What is the origin of the ancient Chinese zodiac?

The origin of the Chinese zodiac is related to animal worship. According to Hubei Yunmeng sleep tiger land and Gansu Tianshui put horse beach unearthed in the Qin Jane can be known, as early as in the pre-Qin period that there is a relatively complete system of the Chinese zodiac exists. The earliest document that recorded the same twelve zodiac signs as today's is the East Han Dynasty's Wang Chong's "Lun Heng".

2, Introduction

The twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac, also known as the twelve phases of the genus, is the twelve Chinese zodiac signs with the twelve earthly branches to match the year of birth of a person, including the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, chicken, dog, pig.

The twelve signs of the Chinese Zodiac are the figurative representatives of the twelve Earthly Branches, i.e., Zi (Rat), Ugly (Ox), Yin (Tiger), Mao (Rabbit), Chen (Dragon), Si (Snake), Wu (Horse), Wu (Sheep), Shen (Monkey), You (Rooster), Xu (Dog), Oh (Pig), and gradually integrated into the concept of mutual beliefs with the development of history, manifested in marriage, life, and yearly fortunes, and so on, and each of these signs of the zodiac has a wealth of Each zodiac sign has a rich legend, and this has formed a conceptual interpretation system, which has become a figurative philosophy in folk culture, such as the phases of the zodiac in marriage, prayers at temples, and the year of the birth of a child. In modern times, more people use the Chinese zodiac as a mascot for the Spring Festival, which has become an entertainment and cultural activity.

3. Moral

The twelve Chinese zodiac signs, two by two, and the six paths of reincarnation, embody all the expectations and requirements of our ancestors for us Chinese people.

The first group: Rat and Ox. The Rat represents wisdom and the Ox represents hard work. The two must be tightly combined, if only wisdom without hard work, it becomes a small smart, just hard work without brains, it becomes stupid. So the two must be combined. This is the first and most important set of expectations and requirements of our ancestors for Chinese people.

The second group: the tiger and the rabbit. The tiger represents bravery and the rabbit represents caution. The two must be tightly coupled together in order to be what is called bold and careful. If boldness leaves caution, it becomes recklessness, and a cautious mind becomes timidity. This group is also important, so it is placed second.

The third group is the dragon and the snake. The dragon represents rigidity and the snake represents flexibility. As the saying goes, the stiff is easy to break, too stiff is easy to break; too soft is easy to be weak, too soft is easy to lose the main point, so the combination of rigidity and flexibility is our ancestral training through the ages.

The fourth group is the horse and the sheep. Horse stands for moving forward and striving towards the goal, and sheep stands for unity and harmony. The Chinese nation is a big family, and we need an internal environment of unity and harmony more than anything else. Only with collective harmony can we free up our hands to pursue our respective ideals. If a person only cares about his own interests and pays no attention to unity and harmony, he is bound to fall behind. Therefore, individual endeavor and collective harmony must be tightly integrated.

The fifth group is the monkey and the chicken. The monkey represents flexibility, and the chicken beats regularly, representing constancy. Flexibility and constancy must be tightly combined. If you are only flexible and have no constancy, even the best policy will not be rewarded in the end. But if you are only constant, a pool of stagnant water, a piece of iron plate, then there will be no reform and opening up for us today. Only a very rounded combination between them, on the one hand, has stability, maintains the overall harmony and order, and on the other hand, can constantly adapt to move forward.

Lastly, the dog and the pig. The dog stands for loyalty and the pig for easy-going. A person who is too loyal to be easy-going will reject others. And conversely, a person who is too easy-going and has no loyalty, that person loses his principles. So whether it is loyalty to a nation-state, loyalty to a team, or loyalty to one's own ideals, it must be tightly combined with easy-going, so that it is easy to truly maintain the deepest loyalty in one's heart. This is what we Chinese have always insisted on, the outer circle, the inner square, the gentleman and different.