Who knows the fairy tales about the zodiac?

At the beginning of chaos, just after heavenly stems and earthly branches timed it, the Jade Emperor ordered the gathering of all the animals in the world, and selected the twelve zodiac signs according to the twelve branches: Zi, Ugly, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu and Hai.

After the news came out, it alarmed two good friends, Flower Cat and Mouse. The flower cat said to the mouse, "I will be elected in heaven at five tomorrow." I have a problem with sleepiness. You should call me then! " The mouse repeatedly said, "Well said, well said! "

But the next morning, the dishonest mouse got up secretly and left without saying goodbye.

On this day, Yunnan, the beast in Lingxiao Hall, began to be selected. According to the difference between heaven and earth, the Jade Emperor selected twelve kinds of land and water animals, including dragon, tiger, ox, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig, rabbit, snake and mouse, as the zodiac.

The rooster had two beautiful horns at that time and was also included in the beast. The Jade Emperor was about to give up his seat for them when he saw the pig coming out. Although it is stupid, it likes to make trouble. It says, "Since the Jade Emperor has chosen the zodiac, I am willing to share your worries, be a fair person and arrange my brothers in turn." When the Jade Emperor heard the news, he was overjoyed, told the pig's head to be selfless, broke off contacts and left the dynasty.

As soon as the Jade Emperor left, the zodiac became a pot of porridge. At the beginning of the rat, everyone unanimously elected a gentle and generous ox as the first place. Even the mighty tiger and black dragon respected it and agreed. However, the mouse curled up in the corner appeared and protested. It says, "I have a large number. If you don't believe me, let's race on the earth and listen to the opinions of the people. " "So the workhorse and the mouse came to the street in the center of the city.

When the cow passed through the crowd, people didn't respond. At this time, the mouse "whistled" and climbed onto the cow's back to make a standing pile. People in the street shouted, "What a big mouse!" When people took out sticks to hit them, the mouse had already run away.

When the mouse came back to brag, all the animals were keen on cows. Only the black pig is secretly happy. It feels that only in this way, no matter how big or small, it is difficult to distinguish between good and bad, so it may be an impostor and it also benefits from it. So, with a stroke of a pen, it picked the mouse first and put the old cow behind.

The tiger king in the mountain and the dragon king in the sea annoyed the tiger and the black dragon. They cried loudly and made all the animals tremble with fear. All the animals are busy worshipping dragons and tigers, unanimously electing tigers as mountain kings and black dragons as sea kings to rule the world.

The monkey wrote a gold plaque with the word "Wang" for the tiger and hung it on the tiger's forehead. The rooster gave the black dragon two horns. Since then, the black dragon has been crowned. Tigers and black dragons have power in the world, so they are only behind rats and bulls.

Dragon-Rabbit Race At this moment, another troubled rabbit jumped out and said with a sneer, "Hey, hey! I am almost like a mouse in appearance, but I am bigger than a mouse in height. I am the guardian of the mountain king and should be in front of the sea king. "

Hearing this, the black dragon was furious and said, "Don't force it. If you are not convinced, we will have a game. " Black pig listened to his heart and said, "It's a deal. Let's race and let the hounds be your judges. "

Dogs and chickens have always been at odds. Seeing the chicken please the dragon, I wanted to take the opportunity to make fun of it. They chose a runway full of thorns and secretly said to the rabbit, "Your tail is too long, which will hinder the race. You should be reluctant to give up what you love. " It cut off a big tail for the rabbit, leaving only a small tail.

The game has started. The black dragon wandered in the clouds and soon flew to the front. However, when he ran into the bushes, his horns were entangled in vines and he couldn't get them off. The rabbit jumped eighteen times and ran to the finish line in one breath.

Black pig ignored the opposition of all animals and put the rabbit behind the tiger in front of the black dragon. The dog went to congratulate the rabbit. It said to the rabbit, "If you don't choose this track and cut your tail, you won't win today." "

The rabbit grabbed its thick tail and regretted it. After listening to this, the dog left three mouths and said, "Hum! I won by skill. Without you, I can't lose this beautiful tail! "

When the dog heard this, his eyes were red with anger. He said, "Since you are capable, let's take a walk!"

The hare said haughtily, "What's the difficulty? I'll run first. If you can catch up with me, I'll treat you to a bone. " . "He says, proudly ran away. The hounds ground their paws and chased them like arrows. After a while, the hare was driven out. It bit the rabbit's neck with its mouth and said, "Well, it's my turn to chew the bone. "

For this matter, the dog was also punished, ranking last. Since then, dogs and rabbits have formed an indissoluble enemy. Hunting dogs often help people catch rabbits up the mountain. In "Black Dragon", after the rooster lost his horn, he often secretly complained that it hung on himself. Hearing this, the rooster regretted and was sad. He came to the seaside and said to the dragon, "Brother Long, since these horns are of no benefit to you, please give them back to me."

The dragon said slyly, "Although these horns hurt me, they can decorate my musical instrument. It is not difficult for you to return the goods. You have to wait until the sun rises in the western hills and the moon sets in the East China Sea. "

Say that finish, then a dive to the bottom of the sea. The naive rooster believes it. He gets up before dawn every day, hoping that the sun will come out of the western hills. It also craned its neck from time to time and shouted to the sea, "Brother-brother! Angel-also-I ... "

Since then, the rooster has lost two horns and has been ranked behind. Only monkeys, snakes, horses, sheep and pigs are left in the acrobatic performances.

You Zhu incited with ulterior motives: "Brother Monkey is the king of juggling on land, and Brother Snake is a master of swimming in the water. Which of you will come first? " After some discussion, they decided to do another folk experiment on the earth and perform acrobatics. The green snake invited a horse, and the monkey invited a goat to help them make costume props.

At that time, snakes had twelve legs under their stomachs, and they were stupid and slow to walk. Ma is a doer who helps others. He quietly made a thin-skinned dragon coat for the snake. The dragon coat is made of horse hair, which is really beautiful.

Ma Shuang scraped a layer of grease from under his abdomen and coated it on the dragon clothes, which made it very greasy. The green snake wears a dragon suit to cover its stupid legs, and it is sensitive and beautiful to slide instead of walking. Since then, the snake has no feet and glides forward.

Goats usually hate monkeys, because they jump up and down all day and step on the grass, so they are not so enthusiastic about helping monkeys. The monkeys want to make up for the smooth fur, and the goat asks for help: "Brother Yang, please cut me some fluff so that I can mend my fur." "

The goat said unhappily, "It's going to be cold, you know I'm wearing this precious coat!" " "The monkey can't, so we have to still naked.

On the day of the competition, the green snake was dressed in dragon clothes, coiled around the branches like vines for a while, and slid on the water for a while. It held its head and neck high, landed only with its tail pointed, and performed various acrobatics, and people cheered again and again.

It was the monkey's turn to perform, only to see it climb the barbell and swing, which also won a lot of applause. When performing "hanging bamboo curtain upside down", the monkey rolled the tip of its tail on the branch and made all kinds of thrilling moves with its head down, when suddenly someone shouted: "Look! The monkey's ass is on fire! " People laughed loudly. Monkeys always defend their mistakes. He blushed and was flustered. He covered his ass with his tail. He only heard a "plop" and fell headfirst.

In this way, the green snake and the red horse came first, and the goats and monkeys came last. The pig's selfishness After arranging seats for all the animals, the pig wrote himself at the front and said to himself, "This time it's my turn to be promoted, rich and famous!" "

The pig came to Lingxiao Hall and met the Jade Emperor. The Jade Emperor took the seating chart, glanced at it, and without saying anything, ticked the name of the black pig in front and filled it in at the end.

Therefore, the Jade Emperor asked Taibai Venus to write down the twelve birthdays of rats, ugly cows, silver tigers, hairy rabbits, dragons, snakes, afternoon horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs, and made a decree to let the duty servants release them to the world. The hapless pork chop has been selected, and the jade emperor's anger has not disappeared. He also gave the pigs a few words: useless fool, reverse black and white; If you eat repeatedly, you will be killed for one year.

Black pig was demoted and suddenly became angry. It lies in the thatched nest all day, and it's too lazy to mind its own business any more. However, sometimes I still feel itchy, so I can't help it. I arch this arch with my mouth and stir up trouble.

Hatred between the cat and the mouse The mouse came home and danced happily with three and a half beards, waking the sleeping cat. The flower cat asked, "Is it not time yet?"

The mouse said, "It has passed, and we still won the first place!" " "The mouse brilliantly boasted about his cleverness to the flower cat.

The flower cat said with annoyance and regret, "I have told you over and over again. Why didn't you call me?" "

The mouse grabbed the white cat and said, "I told you to go? You may take my place! " Hearing this, the cat was so angry that its beard stood up, its almond eyes were round, its claws were open, and it jumped on the mouse and ate it.

Since then, cats and mice have become enemies for generations.

Extended data:

First, the origin of the zodiac

1, star theory

The ancients divided the stars near the ecliptic and equator into "28 stars". Twenty-eight nights also represent an animal In ancient times, Sunday was divided into twelve parts, represented by twelve branches. Twelve branches belonged to the zodiac, and the zodiac had a corresponding relationship with twenty-eight stars.

Wang Chang, a great scholar in the Ming Dynasty, believed that 28 species of animals belonged to 28 stars and were unified by 7 aliens, forming a pattern of "mother bat, imaginary sun mouse, dangerous moon swallow and child".

In Li Changqing's Song Xia Guan Yu Yan in the Qing Dynasty, he thought that the 28-lodging animals "even if the first 12 genera were doubled", "were attached to Kang Jinlong, Chen Guan and Jiao Mujiao. Jiao, Long Ye "reflects the gathering of 28 kinds of stellar animals based on the zodiac. "

But it is inevitable that there will be collateral encounters, and the records of the 28 constellations are later than the zodiac.

2. The star of the year said

Jupiter runs once a week for twelve years, and the annual branching order can be determined from Jupiter's position. Yu Han, Fang Shan and Ji Shu thought that every twelve years, "three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old and three years old".

There is a cycle between the rise and fall of plants and the living environment of animals. The living conditions of herbivores (rats, cows, horses and sheep) and carnivorous omnivores are very different in different years. If people born in different years can imitate the animals that flourished in that year, they will form zodiac animals, and it is inferred that the rise and fall of animals are related to the year of Jupiter, and the zodiac and the zodiac are unified.

3. Totem theory

The ancestors of primitive society often used some animals, inanimate objects or graphics of natural phenomena as protectors and symbols of their clans, that is, totems. The mixed image of man and beast in Shan Hai Jing is an ancient totem god.

The totem of Xia nationality is bear or fish, the totem of Shang nationality is blackbird, and the totem of Zhou nationality is dragon, bird, turtle, dog and tiger. Zodiac animals are imaginary except dragons, and the rest are daily visible.

It can be divided into two categories, namely "six animals" (horses, cows, sheep, chickens, dogs and pigs) and "six animals" (rats, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes and monkeys). The former was domesticated by people for economic purposes, while the latter disturbed human life to a certain extent, and ancestors were afraid of it. Therefore, these animals are worshipped as the name symbols of this clan.

Ethnologist Liu Yaohan inferred the origin of the "Zodiac Calendar" from the totem relics of the Yi people. The calendar of the 12 Zodiac of Yi people in western Guangxi and Mao put people and the 12 Zodiac in the same column, which is "the legacy of the original idea of not distinguishing between man and beast in reality". The Yi people still use the Chinese zodiac to mark the date and use it as the name of the market (such as Tiger Street and Rabbit Street).

Records of the Five Emperors in Historical Records describes that the Yellow Emperor "taught Xiong Yonghu in order to fight against Emperor Yan in Sakamoto", which is the totem of all tribes, and it is by no means a real way to lure tigers. Zodiac originated from totem worship in primitive society and became a convincing theory.

4. Foreign theories

"Ugly children are ugly, but it doesn't matter at the beginning of the northern customs. They spread to China by soaking and searching in different ages, so they don't waste their ears," written by Zhao Yi in the Qing Dynasty, which confirms the exotic nature of the zodiac.

In Shi Ganzhi, Guo Moruo believes that the zodiac originated from the Babylonian zodiac, and the western countries formulated the zodiac in the Han Dynasty after imitating the zodiac.

Ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, Babylon and other countries have similar zodiac signs, but the animals are different, so the zodiac may not have originated in China. However, the excavation of Qin bamboo slips overturns this theory, and all countries in the world have similar animal worship, which strengthens the rationality of totem theory.

Second, the zodiac couplets

Rat: the famous stories of A and B exist, and the filial piety of children and grandchildren has existed since ancient times;

Cattle: Zeng Tuo Li Er went out to Hangu Pass to help Tian Chan break;

Tiger: changxiao valley earthquake, thousands of trees generate wind and lightning;

Rabbit: the snow disappears and the lion is thin, and the full moon rabbit is fat;

Dragon: it can suck the wind and cloud to prosper the sea and benefit the people in the rain;

Snake: Paired tongues are never rhetoric. Although they have no limbs, they can be turned on and off by electricity.

Horse: Lead the neck with three hisses to express the ambition, and fly the hoof to Wan Li to March bravely;

Sheep: Pimo asked him to wear it, and he must guard against evil guests for good; Meat must be provided for me to eat, so that spring nights are rich and rare;

Monkey: gongs and drums are loud and lively; Wearing clothes is three points elegant and three points romantic;

Chicken: both meat and eggs are delicious, and chicken crow is always good news;

Dog: deliberately look after the house, never chop and change; Loyal to the Lord, never love the rich and hate the poor;

Pig: don't laugh for too long and don't make trouble; Don't be thick-skinned, boasting and flattery is always unintentional.

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia-Zodiac