There are various folk traditions about the order of the zodiac. For example, when Emperor Xuanyuan wanted to choose twelve animals to be his palace guards, the cat asked the mouse to sign up, but the mouse forgot. As a result, the cat didn't choose the zodiac and has been feuding with the mouse ever since. However, this is not the case.
The true order of the twelve zodiac signs is a very learned one.
In ancient times, the ancients interpreted the relationship between the earth's branches and the animals of the zodiac from the perspective of the twelve hours of day and night in ancient times. Then, inspired by the twelve hours, the order of the zodiac was invented.
Midnight: midnight, also known as midnight and midnight: the first of the twelve hours.
The period from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. the next day was the time when rats were active in the dead of night, hence the name "rat".
Ultimate hour: the rooster crows, also known as the pheasant: the second hour of the twelve-hour period.
It was hard to see between 1:00 and 3:00 am. Cows used to graze at night, and farmers often got up late at night to feed them, so they were called "ugly cows".
Indian stone: Pingdan, also known as dawn, morning sun, Sundan, etc. The stone is the turn of day and night. The stone is the intersection of day and night.
From 3 to 5 a.m., it belongs to the seal stone. At this time, the night crouching tiger is the most ferocious, the ancients also often heard the roar of the tiger at this time, so it is called "silver tiger".
Stone spear: sunrise, also known as the beginning of the sun, dawn, the rising sun. It refers to the time when the sun has just appeared and rises for the first time.
From 5 to 7 a.m. is the stone spear. Rabbits come out of their nests at dawn and like to eat grass with morning dew, so they are called "hairy rabbits".
Chenshi: meal time, also known as morning meal. In ancient times, the time to "eat" was breakfast time.
From 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. is Chanseok. Generally this time is prone to fog. It is said that the dragon likes to soar on the clouds, and it is worth the rising sun, so it is called "Chenlong".
Time: Yuzhong, also known as fish day. Near noon, it is called Yuzhong.
9am to 11am. When the fog clears and the sun shines brightly, snakes come out of their holes to feed, hence the name "four snakes".
Noon: The middle of the day, also known as sunrise, noon, etc.
Noon: The middle of the day.
11:00 to 1:00 p.m., also known as noon. In ancient times, when wild horses were not tamed by humans, they ran around and neighing in the middle of the day, so they were called "noon horses".
Time: Sundial, also known as sundial, sunset, and so on. The current position of the sun sinking in the west.
1:00 pm to 3:00 pm, is late. Some local authorities call this time "sheep out of the slope", meaning that it is a good time to let go of sheep, so it is called "do not let go of sheep".
Shen time: feeding time, also known as the day store, evening meal, etc.
3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., is the application time. The sun goes down in the west, and at this time the monkeys like to crow, so they are called "shen monkeys".
You time: sunrise, also known as sunset, sundown, twilight: is when the sun sets.
From 5 to 7 p.m., it is the time of the first dollar. When the sun goes down, the chickens are circling in front of their nests, so they are called "You Ji" (酉鸡).
Hour: Dusk, also known as sunset, sundown, sundowning, etc.. At this time the sun has set and the sky will be dark. The sky and the earth are dim and everything is hazy, so it is called dusk.
7 p.m. to 9 p.m. is the time of death. After a hard day's work, I bolt the door and rest. The dog stood guard at the bedroom door and barked at every movement, hence the name "beat the dog".
Shi Hai: People are fixed, also known as fixed fainting and so on. At this time the night is already very late, people have stopped their activities, rest and sleep. People are very quiet.
9 p.m. to 11 p.m. belongs to the stone sea. When the night is quiet, you can hear the sound of pigs arching in the trough, so it is called "Hai Zhu".
Also, according to the Chinese belief in yin and yang, the twelve animals are divided into yin and yang, and the yin and yang of the animals are arranged according to the odd and even toes of the animals.
The number of front, back, left and right toes of an animal is generally the same, while a mouse alone has four front feet and five back feet, both even and odd, and the rarity of things, of course, ranked first, followed by a cow with four toes; a tiger with five toes; a rabbit with four toes; a dragon, with five toes; a snake, with no toes; a horse, with one toe; a goat, with four toes; a monkey, with five toes; a chicken with four toes; a dog, with five toes; a pig, with four toes. Hong Xun, a scholar of the Song Dynasty, held this view, and the scholar Lang Ying made a classification on this basis. In his book "Twelve Zodiac Signs of the Seventh Class Draft", he suggested that "the earth is underground", so it is important to look at the number of toes rather than yin and yang. The front rat has four paws, an even number for yin, and the back foot has five paws, an odd number for yang. The first half of the time is last night's yin and the second half is today's yang, just using the mouse to symbolize the child. Cow, sheep, pig's hooves, chicken's four paws, plus the rabbit lacks lips four paws, snake's tongue, should be an even number, belonging to the yin, accounting for the six earthly branches. Tiger monkey dog five paws also have five paws, horseshoes round and not divided. Six are all odd numbers, belonging to the Yang, with the Yang rat together to account for the rest of the six earthly branches.
So why are there no cats and elephants in the zodiac?
Legend has it that the cat told the mouse to sign up and the mouse forgot. As a result, the cat didn't have a choice and has been feuding with the mouse ever since; then the elephant came to enroll and the mouse ran away. These are legends imposed by later generations. In fact, both cats and elephants are not native animals of China. Cats were introduced into the Han Dynasty, supposedly with Buddhism from India. Some say it was the Han Dynasty, while others say it came with the Tang Sanzang.
In any case, the Chinese zodiac was already established by then, so it's normal that cats and elephants weren't in the "immortal class".
The legend of the zodiac.
On how the twelve signs of the zodiac is arranged, there is an interesting story:
Chao Chaos, just at the time of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, the Jade Emperor ordered, called the world's beasts, according to the son, ugly, yin, d, m, e, c, f, w, w, shen, yu, huxu, h, hai twelve, and selected twelve Chinese zodiac signs.
The news spread, alarmed the flower cat and mouse two good friends. The cat said to the mouse, "I'm going to be elected in heaven tomorrow night. I have problems with drowsiness. You should call me then!" The mouse said, "Say, say!
But the next morning, the unfaithful mouse sneaks up and leaves without saying goodbye.
On this day, the Yunnan animals gathered in the Hall of Lingxiao began to be selected. The Jade Emperor picked twelve amphibious animals, including the dragon, tiger, ox, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig, rabbit, snake, and rat, as the twelve zodiac signs, based on the difference between heaven and earth. In those days, the rooster, with its two beautiful horns, was also included among the beasts.
The Jade Emperor was about to give them a seat when he saw the black raccoon pig flash out. Though he was stupid and clumsy, he liked to cause trouble. He said, "Since the Jade Emperor has chosen a leader, my humble servant is willing to share your worries and be a righteous man, ranking the brothers in order. The Jade Emperor was delighted to hear this and told Piggy to be impartial, so he withdrew from the court.
Once the Jade Emperor left, the twelve palaces were in chaos.
At first, everyone unanimously elected the gentle and generous Old Yellow Ox as the first place, and even the mighty Tiger and the Black Dragon stood in awe of him and agreed. However, a protest appeared from the mouse in the corner. It read, "I'm too big for big numbers. If you don't believe me, let's go out into the world and compete and hear what everyone has to say." So the old cow and the mouse went to the busy street.
People didn't react as the ox passed through the crowd. At that moment, the mouse suddenly climbed onto the cow's back and stood up in a heap, and the people on the street shouted: what a big mouse! By the time the people took out their sticks to beat them, the rats had run away.
The rat came back to brag, and all the beasts fought over the cow, only the black pig snickered. It felt that only in this way, no matter how big or small, it is difficult to distinguish the good from the bad, so that it can put the fish eyes, their own profit from it. So, with a stroke of its pen, it picked the mouse first, followed by the old cow.
This angered the tiger and the black dragon, who were on the sidelines, and they bellowed so loudly that they shook all the animals. All the animals were busy worshipping the dragon and the tiger, and unanimously elected the tiger as king of the mountain and the black dragon as king of the fishermen to rule the world. The monkey wrote a golden plaque for the tiger with the style of a king and hung it on the tiger's forehead. The rooster gave the black dragon two horns. From then on, the Black Dragon was crowned. The tiger and the black dragon, with their human strength, would settle behind the mouse and the old bull. At that moment, another hare in trouble jumped out. It sneered and said, "Huh! As far as appearance is concerned, I am about the same as the mouse, and as far as stature is concerned, I am larger than the mouse. I am the guard of the King of the Mountain, and I should be ranked ahead of the King of the Sea.
When the Black Dragon heard this, he was furious and said, "Don't force yourself. If you're not convinced, we'll have a match." As soon as the Black Pig heard what he wanted, he said, "It's a deal. Let us have a match and let the hound be your judge.
The dog was always at odds with the chicken. When it saw that the chicken was pleasing the dragon, it wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to play a trick on it. It chose a thorny track and sneaked up on the rabbit, saying, "Your tail is too long, it will get in the way of the race. Be patient and give up what you love. It cut off one of the rabbit's big tails, leaving only a small one.
The game began, and the black dragon soared ahead for a moment. However, as he ran into the bushes, the corner was hooked by a vine and he couldn't get it down. The rabbit jumped eighteen yards and ran to the finish line in one breath.
Black Pig, over the objections of all the animals, placed the rabbit before Black Dragon and after Tiger.
The dog went to congratulate the hare, and he sold him on it saying, If you hadn't chosen this track and cut off your tail, how would you have won today? The hare grabbed the thick tail and regretted it. She listened to the dog and said with a three-petaled mouth, "Hmph! I won by my ability. Without you, I couldn't have lost this beautiful tail! Hearing this, the dog's eyes reddened with anger. He said, Since you have the ability, let's take a walk too! The rabbit said arrogantly, What's so hard about that? I'll run first, and if you can catch up with me, I'll treat you to a bone. He said as he ran off proudly. The hound sharpened his claws and ran after him like an arrow. After a while, the hare was driven out. He nipped the hare's neck with his mouth and said, Well, now it's my turn to gnaw on the bone.
For this matter the dog was also punished and came last.
The black dragon often complained behind his back that the rooster's horn had worn him out after he lost the race. The rooster was sorry to hear this and was saddened. He came to the beach and said to the dragon, "Brother Dragon, since these two horns are of no benefit to you, please give them back to me. The dragon said cunningly, These horns hurt me, but they can decorate my appearance. It's not difficult to return them to you. We have to wait until the sun rises from the western mountains and the moon sets from the eastern sea. After saying this, he made a dive to the bottom of the sea. The naive rooster believed it. It got up every day before dawn, looking forward to the sun rising from the western mountains, and now and then stretched out its neck and shouted to the sea: Dragon - Dragon! Horn Steele-me.
From then on the rooster had two horns missing, and also lined up behind.
The ranking of the remaining Monkeys, Snakes, Horses, Sheep, and Pigs has yet to be determined. The pig again instigated with ulterior motives: Monkey is the king of juggling on land, Snake is the master of swimming in water. Which of you will go first? After some discussion, they decided to conduct another folk experiment and perform acrobatics in the world. Green Snake hired Red Horse and Monkey hired Goat to help them make costumes and props.
Then the snake had twelve legs under his belly and walked clumsily and slowly. The red horse was a helpful and practical person. It quietly made a thin-skinned dragon's coat for the snake. The dragon's coat was plaid with horsehair and was really pretty. Ma Shuang scraped a layer of grease from under his belly and applied it to the dragon's coat, making it very greasy. Green Snake wore the dragon's coat to cover his stupid legs and slithered instead of walking, which was both sensitive and beautiful.
Usually, goats hate monkeys because they think they jump up and down all day and trample the grass, so they are not so enthusiastic about helping them. The monkeys want to make up for their baldness, and the goats ask for help: yang, please give me a little fluffy haircut so I can make up for my back fat. It's going to be cold, the goat said unhappily. Do you know
That day, the green snake, clothed in the garb of a dragon, coiled itself like a vine on a branch one moment, and slithered across the water like a shuttle the next. It raised its head and neck, landing only on the tip of its tail, and performed all kinds of acrobatics. People cheered continuously. When it was the monkey's turn to perform, it climbed up the barbell and swung around on the swing, which also won a lot of applause. Performance to the upside down bamboo curtain, the monkey to the tip of the tail rolled in the branches, head down to make a variety of thrilling action, when suddenly someone shouted: look! The monkey's butt was on fire! People laughed aloud. The monkey had been short-sighted, red-faced and flustered. He was busy covering his buttocks with his tail when he heard a thud and his head fell off, covered in flowers.
And so it was that the green snake and the red horse came first, and the goat and the monkey second.
When all the animals were seated, the black pig wrote himself on his head and said in his heart: this time it is time for me to be promoted and made famous! It came to the Lingxiao Hall and met the Jade Emperor. The Jade Emperor took the seating chart and looked at it. Without saying a word, he checked the black pig's name in the front and filled in the end. Then the Jade Emperor asked Tai Bai Jin Xing to write out the table of the twelve births of Zishu, Ugly Bull, Silver Tiger, Hairy Rabbit, Chen Long, Si She, Wu Ma, Weiyang, Divine Empress, Ji You, Tenacious Dog, and Hai Zhu, and decreed that the gong cao on duty should make it known to the world.
The quarrel has been settled, the Jade Emperor's anger has not disappeared, he gave the black pig a few more:
Fools, inverting black and white.
Repeatedly go and eat it, kill it once a year.
The black pig was demoted and suddenly angry. It lay in its thatched hut all day, no longer bothering to mind its own business. But sometimes it still itched inside, and had no choice but to stir up trouble with its mouth.
The mouse came home and waved three and a half whiskers happily, waking up the sleeping flower cat. The flower cat asked: Isn't it time yet? The mouse said, "Too late, we won first place!" ! Bragging to the mouse and the cat about his cleverness. Chagrined, Hwamo says, I've told you over and over again, why don't you call me? But the mouse grabbed the white-flowered cat and said, "Don't you have ears? I told you to go away, but you took my place! Hearing this, the cat was so angry that its fur stood on end and its almond eyes opened wide. It opened its sharp claws and jumped up and ate the mouse.
From then on, the cat and the mouse became enemies for generations.