What animal represents Tomb-Sweeping Day in the zodiac?

In ancient times, cockfighting competitions prevailed in Qingming, which began in Qingming and lasted until the summer solstice. The earliest record of cockfighting in China can be found in Zuo Zhuan. In the Tang dynasty, cockfighting became a common practice, not only among the people, but also the emperor. For example, Tang Xuanzong likes cockfighting best.

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The origin of the zodiac

In ancient times, in order to let the poor remember the year of their birth, the simplest method of animal chronology was adopted, which was later called "Zodiac Year". (Zodiac: "Sheng" born; "Xiao" is similar.

The origin of the zodiac is very early. At the end of the Warring States period, twelve animals with branches have appeared in the Qin bamboo slips Sleeping Tiger Land and the Japanese Book of Letting Horse Beach. Their names and branches are similar to those of the later zodiac, and their usage and divination logic are also similar to those of the later zodiac. Therefore, it can be inferred that the zodiac signs appearing in Qin bamboo slips of Sleeping Tiger Land and Japanese Fangmatan Book are the embryonic forms of the later zodiac signs.

The zodiac calendar began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. A letter written by Yuwen Hu's mother is recorded in the Biography of Northern History Yuwen Hu. The letter said: "Your brother was born in Wuchuan Town. The first one is a mouse, the second one is a rabbit, and you are a snake." Explain the folk usage of 12 zodiac at that time.

According to our ancient records, in the Central Plains of ancient China, the "year of the trunk and branch" was originally used, that is, the 10 heavenly trunk symbol was used to mark the year. At the same time, there are also twelve kinds of animals that simply determine the year. By the Sui Dynasty, the calendar of the Central Plains had spread to the nomadic people in the northwest of China, and they only absorbed twelve kinds of animal chronologies.

Therefore, it is recorded in the Book of the Tang Dynasty: "Tuoba Sinian is bounded by twelve things. If the year is cloudy, it is called the year of the tiger. " In addition, the History of Tubo in the Song Dynasty also recorded that when Tubo leaders narrated, they took events as a chronology. As the saying goes, "Twelve old things belong to the day, the year of the rabbit and the year of the horse".

As Zhao Yi pointed out in the Qing Dynasty's "Examination of Jade Cong", "It doesn't matter whether the child is ugly or not at the beginning of the custom of covering the north, but when rats, cows, tigers and rabbits are spread in China, they will not waste their ears." This explanation about the origin of 12 zodiac has been recognized by many people.

In addition, the story about the origin of 12 is as follows: Hong Xun's Miscellanies of Yanggu says that the odd-numbered earthly branches of 12 are also equipped with odd-numbered fingers or hooves of animals. If the child is in the first place, the matching mouse is 5 fingers, and if the ground branch is even, the name is even, such as cow, ugly and so on.

Ye Shijie explained the origin of Cao Zhong 12 Zodiac as follows: the surgeon matched 12 with 12, and each Xiao had its own shortcomings, such as rats without teeth (no molars), cows without teeth (no fangs), tigers without spleen, rabbits without lips, dragons without ears, snakes without feet and so on.

Yang Guang Miscellaneous Notes in Qing Dynasty quoted redundant remarks in Matsushita Pavilion: "Why is Zi a mouse?" Yue: Born in the child, it will not open until it dies. Rats eat insects. Therefore, in night is still young, positive mice have to wait, so children belong to mice.

The ground is ugly, and the cow opens the ground, so ugliness belongs to the cow. If born in yin, if born, kill. Murderer, tiger, Yin people, fear. If you are awesome, you are a tiger, then Yin is a tiger. Offender, sunrise. In vitro, it contains the essence of Taiyin Jade Rabbit, so it is a rabbit.

The morning of divination in March is when the dragon rains, so the morning belongs to the dragon. The last person, divination in April, was lush and the snake was in its place. Also, when a snake is not on the road, it is a snake.

At noon, the sun is born, and the sun is born. Horses are healthy, never leave the ground, and belong to the shade, so they belong to horses in the afternoon. Sheep are not sheep, because they grow by biting untimely grass.

When applying, the ape crowed in the sunset, and his arms were stretched out. By analogy, chaos runs rampant, so the application belongs to monkeys. This person, when the moon comes out, is the body of the moon, and water is the essence of the sun golden rooster, so it belongs to the chicken.

When night falls, it's time. Dogs are vigil animals, and when they are with them, they become dogs. In the nucleus, pigs know nothing but food, so the sea is a pig. The article clearly points out: silver moon is a tiger, and this is January; The moon is a dragon, that is, March and so on.

There are other kinds of sayings. For example, the Yellow Emperor should choose 12 kinds of animals to be on duty in the sky on time. Through the competition, rats, cows, tigers and other 12 animals were selected. 12 Zodiac originated from the totem worship of some clans in primitive society, and was divided according to the strength of each tribe at a meeting; 12 Zodiac may have been introduced by Tianzhu; Or 28 stars are distributed in a week or so, and the value is 12 hours.

Each star is named after an animal. Choose a common animal on duty every hour as an agent for a certain year, and so on.

Although people can't determine the exact origin of the 12 zodiac, it has been used to this day because of its popularity, convenience and interest, and has become a valuable legacy with practical value left by the ancients.

With regard to the origin of the zodiac, historical records show that China began to use the "chronology of branches and leaves" which combines the ten heavenly stems with the twelve earthly branches from the Shun Di era.

The zodiac was first seen in The Book of Songs, the world's first collection of poems. "The Book of Songs Xiaoya Che Gong Pian" says: "It's a lucky day, it's too late for me." See also Book of Rites, Monthly Order and Winter Order: "Unearthed cattle send cold air".

When did the zodiac theory come into being? There is a historical cloud: it should be formed in the Han Dynasty at the latest. Its basis is the cloud in Wang Chong's On the Balance of Things in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "Yin, wood, its birds, tigers." The earth, birds and dogs. "

Another cloud said, "Good afternoon, Ma Ye. Son, mouse also. Unitary, chicken also. ..... Shen, Qitian also ". * * * Put forward the names of the zodiac. In addition, in the Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu Yue written by Zhao Ye in the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Wu Zaichen is a dragon". Just added "Chen Long" to complete the zodiac. It can be seen that the twelve zodiac signs were formed in the Eastern Han Dynasty. As for the use of the Chinese zodiac, it appeared at least in the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

However, in the mid-1970s, from 1975 to 12, thousands of bamboo slips were found in the cultural relics unearthed from Qin TombNo. 1 1 in Yunmeng, Hubei Province. Among them, Sunrise Thief clearly records the characters used to predict the appearance characteristics of thieves in the zodiac.

The appearance of this miracle proves that the Chinese zodiac has been used in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Because Qin Tomb No.11 was built in the thirty years of the first emperor, that is, 2 17 BC. Some people say that our ancestors used the zodiac to date the year before Qin Shihuang proclaimed himself emperor, and especially pointed out that "it began in summer and spread in Shang and Zhou Dynasties".

However, how to quote it remains to be further explored by historians and cultural relics scholars. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties in ancient China, not only the zodiac chronology was used, but also twelve zodiac poems written by Shen Jiong appeared: The Case of Rat Dust and The Twilight of Cattle and Sheep. Tigers roared in the empty valley, and rabbits opened their windows. The dragon shadow is far green, and the snake willow lingers near. Ma Lanfang is far away and breeds sheep in spring. The monkey chestnut shames the fragrant fruit, and the chicken anvil attracts the clear bosom.

The dog is outside, and the pig's window is leisurely. This poem embeds the names of the animals of the 12 Zodiac in the first letter in order, highlighting the natural characteristics of each animal and playing the role of finishing touch. The zodiac poems written by Hu Yan, a great scholar in the Ming Dynasty, are not only embedded in the names of the zodiac in turn, but also have a code name for each name, which is quite interesting. There is a poem that says, a mouse doesn't drink the river, and a cow and a girl can't see each other for many years. The rabbit grows longer in the middle of the month. Dragons with beads often don't sleep, and drawing snakes is very tiring.

Has the old horse ever had horns, and the sheep angered the princes? Don't laugh at the Chu people's crown bathing monkeys, but wish the chickens were empty nests. Wuyang slaughtered dogs in Langzhong, and Ping Jin let Gou Haidong's head go. The first sentence "Zokor" is the water rat. The "cowgirl" in the second sentence is the legend of the folk cowherd and weaver girl.

The five "jackals" are a kind of dragons, and there is a treasure under the chin, so they are called jackals. In the eight sentences, "lick the sheep" is a ram, and "touch the fan" is a corner touching the fence. "Wuyang" in the eleventh sentence means that Liu Bang named Fan Kuai as the marquis of Wuyang in the Han Dynasty. He used to kill dogs for a living in Pei County, Jiangsu Province.

The last sentence refers to the Prime Minister Gong of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, who once spared pigs in the East China Sea. The origin and legend of the zodiac According to the literature, there were twelve earthly branches in the era of the Yellow Emperor, which were related to the twelve constellations such as Aries, Taurus, Gemini and Cancer. There is a mistake here. According to textual research, the twelve constellations were first introduced to China in the Tang Dynasty, as evidenced by Dunhuang murals; It was not until the Song Dynasty that it spread between the imperial court and scholars.

See the new edition of Common Sense of Ancient Culture in China. ], the earliest twelve earthly branches and twelve constellations represent twelve different months and festivals every year. Ten characters, such as A, B, C and D, were invented in the Shang Dynasty. Later, people who studied numerology called it heavenly stem, which was used in combination with earthly branches, such as Jia Zi and E Yuan, to calculate the year, month, day and time.

According to legend, it is a masterpiece of Dong Fangshuo in Han Dynasty that twelve kinds of animals are used instead of twelve earthly branches to represent the twelve-month season. In Lun Heng written by Wang Chong in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there is a clear record in Yan Dou. He mentioned the names of twelve animals. According to the zodiac, the year also began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Zhao Yi's Textual Research on Yu Yu in Qing Dynasty also pointed out this historical fact.

As for why twelve animals are chosen as symbols, it may be related to totems at the earliest. In ancient times, all tribes would choose an animal that they were particularly afraid of or loved, and take its pattern as the symbol of their tribe.

References:

Zodiac-Baidu Encyclopedia