The origin of the zodiac

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.

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.

The zodiac is also called the zodiac. In China's calendar, there are twelve kinds of animals on duty in turn, so in our China year, rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs are used in the calendar.

The zodiac began in the sixth century BC, and was originally applied to a set of earthly numbers, and later became the year number of the year. However, in the Zodiac, why does the mouse that everyone shouts and beats take the lead? There is a folklore here: the Jade Emperor called all the animals of the Zodiac to hold a ranking meeting, and the eight immortals, such as pigs, rats, cows, horses and sheep, crossed the ocean and showed their magical powers. Everyone hurried to the meeting together. Niu Ge is simple and honest, and the result of leaving early takes the lead. Originally, the champion belonged to him, but at the critical moment, the clever mouse quietly jumped on the cow's back and stood on the cow's head. As a result, Niu Ge had to give way to Brother Mouse, ranking second. Of course, this is just a legend. In recent years, another more reasonable and credible statement has become popular. As we all know, animals have odd and even toes. Whether biped or quadruped, the number of toes is consistent, or the left and right are consistent, but rats are the exception. It has four toes on its front foot and five toes on its back foot. Therefore, when arranging the zodiac, they are arranged according to odd and even toes. Because mouse feet are odd and even, they cannot be arranged. Next, cows with four toes are even, five-toed tiger feet, odd, four-toed free feet, even, five-toed dragon feet, odd, and snakes. Because there are no toes, they are actually even, one-toed horse feet, odd, four-toed sheep feet, even, five-toed monkey feet, odd, four-toed chicken feet, even and dog feet. This idea of dividing by the odd-even number of toes finally got justice for Brother Mouse, washed away the injustice of "occupying a seat" for many years, and made the mouse hold its head high and show its elegant demeanor again in the new year.

Another chapter of this story tells why cats and mice become enemies. At that time, cats and mice were good friends. Before going to the mass meeting, they slept together and agreed that whoever woke up first would wake up. I'm afraid that the mouse will get up early the next day and go to the meeting quietly, ignoring the cat. By the time the cat woke up and rushed to Congress, the Buddha had allocated the number for twelve years. Since then, the cat and the mouse have formed a deep hatred.

Of course, legend belongs to legend, and the view of folklore scholar Guo Licheng is proved by historical books. People call heavenly stems and earthly branches an animal representing his twelfth birthday to commemorate his famous age.