What is the origin of the ancient Chinese zodiac in China?

The origin of the zodiac is related to animal worship. According to Qin bamboo slips unearthed in Yunmeng Sleeping Tiger Land in Hubei Province and Fangmatan in Tianshui, Gansu Province, a relatively complete zodiac system existed as early as the pre-Qin period. The earliest handed down document that recorded the same Chinese zodiac as today was Lun Heng written by Wang Chong in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Step 2 introduce

The Chinese Zodiac, also known as the Chinese Zodiac, matches the birth year of China people with the twelve earthly branches, including rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs.

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). In modern times, more people regard the zodiac as the mascot of the Spring Festival and become an entertainment and cultural activity.

3. Meaning

China's zodiac signs are opposite to each other, and the six divisions in the wheel of karma have condensed all the expectations and demands of our ancestors for China.

The first group: rats and cows. Rats represent wisdom and cows represent diligence. The two must be closely combined. Only wisdom without diligence will become wisdom, and diligence will become stupidity. So the two must be combined. This is the first set of expectations and requirements of our ancestors for China people, and it is also the most important set.

The second group: tigers and rabbits. Tigers represent courage, rabbits represent caution. The two must be closely combined to achieve the so-called boldness and caution. Courage without caution becomes recklessness, and blind caution becomes timidity. This group is also very important, so it is placed in the second place.

The third group is the dragon snake. The dragon represents tenacity, and the snake represents flexibility. The so-called rigid is easy to fold, too rigid is easy to break; Too soft is easy to be weak, too soft is easy to lose your mind, so combining rigidity with softness is our ancestral motto.

The fourth group is horses and sheep. Horses represent indomitable spirit and strive for goals, while sheep represent unity and harmony. The Chinese nation is a big family, and we need a united and harmonious internal environment. Only by collective harmony can we free our hands to pursue our respective ideals. If a person only cares about his own interests and does not pay attention to unity and harmony, he is doomed to be lonely. Therefore, individual efforts and collective harmony must be closely combined.

The fifth group is monkeys and chickens. Monkeys represent flexibility, and chickens crow regularly, representing constancy. Flexibility and constancy must be closely combined. If you are flexible and not static, no matter how good the policy is, you will not get anything in the end. But if you just stay the same, stagnate and be monolithic, there will be no reform and opening up today. There is only a very harmonious combination between them. On the one hand, it has stability and maintains the overall harmony and order, on the other hand, it can continue to develop flexibly.

Finally, dogs and pigs. Dogs represent loyalty and pigs represent easygoing. If a person is too loyal and doesn't know how to be easy-going, he will exclude others. On the other hand, if a person is too easy-going and has no loyalty, he will lose his principles. Therefore, whether it is loyalty to a nation-state, loyalty to a team, or loyalty to one's own ideals, it must be closely combined with easygoing, so that it is easy to truly maintain deep loyalty. This is what we in China have always insisted, that a gentleman is harmonious but different.