12 Chinese zodiac signs

Introduction:

1. The zodiac, also known as the animal sign, is twelve kinds of animals that are matched with the twelve earthly branches in China, including rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs.

2. The origin of the zodiac is related to animal worship. According to the Qin bamboo slips unearthed in Yunmeng Shuihudi, Hubei Province and Fangmatan, Tianshui, Gansu Province, a relatively complete zodiac system existed as early as the pre-Qin period. The earliest handed down document that records the same zodiac signs as today is Lun Heng written by Wang Chong in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

3. The zodiac is the visual 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. In modern times, more people regard the zodiac as the mascot of the Spring Festival and become a symbol of entertainment and cultural activities.

4. As a long-standing symbol of folk culture, the Zodiac has left a large number of poems, Spring Festival couplets, paintings, calligraphy and paintings and folk arts and crafts depicting the image and symbolic meaning of the Zodiac throughout the ages. 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.

Introduction to origin:

Constellation theory

The ancients divided the ecliptic and the stars near the equator into "? Twenty-eight stars. " Twenty-eight nights also represent an animal. In ancient times, the Sunday was divided into twelve parts, which were represented by twelve branches, and the twelve branches belonged to the zodiac, and there was a corresponding relationship between the zodiac and the twenty-eight stars. Wang Chang, a great scholar in Ming Dynasty, believed that 28 kinds of animals belonged to 28 stars, and they were "unified by seven obsidians", forming a pattern of "female earth bats, virtual sun rats, dangerous moon swallows and sons". Li Changqing in the Qing Dynasty thought in Song Xia Guan Yu Yan that twenty-eight lodging animals were "even if the first twelve genera were doubled", "Kang Jinlong, Chen Guan, and Jiao Mujiao were attached. Jiao, dragons are also ",reflecting the 12 zodiac animals as the basis to gather 28 kinds of starry animals." However, it is inevitable that there will be collateral meetings, and the records of animals in the 28 th star are later than those in the zodiac.

(A) the theory of longevity stars

Jupiter runs once a week for twelve years, and the annual branch order can be determined from Jupiter's position. 《? Yu Han Shan Fang Ji Shu thinks that every 12 years, "three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, and three years old", and it is also said that "the world is six years old and one year old, six years old and one year old, and a few years old and one hungry". There is a cycle between the rise and fall of plants and the living environment of animals. The living conditions of herbivores (rats, cows, horses and sheep) and carnivorous omnivores are very different in different years. If people born in different years can imitate the animals that grew vigorously in that year, they will form the Zodiac animals, so as to infer that the rise and fall of animals are related to Jupiter's year, and the zodiac and the zodiac are unified.

(B) Totem theory

The ancestors of primitive society often used the figures of some animals, inanimate objects or natural phenomena as the protector and symbol of their clan, that is, totems. 《? The mixed images of man and beast in Shan Hai Jing are totem gods in ancient times. The totem of Xia nationality is bear or fish, the totem of Shang nationality is dark bird, and the totem of Zhou nationality is dragon, bird, turtle, dog and tiger. Except for the dragon, the zodiac animals are illusory, and the rest are daily visible. They can be divided into two categories, namely "six animals" (horses, cattle, sheep, chickens, dogs, pigs) and "six animals" (rats, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes and monkeys). The former is domesticated by people for economic purposes, while the latter disturbs human life to a certain extent, and ancestors are afraid of it. Therefore, these animals are worshipped as the name marks of this clan. Liu Yaohan, a ethnologist, inferred the origin of the "Twelve Animals Calendar" from the totem relics of the Yi nationality. The twelve animals calendars of the Yi nationality in western Guangxi and Mao Daoyi listed people in the same column as the twelve animals in the calendar, which "is the legacy of the primitive ideology of not distinguishing between man and beast in reality". Up to now, the Yi people still use the twelve animals to mark the day and use it as the name of the market (such as Tiger Street and Rabbit Street). Records of the Five Emperors in Historical Records describes that the Yellow Emperor "taught the bear to brave the tiger in order to fight with Emperor Yan in the wild of Sakamoto", which is a totem of various tribes, and is by no means really capable of subduing the dragon and luring the tiger. The zodiac originated from totem worship in primitive society and became a convincing theory.

(C) the theory of foreign countries

In Yu Cong Kao written by Zhao Yi in the Qing Dynasty, "It doesn't matter whether the ugly son is ugly or ugly at the beginning of the northern custom, but when it is divided into different ages, it spreads in China by soaking and searching, so it doesn't waste its ears", which confirms the exotic nature of the zodiac. In Shi Gan Zhi, Guo Moruo thinks that the zodiac originated from the zodiac in Babylon, and the western countries made the zodiac in the Han Dynasty after imitating the zodiac. Ancient countries such as ancient Greece, ancient Egypt and Babylon also had similar zodiac signs, only the animals were different, so China's zodiac sign may not be the first one. However, the excavation of Qin bamboo slips overturns this theory, and all countries in the world have similar animal worship, which strengthens the rationality of totem theory.