A family of five guessed the zodiac with an old man.

If a family of five and an old man generally refer to Niu Niu, they are generally good. Son, mouse, thief's pointed mouth, sparse beard, ... ugly, cow, thief's big nose and long neck, ... yin, tiger, thief-like, anxious, black face. Hair, rabbits, thieves are big. Chen, the thief is a man, green and red ... Third, the worm is also black. At noon, the deer is also a thief with a long neck and a small cut. ..... No, horse, thieves have ears. Shen, Huan, thief round ... you, water is ... Xu, this old sheep is ... sea, tapir also. "[2]

The above is basically the same as the modern zodiac, but Chen did not write the zodiac; Deer at noon; Not suitable for horses; Yes, old sheep. [ 1]

Double happiness picture of the zodiac

1In April, 986, two kinds of Japanese bamboo slips, A and B, were unearthed from Qin Tomb in Fangmatan, Tianshui, Gansu Province, which were similar in age to Qin bamboo slips in Sleeping Tiger Land. There are also records of thieves on Class A bamboo slips: [1]

Son, mouse. Ugly, awesome. Yin and tiger. Mao, rabbit. Chen, an insect. Third, snakes. At noon, the horse disappeared. No, sheep. Shen, monkey. You, coward. Hey, dog. Oh, my God. [2]

Compared with modern times, except Four Chapters of Chen Chong, the corresponding relationship between the zodiac and earthly branches in this record is exactly the same. [ 1]

The Book of Songs Xiaoya contains "auspicious day, that is, poor horse", which reflects the relative noon horse. However, scholars pointed out that Qin bamboo slips correspond to deer rather than horse at noon, and the horse at noon is just a coincidence.

Like today, the earliest complete record of the zodiac is Wang Chong's Lun Heng in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Generally speaking, the third volume, the potential of things: [1]

Li Youjun, a zodiac animal.

"Yin wood also, its bird tiger also; It is also soil, and its birds and dogs are also; Ugliness is dirt, ugly birds and cows, no birds and sheep. Wood beats earth, so dogs, cattle and sheep are served by tigers. Hai Shui also, its bird also; Where there is fire, its birds and snakes are also; Children are water, so are their birds and mice; It is also a fire at noon, and its birds and horses are also ... horses, rats, chickens and rabbits at noon. Water is better than fire. Why don't mice chase horses? Jin Shengmu, why don't chickens peck rabbits? Hai Jian, no sheep, ugly cow. Soil is better than water, why don't cattle and sheep kill jackals? The fourth snake is also a monkey. Fire wins gold, why don't snakes eat macaques? "

With the book "poison" volume 23 has a cloud:

"Chen is a dragon, the third is a snake, in the southeast. Dragons are poisonous and snakes sting people, so snakes have good teeth and dragons have scales. Wood makes a fire, and fire is poison, so the beast of the black dragon contains Mars. "

It can be seen that at the latest, the twelve zodiac signs of the Eastern Han Dynasty have all been finalized. [1] In Qing Dynasty, Liang Zhanggang also relayed the records of Lun Heng in the series of wandering talks. [ 1]

The Biography of the Northern History of Yuwen Hu describes the letter of Yuwen Hu's mother in the State of Qi in the later Zhou Dynasty: "Your brother was born in Wuchuan Town. The eldest is a mouse, the second is a rabbit, and you are a snake. " This is an earlier record in official history, and the zodiac is related to the year of birth. [ 1]

origin

Ancient literature records have not solved the problem of the cultural origin of the zodiac, and scholars in ancient and modern times have different opinions on this. [3]

Constellation theory

Zodiac defeated Song Qian.

The ancients distinguished the ecliptic from the stars near the equator.