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China Traditional Zodiac Culture?

Speaking of the zodiac, many people are familiar with it. The zodiac is made up of twelve animals in a certain order. In human history, people and animals have a special relationship. From the primitive society, our ancestors thought that people and animals were related by blood, so the worship of them was better than the worship of people themselves. The zodiac, also known as the animal sign, is used by some ethnic groups in China and East Asia to indicate the year and the year when a person was born. The cycle of the zodiac is 12 years. In ancient times, scholars used the simplest method of animal chronology, which was later called "Zodiac Year" to make people all over the world, including those who had no money to study and those who could not read, remember the year of their birth.

Traditional Zodiac Culture in China

The earliest records of the zodiac show that the origin of the zodiac is very early. At the end of the Warring States period, twelve animals with branches appeared in Qin bamboo slips "Sleeping Tiger Land" and "Letting Horse Beach". Their names and branches are similar to those of the later zodiac, and their usage and divination logic are also similar to those of the later zodiac. It can be inferred that the twelve zodiac signs in Qin bamboo slips of Sleeping Tiger Land and Letting Horse Beach are the later zodiac signs. The zodiac calendar began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. A letter written by Yuwen Hu's mother is recorded in the Biography of Northern History Yuwen Hu, which says: "Your brother was born in Wuchuan Town. The first one is a mouse, the second one is a rabbit, and you are a snake." Explain the folk usage of 12 zodiac at that time.

According to China's ancient books, the ancient Central Plains originally used the "trunk-branch chronology method", that is, the 10 heavenly stem symbol was used for chronology. At the same time, there are also twelve kinds of animals that simply determine the year. By the Sui Dynasty, the calendar of the Central Plains had spread to the nomadic people in the northwest of China, and they only absorbed twelve kinds of animal chronologies. Therefore, it is recorded in the Book of the Tang Dynasty: "Tuoba Sinian is bounded by twelve things. If the year is cloudy, it is called the year of the tiger. " In addition, the History of the Song Dynasty, The Biography of Tubo, also records that when the Tubo leaders narrate, they take events as a chronology. As the saying goes, "Twelve old things belong to Japan, the Year of the Rabbit and the Year of the Horse". As Zhao Yi pointed out in the Qing Dynasty's "Examination of Jade Cong", "The ugliness of ugly children, at the beginning of the custom of covering the north, doesn't matter whether it is ugly or not, but in the next year, it was spread in China, so it didn't waste its ears." This explanation about the origin of 12 zodiac has been recognized by many people.

For a long time, many people regard Lun Heng as the earliest document that records the zodiac. Lun Heng is the representative work of Wang Chong, a materialist thinker in the Eastern Han Dynasty. "On the Balance of Things" contains: "Yin, Muye, its bird, tiger, soil, its bird, dog ... noon, horse, son, rat knife, unitary, chicken, hair, rabbit, ... sea, Gou Ye, ... There are only eleven zodiac signs in the above quotation, but the dragon is missing. The book "Poisonous Words" also said: "Chen is a dragon and has always been a snake, and Chen has always been in the southeast. In this way, the zodiac is complete, and the subordinate relationship between the twelve earthly branches and the zodiac is also so complete, just like today.

Related article: What is the origin of the zodiac? What is the patron saint of the China Zodiac? The list of 12 Zodiac and 12 hour tells the legend of the story about the China Zodiac.

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