What does the zodiac come from? Myths and legends, totem worship, nature worship, ancient agricultural civilization? Seek an explanation

The origin of the zodiac is very early. At the end of the Warring States period, twelve beasts with branches have appeared in Qin bamboo slips of Sleeping Tiger Land and Fangmatan. Their names and branching arrangements are generally similar to those of the later zodiac signs, and their usage methods [1] and divination logic are also similar to those of the later zodiac signs. Therefore, it can be inferred that there are branches in Qin bamboo slips of Shuihudi and Fangmatan. [2] The year of the zodiac began in the Eastern Han Dynasty. A letter written by Yuwen Hu's mother is recorded in the Biography of Northern History Yuwen Hu, which says: "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. According to our ancient records, in the ancient Central Plains, the "chronology of branches and stems" was originally used, that is, 10 heavenly stems symbols (A, B, C, D, E (wù), Ji, Geng (gēng), Xin, Ren (rén) and Gui (guǐ). At the same time, there are also twelve kinds of animals that simply determine the year. By the Sui Dynasty, the calendar of the Central Plains had spread to the nomadic people in the northwest of China, and they only absorbed twelve kinds of animal chronologies. Therefore, it is recorded in the Book of the Tang Dynasty: "Tuoba Sinian is bounded by twelve things. 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. As the saying goes, "Twelve old things belong to Japan, the Year of the Rabbit and the Year of the Horse". As Zhao Yi pointed out in the Qing Dynasty's "Examination of Jade Cong", "The ugliness of ugly children, at the beginning of the custom of covering the north, doesn't matter whether it is ugly or not, but in the next year, it was spread in China, so it didn't waste its ears." This explanation about the origin of 12 zodiac has been recognized by many people. Rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes.

horse

sheep

In addition, the story about the origin of 12 is like this: Hong Xun's "Yang Gu Man Lu" 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.

It has four claws. 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 should choose 12 kinds of animals to be on duty in the sky on time. Through the competition, rats, cows, tigers and other 12 animals were selected. 12 Zodiac originated from the totem worship of some clans in primitive society, and was divided according to the strength of each tribe at a meeting; 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. Legend has it that the zodiac originated.