Where did the China Zodiac come from? What are the legends?

The zodiac was first seen in The Book of Songs, the world's first collection of poems. "The Book of Songs Xiaoya Chegong Chapter" says: "At noon on an auspicious day, my horse is insufficient." In the mid-1970s, thousands of bamboo slips unearthed in Hubei proved that the Chinese zodiac was used in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

According to the literature, there were twelve earthly branches in the era of the Yellow Emperor, which were related to the twelve constellations such as Aries, Taurus, Gemini and Cancer. The earliest twelve earthly branches and twelve constellations represented twelve different months and festivals every year. Ten characters, such as A, B, C and D, were invented in the Shang Dynasty. Later, people who studied numerology called it heavenly stem, which was used in combination with earthly branches, such as Jia Zi and E Yuan, to calculate the year, month, day and time.

According to legend, this was Dong Fangshuo's idea in the Han Dynasty, which used twelve kinds of animals instead of twelve earthly branches to represent the twelve-month season. In Lun Heng written by Wang Chong in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there is a clear record in Yan Dou. He mentioned the names of twelve animals. According to the zodiac, the year also began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. As for why twelve animals are chosen as symbols, it may be related to totems at the earliest. In ancient times, all tribes would choose an animal that they were particularly afraid of or loved, and take its pattern as the symbol of their tribe.

Some people think that the zodiac first appeared in writing. A day and night is twenty-four hours. Ancient astronomers divided a day and night into twelve hours. At the same time, when they watch the celestial phenomena, they determine the zodiac according to the living habits and activities of twelve animals.

From 11: 00 p.m. to 1: 00 a.m. the next day, rats are called "rats" for their frequent activities in the dead of night.

From 1 am to 3 am, it's ugly. Cattle are used to eating grass at night, and farmers often get up late at night to feed them, so they are called "ugly cows".

From three to five in the morning, it belongs to Yin Shi. At this time, tigers lying during the day and walking at night are the fiercest. The ancients often heard tigers roaring at this time, so they were called "silver tigers".

From five o'clock to seven o'clock in the morning, it is Shi Mao. As soon as dawn dawned, the rabbit came out of its nest. It likes to eat grass with morning dew, so it is called "hairy rabbit".

It is morning from 7: 00 to 9: 00 in the morning, and it is usually foggy at this time. It is said that the dragon Xi is walking in the clouds, which is also worth the rising sun, so it is called "Chen Long".

At 9: 00 am to 1 1, it was the fourth hour. The fog cleared and the sun was shining. The snake came out of the hole to feed and disguised itself as a "snake".

From eleven o'clock to one o'clock at noon, it is noon. In ancient times, wild horses were not tamed by humans. Every noon, they run around and scream, so they are called "afternoon horses".

1: 00 to 3: 00 in the afternoon is inappropriate. Some places are called "sheep out of the slope", which means that this is a good time to herd sheep, so it is called "no herding sheep".

From three o'clock to five o'clock in the afternoon, it belongs to the application time, and the sun goes down. At this time, monkeys like to crow, so they are called "application monkeys".

From five o'clock to seven o'clock in the afternoon, it is unitary time. When the sun goes down, the chicken rotates in front of the nest, so it is called "unitary chicken".

7: 00 pm to 9: 00 pm is the time to prepare for a rest after a hard day's work. The dog crouched in front of the door to guard. As soon as there is movement, it barks and screams, so it is called "dog".

From 9: 00 p.m. to 1 1, it belongs to the sea, and the sound of pig arches can be heard in the dead of night, so it is called "sea pig".

In this way, the time of day is arranged by animals: mice, ugly cows, silver tigers, rabbits, Chen Long, uncles, afternoon horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and porcupines. Later, people used this method to determine the year, and the zodiac appeared.

China Zodiac originated from the ancient people who matched twelve kinds of animals with twelve earthly branches, namely, rats, ugly cows, silver tigers, hairy rabbits, dragons, snakes, afternoon horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and porcupines. Dating animals can be traced back to the period of the Yellow Emperor. For example, something in Origin says, "The 12th day of the ugly day of the Yellow Emperor was named after the moon, and the twelve animals belong to it." 1997, archaeologists excavated a batch of bamboo slips with the Book of Heaven in the Qin TombNo. Yunmeng Shuihudi 1 1, which recorded the content that Qin first chose auspicious days or auspicious days for action, including the details of the twelve zodiac signs, but it was somewhat different from today's zodiac signs.

According to the inscription of Tao Zhai Juan Si Xin Mang Jia Liang, Mr. Guo Moruo thinks that the zodiac first appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty, but it was not created by Wang Chong or the Eastern Han Dynasty. Wang Chong's On the Balance of Things: "Yin, wood, its birds and tigers; Hey, soil, its birds and dogs; " Third, fire, birds and snakes. "Talking about Poison": "Chen Weilong becomes a snake", and "Four Taboos" notes: "The bird and mouse of the son are the beasts and rabbits of the mother", which shows that the zodiac has become popular at the end of the Warring States Period. "Tang Shu": "Tuoba Sinian, with twelve things as the standard. If a year is a cloudy year, it is called the Year of the Tiger. "Examination of Yu Cong by Zhao Yi in Qing Dynasty": "It doesn't matter whether ugly children are ugly or not at the beginning of the custom of covering the north, but rats, cows, tigers and rabbits were all spread in China at the same age, so they didn't waste their ears. "

When it comes to the origin of the zodiac, we should start with heavenly stems and earthly branches and Twenty-eight Nights. As early as 6,000 years ago, the ancients in China discovered that the sun and the moon meet twelve times a year, and each time they meet in a different place. Therefore, the ancients divided the orbit of the sun into twelve equal parts, that is, the zodiac, representing the twelve months of the year, and used "A, B, C and D" together with "A, B, C and D" as a chronology. This is the origin of "heavenly stems and earthly branches". Heavenly stems and earthly branches was used in many places in ancient times, and people used the combination of heavenly stems and earthly branches to calculate the year. Because the least common multiple of the ten-day stem and the twelve earthly branches is 60, heavenly stems and earthly branches counts the year every 60 years, which is called 60 flowers. Earthly branches were also used by the ancients to calculate orientation. The child is due north, the base is due east, the afternoon is due south, and the unitary is due west. When the virtual sun mouse moves to the north, that is, the offspring, the other 1 1 stars are the ugly bull Taurus, the shadowy tail fire tiger, the nest house rabbit, the morning Kang Jinlong, the four winged fire snakes, the afternoon sun horse, the absent ghost golden sheep and the tapir. Here, let's talk about the naming methods of 28 hotels. The names of 28 hotels are all composed of three words. The first word is the name of the hostel, the second word is the five elements that name the sun, the moon and each phase, and the last word is the symbol of animals. Now, let's look back. When the imaginary sun mouse ran to its offspring, the symbolic animal of twelve nights was in the direction of twelve branches. We will find that they happen to be twelve animals in the zodiac. Coupled with their geographical location, there are what we often call "ugly cows, rats, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, afternoon horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs"