The explanation of the zodiac is as follows:
The Zodiac, also known as the Zodiac, is twelve kinds of animals in China that match the twelve earthly branches according to the year of birth, including rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs.
The origin of the zodiac is as follows:
1, the star said:
The ancients divided the stars near the ecliptic and equator into "28 stars". Twenty-eight nights represent an animal. In ancient times, Sunday was divided into twelve parts, represented by twelve branches. Twelve branches belonged to the zodiac, and the zodiac had a corresponding relationship with twenty-eight stars.
Wang Chang, a great scholar in the Ming Dynasty, believed that 28 species of animals belonged to 28 stars and were unified by 7 aliens, forming a pattern of "mother bat, imaginary sun mouse, dangerous moon swallow and child". In Li Changqing's Song Xia Guan Yu Yan in the Qing Dynasty, he thought that the 28-lodging animals "even if the first 12 genera were doubled", "were attached to Kang Jinlong, Chen Guan and Jiao Mujiao. Jiao and Long are also ",which reflects the gathering of 28 kinds of stellar animals based on the zodiac. "But it is inevitable that there will be collateral encounters, and the records of the 28 stars animals are later than the zodiac.
2, the star of the year said:
Jupiter runs once a week for twelve years, and the annual branching order can be determined from Jupiter's position. Yu Han, Fang Shan and Ji Shu thought that every twelve years, "three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old, three years old and three years old".
There is a cycle between the rise and fall of plants and the living environment of animals, and the living conditions of herbivores and carnivorous omnivores vary greatly in different years. If people born in different years can imitate the animals that grew vigorously in that year, they will form zodiac animals, so it can be inferred that the rise and fall of animals are related to the year of Jupiter, and the zodiac and the twelve days are unified.