The origin of the zodiac

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.