Why are there constellations and zodiac signs?

The Chinese zodiac is native to China. At first, there were only some animals. Later, it probably evolved into the 12 zodiac in the Tang Dynasty. Then 12 Zodiac and heavenly stems and earthly branches can be used to record age. Constellation is the zodiac 12 house discovered by ancient westerners, which is used to represent 65438+ February. So the zodiac is calculated in years, and the constellation is calculated in months.

The origin of the zodiac

It is difficult to study the origin of the zodiac. 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, wood, birds and tigers. Soil, its birds and dogs are also. ..... At noon, the horse also arrived. Son, mouse knife. Unitary, chicken also. Hair, rabbits, too. ..... hey, tapir. No, so are sheep. Ugly, cattle also. ...... Third, snakes are also. " Shen, monkey. "There are only eleven zodiac signs in the above quotation, and what is missing is the dragon. 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. Why do the zodiac need twelve? "Zhou Li Chun Guan von Shi Xiang" contains: "Ten palms are two years old, ten palms are February, ten palms are two days old, ten palms are two days old, ten palms are two days old, and ten palms are twenty-eight stars. Its narrative distinguishes heaven." The division of time and space is twelve years, twelve months a year and twelve o'clock a day. "Mandarin Yu Jin Si" contains: "The Yellow Emperor has twenty-five sons, and fourteen sons have surnames, which are twelve surnames." Even the wives and concubines of the son of heaven have the saying of "twelve women". "The Biography of Xun Shuang in the Later Han Dynasty": "Therefore, the son of heaven married twelve women, and the number of days was also; Below the princes, the difference is equal, and things fall. " In recent years, the creation epic Dark Biography of the Han nationality has been discovered in Shennongjia area. There is a story about the origin of Ganzhi: "At the beginning of the world, Huang Xuan rode chaos beast and met Nuwa. There are two meat buns beside Nu Wa. There are ten men in the big one and twelve women in the small one. Huang Xuan said: "This is a heavenly revolution to support God to govern Gankun." So, they were named respectively, and the husband and wife were matched, which became yin and yang. Men are collectively called heavenly stems and women are earthly branches. "This creation myth story tells the story of Ganzhi, Huang Xuan God, Nuwa God and Gankun Yin and Yang, which has pushed back the" life experience "of Ganzhi for a long time. The sky is dry and the land is vast. In ancient times, the sky has always been the master and the earth has always been the subordinate. Ten heavenly stems are also called ten mothers, and the corresponding twelve branches are called twelve sons. Cai Yong's "Moon Order" in Han Dynasty: "The love of the five elements is great, occupying the program of fighting, so A and B became famous at the beginning, which is called dry; Making a child ugly in the name of the moon is a branch. The combination of dry branches and branches makes it sixty years old. " Da Rao was a minister in the era of the Yellow Emperor, and the match here is sixty years, that is, sixty jiazi, taking the least common multiple of ten days' work and twelve earthly branches. The trunk and branches are matched in order, from Jiazi to Ugly ... until Guihai is the 60th pair, which happens to be the last pair of trunk and branches, and then defecation starts from Jiazi. This cycle is called Jiazi. Among them, each aerial stem appeared 6 times and each aerial branch appeared 5 times. The birth of the zodiac has an astronomical background. In primitive times, our ancestors experienced a cycle of alternating cold and summer. Hong Hao's Biography of Song and Mo in Song Dynasty said: "Jurchen is very small, just after the new moon, and she doesn't know the date. When asked, they will say, "How many times have I seen grass?" . "Meng Gong's Record of Monks and Tartars in the Song Dynasty also recorded:" Every grass is one year old. When someone asks its age, they say it is several grasses. "In 2000, another astronomical observer found that the length of a year can be measured by the moon's profit and loss cycle, and found that all twelve full moons are one year old. This discovery is one of the most accurate achievements of the early calendar, and "Twelve" is regarded as "days" to convey God's will. Heavenly stems and earthly branches, the sun and the moon are opposite, and heaven and earth are opposite, which is "Twelve". A mouse and an ugly cow ... a dog and a pig. There are many animals in the world. Why did the ancients choose these twelve animals as their zodiac signs? Yang Guang Miscellaneous Notes in Qing Dynasty quoted redundant remarks in Matsushita Pavilion: "Why is Zi a mouse?" Yue: Born in the child, it will not open until it dies. Rats eat insects. Therefore, in night is still young, positive mice have to wait, so children belong to mice. The ground is ugly, and the cow opens the ground, so ugliness belongs to the cow. If born in yin, if born, kill. Murderer, tiger, Yin people, fear. If you are awesome, you are a tiger, then Yin is a tiger. Offender, sunrise. In vitro, it contains the essence of Taiyin Jade Rabbit, so it is a rabbit. The morning of divination in March is when the dragon rains, so the morning belongs to the dragon. The last person, divination in April, was lush and the snake was in its place. Also, when a snake is not on the road, it is a snake. At noon, the sun is born, and the sun is born. Horses are healthy, never leave the ground, and belong to the shade, so they belong to horses in the afternoon. Sheep are not sheep, because they grow by biting untimely grass. When applying, the ape crowed in the sunset, and his arms were stretched out. By analogy, chaos runs rampant, so the application belongs to monkeys. This person, when the moon comes out, is the body of the moon, and water is the essence of the sun golden rooster, so it belongs to the chicken. In the nucleus, pigs know nothing but food, so the sea is a pig. In other words, the selection and arrangement of the zodiac is determined according to the daily activity time of animals. Since the Han Dynasty, China used the twelve earthly branches to record the twelve hours of a day, each hour is equivalent to two hours, and it is midnight from eleven o'clock in the evening to one o'clock in the morning, when rats are most active. From 0: 00 to 3: 00 in the morning/kloc-,it's ugly, and the cow is ruminating. It is Yin Shi from 3: 00 to 5: 00. At this time, tigers are foraging everywhere, which is the fiercest. 5: 00 to 7: 00 is the crime time. At this time, the sun has not yet risen and the moon is still hanging in the sky. At this time, Yutu is busy taking medicine. 7: 00 am to 9: 00 am is the morning, which is a good time for the dragon to rain. From 9: 00 to 1 1, the snake became active. From eleven o'clock in the morning to one o'clock in the afternoon, the sun is shining, and at noon, it is the time to be unconstrained. In the afternoon 1 until 3 o'clock, it is late. At this time, sheep will grow stronger if they eat grass. From 3 pm to 5 pm, it is the Olympic Games. At this time, the monkey became active. It's one yuan from five to seven. When night falls, chickens begin to return to their nests. From 7: 00 pm to 9: 00 pm, the dog began to watch the night. From 9 pm to 1 1, it is Shihai. At this time, all was silent and the pig was snoring.

Constellations originated in Babylon, one of the four ancient civilizations, and the Babylonians put forward 30 constellations around 1000 BC. The Tigris River and the Euphrates River flow into the Persian Gulf from northwest to southeast, so it is also called the "two river basin" area. After the culture of the two river basins spread to ancient Greece, it promoted the cultural development of ancient Greece. Ancient Greek astronomers supplemented and developed the Babylonian constellation and compiled the ancient Greek constellation table. In the 2nd century A.D., Ptolemy, an ancient Greek astronomer, synthesized the astronomical achievements at that time and sorted out 48 constellations. After the Middle Ages, European capitalism rose and needed to expand outward, and the navigation industry was greatly developed. Ships sailing at sea need navigation at any time, and stars are the best street lamps. Among the stars, this constellation has a special shape and is the easiest to observe. Therefore, constellations have aroused widespread concern. 16 when Magellan actually sailed around the world, he not only used constellations to navigate and orient, but also studied constellations. 1922, the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union decided to divide the sky into 88 constellations, and their names basically followed the historical names. 1928, the international astronomical union officially announced the names of 88 constellations. These 88 constellations are divided into three celestial regions, 29 in the northern hemisphere and 47 in the southern hemisphere, near the ecliptic 12. And the constellation we usually say is the 12 constellation on the ecliptic. Each of them has some myths and legends about himself.