There are three main reasons why the rat ranks first on the zodiac list: First, the zodiac arrangement in folklore stories. The second is that ancient Chinese scholars explained the relationship between the earthly branches and animals from the perspective of the twelve ancient hours of day and night. Third, according to the Chinese belief in yin and yang, twelve species of animals are divided into two categories: yin and yang. The yin and yang of animals are arranged according to the odd and even oddities of the animals' toes. The number of toes on the front, back, left and right of animals is generally the same, but the rat only has four on the front and five on the back.
Chinese name: rat
Foreign name: rat
Alias: Zirat
Zodiac ranking: 1st
Basic introduction
Liu Zongyuan, a writer of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a fable about a person born in the year of Zi, "Rat, the god of Zi, because he loves rats." There is another example similar to the character in Liu Zongyuan's fable, see "Qing Ye Lei Chao": "What is the surname of Yancheng? The owner of the house thinks that he is born to be a rat, but he does not keep cats. If he sees rats, he will not let anyone catch them." . For a long time, the rats were in full swing, jumping in and out of the beams, not afraid of people. "
There was a day when rats married women. Generally on the night of the 25th day of the first lunar month, every household does not light up the lights that night. The whole family sits on the kang in the main room, making no sound, eating "mouse claws" made of flour and other food in the dark. The silent purpose is to provide convenience for the mice to marry their daughters. , so as not to offend the rat and bring hidden dangers to the coming year. Taiwanese residents believe that the third day of the Lunar New Year is a small year. Legend has it that the night of the third day of the Lunar New Year is the wedding day of rats. The "rat wedding" in folk paper-cutting is a reflection of this belief. Therefore, people do not light the lamp late at night and spread rice and salt on the ground. People should go to bed in the morning. Does not affect the happy events of mice.
In the old days, there was a custom in Shanghai to avoid rats. When a rat goes out to look for food and stumbles to the ground, it is called a "rat in vain". It is said that it is unlucky for those who see it, and it is either illness or death and must be cured. The method is to beg for white rice along the street, called Baijiami, and use it for cooking when you go home, and it will be resolved after eating.
In the Jianghan Plain of Hubei Province, the first night of the new year is regarded as the day when the mouse marries his daughter, commonly known as "the rat adds to the box". On that day, every family must place the flour cakes with flowers in a dark place. It is forbidden to pound rice or grind flour. Adults and children are not allowed to make noise. If the mice are disturbed, they will cause trouble in the coming year. In some areas of Qinghai, there is a custom of "steaming blind mice". Every year on the 14th day of the first lunar month, families shape twelve mice out of flour without pinching their eyes, and then steam them in a steamer. During the Lantern Festival, they put them on the altar, light lamps and burn incense, begging the mice to only eat grass roots and not damage crops. , to ensure a good harvest this year. On the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, the Korean people perform the folk custom of smoking rat fire on this day. Farmer children spread straw on the field ridges and set it on fire to burn weeds and drive away field mice. This folk activity is conducive to killing rats and insects, and the plant ash can also fertilize the fields. In addition, Zi Day belongs to the rat, so lighting a rat fire on this day symbolizes psychological satisfaction for people.
Years of birth of people born in the Year of the Rat: 1941960, 1971981992008
?Love: Emotionally, they should treat each other with respect, harmony and joy.
Work: Have flexible thinking and perseverance.
Wealth: You will lose money due to unexpected circumstances.
Health: The weather is cloudy and sunny, so be careful to catch a cold.
Teenagers born in the Year of the Rat are more outgoing this year (2008) and like to participate in many extracurricular activities, but they must be careful not to be distracted too much and affect their academic performance.
Ways to increase wealth
Place a green or red item in your office or room.
Historical origin
Legend has it that one day the Jade Emperor wanted to rank the twelve zodiac animals and settled on ox, tiger, rabbit and dragon. , snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig, cat. The Jade Emperor asked them to come and rank the next day. At that time, the cat and the mouse were good friends. The cat said to the mouse: "Tomorrow you have to wake me up early. I am one of the twelve zodiac signs. Tomorrow I will go to heaven to rank." The mouse agreed.
The next day, the mouse woke up early. He did not wake up the cat, but went to heaven himself. At that time, it was time to rank the animals. The Jade Emperor ranked the twelve zodiac animals in the order of ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig and cat. The Jade Emperor asked the animals if they had any objections. Only the mouse raised an objection: "I don't think the cat should be chosen. He doesn't respect you at all. You see, he is still sleeping now and doesn't care about you choosing the zodiac sign." Take it seriously." The Jade Emperor took a look and saw that the cat was really sleeping! He was furious, and in a fit of rage, he decided never to allow the cat to fly again. At the same time, he asked the mouse to take the cat's place. The mouse spoke again: "I must be ranked first!" "Why? Is your contribution greater than that of an ox?" "People think that I am greater than an ox." The Jade Emperor had no choice but to let people judge. . People from the human world to the clouds said: "Hey! What a big cow!" Then they saw the mouse standing on the cow's head, and they all said: "What a big mouse! It's even bigger than the cow!" The Jade Emperor had to let the mouse First in line.
There are three main reasons why Rat ranks first on the zodiac list:
First, among the people Zodiac arrangement in legendary stories. A Han folk story says: When Emperor Xuanyuan wanted to choose twelve animals to serve as palace guards, the cat asked the mouse to sign up, but the mouse forgot. As a result, the cat was not selected, and the two became enemies from then on. The elephant also came to compete, but the mouse got into its trunk and drove it away. The other animals originally pushed the cow to take the lead, but the mouse jumped on the cow's back. The pigs also followed suit, so the mouse ranked first and the pork chop last. The tiger and the dragon refused to accept it and were named the king of the mountain and the king of the sea, ranking behind the rat and the ox. The rabbit refused to accept it and raced with the dragon, but ended up in front of the dragon. The dog was dissatisfied and bit the rabbit in anger, for which he was punished in the penultimate position. Snake, horse, sheep, monkey, and chicken also arranged their positions one by one after some competition, and finally formed the order of rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, and pig. . Although the legend is not a scientific explanation of the problem, it reflects people's desire to explain the choice of the twelve zodiac animals.
The second is that ancient Chinese scholars explained the relationship between the earthly branches and animals from the perspective of the twelve ancient hours of day and night. The sky is dark and the earth is full of chaos. The rat comes out in the middle of the night and bites out the gaps in the chaos between heaven and earth. "The rat bites the sky and opens it up", so the child is a rat.
Third, according to the Chinese belief in yin and yang, the twelve animals are divided into two categories: yin and yang. The yin and yang of animals are arranged according to the odd and even oddities of the animal's toes. of. The number of toes on the front, back, left and right of animals is generally the same, but rats only have four on the front and five on the back. They are odd and even. Things are rare and valuable, so of course they rank first
The Year of the Rat is also called the "Year without Spring". The so-called "no spring" year means that there is no beginning of spring in the lunar calendar year. For example, from February 7, 2008 to January 25, 2009, it is the Year of Wuzi in the lunar calendar, that is, the "Year of the Rat". The Beginning of Spring in 2008 was on February 4, which was still the "Year of the Pig" in the lunar calendar. The Beginning of Spring in 2009 was also on February 4, but it was already the "Year of the Ox" in the lunar calendar. Therefore, there is no "beginning of spring" in the Lunar Year of the Rat.
Symbolic meaning
The first symbolic meaning of the rat is spirituality, including its cleverness and psychic ability. aspects.
Rats have a sensitive sense of smell, are timid and suspicious, and are highly vigilant. In addition, their bodies are very dexterous. They can cross walls and run as fast as flying. Moreover, they also have other abilities. Two sudden abilities: from an altitude of tens of meters or even hundreds of meters, the roof of a building is attached to the ground, turned around, take a breath and then do whatever you need to do as if nothing happened, there is absolutely no worry about your life being shattered; it Although it is not an aquatic animal and does not have super swimming ability, narrow ditches and shallow ponds cannot stop it. In order to survive, it can drill several meters under the water in one breath without being hurt.
So throwing or drowning the rat is a waste of effort. People often use "smarter than a mouse" to describe someone's shrewdness. The cleverness of a mouse has become a standard of analogy. It can be seen that its intelligence has reached a considerable level. Just as when people describe the excellent quality of a car, they will definitely say "better than a Mercedes-Benz". Not bad" instead of "better than Volga". Similarly, to describe a person who acts quickly and adapts to the circumstances, we often say that he is "as fickle as a mouse." Folks also believe that rats are psychic and can predict good and bad disasters.
In fact, rats are born in nature and grow up in nature. It is normal for them to make certain reactions to unexpected events that will happen in nature, such as earthquakes, floods, droughts, locust plagues, etc. This is some kind of special instinct possessed by the earth's creatures, but some knowledge is limited to human beings' own knowledge and has not been able to reveal its mystery and laws. On the eve of the Tangshan earthquake, people were surprised to find rats scurrying out into the suburbs, or huddled in groups on roads, streets and other relatively open places. They didn't know what these signs meant. Similar things must have happened many times in ancient times, so rats have become psychic gods in the minds of humans. We can get a glimpse of this through Zhou Gong’s interpretation of the rat in his dream.
The second symbolic meaning of the rat is strong vitality.
First, it has strong fecundity and high survival rate. For example, a female rat can give birth to 5 to 10 pups per litter in a natural state. There can be up to 24 rats, and the gestation period is only 21 days. The mother rat can be pregnant again on the day of delivery. The young rats mature after 30-40 days, and the female among them joins the ranks of breeding offspring. Repeating this process, a female rat can give birth to about 5,000 children a year, and the number of grandchildren, granddaughters, great-grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are too many to count. According to research, the body of a mother rat contains a unique chemical substance that can stimulate male rats to prostrate themselves under her "pomegranate skirt" forever. This is probably one of the reasons why the rat world can give birth and raise children. Therefore, the folk refer to the good mother who keeps her children in groups. It is jokingly called "rat fetus" or "rat belly", which is a metaphor for its extremely strong fertility.
Rats have a high survival rate and long lifespan. Unless they are attacked by natural enemy cats or large-scale extermination operations by humans, most of them can enjoy their old age, die in peace, and have offspring. A full house is beyond the reach of other animals.
Cultural customs
Stories related to rats
Tang Dynasty Liu Zongyuan, a literary scholar of the ancient times, wrote a fable about a person born in the year of Zi. "Rat is the god of Zi because he loves rats." There is another example similar to the characters in Liu Zongyuan's fables, see "Qing Yu Lei Chao": "What is the surname of Yancheng? The owner of the house thinks that he is born to be a rat, but he does not keep cats. If he sees a rat, he will not allow anyone to catch it. . After a long time, the rat was in full swing, jumping in and out of the beam, not afraid of people. "
There was a day when rats married women. Generally on the night of the 25th day of the first lunar month, every household does not light up the lights that night. The whole family sits on the kang in the main room, making no sound, and eats "mouse claws" made of flour and other food in the dark. The silent purpose is to provide convenience for the mice to marry their daughters. , so as not to offend the rat and bring hidden dangers to the coming year. Taiwanese residents believe that Lu San is a small year. Legend has it that the night of the third day of the Lunar New Year is the day when mice get married. The "mouse wedding" in folk paper-cutting is a reflection of this belief. Therefore, people do not light the lamp late at night and spread rice and salt on the ground. People should go to bed in the morning. Does not affect the happy events of mice.
?
Rat
In the old days, there was a place to avoid rats in Shanghai. Failed customs. When a rat goes out to look for food and stumbles to the ground, it is called a "rat in vain". It is said that it is unlucky for those who see it. If it is not a disease, it will disappear and must be cured. The method is to beg for white rice along the street, called Baijiami, and use it for cooking when you go home, and it will be resolved after eating.
In the Jianghan Plain of Hubei Province, the first night of the new year is regarded as the day when the mouse marries his daughter, commonly known as "the rat adds to the box". On that day, every family must place the flour cakes with flowers in a dark place. It is forbidden to pound rice or grind flour. Adults and children are not allowed to make noise. If the mice are disturbed, they will cause trouble in the coming year.
In some areas of Qinghai, there is a custom of "steaming blind mice". Every year on the 14th day of the first lunar month, families shape twelve mice out of flour without pinching their eyes, and then steam them in a steamer. During the Lantern Festival, they put them on the altar, light lamps and burn incense, begging the mice to only eat grass roots and not damage crops. , to ensure a good harvest this year. On the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar, the Korean people perform the folk custom of smoking rat fire on this day. Farmer children spread straw on the field ridges and set it on fire to burn weeds and drive away field mice. This folk activity is conducive to killing rats and insects, and the plant ash can also fertilize the fields. In addition, Zi Day is a rat, so lighting a rat fire on this day will give people psychological satisfaction through its symbolic use.
The image of the mouse is personified
In China, the mouse is the embodiment of chivalry. In the classic "Three Chivalrous and Five Righteous" There are five heroes named after rats: Lu Fang, the rat that penetrates the sky, Han Zhang, the rat that penetrates the earth, Xu Qing, the mountain rat, Jiang Ping, the river rat, and Bai Yutang, the golden-haired rat.
A few years ago, in a church in Austria, people found an animal picture that resembled a mouse on the mural. The image was strikingly similar to "Mickey Mouse".
?It is said that this mural is more than 700 years old.
This shows that humans have not only humanized rats very early, but also deified them. Does the image of "Mickey Mouse" in Disneyland in the United States come from here? It became a question among people for a while. An artist even jokingly said that in the mural of an Austrian church, the person next to the icon is the protagonist "Mickey Mouse" portrayed in the American cartoon.
Celebrities born in the Year of the Rat
Galileo Galilei, Zheng Chenggong (Zheng Sen), Wei Zheng (Wei Zheng), Shangguan Wan'er, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Zhu Di, Qi Jiguang, William Shakespeare, Gong Zizhen, Leo Tolstoy, Zhang Wentian, Li Fuchun, Wang Li, Xia Yan, Nie Er, Wu Jianxiong, Liu Shaotang, Shelley (Percy Bisey ·Shelley), Liu Yanzu, He Fenbo
Rat customs
Some folk customs related to rats are more Interestingly, for example, in southern Zhejiang, the ancient custom of "beating the eyes of mice" was popular. That is, during the Lantern Festival, people cooked black beans and then scattered them indoors. The bean-scattering person stood under the beam, threw the black beans on the beam, and chanted: : "On the west beam, below the east beam, the mice will be beaten and the mice will be destroyed." It is believed that it can get rid of the rat problem. Another example is that the Maonan people in Guizhou regard the first day of the twelfth lunar month as the "Rat Sending Festival". These folk customs reflect people's hatred of rats.
Naming for the Year of the Rat
People born in the year of the Rat should be named with the character "八" or "宀" (or If the radical contains ), then the environment is good, fame and wealth will be achieved, elegance and honor; if there are the characters "rice", "bean", and "fish", it means longevity and prosperity, and the family will have prosperous descendants; if there are the characters "艹" and "金" The word "Jade" means shrewdness, justice, and integrity; with the word "任", "木", and "月", the noble person appears clearly, self-restraint and helping others; with the word "田", he treats others happily, and has a leisurely life; with " The word "山" means loneliness, the absence of relatives, and the success of leaving the ancestors; the word "dao", "power", and "gong" are used, which is not good for the family, and late marriage and childbirth are not good; the word "earth" is bad for health or worry and stress; The word "忄" indicates unruly or decisive style; the word "石" indicates bad health; the word "PI", "氵", "马", "酉", "火", "车" "Word, avoid driving because you are afraid of water or may easily break the law. People born in the Year of the Rat should be careful in the Year of the Horse, Rooster, and Sheep. If they are born in the Year of the Ox, Dragon, and Monkey, they will have smooth sailing and success.