Sheep and horses eat grass at night. What does it mean that mice and tigers are alone?

Sheep and horses eat grass at night, and mice and tigers are alone. It means that there are footprints that mice have climbed on the dusty desktop. Cattle and sheep won't come back until evening and the sun goes down. The tiger is sitting in an empty deep valley eating.

From: Shen Jiong's Twelve Genus Poems.

Original text:

In the case of mice and dust, cattle and sheep came down at dusk.

Tigers roared in the empty valley, and rabbits opened their windows.

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

Ma Lanfang is far away and breeds sheep in spring.

The monkey chestnut shames the fragrant fruit, and the chicken anvil attracts the clear bosom.

The dog is outside, and the pig's window is leisurely.

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On the dusty desktop, there are footprints that mice have climbed over.

Cattle and sheep won't come back until evening and the sun goes down.

The tiger is sitting in an empty deep valley eating. The open window faces the Jade Rabbit in the Moon Palace.

The dragon rain turned the fields green. The snake stretched out and crawled slowly.

As soon as the horse came back from grazing, the sheep began to gnaw at the tender seedlings again.

Monkeys eat delicious fruits such as chestnuts, and chickens come, leaving footprints like glasses of sake.

The dog lay on his back to look after the house, and the pig's sunken eyes narrowed like a broken vessel, snoring and sleeping leisurely.

Extended data

This poem of the zodiac is obviously written in the order of animals assigned by the twelve branches, which shows that people at that time were already very familiar with the zodiac. This poem embeds the names of the animals of the 12 Zodiac in sequence in the first word, which highlights the natural characteristics of each animal and also plays the role of making the finishing touch.

Some people think that the zodiac first appeared in time. 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 pm to 1: 00 am the next day, it is the time for mice to move in the dead of night, and they are called "mice".

From/kloc-0 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 to seven in the morning, it's Shi Mao. At dawn, rabbits leave their nests and like to eat grass with morning dew, so they are called "hairy rabbits".

Seven to nine in the morning is the time of day. It's usually foggy at this time. It is said that Longxi is flying in the clouds, which is worth the rising sun, so it is called "Chen Long".

It's the fourth time from 9 am to 1 1. The fog cleared, the sun was shining, and the snake came out of the hole to feed and pretended to be 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. At noon, they run around screaming, so they are called "afternoon horses".

1: 00 to 3: 00 in the afternoon is inappropriate. Some places call it "sheep out of the slope", which means it is a good time to herd sheep, so it is called "Weiyang".

From 3 pm to 5 pm, it is the application time. When the sun goes down in the west, the monkey likes to crow, so it is called "Shen Monkey".

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

From 7 pm to 9 pm, it is a time of sadness. After a hard day's work, I bolted the door and got ready to have a rest. 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 pm to 1 1, it is Shihai. You can hear the sound of the pig arch 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.