Is the zodiac based on the lunar calendar or the solar calendar?

The zodiac is based on the lunar calendar. Zodiac refers to twelve kinds of animals in China, whose birth years match the twelve earthly branches, including rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs.

The method of taking beginning of spring as the standard of the zodiac began in Shang and Zhou Dynasties. At present, "beginning of spring" is used as the basis for calculating the zodiac in the Yellow Calendar and traditional folklore. From beginning of spring last year to beginning of spring next year, it is the basic rule of 365 days.

Taking New Year's Eve as the dividing point, that is, from the beginning of the Lunar New Year (the first day of the Lunar New Year), the method of calculating the zodiac appeared relatively late, and the earliest record appeared in the Northern Song Dynasty. Now many people agree with this. Gu Jiaqian, president of the Chinese Folklore Society and a folklore expert, believes that the genus should not be calculated according to the 24 solar terms. After all, the Spring Festival is the beginning of the Lunar New Year, and it is also the beginning of the Lunar New Year, so the zodiac should naturally start from the first day of the first month.

The origin of the zodiac;

The origin of the zodiac is related to animal worship. According to the records of Qin bamboo slips unearthed in Yunmeng Shuihudi, Hubei Province and Fangmatan, Tianshui, Gansu Province, there was a relatively complete zodiac system in the pre-Qin period. The earliest handed down document that recorded the China Zodiac, which is the same as modern times, was Lun Heng written by Wang Chong in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

With the development of history, it has gradually integrated into the concept of folk belief, which is reflected in marriage, life, annual luck and so on. Each zodiac has rich legends, which form a conceptual interpretation system and become an image philosophy in folk culture, such as the animal sign in marriage, the prayer in temple fairs, the year of birth and so on.