Does the zodiac begin on the first day of the first month or in beginning of spring?

People's Republic of China (PRC) (PRC) national standard GB/T 3366 1—20 17 "Compilation and Promulgation of Lunar Calendar" stipulates that the year of Ganzhi and Zodiac shall be counted from 0: 00 on the first day of the first month.

The changes of the times have not made the zodiac culture decline. As the protagonist of the Spring Festival, the zodiac has been strengthened compared with ancient times. In addition to traditional calendars, Spring Festival couplets, New Year pictures and paper-cuts, "Year of the Dog" and "Monkey Race Thunder" and the zodiac have become fashionable New Year greetings. Spring Festival Galas at all levels have many zodiac themes, and there are dazzling exhibitions of zodiac cultural relics and artworks. The news media are scrambling to popularize the knowledge of the zodiac. The year of the trunk and branch of the lunar calendar (the zodiac) and the constellation theory are based on the first day of the first month and beginning of spring, respectively.

The origin of the zodiac is related to animal worship. According to the 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 same Chinese zodiac as the modern one was Lun Heng written by Wang Chong in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

The zodiac is an intuitive representation of the twelve earthly branches, namely, Zi (mouse), Ugly (ox), Yin (tiger), Mao (rabbit), Chen (dragon), Si (snake), Wu (horse), Wei (sheep), Shen (monkey), You (chicken) and Xu (chicken).

As a long-standing symbol of folk culture, the zodiac has left a lot of poems, Spring Festival couplets, paintings, calligraphy and paintings and folk arts and crafts that depict the image and symbolic meaning of the zodiac. Apart from China, many countries in the world issue stamps of the zodiac during the Spring Festival to express their wishes for the New Year in China.