unearthed in Japan, which is about the thief's appearance characteristics. It is recorded that: "Zi, mouse and thief are eager for his mouth, … ugly, ox, thief has a big nose and a long neck, … Yin, tiger and thief like it and long for his beard, and his face is dark." Hair, rabbits, thieves are big. Chen, [the original leaker] the thief is a man, green and red ... already, the worm is also, and the thief grows black. At noon, the deer also, the thief has a long neck and a small wound, and his body is incomplete. ..... No, horses, thieves have ears. Shen zhe, Huan ye, thief is LUN ye ... "The zodiac recorded in Japanese books is roughly similar to the popular saying now. According to textual research, the tomb of Shuihudi 1 1 dates back to the 30th year of Qin Shihuang (2 17 BC), so the appearance of the zodiac can be traced back to at least the Spring and Autumn Period before Qin Dynasty. Scholars believe that this is the earliest and most systematic record of the zodiac found in China so far.

Exactly the same as the popular zodiac signs today is Wang Chong's On the Balance of Things in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "Yin, wood, its birds and tigers." The soil, so are its birds and dogs. ..... At noon, the horse also arrived. ..... the snake has also. Shenzhe, Qitian also. "In the above text, there are eleven kinds of animals in the zodiac, but the dragon is gone. The book "Poisonous Words" says: "Chen Weilong turned into a snake. Chen and Ji are in the southeast. "In this way, the zodiac is complete, and it is exactly the same as the popular zodiac. This is indeed the earliest and most complete record of the Chinese zodiac in ancient literature.

By the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the zodiac had been widely used. In the Five Elements Annals of the Southern Southern Dynasties, commentators at that time often referred to people as zodiac signs, such as "Dong Hunhou is a pig" and "Cui is a horse". In the Biography of Yuwen Hu's Northern History, a letter written by Yuwen Hu's mother was recorded, which wrote: "Your brother was born in Wuchuan Town. The first one was a mouse, the second one was a rabbit, and you were a snake." Shen Jiong, a poet in the Southern Dynasties, once wrote a poem about the zodiac:

In the case of mice and dust, cattle and sheep come at dusk.

Tigers feed and inhabit in the empty valley, and rabbits open the window to the moon.

The dragon is far green, and the snake willow is near.

Malanfang is far away, and sheep are planted in spring.

The monkey chestnut shames the fragrant fruit, and the chicken anvil leads to a clear cup.

Dogs have their own things, but the windows of pigs are leisurely.

This poem of the zodiac is obviously written in the order of animals assigned by the twelve branches, which shows that people were very familiar with the zodiac at that time.

In the Tang Dynasty, it was said that Xuanzong was keen on cockfighting because he was a chicken. Since the Song Dynasty, people have further linked the zodiac with a person's fate in thought, forming many taboos about the zodiac. When Huizong was a dog in the Northern Song Dynasty, it was forbidden to kill dogs in the world. Too many students once asked angrily, "Zongshen (Hui Zong's father) was born in the year of Wuzi, and Xiao Sheng was a mouse. Why couldn't you help keeping a cat at that time? " Emperor Renzong of the Yuan Dynasty, because he was a chicken, also issued a ban on mentioning chickens inside and outside the capital (Beijing). Ming Wuzong was a pig. In the fourteenth year of Zheng De's reign (A.D. 15 19), he ordered the whole country to "ban livestock pigs", and offenders were expelled from the army, so that when the Qingming royal family prepared to sacrifice their ancestors three times the next year, they could not find a pig.

The taboo of the zodiac is also manifested in marriage, which is caused by the concept that the five elements are mutually reinforcing. Where there is a marriage, we must first recognize the "eight characters" to see if the two are in conflict. Therefore, there is even a "pig monkey is not at the end, and the white horse is afraid of the green cow; Golden roosters are afraid of jade dogs, and dragons and rabbits exchange tears; Once the snake and the tiger make a mistake, the sheep and the mouse will stop "harmony". In ancient times, when the white horse made a mistake, once the sheep and the mouse crossed, the tiger saw that the snake was wrong, and the rabbit Yulong exchanged tears; Golden roosters and jade dogs never meet, and pigs are never afraid of apes. The concept of mutual restraint is another remarkable feature of China's Zodiac culture, which has more or less influenced the surrounding ethnic groups.

The zodiac is bounded by beginning of spring.

Regarding what many people think is "changing the zodiac after New Year's Eve", Han Shuo said that the main reason is that many folk customs are neglected and gradually forgotten or changed. In addition, the lack of understanding of the traditional astronomical calendar and prejudice against some feudal superstitious cultures lead to confusion between the lunar calendar and the official calendar, and objective and incomplete understanding is also the main reason.

There is a corresponding relationship between the zodiac and the twelve earthly branches, which has been concluded from the origin of the zodiac above. Then, of course, the attribution of the zodiac should also be determined according to the year of the branch. The demarcation point of the year of the main branch is in beginning of spring, so the division of the zodiac should also take beginning of spring as the boundary.

In ancient times, almanac was published by official calculation and could not be copied without royal approval. However, attracted by paying attention to profits, and because some remote areas can't get the official calendars of that year in time, the appearance of private calendars has never been banned. It was not until the sixteenth year of Qing Qianlong that the people were allowed to engrave the official seal of the Yellow Calendar. When we open any imperial calendar, we can see that the change of the year of the dry branch is not on the first day of the first month, but on the day when the Yin was established in beginning of spring.

Zheng Ziduan, a folk researcher in Fuzhou, excavated the lunar calendar of the Republic of China, in which beginning of spring was still the starting point of the Year of the Zodiac. The Spring Festival is only established in modern times on the first day of the first lunar month. After the Revolution of 1911, the title of the emperor was abolished, but the title of the main branch has been used. 19 12. Dr. Sun Yat-sen announced that he would abolish the old calendar and adopt the Gregorian calendar. 19 14, Yuan Shikai, then president of the Republic of China, issued a decree stipulating that the first day of the first lunar month is the Spring Festival every year. Before that, people and officials regarded beginning of spring as the first year.

Liu, honorary president of the Chinese Folklore Society, believes that "according to the inherent traditional concept, beginning of spring is the boundary of the wheel". "Since the establishment of the zodiac, we have started to use beginning of spring as the calculation start time of the rotation of the zodiac."

Beginning of spring is used as the basis for calculating the zodiac in China calendars and folklore. Ye Chunsheng, a professor at Sun Yat-sen University and vice chairman of the Chinese Folklore Society, believes that the word "Zodiac" existed as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, when the corresponding relationship between the twelve earthly branches and the twelve zodiac signs in the Annals of Ganzhi was established and circulated.

China's metaphysics is closely related to the 24 solar terms, so "beginning of spring" has long been regarded as the beginning of a new year in the fields of art and mathematics. As for the first day of the first month, it is only the first day of 12 lunar months. Although every household is celebrating, the calculation of geomantic figures in the new year is still based on "beginning of spring".

China's traditional fortune-telling and divination started with beginning of spring as a year.

To sum up, from the official to the folk, and then to the academic circles, most of them support the saying that the zodiac began in the beginning of spring. Tracing back to the source, it is more orthodox to take beginning of spring as the beginning of the Year of the Zodiac.