The origin of the Chinese zodiac, what is the origin of the Chinese zodiac?

The origin of the zodiac is related to animal worship. According to the Qin Jane unearthed in 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 in the pre-Qin period. The earliest hand-me-down document that records the same 12 zodiac signs as in modern times is Wang Chong's "On Balance" in the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Legend has it that Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor is the ancestor of all ethnic groups in the Central Plains of China. After the Yellow Emperor ruled the Central Plains, there were many things, in order to facilitate management, he ordered the historian Cangjie to create characters, and ordered the witch officials in charge of astronomy and geography to formulate the Ganzhi chronology, that is, the heavenly stem and the earthly branch are coordinated, and the cycle of sixty years is called "a Jiazi". The chronology of the sexagenary branch is more complicated and not easy to be popular among the people, so someone suggested that it be named after the twelve animals, which was agreed by the Yellow Emperor and ordered Cangjie to do this.

Cangjie ordered all animals to be candidates in front of the imperial palace on the first day of the first lunar month.

The ox knew that his legs were slow, so he set off early on the night of the thirtieth night of the Chinese New Year's Eve. As a result, the ox was the first to arrive, followed by the tiger, followed by the rabbit, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the sheep, the monkey, the chicken, the dog, the pig, and the cat was the twelfth. The rat came late, far after the twelfth, and no longer had any hope of being selected, so he sneaked into the warehouse of the Yellow Emperor and stole the big red candle in the warehouse.

And the big red candle is a gift from the Yellow Emperor's opponent, the middle is empty, filled with gunpowder, as long as the candle is lit, it will be **. The next day, when the Yellow Emperor held a naming ceremony for the zodiac to light the candles, the guards found gunpowder in the candles from the place where the rats had bitten them. The rat inadvertently saved the life of the Yellow Emperor, and the Yellow Emperor read that the rat had merit, selected it into the zodiac, and ranked first.

The rest of the animals moved back in turn, and the cats were eliminated. So to this day, the cat still hates mice and is its sworn enemy.

Another way of saying: Xuanyuan Yellow Emperor wanted to choose twelve animals as palace guards, and the cat asked the mouse to help it sign up, but the mouse forgot it, and the cat was not selected, so he became an enemy with the mouse and bit it when he saw it;

It is also said that the selection and arrangement of the zodiac signs are determined according to the rules of the animal's daily activity time.

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Legend has it that the origin of the 12 zodiac signs is in ancient China, when an emperor wanted to hold a game on a river, and he invited 12 animals to participate in the competition. These animals are: rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs, and pigs.

In the end, the rat won the river at a very fast speed and became the first place, so the rat became the first of the twelve zodiac signs.

In the thousands of years of history of our country, the sexagenary chronology has been used, and there is a cycle every 60 years. Among them, there are 12 kinds of earth branches, and people use 12 kinds of animals to represent the 12 years in the earth branches, so that each person's birth year will always correspond to a certain animal, and the "12 zodiac signs" used for the year were finally formed in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.

Sheng" refers to the year of birth, "Xiao" has a similar meaning, "zodiac" people believe that the animals corresponding to the year of birth have some similarities, every 12 years of the cycle, the various fields of Chinese culture blend with each other, accumulated into a profound national tradition, and are still widely circulated among the people, in one line, endlessly.

As an ancient folk cultural phenomenon, scholars have different opinions about the origin of the 12 zodiac signs. At present, there are various speculations and theories about the origin of the zodiac.

01 The earthly branch said.

To talk about the origin of the zodiac, it is necessary to associate the zodiac with the heavenly and earthly branches. According to historical records and research, the zodiac appeared after the establishment of the "Ganzhi Chronology", and the twelve animals are one-to-one correspondences to the twelve earthly branches. Whoever is born in that year has the animal to which the earth's branch belongs, and thus the twelve animals are used to record the year, the day, and the physiognomy of each person.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty Xu Shen's "Shuowen Jie Zi", it is said that the word "has" is the pictogram of a snake, and there are also "hai" and "pig". Nearby people also study the oracle bone inscription, the golden inscription in the earth branch word and the zodiac word have similarities, people guess, the twelve branches are the pictographs of the twelve zodiac animals, because the twelve branches of the ugly Yin Mao are easy to remember, the folk will use the twelve kinds of animals instead, with animals to borrow the algebraic ordinal symbol, and the earth branch matches, become the symbol system of the year.

At the beginning, the origin of the zodiac was mainly for calculating the year number, using twelve animals to calculate the year name of each year, so that people could know more about the changes in time and know how to calculate their own age.

And this custom of calculating the year name, in the historical record, first appeared in the Eastern Han Dynasty, because the ancient people preferred to use Tengtu to mark, so they chose to choose among the many animals, and chose 12 animals as the 12 zodiac signs to customize the year name.

With the development of history, it has gradually integrated into the folk belief concept of mutual reciprocity, which is manifested in marriage, life, New Year's fortune, etc., each zodiac has a rich legend, and thus forms a concept interpretation system, which has become an image philosophy in folk culture, such as the zodiac and natal year on marriage. 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 in the past dynasties. 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.

Ancient documents have not solved the cultural origin of the 12 zodiac signs, and ancient and modern scholars have different opinions on this. They put forward the theory of the stars, the theory of the stars, the theory of the totem, and the theory of the outside.

A brief introduction to the year star

Jupiter orbits one day of the twelve-year, and the annual branch order can be determined from Jupiter's position. "Yuhan Shanfang Ji Yishu" believes that every 12 years, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, drought. The rise and fall of plants and the living environment of animals exist in cycles, herbivores and carnivores have very different living conditions in different years, people born in different years can imitate the animals that grow vigorously in the year, thus forming zodiac animals, so as to presume that the rise and fall of animals are related to the year of Jupiter, and the zodiac and the twelve stars are unified.