12 Chinese zodiac signs

I've been studying the zodiac recently, which is very interesting. ...

China's zodiac animals are made up of eleven kinds of animals originated from nature, namely, rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs, pigs and legendary dragons. Used to record the year, arranged in the order of mouse, ugly cow, silver tiger, hairy rabbit, dragon, snake, afternoon horse, sheep, monkey and chicken.

The Chinese zodiac, also known as the Zodiac, is a folk method of calculating age in China, and it is also a very old method of chronology. Now it has gradually evolved into the custom of China people. It is used by some ethnic groups in China and East Asia to represent the year and the year of birth. The cycle of the zodiac is 12 years.

In the Southern Dynasties, it was recorded in the Five Elements of Southern Shu Qi that people were animals according to their year of birth. Shen Jiong, a poet in the Southern Dynasties, once wrote a poem about the zodiac, which said:

"In the case of mice and dust, cattle and sheep fall at dusk.

Tigers sit in empty valleys for food, and rabbits open windows to the moon.

The dragon ridge 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 leads to a clear cup.

Dogs are proud of owning, but pigs are carefree. "

This poem of the zodiac is obviously written in the order of animals distributed by the twelve branches.

Historical origin

The earliest record of the zodiac mentioned in historical documents is the relationship between animals and earthly branches. It originated from Lun Heng written by Wang Chong in the Eastern Han Dynasty (27-97 BC) in BC 1 century.

During the Northern Zhou Dynasty in the Southern and Northern Dynasties in China, the Chinese zodiac was officially used for the first time in human records. For example, a letter written by Yuwen Hu's mother is recorded in Biography of Zhou Shu III. The letter said, "Your brother was born in Wuchuan Town. The first is a mouse, and the second is a rabbit. You! "

Zodiac is loading Zodiac.

Be a snake. "Some countries in western China and Mobei, such as Tubo, Tubo and Mongolia. Mark the year with the zodiac. For example, it is recorded in the Book of the Tang Dynasty that "Tuoba Si takes twelve things as the standard, and if the year is in the shade, it is called the Year of the Tiger." The history of the Song Dynasty. When the Tubo Biography records the narration of the Tubo leader, it uses what has been used so far. As the saying goes, "Twelve old things belong to the day, the year of the rabbit and the year of the horse." The Secret History of Mongolia: "In the Year of the Rabbit, singers went to the State of Jin, but the dispatchers were not pioneers, defeating the Jin Army and killing the Jin Army like rotten wood", which also shows that Mongolia adopted the Year of the Rabbit and the Year of the Horse.

At that time, heavenly stems and earthly branches was the only calendar year in the Central Plains. Under the cultural exchange between the two sides, the two calendars merged with each other to form the present 12 zodiac. This theory was put forward by Zhao Yi in Qing Dynasty. He pointed out in the book "An Examination of Jade Cong": "There is no ugly son, ugly son, ugly son, ugly son, ugly son, ugly son, ugly son, ugly son, ugly son, ugly son, ugly son, ugly son, ugly son, ugly son, ugly son, ugly son, ugly son, ugly son.

In the early references to the 12 zodiac, it is slightly different from the current version. For example, the dragon no longer exists, and its position is replaced by a worm.

"Zhou Li Chun Guan von Shi Xiang" contains: "Ten palms are two years old, ten palms are February, ten palms are two days old, ten palms are two days old, ten palms are two days old, and ten palms are twenty-eight stars. Their narrative is distinguished to meet the heaven." The division of time is progressive, with twelve years, twelve months a year and twelve o'clock a day.

"Mandarin Yu Jin Si" contains: "The Yellow Emperor has twenty-five sons, and fourteen sons have surnames, which are twelve surnames." Even the wives and concubines of the son of heaven are called "twelve women".

"The Biography of Xun Shuang in the Later Han Dynasty": "Therefore, the son of heaven married twelve women, and the number of days was also; There is an equal difference below the princes, and things have fallen. "

Select type

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The choice of the zodiac is not complicated, but it is close to the daily life and social life of the Han people, which can be guessed. In the zodiac, it can be roughly divided into three categories:

The first category is the domesticated "six animals", namely 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. "Six Livestock" is an important concept in China agricultural culture with a long history. In the traditional concept of China people, "Six Livestock Flourishing" represents the prosperity, auspiciousness and beauty of the family. During the Spring Festival, people usually talk about "the prosperity of six animals", so it is inevitable that these six animals will become the zodiac.

The second category is well-known wild animals, which are closely related to people's daily and social life. They are tigers, rabbits, monkeys, rats and snakes, and some of them participate in human life with awe, such as tigers and snakes. There are also rodents that people hate and taboo, but they rely on human beings to survive; More people like it, such as rabbits and monkeys.

The third category is the traditional symbolic mascot of China people-the dragon, which is a symbol of the Chinese nation, an "artifact" with many animal features, and a "spiritual thing" in people's imagination. Dragon represents wealth and good luck, and it is the most symbolic auspicious animal, so the position of dragon in the zodiac is indispensable. As can be seen from the above, the choice of zodiac animals is not arbitrary, but has certain meanings. People choose animals from different angles, which has certain significance.

Arrange an order

The zodiac was born in the atmosphere of ancient animal worship and totem worship. People only use animals to borrow ordinal symbols to cooperate with earthly branches. Why did you choose these twelve animals, who came first and in what order? There is no conclusion. Because the zodiac was born in ancient culture, people have lost their original intention of arrangement because of their age. Legends and stories of modern people only depend on it, and can only rely on legends and imagination. There are three explanations about the arrangement of the zodiac.

The first is the arrangement of the zodiac in folklore stories.

Han folktale says: In those days, the Yellow Emperor of Xuanyuan wanted to choose twelve beasts as court guards, and the cat asked the mouse to sign up, but the mouse forgot. As a result, the cat didn't choose it, and since then, it has made enemies with the mouse. The elephant also came to the competition, and the mouse got into its nose and drove it away. The rest of the animals, originally headed by cows, were rushed to the backs of cows, and pigs also booed, so the mice came first and the pork chops came last. The tiger and the dragon refused to accept it, and were named king of the mountain and king of the sea, ranking behind the mouse and the cow. The rabbit refused to accept it again, raced with the dragon and finally reached the dragon. The dog was unfair and bit the rabbit in a rage, so he was punished from the bottom. Snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys and chickens have also gone through some contests and arranged their positions one by one. Finally, the order of rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs was formed. Legendary story is not a scientific explanation of the problem, but it embodies people's desire to explain the choice of zodiac.

Zodiac stamps are being loaded with Zodiac stamps.

The desire to release.

Secondly, Chinese ancient scholars explained the relationship between earthly branches and Xiao beasts from the perspective of twelve o'clock in ancient times.

Liu Xian in Qing Dynasty was quoted from Li Changqing in Miscellaneous Notes of Yang Guang Matsushita Pavilion.

"Why is the child 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. When the sun leaves the body, the mid-month divination means that the dragon is in the rain, so Chen 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.

The moon rises to be a chicken, because it contains the essence of the golden rooster.

At the time of Hai, pigs knew nothing but diet, so Hai was a pig. "

Thirdly, according to China people's belief in Yin and Yang, twelve kinds of animals are divided into Yin and Yang, and the Yin and Yang of animals are arranged according to the odd-even difference of toes.

Zodiac mouse is loading Zodiac mouse.

Animals generally have the same number of toes in front, back, left and right. Only mice have four feet in front and five feet in the back, even and odd. Things are rare, of course, they rank first, followed by cattle and four toes (even number); Tiger, five toes (odd number); Rabbit, four toes (even number); Dragon, five toes (odd number); Snakes, no toes (occasionally); Horse, one toe (odd number); Sheep, four toes (even number); Monkey, five toes (odd number); Chicken, four toes (even number); Dog, five toes (odd number); Pig, four toes (even number).

Hong Xun, a scholar in Song Dynasty, and Lang Ying, a scholar, classified according to this statement, and put forward that "the ground is at the bottom" in their "Seven Collations of the Zodiac", so we should treat the number of toes differently. The mouse has four claws in front, even number is yin, hind foot is five claws, and odd number is yang. The first half of the child is the yin of last night, and the second half is the yang of today, just using mice to symbolize the child. The four claws of cattle, sheep, pig's trotters and chickens, plus the four claws of rabbits lacking lips and the tongue of snakes, should all be even, belonging to Yin, accounting for six. Tigers have five claws, monkeys and dogs have five claws, and horseshoes are round and undivided. All six are odd numbers, belonging to Yang, and together with the mice belonging to Yang, they account for the other six branches. Lang Ying's classification is the flood borrowing classification, and the two are similar.

The zodiac cow is loading the zodiac cow.

The above three explanations explain the arrangement of the zodiac from different angles, and the folklore about the arrangement of animals in the zodiac is very rich. On the one hand, the spread of these legends enriches the content of the zodiac, on the other hand, it also promotes the inheritance and development of the zodiac culture. The zodiac is divided into two categories, Yin and Yang, which are incorporated into the concept of China people's belief in five elements. The purpose is to link the zodiac with life rituals, and to correspond the Yin-Yang and Five Elements with the zodiac, thus explaining other related life and cultural phenomena.

In other words, the selection and arrangement of the zodiac is determined according to the daily activity time of animals.

At least since the Han Dynasty, China has divided a day and night into twelve hours according to the time when the sun rises, and recorded these twelve hours (big hours) with the method of twelve minutes, each hour is equivalent to two hours, and such a day and night is now called twenty-four hours.

It is midnight from eleven o'clock in the evening to one o'clock in the morning, which is the most active time for mice.

From 0: 00 to 3: 00 in the morning/kloc-,it's ugly, and the cow is ruminating. It is said that it is also the time when cows start plowing.

It is Yin Shi from 3: 00 to 5: 00. At this time, tigers are foraging everywhere, which is the fiercest.

5: 00 to 7: 00 is the crime time. At this time, the sun has not yet risen and the moon is still hanging in the sky. At this time, Yutu is busy taking medicine. Rabbits on the earth also began to come out for food.

7: 00 am to 9: 00 am is the morning, which is a good time for the dragon to rain.

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From 9: 00 to 1 1, the snake became active.

From eleven o'clock in the morning to one o'clock in the afternoon, the sun is shining, and at noon, it is the time to be unconstrained.

In the afternoon 1 until 3 o'clock, it is late. At this time, sheep will grow stronger if they eat grass.

From 3 pm to 5 pm, it is the time to bid for the Olympic Games, when the monkeys begin to be active.

It's one yuan from five to seven. When night falls, chickens begin to return to their nests.

From 7: 00 pm to 9: 00 pm, the dog began to watch the night.

From 9 pm to 1 1, it is Shihai. At this time, all was silent and the pig was snoring.

There are various legends about the arrangement of the zodiac. Such stories, like jokes, or fables, have strong literary elements. However, the seating arrangement of the zodiac is by no means a one-off event, nor can it be completed in one generation. At the beginning, it is not necessary to nominate twelve kinds at a time, but there may be only four or five kinds, and there may be a surplus. Later, the survival of the fittest, quota positioning, has been passed down to this day.

The Perfect Poem of China's Zodiac

12 Chinese zodiac signs

Since ancient times, white horses have been afraid of green cows.

The sheep and the mouse met once, but stopped.

Snakes and tigers get married like knives.

The rabbit saw the dragon king in tears.

Neither a golden rooster nor a jade dog can escape.

Pigs and apes will not come to the end.