Korea Post issues "Year of the Ox" stamps. Why do Koreans also believe in the zodiac?

South Korea also has the belief in the zodiac, because it is influenced by China culture. As far as the Zodiac culture in China is concerned, it appeared as early as the pre-Qin period, and it has a relatively complete system. Are the ancients still in the pre-Qin period? Ignorance? Stage, they spontaneously have a high sense of worship for animals in nature. Based on this sense of worship, animal totem, zodiac and other cultures have emerged. Among the many viewpoints about the origin of the zodiac, there is a view that culture evolved from totem worship.

Nowadays, the well-known zodiac system was formed in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the earliest related document that recorded the zodiac system was Lun Heng. Although the previous zodiac signs are not exactly the same as today, the difference is not very big. It is said that the Eastern Han Dynasty, in which the zodiac was stereotyped, existed from the first century to the beginning of the third century, and the earliest record of this culture, Lun Heng, appeared in the first century. During this period, the Korean peninsula was under the rule of three ancient countries: Koguryo, Baekje and Silla, all of which paid tribute to the Central Plains Dynasty.

Compared with the Korean Peninsula regime, the Central Plains regime has stronger economic and military strength, so ancient Korean Peninsula countries such as Koguryo will pay tribute to the Central Plains. That is, in the process of tribute, Koguryo and other ancient countries began to gradually introduce Korean culture such as Chinese characters into the Korean peninsula. After Chinese characters entered the Korean peninsula, they were the only written characters on the Korean peninsula for a long time, and only the aristocrats were learning and using them. Due to the limitation of the use of Chinese characters, Chinese characters were later replaced by proverbs created by King Sejong in15th century.

Different from Chinese characters, the Zodiac is a folk culture with no such limitations, so it has been gradually integrated into the lives of local people since it was introduced to the Korean peninsula, so South Korea still retains its belief in the Zodiac. Because this belief came from China, the Korean zodiac culture is exactly the same as that of China.