Chinese Astrology Origin

The origin of the zodiac has always been controversial.

Where did it come from?

Twelve Earthly Branches

It was wrote on historical records that since the Eastern Han Dynasty, China has used ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches to chronicle the year, which is called the "stem and branch chronology"

In ancient China, people represented each time period as an animal based on the characteristics of their lifestyle. For example, The time of “子” is the period from 11pm to 1am in next morning, when rats are the boldest and most active, so the rat corresponds to “子”, and that’s why the rat was placed first. Similarly, the time of "亥" is the period from 9pm to 11pm, when pigs sleeping and snore the loudest, so pig corresponds to "亥" and was the last animal in Chinese astrology.

[1]

Totem worship

In the early society, due to the low productivity, the ancestors had a superficial understanding of the nature, and the existence of livestock is related to their survival. As a result, the ancestors developed a contradictory psychological behavior: to admire them but also take them as food, and thus the earliest animal belief taboos and totem worship were born.

On the one hand, zodiac such as rooster and pig, are obviously and closely related to the life and survival of our ancient ancestors. On the other hand, Dragon, snake and tiger itself is the mainstream totem belief in Chinese national integration, which can be found in some history books.

<The Classic of Mountains and Seas>,which written from the Qin Dynasty to the early Han Dynasty in China, records large number of myths and legends,It contains the description of snake totem.

<Masters on the Records of the Grand Historian>, an official history book, record some clans use tiger totems as family symbol.

So, the characteristics of the animal itself and its relationship with people determine the degree of people's belief,and the standard of whether it is selected into the Chinese zodiac.

[2]

Ox Toterm

RAT OX TIGER RABBIT

DRAGON SNAKE HORSE GOAT

MONKEY ROOSTER DOG PIG

Pictograph

Research scholars have compared the ancient characters for the Twelve Earthly Branches with those for the Twelve Chinese Zodiac Signs and found that the ancient characters for the Twelve Earthly Branches have some connection with the twelve animals. A closer look reveals that there are indeed similarities and differences. This is also described in Xu Shen's "Shuowen Jiezi" from the Eastern Han Dynasty.

[3]

Legend

[4]

When it was time for the race, the animals all rushed to the heavenly palace, while the cat was still sleeping and the mouse was sitting on the back of the ox. When they reached the heavenly palace, the mouse leapt down and the Jade Emperor said that the mouse had arrived first and put him in first place; the old steak was second; the tiger arrived in third place; and the rabbit also arrived in fourth place.

The dragon arrived very late, but he was so big that the Jade Emperor saw him at once and, seeing how beautiful he was, put him fifth. The snake came sixth, and so did the horse and the sheep, but they pushed and pushed, and the Jade Emperor, seeing how polite they were, put them seventh and eighth.

The monkey was lagging behind the other animals, but as he could jump, he pulled the clouds in the sky and jumped to the front and came ninth; then the chicken, dog and pig were also chosen. The cat woke up just after the race was over and the mouse was chased by the cat just as he got home.

There is also a legend about the origin of the 12 zodiac signs.

The Jade Emperor wanted to choose 12 animals to represent him, so he sent the immortals down to earth to talk to the animals about it, and set a time to come to the Heavenly Palace at the dawn of the dawn month, dawn day, dawn year, and the earlier they came, the higher they were ranked. At that time, the cat and the mouse were still good friends. Although the cat loved to sleep, he also wanted to be chosen, so he asked the mouse to call him when the time came.

But the mouse forgot as soon as he turned his head. The mouse went to the ox, saying that he got up early and ran fast, and asked the ox to take him with him when he left, and the old ox agreed. At that time, the dragon did not have horns, but the chicken had horns. The dragon told the chicken that the chicken was already beautiful and did not need horns, and asked the chicken to lend him its horns, and the chicken was so pleased at the dragon's compliment that it lent them to the dragon and asked the dragon to return them to him on time after the campaign.

[5]

Reference

[1] M.52lishi.com. 2021.

{2} Source: https://www.meipian.cn/1qtb8d32

[3] https://www.sohu.com/a/220014581_486479

[4] [5] Xhslink.com. 2021. xiaohongshu. [online] Available at: <http://xhslink.com/4avK9e> [Accessed 20 December 2021].