signs of the zodiac

Son (mouse) ugly (cow) yin (tiger) Mao (rabbit) Chen (dragon) Si (snake) Wu (horse) Wei (sheep) Shen (monkey) You (chicken) Xu (dog) Hai (pig)

It is difficult to study the origin of the zodiac. For a long time, many people regard Lun Heng as the earliest document that records the zodiac. Lun Heng is the representative work of Wang Chong, a materialist thinker in the Eastern Han Dynasty. "On the Balance of Things" contains: "Yin, wood, birds and tigers. Soil, its birds and dogs are also. ..... At noon, the horse also arrived. Son, mouse knife. Unitary, chicken also. Hair, rabbits, too. ..... hey, tapir. No, so are sheep. Ugly, cattle are also. ..... Third, snakes are also. Shen, Qitian also. " There are only eleven zodiac signs in the above quotation, but the dragon is missing. The book "Poisonous Words" also said: "Chen Weilong, Si is a snake, and Chen and Si are in the southeast. In this way, the zodiac is complete, and the subordinate relationship between the twelve earthly branches and the zodiac is also so complete, just like today.

Why do the zodiac need twelve?

"Zhou Li Chun Guan von Shi Xiang" contains: "Ten palms are two years old, ten palms are February, ten palms are two days old, ten palms are two days old, ten palms are two days old, and ten palms are twenty-eight stars. Their narrative is distinguished to meet the heaven." The division of time is progressive, with twelve years, twelve months a year and twelve o'clock a day. "Mandarin Yu Jin Si" contains: "The Yellow Emperor has twenty-five sons, and fourteen sons have surnames, which are twelve surnames." Even the sons of heaven's wives and concubines have the saying of "twelve women", "The Book of the Later Han Dynasty Xun Shuang Biography": "Therefore, the sons of heaven marry twelve women, and the number of days is also; There is an equal difference below the princes, and things have fallen. "

In recent years, the creation epic Dark Biography of the Han nationality has been discovered in Shennongjia area. There is a story about the origin of Ganzhi: "At the beginning of the world, Huang Xuan rode chaos beast and met Nuwa. There are two meat buns beside Nu Wa. There are ten men in the big one and twelve women in the small one. Huang Xuan said: "This is a heavenly revolution to support God to govern Gankun." So, they were named respectively, and the husband and wife were matched, which became yin and yang. Men are collectively called heavenly stems and women are earthly branches. "This creation myth story tells the story of Ganzhi, the mysterious god, the god of Nuwa, and the story of Ganzhi Yin and Yang Kun, dating back to the" life experience "of Ganzhi a long time ago.

In ancient times, the publication of heaven and earth was always based on heaven and earth. Ten heavenly stems are also called ten mothers, and the corresponding twelve branches are called twelve sons. Cai Yong's "Moon Order" in Han Dynasty: "The love of the five elements is great, occupying the program of fighting, so A and B became famous at the beginning, which is called dry; Making a child ugly in the name of the moon is a branch. Branches match branches to make sixty years old. " Da Rao was a minister in the era of the Yellow Emperor, and the match here is sixty years, that is, sixty jiazi, taking the least common multiple of ten days' work and twelve earthly branches. The trunk and branches are matched in order, from Jiazi to Ugly ... until Guihai is the 60th pair, which happens to be the last pair of trunk and branches, and then defecation starts from Jiazi. This cycle is called Jiazi. Among them, each aerial stem appeared 6 times and each aerial branch appeared 5 times.

The birth of the zodiac has an astronomical background. In primitive times, our ancestors experienced a cycle of alternating cold and summer. Hong Hao's Biography at the End of Song Dynasty in Song Dynasty said: "Jurchen is very small, just after the new moon, and the person doesn't know the date. When asked, they will say, "How many times have I seen grass?" "It is also recorded in Meng Gong's Record of Monks and Tartars in the Song Dynasty:" When a grass is one year old, someone asks its age and says how many grasses it is. "In 2000, another sky observer found that the moon's profit and loss cycle can be used to measure the length of a year, and twelve full moons are one year old. This discovery is one of the most accurate achievements of the early calendar, and "Twelve" is regarded as "days" to convey God's will. Heavenly stems and earthly branches, the sun and the moon are opposite, and heaven and earth are opposite. This is the "Twelve".

A mouse and an ugly cow ... a dog and a pig. There are many animals in the world. Why did the ancients choose these twelve animals as their zodiac signs?

Liu Xian's Yang Guang Miscellaneous Notes in Qing Dynasty quoted Li Changqing's superficial remarks about Matsushita Pavilion: "Why is A Zi a mouse?" Yue: Born in the child, it will not open until it dies. Rats eat insects. Therefore, in night is still young, positive mice have to wait, so children belong to mice. The ground is ugly, and the cow opens the ground, so ugliness belongs to the cow. If born in yin, if born, kill. Murderer, tiger, Yin people, fear. If you are awesome, you are a tiger, then Yin is a tiger. Offender, sunrise. In vitro, it contains the essence of Taiyin Jade Rabbit, so it is a rabbit. The morning of divination in March is when the dragon rains, so the morning belongs to the dragon. The last person, divination in April, was lush and the snake was in its place. Also, when a snake is not on the road, it is a snake. At noon, the sun is born, and the sun is born. Horses are healthy, never leave the ground, and belong to the shade, so they belong to horses in the afternoon. Sheep are not sheep, because they grow by biting untimely grass. When applying, the ape crowed in the sunset, and his arms were stretched out. By analogy, chaos runs rampant, so the application belongs to monkeys. This person, when the moon comes out, is the body of the moon, and water is the essence of the sun golden rooster, so it belongs to the chicken. In the nucleus, pigs know nothing but food, so the sea is a pig. "

In other words, the selection and arrangement of the zodiac is determined according to the daily activity time of animals. At the latest from the Han Dynasty, China began to adopt the geochronology, with twelve hours a day, which is equivalent to three hours on both sides. It is midnight from eleven o'clock in the evening to one o'clock in the morning, and mice are the most active. From 0: 00 to 3: 00 in the morning/kloc-,it's ugly, and the cow is ruminating. It is Yin Shi from 3: 00 to 5: 00. At this time, tigers are foraging everywhere, which is the fiercest. 5: 00 to 7: 00 is the crime time. At this time, the sun has not yet risen and the moon is still hanging in the sky. At this time, Yutu is busy taking medicine. 7: 00 am to 9: 00 am is the morning, which is a good time for the dragon to rain. From 9: 00 to 1 1, the snake became active. From eleven o'clock in the morning to one o'clock in the afternoon, the sun is shining, and at noon, it is the time to be unconstrained. In the afternoon 1 until 3 o'clock, it is late. At this time, sheep will grow stronger if they eat grass. From 3 pm to 5 pm, it is the Olympic Games. At this time, the monkey became active. It's one yuan from five to seven. When night falls, chickens begin to return to their nests. From 7: 00 pm to 9: 00 pm, the dog began to watch the night. From 9 pm to 1 1, it is Shihai. At this time, all was silent and the pig was snoring.

There are various legends about the arrangement of the zodiac. Such stories, like jokes, or fables, have strong literary elements. However, the seating arrangement of the zodiac is by no means a one-off event, nor can it be completed in one generation. At the beginning, it is not necessary to nominate twelve kinds at a time, but there may be only four or five kinds, and there may be a surplus. Later, the survival of the fittest, quota positioning, has been passed down to this day.

Fairy tale about the origin of the zodiac: Long, long ago, one day, people said, "We will choose twelve animals as the human zodiac, one animal a year." How many kinds of animals are there in the world? How to choose? Tell you what, set a date. On this day, when animals come to sign up, they will choose the first twelve animals as the zodiac.

Cats and mice are neighbors and good friends. They all want to sign up. The cat said, "we have to get up early to register, but I like to sleep late." What should I do? " The mouse said, "Don't worry, don't worry. You can sleep deeply. I'll call you as soon as I wake up. Let's go together. " The cat was very happy and said, "You are really my good friend, thank you."

By the morning of registration, the mouse was awake, but it only thought about its own business and forgot its good friend's cat. I signed up myself.

As a result, I chose the mouse. Where is the cat? The cat got up too late because it went to bed late. When it arrived, twelve animals had been selected.

If the cat is not selected, it will be angry with the mouse, blaming the mouse for not calling it. Since then, cats will eat mice when they see them, and the mice have to run away desperately. It's still like this.

The order of the zodiac is: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog and pig. How to make the mouse rank first? Here's another story.

On the day of registration, the mouse got up early and the cow got up early. They met on the road. Cows take big strides, mice take small steps. The mouse was out of breath and barely kept up with the cow. The mouse thought, the road is still far, and I can't run fast. what can I do?

He used his head and came up with an idea. He said to the cow, "Niu Ge, let me sing you a song." The cow said, "OK, you sing-hey, why don't you sing?" The mouse said, "I am singing." Why didn't you hear me? " Oh, my voice was too low for you to hear. Tell you what, let me ride around your neck and sing, and you will hear me. "The cow said," good, good! "The mouse climbed up the cow's neck along the cow's leg, so the cow was comfortable carrying it.

It shook its head and really sang: Niu Ge, Niu Ge, cross the river, climb the hillside, drive, drive, hurry up!

Niu Yi was very happy to hear that. He spread his legs and ran as fast as he could. He ran to the registration place and saw that no one had come. He wept with joy: "I am the first, I am the first!" " Before the cow finished speaking, the mouse jumped down from the cow's neck, jumped to the ground and squeaked in front of the cow.

As a result, the mouse won the first place and the cow won the second place. So in the zodiac, the little mouse ranks first.

Ancient Records of the Zodiac

Since Shun Di's time, China has started to use the "chronology of trunk and branch" which combines ten phenomena of heavenly stem and twelve phenomena of earthly branch. The method of zoological chronology originated from nomadic people in the west and north of ancient China. The Book of the Tang Dynasty records: "The Year of the Tiger is bounded by twelve events. If the year is cloudy, it is called the year of the tiger. " Zhao Yi, a famous textual research scholar in the Qing Dynasty, made a textual research in Yu Yu Congkao: "In the early days, the custom of benefiting the north was childless, ugly, yin and hairy, but when rats, cows, tigers and rabbits were divided into years, by the end of the Han Dynasty, it was said that (Khan) money lived in Wuyuan, mixed with Qi people, and spread in China, so it was not abandoned.

The zodiac was first seen in The Book of Songs, the world's first collection of poems. "The Book of Songs Xiaoya Chegong Chapter" says: "At noon on an auspicious day, my horse is insufficient." See also Book of Rites, Monthly Order and Winter Order: "Digging cows for air conditioning." When did the zodiac theory come into being? There is a historical cloud: it should be formed in the Han Dynasty at the latest. Its basis is the cloud in Wang Chong's On the Balance of Things in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "Yin, wood, its birds, tigers. Hey, Tuye, its birds and dogs are also. " Another cloud said, "Good afternoon, Ma Ye. Son, mouse also. Unitary, chicken also. ..... Shen, Qitian also. " * * * Put forward the names of the zodiac. In addition, in Zhao Ye's "Wu Yue Chun Qiu" in the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Wu Zaichen is a dragon." Just added "Chen Long" to complete the zodiac. It can be seen that the twelve zodiac signs were formed in the Eastern Han Dynasty. As for the use of the Chinese zodiac, it appeared at least in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The Biography of Northern History Yuwen Hu records a letter written to him by Yuwen Hu's mother, which reads: "Your brother was born in Wuchuan Town, the eldest is a mouse, the second is a rabbit, and you are a snake." It can be seen that the Chinese zodiac was widely used by the people at that time to record the date of birth.

However, in the mid-1970s, from 1975 to 12, thousands of bamboo slips were found in the cultural relics unearthed from Qin TombNo. 1 1 in Yunmeng, Hubei Province. Among them, The Sunrise Thief clearly recorded the characters who used the zodiac to predict the appearance characteristics of thieves. The appearance of this miracle proves that the Chinese zodiac has been used in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Because Qin Tomb No.11 was built in the thirty years of the first emperor, that is, 2 17 BC. Some people say that long before Qin Shihuang proclaimed himself emperor, our ancestors used the zodiac to record the year, and especially pointed out that "it began in summer and spread in Shang and Zhou Dynasties." However, how to quote it remains to be further explored by historians and cultural relics scholars.

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties in ancient China, not only the zodiac chronology was used, but also the twelve zodiac poems written by Shen Jiong appeared:

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.

This poem embeds the names of the animals of the 12 Zodiac in the first letter in order, highlighting the natural characteristics of each animal and playing the role of finishing touch.

The zodiac poems written by Hu Yan, a great scholar in the Ming Dynasty, are not only embedded in the names of the zodiac in turn, but also have a code name for each name, which is quite interesting. Poetry cloud:

Cows and girls have hardly seen each other for years.

The rabbit grows longer in the middle of the month.

Dragons with beads often don't sleep, and drawing snakes is very tiring.

Has the old horse ever had horns, and the sheep angered the princes?

Don't laugh at the Chu people's crown bathing monkeys, but wish the chickens were empty nests.

Wuyang slaughtered dogs in Langzhong, and Ping Jin let Gou Haidong's head go.

The first sentence "Zokor" is the water rat. The "cowgirl" in the second sentence is the legend of the folk cowherd and weaver girl. The five "jackals" are a kind of dragons, and there is a treasure under the chin, so they are called jackals. In the eight sentences, "lick the sheep" is a ram, and "touch the fan" is a corner touching the fence. "Wuyang" eleven sentences, refers to the emperor gaozu Liu Bang named Fan Kuai Wuyang Hou. He used to kill dogs for a living in Pei County, Jiangsu Province. The last sentence refers to the Prime Minister Gong of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, who once spared pigs in the East China Sea.