The history of the zodiac

The origin of the zodiac is related to animal worship, and there are many animals in the history of the version.

The origin of the Zodiac is related to animal worship. Each Zodiac has rich legends, forming a conceptual interpretation system and becoming an image philosophy in folk culture, such as the Zodiac in marriage and the year of the animal.

The stars say that the ancients divided the stars near the ecliptic and equator into "twenty-eight stars". Twenty-eight nights represent an animal. In ancient times, Sunday was divided into twelve parts, represented by twelve branches. Twelve branches belonged to the zodiac, and the zodiac had a corresponding relationship with twenty-eight stars. Wang Chang, a great scholar in the Ming Dynasty, believed that 28 species of animals belonged to 28 stars and were unified by 7 aliens, forming a pattern of "mother bats, imaginary grandchildren, dangerous moon swallows and children". In Li Changqing's Song Xia Guan Yu Yan in the Qing Dynasty, he thought that the 28-lodging animals "even if the first 12 genera were doubled", "were attached to Kang Jinlong, Chen Guan and Jiao Mujiao. Jiao and Long are also ",which reflects the gathering of 28 kinds of stellar animals based on the zodiac. "But it is inevitable that there will be collateral encounters, and the records of the 28 stars animals are later than the zodiac.

According to Jupiter, Jupiter moves once every twelve years, and the annual branching order can be determined from Jupiter's position. Yu Han, Fang Shan and Ji Shu thought that every twelve years, "three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old and three years old". There is a cycle between the rise and fall of plants and the living environment of animals. The living conditions of herbivores (rats, cows, horses and sheep) and carnivorous omnivores are very different in different years. If people born in different years can imitate the animals that flourished in that year, they will form zodiac animals, and it is inferred that the rise and fall of animals are related to the year of Jupiter, and the zodiac and the zodiac are unified.

Totem says that the description in the Historical Records of the Five Emperors that the Yellow Emperor "taught bears to kill tigers in the wild of Hanquan" is a totem of various tribes, and it is by no means really capable of lowering dragons and luring tigers. Zodiac originated from totem worship in primitive society and became a convincing theory.