Why are there sheep in the zodiac?

The 12 zodiac signs, also known as the zodiac, are 12 animals in China that match the 12 earthly branches with the year of birth of a person, including rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig.

The origin of the zodiac is related to animal worship. According to the Qin Jian unearthed from Yunmeng Sleeping Tiger Land in Hubei Province and Fangmatan in Tianshui in Gansu Province, it can be seen that there was a relatively complete zodiac system as early as the pre-Qin period. The earliest hand-me-down document that records the same zodiac signs as today is Wang Chong's "On Balance" in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

The zodiac is a visual representation of the twelve earthly branches, namely Zi (Rat), Chou (Ox), Yin (Tiger), Mao (Rabbit), Chen (Dragon), Si (Snake), Wu (Horse), Wei (Sheep), Shen (Monkey), You (Rooster), 戌 (Dog), Hai (Pig), with the development of history gradually integrated into the concept of folk beliefs, manifested in marriage, life, New Year, etc., each zodiac has a rich legend, and in order to form a concept interpretation system, become the image philosophy of folk culture, such as the marriage of the genus, Temple fairs, prayers, natal years, etc. In modern times, more people regard the zodiac as the mascot of the Spring Festival and become a symbol of entertainment and cultural activities.

As a long-standing symbol of folk culture, the zodiac has left a large number of poems, spring couplets, paintings, calligraphy and paintings and folk crafts depicting the image and symbolism of the zodiac throughout the ages. In addition to China, many countries around the world issue Chinese zodiac stamps during the Spring Festival as a way to express their wishes for the Chinese New Year. <>

The sheep in the zodiac represents the sheep.

You go to the ** first, hang up to the psychiatric department, there is a doctor there who will tell you.

1. In the ancient flood era, there was no grain in the world, and human beings lived on vegetables and wild grasses, making human beings yellow, hungry and thin.

2. One autumn, a divine sheep came to the mortal world from the heavenly palace and found that human beings had vegetables on their faces and looked depressed. When I asked why, I learned that humans didn't even know what food was. The god sheep was kind-hearted and immediately told the people that they would definitely bring them some grain next time.

The stingy Jade Emperor was unwilling to share the delicacy of food with mankind. After the divine sheep returned to the heavenly palace, while the guardian god was asleep in the middle of the night, he sneaked into the imperial field, picked the five grains, put them in his mouth, and slipped to the mortal world before dawn.

3. These actions alarmed the Jade Emperor. Immediately I thought of the goats of God bringing grain to the world. After finding out the situation, the Jade Emperor angered the divine sheep and ordered the heavenly palace to slaughter the sheep in the world, and asked people to eat the mutton.

4. In the second year, a strange thing happened, in the place where the divine sheep was executed, first grass grew, and then lambs grew, and the sheep have been passed down from generation to generation in the world, eating grass for a living, and selflessly contributing their meat and milk to mankind.

5. When human beings heard that the Jade Emperor wanted to choose twelve animals as human zodiac signs and give them as gods, people unanimously recommended sheep as this kind of zodiac.

In daily life, the zodiac signs are closely related to us, and each Chinese has their own specific animal zodiac genus, and every year we will name one of the animals in the twelve life sun travel Xiao, the twelve zodiac signs represent the emotional and spiritual outlook of the Chinese, and have become part of the Chinese life belief. So do you know why the zodiac sheep is called a sheep?

Why is the zodiac sheep called the sheep?

There are two main theories about this issue:

Myth 1: Ancient Chinese scholars explained the relationship between the earthly branch and the Xiao beast from the perspective of the twelve hours of day and night in the ancient Chakai Hall. Not time, the sun, also known as the sun falling, the sun is falling, the sun is westerly for the sun falling, that is, from 1 o'clock to 3 o'clock in the afternoon, some places call this time as "sheep out of the slope", which means a good time to herd sheep, at this time is the best time for sheep to eat grass and grow fat, so it is not associated with sheep, so it is called "not sheep".

Statement 2: According to the Chinese concept of yin and yang, the twelve animals are divided into two categories, yin and yang, and the yin and yang of animals are arranged according to the odd and even differences in the toes of animals. The number of toes in the front and back of the animal is generally the same, while the rat is the first four-legged, the last five-legged, and the odd and even are homogeneous, and the thing is rare and expensive, of course, it ranks first, followed by the cow, four toes (even); Tiger, five-toed (odd); rabbit, four-toed (even); Dragon, five-toed (odd); snake, toedless (homocouple); Horse, one-toed (odd); sheep, four-toed (even); Monkey, five-toed (odd); Chicken, four-toed (even) ; dog, five-toed (odd); Pig, four-toed (even).

The sheep is ranked eighth in order, and the corresponding earth branch is Wei, so the zodiac sheep is also called Wei Yang.