Who invented the zodiac? Since what?

1. Origin of the Zodiac

As an ancient folk cultural phenomenon, scholars in past dynasties have different opinions about the origin of the zodiac. Some people think that the Zodiac and the earthly branches have the same origin, which can be traced back to the prehistoric legend era. In Historical Records, the Yellow Emperor's statement that "Jia Zi was built for life" and "Da nao was made into Jia Zi" is a reflection of this statement. Scholars think that Jia Zi here refers to the twelve zodiac animals. Zhao Yi, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, thought that the zodiac originated from nomadic people in northern China. He said in Yu Cong Kao: "At the beginning of the custom of covering the north, there was no twelve days of ugliness, but when rats, cows, tigers and rabbits were divided into different ages, they were soaked and spread in China, so they did not waste their ears." (See "Yu Cong Kao" by Zhao Yi of Qing Dynasty). Some scholars even hold the view that the zodiac was introduced to China from Babylon. The representative of this view is Guo Moruo, who said in "Study on Oracle Characters and Interpretation of Branches" that "the Twelve Elephants are found in Babylon, Egypt and India, but they are not very ancient, and they are not from more than a hundred years after the Western Dynasties. "The intention is that this was made in the Western Regions in the Han Dynasty, imitating the Twelve Houses of Babylon, and then spreading it around." It is believed that the Zodiac was formulated by residents in the Middle East to imitate the Babylonian zodiac, and it was introduced to China when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty communicated with the Western Regions. The above viewpoints are different, and the author dare not judge right and wrong subjectively. However, through a large number of documents, it is proved that the zodiac really originated in China, and it is the crystallization of animal worship, totem worship and early astronomy of Chinese ancestors.

The Book of Songs is the earliest record of the zodiac in the existing literature. In the Book of Songs Xiaoya Jiri, there are eight words: "Jiri Gengwu, that is, sending my horse", which means that the auspicious time of Gengwu is good, and it is a good day for prancing and hunting. This is an example of matching the afternoon with the horse. It can be seen that the corresponding relationship between earthly branches and twelve kinds of animals has been established and spread around the Spring and Autumn Period. In 1975, the bamboo slips unearthed in the No.11 tomb of Shuihudi in Yunmeng County, Hubei Province further proved that the zodiac had existed before and after the Spring and Autumn Period. There is a chapter titled "The Thief" in the Japanese Book of unearthed bamboo slips, the content of which is the features of the thief's appearance, which records: "Zi, mouse, thief's desire for beard, … ugly, cow, thief's big nose and long neck, … yin, tiger, thief's appearance, desire for beard, and black face." Mao, rabbit, the thief is big. Chen, [the original leaked] The thief is a man, green and red ... Already, the insect is also, and the thief is long and black. At noon, the deer also, the thief has a long neck and a small cut, and his body is incomplete. ..... Not, the horse also, the thief must have ears. Shen, Huan also, the thief has a round face ... "

The zodiac recorded in the Japanese Book is roughly similar to the popular saying now. According to textual research, the No.11 tomb of Shuihudi was buried in the 3th year of Qin Shihuang (217 BC), so the emergence of the zodiac can be traced back to at least the Spring and Autumn Period before Qin Dynasty. Scholars believe that this is the earliest and more systematic record of the zodiac found in China so far.

exactly the same as the popular Chinese zodiac today is recorded by Wang Chong in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Wang Chong's On the Balance of Things contains:

"Yin, wood, birds and tigers. The soil, its birds and dogs are also. ..... At noon, the horse also. Son, mouse, unitary, chicken. Mao, rabbit also. ..... Hai, tapir also. No, the sheep also. Ugly, cattle are also. ..... Already, the snake also. "Shen, monkey." In the above text, there are eleven kinds of animals in the zodiac, but the dragon is missing. The book "Words and Poisons" said: "Chen is a dragon and has become a snake. "Chen and Ji are in the southeast."

In this way, the zodiac signs are complete, and they are exactly the same as the popular zodiac signs. This is indeed the earliest and most complete record of the zodiac signs in ancient literature.

By the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the zodiac had been widely used, and there was a specific record in the Southern Dynasties' Book of the Five Elements that people belonged to an animal according to their birth year. Shen Jiong, a poet in the Southern Dynasties, once wrote a poem of twelve zodiac signs, which said:

"A case of mice and dust, cattle and sheep came down at dusk.

the tiger feeds and sits in an empty valley, while the rabbit opens its window to the moon.

the dragon Ji is far green, and the snake willow lingers near.

Malan is far away, and sheep are planted in spring.

a monkey's chestnut shames the fragrant fruit, and a chicken's anvil draws a clear cup. "

A dog's bosom is empty, but a pig's lap is leisurely."

This poem of the twelve zodiac signs was obviously written in the order of the animals allocated by the twelve earthly branches, indicating that people were very familiar with the zodiac signs at that time.

From the above documents, it can be clear that the origin of the Zodiac culture is in China. According to the viewpoint of exotic zodiac, the zodiac was introduced to China from the Middle East in the Han Dynasty, which is similar to the introduction of Buddhism. We have proved from the above documents that there were records about the zodiac in China as early as the Spring and Autumn Period (The Book of Days and the Book of Songs), which shows that the emergence of the zodiac and the matching of the zodiac and the earthly branches were produced as early as the Han Dynasty, so it is certain that the zodiac is an ancient culture that originated in China. So what is the origin of the zodiac? Why did the ancients choose these twelve animals? Scholars have always paid attention to this issue and made various explanations.

Some scholars believe that the zodiac originated from animal worship in primitive times, and Mr. Zhang Binglun of the University of Science and Technology of China holds this view. He believes that in the case of low productivity and extremely limited ability to understand nature in primitive society, he has a sense of dependence on animals closely related to his own life (such as horses, sheep, cows, chickens, dogs, etc.), a sense of fear for animals that endanger his own safety (such as tigers and snakes), and a sense of reverence for some animal organ functions that exceed human beings (such as dogs' sense of smell, etc.), which leads to the worship of animals. Twelve kinds of Zodiac animals are the animal calendars that people use to record the years and the months under the influence of the primitive belief of animal worship.

The animal worship of primitive people is also manifested in primitive dances such as Nuo dance, which was produced around the Zhou Dynasty, and the protagonists in the Nuo ceremony were Fang Xiangshi and the twelve beasts. The selection of twelve animals in exorcism dance is the expression of primitive people's reverence for animals. The twelve beasts (or twelve gods) selected at the ceremony are to look after the twelve months of the year, in order to keep the moon safe, drive away the plague ghosts from all directions, and look after the twelve directions. Of course, the care of the twelve directions involves twelve branches, so it is linked to the twelve zodiac signs, and the twelve zodiac signs are put to good use in the exorcism ceremony. From this, we can see that the twelve beasts and the twelve zodiac animals are in the same strain, and their common source is primitive animal worship.

Mr. Liu Yaohan, an ethnologist, thinks that the zodiac is related to the calendar of the "Twelve Animals" and the "October Calendar" method of the Yi people. The Yi people who live in the Daliangshan area of Sichuan have a calendar with twelve animals as the date of the year. They use twelve animals as the date of the year, and today is the day of the rat, and tomorrow is the day of the cow. By analogy, three rounds are a month, counting 36 days, and a month is 36 days, and a year is ten months. This is the later "October Calendar" method. Mr. Liu Yaohan believes that the October calendar, in which the dates are marked by twelve zodiac signs, came into being in the Xia and Yu Dynasties (see Liu Yaohan's Collection of Social and Historical Investigations of the Yi People), which is related to the primitive totem worship. The Chinese zodiac was influenced by the October calendar, and the Yi zodiac calendar later developed into the zodiac. The origin of the zodiac is bound to link it with heavenly stems and earthly branches. The oldest surviving table of branches and branches in China unearthed in the Yin Ruins of Anyang in modern times shows that the dates of branches and branches in the Yin and Shang Dynasties have become proficient. Later, with the passage of time, the functions of the branches and branches gradually diversified. As a label serving as a time unit, on the one hand, it expanded and was used for chronology; On the one hand, it is reduced, which is used for the time (twelve hours of a day). According to historical records and research, the zodiac appeared after the establishment of the "Chronology of Branches and Branches". Twelve kinds of animals correspond to the twelve earthly branches one by one, and animals are used as the signs of earthly branches. People born in the same year have the animals to which their earthly branches belong, so twelve kinds of animals are used to date the year, date and calculate everyone's animal sign. It can be seen that the zodiac and the twelve earthly branches are inseparable. For a long time, scholars have found that the ancient characters of the twelve branches contain the information of the zodiac. They compared the twelve branches with the ancient characters of the zodiac and found that the ancient characters of the twelve branches have some connections with twelve animals. Careful observation shows that there are some similarities and differences. In Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the word "Ji" was said to be the pictograph of a snake, as well as "Hai" and "tapir". Nearby people also verified that there are similarities between the characters of earthly branches in Oracle Bone Inscriptions and bronze inscriptions and the characters of the zodiac, which makes people wonder whether the twelve branches are the pictographs of the animals of the zodiac. Because the ugly yin and Mao of the twelve branches are easy to remember, the people use twelve kinds of animals instead, and animals are used to substitute ordinal numbers to match the earthly branches, which becomes the symbol system of the year. Although the above conjecture has certain credibility, if you think about it carefully, you can judge that the twelve branches can't be pictographs of twelve animals, because as mentioned earlier, the twelve branches were skillfully used in the Yin and Shang Dynasties, while the zodiac was only produced in the Spring and Autumn Period, and they are from different sources. If the earthly branches were related to the zodiac at the time of word creation, wouldn't the zodiac be produced at the same time as the earthly branches? To sum up, the author thinks that the zodiac came into being later than the twelve earthly branches, but it is closely related to the twelve earthly branches. The zodiac is an attachment to the twelve earthly branches, and the choice of twelve animals as symbols to replace the twelve earthly branches stems from the animal worship psychology of the ancients.

2. Selection and arrangement of the zodiac

The selection of twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac is not complicated, and it is close to the daily life and social life of the Han people, which can be guessed. Among the twelve zodiac animals, they can be roughly divided into three categories: one is the domesticated "six animals", namely cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, dogs and chickens, which are domesticated by human beings for economic or other purposes, accounting for half of the twelve animals. "Six Livestock" is an important concept in China's agricultural culture, with a long history. In the traditional concept of China people, "Six Livestock Prosperity" represents the prosperity, auspiciousness and beauty of the family. During the Spring Festival, people usually talk about "Six Livestock Flourishing", so it is inevitable that these six animals will become the Zodiac. The second category is well-known wild animals, which are closely related to people's daily and social life. They are tigers, rabbits, monkeys, rats and snakes, and some of them are involved in human life with awe, such as tigers and snakes. There are also rodents that people hate and taboo, but rely on human survival; More people like it, such as rabbits and monkeys. The third category is the traditional symbolic mascot of China people-the dragon, which is a symbol of the Chinese nation, an "artifact" that integrates the characteristics of many animals, and a "spiritual thing" in people's imagination. The dragon represents wealth and good luck, and it is the most symbolic auspicious animal, so the position of the dragon is indispensable in the zodiac. From the above, we can see that the choice of animals in the zodiac is not arbitrary, but has certain meanings. The animals people choose are from different angles and have certain significance.

so in what order are these twelve animals arranged? As mentioned earlier, the Zodiac was born in the atmosphere of ancient animal worship and totem worship. People only use animals to borrow ordinal symbols to match the earthly branches. Why to choose these twelve animals, who comes first, and in what order is inconclusive. Because the Zodiac was born in ancient culture, people have lost the original intention of the arrangement because of the long time. The legends and stories of today are only attached to it and can only rely on legends and imagination. There are three explanations about the arrangement of zodiac signs.

First, the arrangement of zodiac signs in folklore stories. Han folk story says: In those days, Huangdi in Xuanyuan wanted to choose twelve animals as court guards, and the cat asked the mouse to sign up, but the mouse forgot. As a result, the cat didn't choose it, and since then, he has made enemies with the mouse. The elephant also came to the competition, and the mouse got into its nose and drove it away. The rest of the animals, originally headed by the cow, were rushed to the cow's back, and the pigs also booed, so the mouse came first and the pork chop came last. The tiger and the dragon refused to obey, and were named the king of the mountain and the king of the sea, ranking behind the mouse and the cow. The rabbit refused to accept it again, and raced with the dragon, and ended up in front of the dragon. The dog was unfair and bit the rabbit in anger, so he was punished in the penultimate place. Snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys and chickens also went through some contests and arranged their positions one by one. Finally, the order of rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs was formed. Although the legendary story is not a scientific explanation of the problem, it embodies people's desire to explain the choice of the zodiac.

Second, ancient scholars in China explained the relationship between earthly branches and Xiao beasts from the perspective of twelve o'clock in ancient times. In the dark, there is chaos, and rats come out to move around in the middle of the night, biting the chaotic state between heaven and earth out of the gap, "rats bite the sky", so they belong to rats. After the sky opens, the land will be reclaimed. "The land will be reclaimed from ugliness." Cattle should cultivate the land, so ugliness belongs to cattle. Yinshi is the time when a person is born, and there is bound to be death when he is alive. Nothing can kill a person more than a tiger, Yin, who has the meaning of awe, so Yin belongs to a tiger. Maoshi is the image of sunrise, and the sun should be separated from divination, which is like fire, and the yin contained in it is the fine jade rabbit of the moon, so Maoshi belongs to the rabbit. Chen, the divinatory symbol in March, is in the season of rain. Chen naturally belongs to the dragon. The divinatory symbols in April, at this moment, spring grass is flourishing, which is a good day for snakes, like fish getting water. In addition, it is already morning, when the snake is returning to the hole, so it is already a snake. At noon and in the afternoon, the yang spirit reaches its extreme, and the yin spirit is sprouting. Horses, an animal, gallop and run, with their hooves flying, but step on the ground from time to time. The sky is yang, the ground is yin, and the horse leaps between yin and yang, so it becomes the animal sign of noon. Sheep, grazing in the afternoon is the best time, and it is easy to gain weight. At this time, it is not timely, so it is not a sheep. Not after the application, it is the time when the monkey cries near Xishan, and the monkey likes to stretch his arms and jump at this time, so the monkey deserves the application. When the moon appears, the moon belongs to water, so it should be divination. The divinatory symbols are the upper and lower yin hexagrams, while the middle yang hexagram represents the essence of the sun and the sun. Because of this, you are a chicken. When night falls, it is for the time. Dogs are vigil livestock, and they become dogs with them. Then when the sea arrives, the heaven and the earth are immersed in a state of chaos again, just like a fruit wrapped in a stone, and everything in the world is covered at night. Pigs are chaotic creatures who only know how to eat, so pigs have become the animal sign of Hai. Zhu Xi, a famous Neo-Confucianist in Song Dynasty, holds this view.

Thirdly, according to China people's belief in Yin and Yang, twelve kinds of animals are divided into Yin and Yang, and the Yin and Yang of animals are arranged according to the odd-even difference of their toes. Animals generally have the same number of toes in the front, back, left and right, while rats are the only ones with four feet in the front and five feet in the back, even and odd, and things are rare, of course, they rank first, followed by cattle and four toes (even); Tiger, five toes (odd); Rabbit, four toes (even); Dragon, five toes (odd); Snakes, without toes (with even); Horse, one toe (odd); Sheep, four toes (even); Monkey, five toes (odd); Chicken, four toes (even); Dog, five toes (odd); Pig, four toes (even). This view is held by Hong Xun, a Song Dynasty scholar, and Lang Ying, a Ming Dynasty scholar, classified it on the basis of it, and put forward that "the earth branches below" in his book Seven Revision Manuscripts of the Zodiac, so we should look at the number of toes differently. There are four claws in front of the mouse, even numbers are yin, hind feet are five claws, and odd numbers are yang. The first half of Zi Shi is the Yin of last night, and the second half is the Yang of today, just using rats to symbolize Zi Shi. Cattle, sheep, pig's hoof, chicken's four claws, plus rabbit's lack of lips and four claws, snake's tongue, all six should be even, belonging to yin, accounting for six branches. Tigers have five claws, monkeys and dogs also have five claws, and horseshoes are round and undivided. All six are odd numbers, belonging to Yang, and together with rats belonging to Yang, they account for the other six earthly branches. Lang Ying's classification method is the classification method of borrowing flood, and the two are similar.

The above three explanations are never