Traveling around the world, which of the 12 zodiac animals is the hero?

As an ancient folk cultural phenomenon, scholars have different opinions about the origin of the zodiac. Some people think that the zodiac and earthly branches are homologous and can be traced back to prehistoric legend times. In Historical Records, the Yellow Emperor's statements of "building Jiazi for life" and "making every effort to cure Jiazi" are the embodiment of this statement, and scholars believe that Jiazi here refers to the zodiac. Zhao Yi, a scholar in the Qing Dynasty, said in "Examination of Jade Cong": "At the beginning of the custom of covering the north, there was no such thing as the twelfth birthday of ugly yin, but in the next year, it was spread in China, and its ears were not wasted." (See Zhao Yi's Textual Research on Jade Cong in Qing Dynasty). Some scholars even hold the view that the zodiac was introduced to China from Babylon, and Guo Moruo is the representative of this view. He said in "A Study on Oracle Bone Inscriptions" that "there are twelve statues in Babylon, Egypt and India, but they are not very old, nor did they come from more than 100 years after the Western Dynasties. The intention is that the western countries of the Han Dynasty were modeled after the Babylonian zodiac, and then changed to four

Zodiac (12)

Zhou disseminator also. It is believed that the Chinese Zodiac was made for the residents in the Middle East by imitating the Babylonian Zodiac, and was introduced to China when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty went to the Western Ocean. The above viewpoints are different, so I dare not judge right or wrong subjectively. However, it is proved by a large number of documents that the Chinese zodiac really originated in China, and it is the crystallization of animal worship, totem worship and early astronomy of China 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. It can be seen that the corresponding relationship between earthly branches and twelve kinds of animals has been established and spread around the Spring and Autumn Period.

In the early references to the 12 zodiac, it is slightly different from the current version. For example, the dragon no longer exists, and its position is replaced by a worm.

The bamboo slips 1975 unearthed from tomb1in Shuihudi, Yunmeng County, Hubei Province, further proved that the zodiac had existed before and after the Spring and Autumn Period. There is a chapter in the bamboo slips unearthed in Japan called "Thief".

Its content is the appearance characteristics of the divination thief, and it is recorded that "the mouth of the son, the mouse and the thief wants to be beard, ... the ugly, the ox and the thief have a big nose and a long neck, ... the shape of the yin, the tiger and the thief wants to be beard."

Have a black face. Hair, rabbits, thieves are big. Chen, [original leak] The thief is a man, green and red ... Third, the ant is also.

The thief is long and black. At noon, the deer is also a thief with a long neck and a small cut. ..... No, horse, thieves have ears. ",ring also, thief round face ..."

Chinese zodiac

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.