What is the origin of the twelve births?

Why the ancients chose twelve animals for the phases of the genus

Xuan Yuan Huangdi is the ancestor of the peoples of the Central Plains of China. Yellow Emperor ruled the Central Plains area after a lot of things, in order to facilitate the management, he ordered the historian Cangjie create words, so that the wizard responsible for astronomy and geography of the development of the stem and branch chronology, that is, the celestial stem and the Earth's branches to match the cycle of sixty years, known as the "a jiazi". The Tian Gan and Earth Branches chronology was complicated and not easy to be popular among the people, so some people suggested to use twelve kinds of animals as the names, which was agreed by the Yellow Emperor and ordered Cang Jie to do this. Cangjie ordered all the animals to come to the front of the emperor's palace on the first day of the first month to be candidates. Knowing that he was slow, the ox moved ahead on the night of the 30th day of the New Year. As a result, the ox was the first to arrive, followed by the tiger, followed by the rabbit, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the sheep, the monkey, the chicken, the dog, the pig, and the cat was the twelfth. Mouse came late, far after the twelve, on the selection has no hope, then slipped into the yellow emperor's warehouse, stole the big red candle in the warehouse bite. And the big red candle is the yellow emperor's rival Chi sent a gift, the center is empty, filled with gunpowder, as long as the candle will explode when lit. The next day, when the yellow emperor held twelve zodiac naming ceremony ready to light the candle, the guards from the rat bit through the place found in the candle gunpowder. The rat inadvertently saved the life of the Yellow Emperor, who remembered the rat's merits and chose it into the twelve zodiac signs and ranked it in the first place. The rest of the animals moved back in order, and the cat was eliminated. So to this day, the cat still hates the mouse and is its nemesis.

The legend of the Yellow Emperor's selection of the Chinese Zodiac has another saying: Emperor Xuanyuan wanted to choose twelve animals to serve as palace guards, the cat entrusted the mouse to help it enrollment, the mouse forgot, the cat was not selected, and from then on with the mouse as a rival, see the bite; elephants also went to enrollment, the mouse burrowed into the trunk of the elephant, the elephant stirred up the pain and ran away.

In the twelve animals, originally elected cattle in the first place, but the rat leapt to the back of the cattle, pigs followed the uproar, so that the rat ranked first, the pig ranked at the very end of the dragon and the tiger defied, was named king of the sea and the king of the mountain, ranked in the back of the rat and the cattle; rabbit and defied, and the dragon race, so that the rabbit and ranked in front of the dragon; the dog and did not do it, in a fit of anger, biting a rabbit, and the result is punished in the back; snakes, Horse, sheep, monkeys, chickens after a fight, but also one by one scheduled position, the final formation of the sub-mouse, ugly cow, Yinhu, rabbit, chenlong, Si snake, afternoon horse, ungoat, Shen monkey, You chicken, Hundred Days Dog, Ohio pig pattern. Twelve zodiac selected, the Yellow Emperor ordered Cangjie engraved in the results on the stone tablets, Shaanxi Lintong Lishan, northwest of the Ancestor's Temple there is still a giant stone tablets, engraved with the rat, cow, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig twelve animal images, known as the "twelve like the stone".

Some people may ask why there is no cat in the legendary Chinese zodiac. In fact, ancient China did not have a cat, the home of the domestic cat in the Sudan in Africa, and later imported into Egypt, from Egypt to China, when the Chinese zodiac has long been formed. This legendary story, far from being a scientific explanation of the problem, reflecting the desire to explain the zodiac.

Another theory, the selection and arrangement of the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac is based on the time pattern of the animal's daily activities.

China, at least since the Han Dynasty, has been based on the time of the rising sun, the day and night will be divided into twelve hours and the use of twelve branches of the earth's timekeeping method to record the twelve hours (time), each hour is equivalent to two hours, so that the day and night is now known as the twenty-four hours.

Night 11:00 to 1:00 a.m. is the Zi Hour, when the rats are most active and come out to look for food, if you have the experience of living in a cottage, you will know it very well.

1 a.m. to 3 a.m. is the ugly hour, when the oxen are ruminating. It is also said to be the time when the oxen start plowing the fields, working diligently.

From three to five o'clock in the morning is the Yin hour, when the tiger is roaming around looking for food and is most ferocious, hungry and coming out to look for prey.

From five to seven o'clock is foul time, when the sun has not yet risen, and the moon is still hanging in the sky, and the Jade Rabbit is busy pounding medicine. The human rabbits also begin to come out to forage for food.

Seven o'clock in the morning to nine o'clock in the morning, for the hour, this is the Dragon rain good time, better time oh.

Nine to eleven o'clock in the morning, for the sixth hour, the snake began to be active, wake up from sleep, to come out to walk.

Eleven o'clock in the morning to one o'clock in the afternoon, the yang energy is flourishing, for the time of noon, it is the time of the sky, you can make a big show.

From 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., it is the ungulate time, when the sheep graze and grow stronger, also because after the sunshine, the yang energy is more abundant, which is favorable to health.

3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., for the Shen time, this time the monkey active, this time the tiger may want to rest, the monkey good to come out to play, there is no tiger in the mountains, monkeys called the king, everyone has heard.

From five to seven o'clock, it's You time, when night falls, the chicken starts to return to its nest, ready to rest.

Seven to nine o'clock in the evening is the eleventh hour, when the dog begins to keep watch and protect us.

From nine to eleven in the evening, it is the hour of the Ohio, when all is quiet and the piglets are snoring away to keep fit and healthy.

On the arrangement of the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac, there are a variety of legends, such stories, there may be many more, or fables, but the arrangement of the Chinese zodiac seat, never overnight, nor a very short period of time can be accomplished. May also be from a large number of animals in the test to select the most appropriate twelve, and has been passed down to today, in short, which the complicated process also need to be studied all the time.