The relationship between the Chinese zodiac and Buddhism and Taoism

The birth of Taoism, the native religion of China, was also influenced by the primitive clan religion and myths and legends of multi-god worship. Qingyang Palace, known as "the first Taoist temple in western Sichuan", perfectly integrates the images of the twelve Chinese zodiac signs into the styling of the entire Taoist temple.

The most well-preserved and magnificent building in Qingyang Palace, the Bagua Pavilion, enshrines the statue of Laozi riding a green ox, and the importance of the ox in the Chinese Zodiac is evident in the fact that it has become the mount of the Taoist master.

The most famous single-horned green goat in the Qingyang Palace is uniquely shaped to contain the characteristics of the twelve Chinese zodiac signs, with a mouse ear, ox body, tiger claws, rabbit back, dragon horns, snake tail, horse's mouth, goat's beard, monkey head, chicken eyes, dog's belly, pig's buttocks, for the Qing Dynasty, the first year of the Yongzheng University scholar Zhang Penghe donation. Inscription on the base of the cloud: "the capital city got bronze sheep, moved to Chengdu ancient Taoist temple.

Out of the Yinxi seem to know each other, find Huayang LeWeiYang." The inscription is "Xin Yang Zi title", Xin Yang Zi is Zhang Penghe's number. According to folklore, people who are not feeling well can touch this bronze goat to "ease the pain", which can indirectly show that religious relics play a soothing effect on the psyche.

As one of the philosophical texts at the core of Taoism, Zhuangzi has a story about the chicken: Ji_Zi tamed the cock for King Xuan of Qi. Ten days later, the king asked if the chicken had been tamed. Ji_Zi replied that it had not yet; it was outwardly imposing, but in reality it was impetuous and conceited, proud by a rush of blood.

Ten days later, the king asked Gee_Zi again, and he replied, "Not yet; the chicken is still disturbed by the squawks and shadows of the other chickens, which affect its play." After another ten days, the king couldn't resist asking again, and Kee_Zi argued that it hadn't worked yet, and that the chickens would still look at each other aggressively.

Waiting another ten days after this, Nori_ko finally tamed it almost enough. At this point, the chicken faced other jumping and screaming chickens, there is no longer any reaction, looks as if made of wood, which has the spirit of cockfighting. The other chickens didn't dare to respond to the fight, and they all turned and fled when they saw this chicken.

Later, the positive meaning of "wooden chicken" in the text was transformed into the derogatory meaning of the idiom "呆若木鸡". This shows that the connotations and usage of the Chinese zodiac are not static in the course of history.

In addition to its role in Taoist plastic arts and Taoist classics, the Chinese Zodiac is also inseparable from the 60 A Zi Gods (60 star gods), which are the symbols of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches of the Taoist religion. In the book "The Chinese Zodiac and Chinese Culture", it is said that, according to Taoist teachings, the cultivation of truth and refinement of sex needs to be committed to the life of the hour, remove distractions and selfishness, in order to live a long life forever.

That's why the White Cloud Temple in Beijing was built in the Tang Dynasty, and the temple now has a statue of the 60 Azi gods, which are used for worshipping the gods of the stars and constellations of their nativity.

Buddhism, which originated in India in the 10th century B.C. and was later introduced to Yunnan Province in China, also has a long history of Chinese zodiac culture. In the 10th year of Yongping of the Eastern Han Dynasty (67), Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty sent an emissary to the Western Region to seek Buddhist statues and classics, and welcomed monks such as Gautama and Zhufan to Luoyang, where he established the first government-run temple, the White Horse Temple.

Tracing the Indian origins of Buddhism, there is Indian mythology "Abhaya" records, "the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac was originally 12 God's driving beast, put the Duru God's driving Ru for the rat, Vijela God for the ox, Gong Vijeluo God for the lion, Vaishala God for the rabbit, the god of the dragon, the god of the Andiro snake, the god of the Anmiro horse, the god of the Shandiro goat, the god of the Indra monkey, the god of the boiros, the magic tiger for the golden-winged bird, the god Mokhutra as a dog, and the god Wazendaro as a pig.

"With the exception of the lion and the golden-winged bird, the animals and their order of arrangement do not differ greatly from the Chinese zodiac.

Even the Mahayana Buddhist sutra, one of the five sutras, is closely related to the Chinese zodiac: "The twelve beasts are the ones that always walk in Yantra day and night. They are honored by the heavenly beings. Their merits and virtues have been realized. In the Buddha's place, he makes deep wishes for one day and one night. One of the twelve beasts is always on the move to teach and educate. The remaining eleven beasts dwell in peace and cultivate kindness. The cycle begins again and again." The scene depicted is that the Buddhas made the twelve divine beasts take turns being on duty and traveling on earth day and night.

The twelve beasts in the scripture and the twelve zodiac signs are different from the lion a beast, but the beasts are located in the direction of the cave, with the Chinese twelve eons in line, and all the rat as the beginning. This may be Indian Buddhism and the Chinese culture of mutual influence, the result of mutual integration.

"ZiMouse, ugly cow, YinTiger, MaoRabbit, chenLong, SiSnake, WuMa, not goat, ShenMao, YouXi, XuDog, HaiPu" as a traditional cultural representative of the twelve zodiac signs, religion plays an important role in the development of its form. At the same time, the Chinese zodiac integrates and respects the totems and sacred animals of various nationalities, which should be protected and developed as the ****together bond of national unity and the essence of Chinese culture.

Expanded information:

All aspects of the Chinese culture and all periods of history have a place in the Chinese Zodiac, which shows that the Chinese Zodiac as the incomparable status of traditional culture. In fact, the inheritance of Chinese zodiac culture is closely related to the religious development of human society.

"In the lower stage of the savage period, the higher attributes of human beings began to develop. It was at this time that the unrecorded literature of myths, legends and lore began to be produced, which had already given a powerful influence to mankind." Marx shows that at this stage the ideological activities of mankind, i.e., the primitive witchcraft-related activities, including religion, art, decoration, etc., had already begun.

Human beings were not yet able to fully utilize reason to explain the laws of the world, so they often used animal images as the guardian gods of their clans to seek peace. For example, the image of the female snail in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" is a snake with a human face, and the "Fuxi Kao" takes the snake body as the main body, and adds the characteristics of various animals, which turns it into the image of the "dragon".

The totem of the Xia ethnic group is the bear or fish, the totem of the Shang ethnic group is the bird of paradise, and the totem of the Zhou ethnic group is the dragon, bird, tortoise, dog and tiger.

Liu Yao Han, an ethnographer, deduced the origin of the Twelve Beasts Calendar from the totem remains of the Yi people. The Twelve Beasts Calendar of the Guixi Yi and the Maodao Yi puts human beings and the twelve beasts of the Calendar in the same category. After the Han Book - ceremonial records of Nuo dance: "its rituals, selected yellow door children above ten years old, twelve or less, one hundred and twenty for _ son. All red conical soap system, the big drum.

Fang Xiang's gold four eyes, masked bearskin, Xuanzhi Zhu clothes, holding a go Yang shield. Twelve beasts have clothes, hair and horns, in the yellow door line." The primitive polytheistic religious ritual dance "is the primitive people and animals are not differentiated from the ideology in the reality of the legacy". It can be seen that the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac originated from the ancient polytheistic religion of totem worship, mixed with the animal images of various ethnic groups and clans.

Reference:

Phoenix.com-Tradition and Religion in the Chinese Zodiac The Ultimate Truth of the Buddhist Scriptures