12 Zodiac ranking

The ranking of Zodiac animals is mouse, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog and pig.

The zodiac is an intuitive representation of the twelve earthly branches, namely, Zi (mouse), Ugly (ox), Yin (tiger), Mao (rabbit), Chen (dragon), Si (snake), Wu (horse), Wei (sheep), Shen (monkey), You (chicken) and Xu (chicken).

As a long-standing symbol of folk culture, the zodiac has left a lot of poems, Spring Festival couplets, paintings, calligraphy and paintings and folk arts and crafts that depict the image and symbolic meaning of the zodiac. Apart from China, many countries in the world issue stamps of the zodiac during the Spring Festival to express their wishes for the New Year in China.

The origin of the zodiac

1, star theory

In ancient times, people divided the stars near the ecliptic and equator into "twenty-eight stars", representing 28 kinds of animals respectively. The ancients divided Sunday into twelve parts, represented by twelve branches. They are associated with the zodiac, and the zodiac also has a corresponding relationship with the 28 stars.

2. The star of the year said

The ancients learned through observation that Jupiter runs once every twelve years, so the annual branch order can be determined from its position. In addition, the living conditions of herbivores and carnivores in different years are also very different. If people born in different years can imitate the animals that flourished in that year, they can form zodiac animals.

3. Totem theory

In primitive society, people first used the figure of an animal or natural phenomenon as their national protector, which was called totem. Totems of different clans are different. Liu Yaohan, an ethnologist, deduced the origin of the zodiac from the totem relics of the Yi people, which is what we call the zodiac.