What in the world is the zodiac arranged in this way?

1, the origin of the Chinese zodiac As an ancient folk cultural phenomenon, the origin of the Chinese zodiac, scholars through the ages have different opinions. Some people believe that the origin of the Chinese zodiac and the Earth's branches can be traced back to the prehistoric era of legends, the "Records of the Grand Historian" contained in the Yellow Emperor "to build a child to the fate of the year", "the big scratch for the first year" is a reflection of this type of statement, scholars believe that the first year of the twelve zodiacs is referred to. Qing Dynasty scholar Zhao Yi that the Chinese zodiac originated from the nomadic people in the north of China, he said in the "new Yu Jungkao", "cover the northern custom of the twelve epochs of the beginning of no matter Zi U Cin, but the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit and so on subdivided into chronological age, soak searching flow in China, and so along the ear is not abolished." (See the Qing Dynasty - Zhao Yi, the nomadic people in the north of China, he said in "the new Yu Jungkao".) (see qing - zhao yi "new yu jung kao"). Some scholars even hold the view that the Chinese zodiac outside, that the twelve zodiac signs are imported into China from ancient Babylon, hold this view on behalf of Guo Moruo, who said in the "Oracle Bone Character Study - interpretation of the branch of the stem" "twelve zodiac signs in Babylon, Egypt, India have, but are not very ancient, no out of the Western Era after a hundred years or more. Meaning that the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the Western countries, imitating the Babylonian twelve and formulated, and then spread to the surrounding also." That the Chinese zodiac for the Middle East residents imitated the Babylonian zodiac and the development of its introduction to China when the time, when the Han emperor through the western region. The above views are all opinionated, the author does not dare to subjectively judge right and wrong, but through a large number of documentary evidence, the Chinese zodiac did originate in China, is the Chinese ancestors of animal worship, totem worship and early crystallization of astronomy. On the record of the zodiac, the existing literature, to the "Classic of Poetry" for the earliest. Poetry - Xiaoya - auspicious day" in: "auspicious day gengwu, that is poor my horse" eight words, meaning gengwu auspicious day and hour is good, is a good day to jump out of the horse hunting, this is the noon and the horse corresponds to the example. Visible in the Spring and Autumn period, the Earth's branches and the twelve kinds of animal correspondence has been established and circulated. 1975, in Hubei Yunmeng County, sleeping tiger ground eleven tombs unearthed bamboo slips, further proof of the twelve zodiac signs in the Spring and Autumn period before and after the existence of. The unearthed bamboo slips of "Rishu" A kind of a chapter titled "thieves", the content of which is to divine the appearance of the characteristics of thieves, which recorded: "Zi, the rat is also, thieves against the mouth of the Xishu, ...... ugly, the cow is also, thieves big nose and long neck, ...... C, the tiger also, the thief like, Xisu, face with black. D, rabbit also, the thief big face head. E, [original omission] the thief man, green and red color ...... has been, the worm is also, the thief long and black snake eyes. ...... not, the horse is also, the thief long beard ear. Shen, the ring is also, the thief of the round face ......" "Day Book" in the twelve zodiac signs recorded roughly similar to the current popular saying. According to evidence, sleeping tiger ground eleven tomb buried in the first emperor of Qin thirty years (217 BC), so the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac can be traced back to at least Qin before the Spring and Autumn period. Scholars believe that this is the earliest and more systematic record of the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac found in China to date. And today's popular zodiac statement is completely consistent with the records of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wang Chong, Wang Chong, "on the balance of things" contained: "Yin, wood, and its birds, the tiger. Xu, earth, its bird, the dog also. ...... afternoon, the horse is also. Zi, rat, You, chicken. D, rabbit. ...... Oh, the boar. Un, sheep also. Ugly, oxen. ...... has, the snake also. Shen, monkey also." In the above text, the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac talked about eleven, only missing the chen dragon. The book "speech poison chapter" said: "Chen for the dragon, has been the snake. Tatsu and Tatsu's position is in the southeast." In this way, the twelve signs of the Chinese Zodiac will be all together, and with today's popular twelve signs of the Chinese Zodiac is identical, which is indeed considered to be an ancient literature on the Chinese Zodiac's earlier and most complete records. To the North and South Dynasties, the Chinese Zodiac has been commonly used, the South Dynasty "South Qi Book - five elements of the Zhi" in the specific according to the year of birth of a person called belong to a certain animal records. The Southern Dynasty - Chen - poet Shen Jiong, had created a poem of twelve phases of the genus, which said: "Rat traces of dust cases, cattle and sheep down in the twilight. Tiger feeding sitting in the empty valley, rabbit moon to the window. The dragon sermon is far away from the verdant, snake willow near wandering. The horse orchid is far away from picking, the sheep negative began to plant in the spring. The monkey's chestnut is shy of fragrant fruits, and the chicken's anvil leads to a clear cup. The dog's nostalgia for the outside world, the pig's calabash." This poem is obviously written according to the order of the twelve earthly branches of the animals, indicating that the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac at that time have been very familiar to people. From the above documents, it is clear that the origin of Chinese zodiac culture is in China. According to the point of view of the Chinese zodiac, the Chinese zodiac was introduced into China from the Middle East during the Han Dynasty, about the same time as the introduction of Buddhism, and we have proved from the above documents that as early as in the Spring and Autumn Period, there were records about the Chinese zodiac in our country ("The Book of Rays", "The Book of Poetry"), which means that the production of the Chinese zodiac and the matching of the Chinese zodiac with the earthly branches were produced as early as before the Han Dynasty, and thus it can be affirmed that the Chinese zodiac is a kind of ancient culture that was produced in the native land of our country. So what is the origin of the Chinese zodiac? Why did the ancients choose these twelve animals? This issue has always been the concern of scholars, made a variety of explanations. Some scholars believe that the Chinese zodiac originated from the primitive era of animal worship, Mr. Zhang Binglun of the University of Science and Technology of China holds this view. He believes that in the primitive society, low productivity, knowledge of nature is extremely limited, and their own lives are closely related to the animals to produce a sense of dependence (such as horses, sheep, cows, chickens, dogs, etc.), to endanger their own safety of the animals to produce a sense of fear (such as tigers, snakes), more than some of the human organs of the animals to produce a sense of reverence for the function of the animal (such as the dog's sense of smell, etc.), resulting in the creation of the worship of the animals. Twelve kinds of animals are people in the animal worship of the primitive beliefs produced under the influence of the animal calendar used to chronicle the year, the month of the animal calendar. Primitive people's animal worship is also manifested in the Nuo dance and other primitive dance, Nuo about the Zhou Dynasty around the time of the big Nuo ceremony in the protagonist is the square phase of the twelve gods and beasts. Drive Nuo dance selected twelve beasts, is the performance of primitive people on the animal reverence psychology. Nuo ceremony selected twelve beasts (or twelve gods) is to illuminate the twelve months of the year, in order to seek peace and security, to drive out the four sides of the epidemic ghosts, according to the twelve directions. The twelve directions of course involved in the care of the twelve branches, and then linked to the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac, in the exorcism ceremony of the twelve phases of the genus was assigned to the use of misfortune and good fortune. From this we can see that the twelve beasts, twelve zodiac signs are in the same lineage, they *** with the same source is the primitive animal worship. Mr. Liu Yao Han, an ethnologist, believes that the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac are related to the "twelve beasts" and the "October calendar" of the Yi people. The Yi ethnic group living in the Daliang Mountain area of Sichuan Province, there are twelve beasts of the calendar, they are twelve animals of the calendar, today is the day of the rat, tomorrow is the day of the ox, and so on three rounds of a month, counting thirty-six days, thirty-six days a month, a year will be ten months, which is later on the "October Calendar" method. Mr. Liu Yao Han believes that the October Calendar, which is based on the twelve phases of the solar calendar, was created in the Xia Yu era, (see Liu Yao Han's "Collection of Research and Studies on the Social and Historical History of the Yi Ethnic Group") and is related to the primitive totem worship, and that the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac were influenced by the October Calendar, and the twelve animal calendars of the Yi ethnic group were developed into the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac later on. Speaking of the origin of the Chinese zodiac, it is inevitable to link the Chinese zodiac with the heavenly stems and earthly branches. In recent times, the oldest surviving table of the stem and branch in China was unearthed in Yinxu, Anyang, indicating that in the Yinshang era, the stem and branch calendar was already skillful and self-contained. After that, the function of the stem and branch gradually diversified with the passage of time, and it acted as the mark of the time unit, which was enlarged on the one hand to be used for dating, and narrowed on the other hand to be used for dating (the twelve hours of the day). According to historical records and research, the Chinese Zodiac is following the creation of the "Dry Branches Chronology" appeared only after the twelve animals are the twelve Earthly Branches of the one-to-one correspondence to the animals for the Earthly Branches sign. People born in which year will have which year's Earthly Branches are matched with the animals, and thus the twelve animals are used for the chronology of the year, the date, and the calculation of the phases of each person. It can be seen that the twelve Chinese zodiac signs are inseparable from the twelve Earthly Branches. For a long time, some scholars found that the ancient characters of the twelve branches implied the information of the Chinese zodiac, and they compared the twelve branches with the twelve ancient characters of the Chinese zodiac, and found that the twelve ancient glyphs of the twelve branches had some connections with the twelve animals. A closer look reveals that there are indeed similarities and differences. Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Shuowen Jiezi", that is to say, "has" for the snake's hieroglyphic character, the same has "Ohio", "boar". Recent people have also proved that the oracle bone inscriptions, gold inscriptions in the Chinese character and the Chinese zodiac characters have similarities, one would guess that the twelve branches is the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac hieroglyphic characters, due to the twelve branches of the Zi-Ug-Yin-Mao easy to remember mixed up, the folk will be used in place of the twelve kinds of animals to animals to borrow the symbols of the ordinal number, and the Earth's branches to match the symbols of the system of the chronicle. Although the above conjecture has a certain degree of credibility, but think about it can be judged, twelve branches can not be twelve animal pictograms, because it has already been said that twelve branches in the Yin and Shang Dynasty has been skillfully used, and the Chinese zodiac is the Spring and Autumn period before the production of the two are not the same source. If the Earthly Branches were related to the Chinese Zodiac at the time of the creation of the characters, wouldn't the Chinese Zodiac have been created at the same time as the Earthly Branches? To summarize the above, I think that the Chinese Zodiac was created later than the twelve Earthly Branches, but with the twelve Earthly Branches has an inseparable relationship, the Chinese Zodiac is the twelve Earthly Branches attached to the twelve, as for the twelve animals chosen as a substitute for the twelve Earthly Branches symbols, but also originated from the animal worship psychology of the ancients. 2, the choice and arrangement of the Chinese Zodiac The choice of the twelve animals in the Chinese Zodiac is not complicated, it is close to the daily life and social life of the Han people, it can be guessed. The twelve animals in the Chinese Zodiac can be roughly divided into three categories: one category is the domesticated "six animals", i.e. cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, dogs and chickens, which are domesticated by human beings for economic or other purposes, accounting for half of the twelve animals. The "six animals" is an important concept in Chinese agricultural culture with a long history, and in the traditional concept of the Chinese people, "six prosperous animals" represents a prosperous and auspicious family. During the Spring Festival, people usually mention "prosperity of the six animals", so it is inevitable that these six animals become the Chinese zodiac. The second category is the wildlife in the people are familiar with, and people's daily, social life has a close relationship with the animals, they are tiger, rabbit, monkey, rat, snake, which are feared by the people to intervene in human life, such as tigers, snakes; there are also for the people are disgusted by, taboo, but dependent on human survival of the rodents; and there are people love, such as rabbits, monkeys. The third category is the Chinese traditional symbolic mascot - the dragon, the dragon is the symbol of the Chinese nation, is a set of many animal characteristics in one of the "man-made objects", is the people's imagination, "spirit! "The dragon is a symbol of the Chinese nation. The dragon represents wealth and good fortune, and is the most symbolic color of the auspicious animals, so the position of the dragon in the Chinese zodiac is even less. From the above we can see that the choice of animals in the Chinese Zodiac is not arbitrary, but has a certain meaning, people choose the animals are out of a different perspective, and with a certain meaning. So what is the order of these twelve animals? As mentioned earlier, the Chinese Zodiac produced in the ancient animal worship, totem worship atmosphere, people only use animals to borrow the ordinal number of symbols to match the Earth's branches, why choose the twelve animals, who first and who later, in accordance with what kind of order and there is no conclusive evidence that the Chinese Zodiac is produced in the distant past of ancient culture, because of the long time people have been arranged to the original intention of the loss of the present day, such as legends and stories are just attached to it! The legends and stories of today's people are just an adaptation of it, which can only be relied on legends and imagination. On the issue of the arrangement of the Chinese Zodiac, there are three aspects of interpretation. First, the arrangement of the Chinese zodiac in folklore. Han folk tale that: when Emperor Xuanyuan wanted to choose twelve animals as the palace guards, the cat to the mouse enrollment, the mouse to forget, the results of the cat was not selected, from then on with the mouse to make enemies. Elephants also came to participate in the race, was a mouse into the nose, to drive away, the rest of the animals, originally pushed the cow as the first, but the mouse scurried to the back of the cow, the pig also followed the coaxing, so the mouse row first, the pig row last. The tiger and the dragon were not convinced, and were named king of the mountain and king of the sea, behind the rat and the ox. The rabbit, again not satisfied, raced with the dragon, and ended up in front of the dragon. The dog, again not satisfied, bit the rabbit in a fit of pique, and was penalized for this by being placed in the penultimate position. Snake, horse, goat, monkey, chicken also after a fight, one by one, the position of the ranking, and finally formed the order of the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, chicken, dog, pig. Although the legendary story is not a scientific explanation of the problem, it reflects people's desire to explain the choice of the twelve zodiac signs. Secondly, ancient Chinese scholars interpreted the matching relationship between the earth's branches and the Xiao beasts from the perspective of the twelve hours of day and night in ancient times. The dark sky and the earth, chaos, the rat, nearly half past midnight when out of the activities of the chaotic state of heaven and earth to bite out of the gap, "the rat bites the sky to open up", so the son of the rat. After the heavens opened up, the earth was opened up, and the ox plowed the fields, which was the thing that opened up the earth, so the ox belonged to the ugly. C is the time of birth, there must be life and death, put people to death than a tiger, c, and the meaning of fear, so c is a tiger. D, for the sunrise, the sun should be away from the trigrams, away from the trigrams like fire, contained within the yin lines for the sun that is the essence of the moon Jade Rabbit, so that the d will be a rabbit. Tatsu, the trigrams of March, this is the time of the Dragon line rain. Chen naturally belongs to the dragon. Has, April's trigrams, worth this time, spring grass, is a good day for snakes, such as fish in the water. In addition, has time for the morning, this time the snake is returning to the hole, therefore, has belonged to the snake. Afternoon, when the afternoon, Yang Qi reached the extreme, Yin Qi is sprouting. Horse this animal, gallop running, four hooves in the air, but also from time to time on the ground. Prancing for yang, step on the ground for yin, the horse in the yin and yang between the leap, so became the afternoon of the genus. Sheep, after the afternoon to eat grass for the best time, easy to fat, this time is not time, so not belong to sheep. After not Shen time, is the sun near the west mountain apes and monkeys crowing hour, and monkeys like to stretch their arms at this time to jump, so the monkey with Shen. You for the moon appeared when the moon is water, should be the Kan Gua. Kan Gua, its upper and lower yin lines, and the center of the yang lines on behalf of the sun, the essence of the Golden Crow. Therefore, You belongs to the Rooster. Night falls, is the eleventh hour. The dog is the domestic animal that keeps watch at night, and it is also tied to it as the eleventh dog. Then the hour of Haixu arrives, and heaven and earth are again immersed in a state of chaos, like a fruit wrapped around a kernel, the night of Haixu covers all things in the world. Pig is only know eat chaotic creatures, so the pig became the genus of Ohio. Zhu Xi, a famous rationalist of the Song Dynasty, held this view