Han Xiangzi plays Xiao, which is extraordinary. Guess a constellation.

It's unusual for Xiao Zi to play Xiao, which generally refers to monkeys and cows. Yin and tiger. Mao, rabbit. Chen, an insect. Third, snakes. At noon, the horse disappeared. No, sheep. Shen, a 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 divided the stars near the ecliptic and equator into "28 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. [4] Wang Hao, a great scholar in the Ming Dynasty, believed that 28 species of animals belonged to 28 stars, and they were "unified by the seven demons" and became the pattern of "mother-soil bats, imaginary sun mice, dangerous moon swallows and sons". [4] In the Qing Dynasty, Li Changqing thought in "Panasonic Guan Yanyu" that twenty-eight lodging animals "doubled the first twelve genera" and "attached Kang Jinlong, Chen Guan and Jiao Mujiao. Jiao, Long Ye "reflects the gathering of 28 kinds of stellar animals based on the zodiac. "[4] But there are bound to be collateral encounters, and the records of the 28 constellations will be later than the zodiac.

Casual theory

Ivory Sculpture of China Zodiac

Jupiter runs once a week for 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". [3] 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 the Zodiac animals, and it is speculated that the rise and fall of animals are related to the year of Jupiter, and the zodiac is unified with the twelve days. [5]

Totem theory

White marble sculpture of the zodiac

The ancestors of primitive society often used some animals, inanimate objects or graphics of natural phenomena as protectors and symbols of their clans, that is, totems. The mixed image of man and beast in Shan Hai Jing is an ancient totem god. [6] The totem of Xia nationality is bear or fish, the totem of Shang nationality is blackbird, and the totem of Zhou nationality is dragon, bird, turtle, dog and tiger. [7] Zodiac animals are illusory except dragons, and the rest are daily visible. It can be divided into two categories, namely "six animals" (horses, cows, sheep, chickens, dogs and pigs) and "six animals" (rats, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes and monkeys). The former was domesticated by people for economic purposes, while the latter disturbed human life to a certain extent, and ancestors were afraid of it. [8] Therefore, these animals are worshipped as the name symbols of this clan.