When did the zodiac begin?

The use of 12 zodiac dates began in China at least in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. A letter written by Yuwen Hu's mother was recorded in "Northern History Yuwen Hu", which said: "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.

However, what is the origin of the 12 zodiac? According to Chinese ancient books, in the Central Plains of ancient China, the "chronology of branches and branches" was originally used, that is, 10 heavenly stems symbols A, B, C, D, E, Kyrgyzstan, G, Xin, Ren, Guihe 12 earthly branches symbols Zi, Ugly, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, and Mao. In the northwest of China, a few nomadic people use animals to record the years. It is recorded in the Book of the Tang Dynasty: "Tuoba Sinian takes twelve things as the standard. 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. The so-called "twelve old things belong to the day, the year of the rabbit and the year of the horse." Later, in the communication between the Central Plains and ethnic minorities, the two ways of dating contacted each other, forming the present 12 zodiac. As Zhao Yi pointed out in the Qing Dynasty's Jade Cong Kao, "At the beginning of the custom of covering the north, there was no ugliness on the 12th, but when rats, cows, tigers and rabbits were separated in age, they were spread in China and their ears were not wasted." This explanation about the origin of 12 zodiac has been recognized by many people.

In addition, the story about the origin of 12 is as follows: Hong Xun's Miscellanies of Yanggu says that the odd-numbered earthly branches of 12 are also equipped with odd-numbered fingers or hooves of animals. If the child is in the first place, the matching mouse is 5 fingers, and if the ground branch is even, the name is even, such as cow, ugly and so on. Ye Shijie explained the origin of Cao Zhong 12 Zodiac as follows: the painter matched 12 with 12, and each Xiao had its own shortcomings, such as toothless mice, toothless cows, toothless tigers, toothless rabbits, toothless dragons, legless snakes, gutless horses, eyeless sheep and legless monkeys. "

There are other kinds of sayings. For example, the Yellow Emperor chose 12 animals to be on duty in the sky on time ... Through the competition, he selected 12 animals such as mice, cows and tigers. 12 the zodiac originated from the totem worship of some clans in primitive society; 12 Zodiac may have been introduced by Tianzhu; Or 28 stars are distributed in a week or so, and the value is 12 hours. Each star is named after an animal. Choose a common animal on duty every hour as an agent for a certain year, and so on.

Although people can't determine the exact origin of the 12 zodiac, it has been used to this day because of its popularity, convenience and interest, and has become a valuable legacy with practical value left by the ancients.

When did the zodiac begin to exist? The authoritative Ci Hai adopts the view of Zhao Yi, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, that the zodiac originated in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and there was no such view before.

But it has been inferred in advance.

Now I think the earliest book should be The Book of Songs? Xiaoya? The auspicious day of the ecliptic, "auspicious day of the ecliptic, Geng Wu, not as good as my horse", is obviously having lunch with an animal horse in the field, exactly the same as the current zodiac.

What is the zodiac?

According to a person's birth, it is assigned to a fixed animal image, which is called the zodiac. It should be noted that it is not an accurate statement to define a fixed animal image according to the year of birth, because besides the Han nationality, other nationalities and even foreign countries also have zodiac signs, and some zodiac signs are not necessarily arranged according to the year. For example, there are eight zodiac signs in Myanmar, which are sorted from Monday to Sunday. People born on different days belong to tiger, lion, toothless elephant and toothless elephant, mouse, guinea pig, dragon and Miao respectively. This article only talks about the zodiac signs in China, so unless otherwise specified, the concepts of the zodiac signs in the following articles are all China zodiac signs.

The zodiac signs of China people are closely related to the astronomical calendar. China's calendar matured in the Xia Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago, so the lunar calendar is also called the Xia calendar. The determination of the zodiac signs in China should be in the same period as the determination of the calendar in China. Each constellation is associated with a terrestrial branch. In this way, a certain year of earthly branch, no matter which heavenly stem it is related to, is called a certain year of the zodiac. For example, the years of Jiazi, Youzi, Bingzi and Queena Ding are called "Year of the Rat". At present, the earliest record of matching animals with chronology should be The Book of Songs? Xiaoya? The auspicious day of the ecliptic, "auspicious day of the ecliptic, Geng Wu, not as good as my horse", is obviously having lunch with an animal horse in the field, exactly the same as the current zodiac.

1, the origin of the zodiac

It is proved by a large number of documents 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. There are eight words in The Book of Songs Xiaoya Jiri: "Jiri Wugeng means poor horse", which means it is a good day to ride a prancing horse and go hunting. This is an example of a horse in the afternoon.

The zodiac recorded in Japanese books is roughly the same as the popular saying now. According to textual research, the tomb of Shuihudi 1 1 was in the 30th year of Qin Shihuang (2 17 BC), so the appearance 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 most systematic record of the zodiac found in China so far.

Today's popular zodiac is exactly the same as that recorded by Wang Chong in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Wang Chong's On the History of Wu Heng contains:

"Yin, wood, its bird, tiger. Soil, its birds and dogs are also. ..... At noon, the horse also arrived. Son, mouse, unitary, chicken. Hair, rabbits, too. ..... hey, tapir. No, so are sheep. Ugly, cattle also. ..... already, the snake also. Shen, Qitian also. "

In the above text, there are eleven kinds of animals in the zodiac, but the dragon is gone. The book Poison says:

"Chen is a dragon, a snake. Chen and Ji are in the southeast. "

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

Some scholars believe that the zodiac originated from animal worship in primitive times, and Mr. Zhang Binglun of China University of Science and Technology holds this view. He believes that under the condition 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 life (such as horses, sheep, cows, chickens, dogs, etc.). ), the fear of animals that endanger his own safety (such as tigers and snakes), and the reverence for some animal organ functions that exceed human beings (such as dogs' sense of smell, etc.). ), which leads to the worship of animals. The zodiac is an animal calendar that people use to record the years and 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 protagonist in Nuo instrument is Fang and twelve beasts. Twelve kinds of animals are selected in Exorcism Dance, which is a manifestation of primitive people's reverence for animals. The twelve beasts (or the Twelve Gods) selected at the ceremony are to take care of the twelve months of the year, to drive away plagues and ghosts from all directions and to take care of the twelve directions for the safety of each month. Of course, the care of the twelve directions involves twelve branches, so it is linked with the zodiac, and the zodiac has been well used in the exorcism ceremony. It can be seen that the twelve animals and the zodiac are in the same strain, and their common source is primitive animal worship.

When we talk about the origin of the zodiac, we must associate it with heavenly stems and earthly branches. The oldest existing branch table in China unearthed from the Yin Ruins in Anyang in modern times shows that the date of branches in the Yin and Shang Dynasties has been mastered. Later, with the passage of time, the functions of the branches gradually diversified. As a label as a time unit, on the one hand, it is extended and used in chronology; On the one hand, it reduces the time (twelve hours a day). According to historical records and textual research, the zodiac appeared after the establishment of the "branch chronology" Twelve kinds of animals correspond to the twelve earthly branches one by one, and animals are the signs of earthly branches. People born in the same year all have their own animals, so twelve kinds of animals are used to date the year and calculate each person's zodiac. It can be seen that the zodiac and the twelve earthly branches are inseparable. For a long time, scholars have found that the ancient Chinese characters of the zodiac contain the information of the zodiac. They compared the ancient Chinese characters of the Chinese zodiac with those of the Chinese zodiac, and found that the ancient Chinese characters of the Chinese zodiac were related to twelve kinds of animals. Careful observation shows that there are some similarities and some differences. In Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the word "Ji" was described as a pictographic character of a snake, as well as "Hai" and "tapir". People nearby have also verified that there are similarities between the characters of the earthly branches in Oracle Bone Inscriptions and the inscriptions on bronze inscriptions and the characters of the zodiac, which makes people wonder whether the zodiac is the pictographic characters of the animals of the zodiac. Because the ugly shade and ugly hair of the twelve earthly branches are easy to remember, people use twelve kinds of animals instead, and animals instead of 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 still judge that the zodiac can't be pictographs of the zodiac, because as mentioned earlier, the zodiac was skillfully used in the Yin and Shang Dynasties, while the zodiac was only produced in the Spring and Autumn Period and came from different sources. If the earthly branches are related to the zodiac when creating characters, wouldn't the zodiac be produced at the same time as the earthly branches?

To sum up, the author thinks that the zodiac appeared later than the twelve earthly branches, but it is closely related to the twelve earthly branches. The zodiac is an appendage of the twelve earthly branches. Choosing twelve animals as symbols instead of the twelve earthly branches stems from the animal worship psychology of the ancients.

2. Selection and arrangement of the zodiac

The choice of the zodiac is not complicated, but it is close to the daily life and social life of the Han people, which can be guessed. Zodiac animals can be roughly divided into three categories: one is the "six animals" domesticated by human beings, namely cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, dogs and chickens. Animals domesticated by human beings for economic or other purposes account for half of the Zodiac animals. "Six Livestock" is an important concept in China agricultural culture with a long history. In the traditional concept of China people, "Six Livestock Flourishing" represents the prosperity, auspiciousness and beauty of the family. During the Spring Festival, people usually talk about "the prosperity of six animals", 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 participate in human life with awe, such as tigers and snakes. There are also rodents that people hate and taboo, but they rely on human beings to survive; 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" with many animal features, and a "spiritual thing" in people's imagination. Dragon represents wealth and good luck, and it is the most symbolic auspicious animal, so the position of dragon in the zodiac is indispensable.

As can be seen from the above, the choice of zodiac animals is not arbitrary, but has certain meanings. People choose animals from different angles, which has certain significance.

The first is the arrangement of the zodiac in folklore stories. Han folktale says: In those days, Huangdi in Xuanyuan wanted to choose twelve kinds of 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, it 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 cows, were rushed to the backs of cows, and pigs also booed, so the mice came first and the pork chops came last. The tiger and the dragon refused to accept it, and were named king of the mountain and king of the sea, ranking behind the mouse and the cow. The rabbit refused to accept it again, raced with the dragon and finally reached the dragon. The dog was unfair and bit the rabbit in a rage, so he was punished from the bottom. Snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys and chickens have also gone 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 explanation of the choice of the zodiac.

Secondly, Chinese ancient scholars explained the relationship between earthly branches and Xiao beasts from the perspective of twelve o'clock in ancient times. There is chaos in the darkness. Rats come out in the middle of the night and bite the chaotic state between heaven and earth out of the gap. "Rats bite the sky", so they belong to rats. When the sky opens, the land will be reclaimed. "This land will be saved from ugliness." Cows have to plow fields, so ugliness belongs to cows. Yin Shi is the time when a person is born. If he lives, he must die. Nothing can kill people more than a tiger. Yin has awe, so Yin belongs to a tiger. Shi Mao is the image of sunrise. The sun should be separated from divination, which is like fire. The yin contained in it is the moon's fine jade rabbit, so Shi Mao is a rabbit. March is the rainy season. Chen Ziran belongs to the dragon. The divinatory symbols in April, at this moment, spring grass is flourishing, which is a good day for snakes, like a duck to water. Besides, it's already morning, when the snake is returning to the hole, so it's already a snake. At noon and afternoon, the sun's spirit reaches its peak, and the yin is budding. A horse, an animal, gallops and flies with its hooves, but it tramples on the ground from time to time. The sky is yang, the earth is yin, and the horse jumps between yin and yang, so it becomes the zodiac at noon. Sheep, grazing in the afternoon is the best time, and it is easy to gain weight. This time is not timely, so it is not a sheep. Not after dressing, but when the monkey is crying near the western hills, and the monkey likes to stretch his arms and jump at this time, so the monkey is worth dressing. When the moon appears, it belongs to water, so it should be divination. The hexagrams are the upper and lower yin, and the middle yang represents the sun and the essence of the sun. That's why you are a chicken. When night falls, it's time. Dogs are vigil animals, and when they are with them, they become dogs. Then when the sea comes, heaven and earth are immersed in a state of chaos, just like a fruit wrapped in stones, and everything in the world is covered at night. Pigs are chaotic creatures that only know how to eat, so pigs have become the zodiac of Hai. Zhu, 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 toes. Animals generally have the same number of toes in front, back, left and right. Only mice have four feet in front and five feet in the back, even and odd. Things are rare, of course, they rank first, followed by cattle and four toes (even number); Tiger, five toes (odd number); Rabbit, four toes (even number); Dragon, five toes (odd number); Snakes, no toes (occasionally); Horse, one toe (odd number); Sheep, four toes (even number); Monkey, five toes (odd number); Chicken, four toes (even number); Dog, five toes (odd number); Pig, four toes (even number). This view was held by Hong Xun, a scholar in the Song Dynasty, and Lang Ying, an Amin scholar, classified it on this basis, and put forward "below the earthly branch" in his manuscript of the Seventh Revision of the Zodiac, so the number of toes should be treated differently. The mouse has four claws in front, even number is yin, hind foot is five claws, and odd number is yang. The first half of the child is the yin of last night, and the second half is the yang of today, just using mice to symbolize the child. The four claws of cattle, sheep, pig's trotters and chickens, plus the four claws of rabbits lacking lips and the tongue of snakes, should all be even, belonging to Yin, accounting for six. Tigers have five claws, monkeys and dogs have five claws, and horseshoes are round and undivided. All six are odd numbers, belonging to Yang, and together with the mice belonging to Yang, they account for the other six branches. Lang Ying's classification is the flood borrowing classification, and the two are similar.

3. China people believe in the Zodiac.

Zodiac was originally a set of symbols used in chronology, which was a part of ancient astronomical calendar, and later became a widely recognized zodiac calendar. China's ancient philosophy is "harmony between man and nature" and "Yin and Yang and five elements are the foundation of the universe". They think that the sun and the moon are the source of yin and yang, and the five elements of Jin Mu's fire, water and earth are the foundation of all things, and they are combined into seven obsidians [zw()]. The sun, the moon and the stars are called obsidian, and the sun, the moon and the golden wood water. It dominates everything, and the zodiac is located in the sky, which is unified with the twelfth day of the year and the seven wonders. Therefore, the zodiac is influenced by the concept of yin and yang and the five elements and becomes a part of folk religious beliefs.

Since the concept of the zodiac appeared in the folk, with the prevalence of fortune telling, it has been circulating among the people. Folk superstition holds that every element in the five elements is mutually restrictive and will have a great influence on people's life. People can use different five elements to coordinate, so that their life and work can be satisfactory. Folks classify the animals of the zodiac as yin and yang, corresponding to the five elements, thus producing a set of fortune-telling techniques that determine the fate of the zodiac. At the same time, people also believe that the zodiac has a certain relationship with people's personality. Even people with the same zodiac sign have different personalities and fates because of their different birth times. ? A very important part of the belief in the zodiac is China people's concept of the zodiac. The birth year of the Han nationality is based on the zodiac, which is closely related to the zodiac. When a person is born in the lunar calendar, then every year of this zodiac will be the year of his birth. Because of the cycle of the zodiac, every 12 years, people will meet their own birth years and introduce them in turn. The birth years of life are 12 years old, 24 years old, 36 years old, 48 years old and 60 years old respectively.

According to Taoist teachings, the cultivation of truth and refinement must be dedicated to Yuan in the core monument of life, and only by removing distractions and selfishness can we live forever. It has become a custom to worship the birthday of the core monument of life. Every year on the seventh and eighth day of the first month, Beijingers will go to the Chenyuan Temple in Baiyunguan to "worship the stars" and pray for a year of peace, which means that even in bad years, they can be protected by the god of life's core monuments through prayer. The above 60 life-core tablet gods enshrined in the temple are all clay sculptures with heavy colors, all of which are statues, absorbing the animal images of their respective zodiac signs. Some of the names of these 60 statues are historical figures, and their images bear obvious signs of the zodiac, such as Jia Zi's old age, golden age, distinguished generals, rat appearance, holding peaches and so on.

4. Zodiac of all ethnic groups

In China, a multi-ethnic country, the zodiac is not a patent of the Han nationality, and many ethnic minorities use the zodiac calendar. First of all, let's take a look at the comparison table of zodiac signs of various ethnic groups.

Cross-reference table of Chinese zodiac of all ethnic groups

Yi nationality in western Guangxi

Zodiac: dragon, phoenix, horse, ant, human, chicken, dog, pig, sparrow, cow, tiger and snake.

Ailaoshan Yi nationality

Twelve kinds of animals: tiger, rabbit, pangolin, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig, mouse and cow.

Yi people in Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou

Twelve kinds of animals: rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs.

Hainan Li nationality

Twelve kinds of animals: chickens, dogs, pigs, rats, cows, insects, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep and monkeys.

Yunnan Dai nationality

Twelve kinds of animals: rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, snakes, snakes, horses, goats, monkeys, chickens, dogs and elephants.

Guangxi Zhuang nationality

Twelve kinds of animals: rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs.

the Mongol nationality

Zodiac: tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig, mouse and cow.

Xinjiang Uygur nationality

Twelve kinds of animals: rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, fish, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs.

Kyrgyz

Twelve kinds of animals: rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, fish, snakes, horses, sheep, foxes, chickens, dogs and pigs.

Pick me, thank you! ! ! ! ! !