From the beginning of Pangu to the creation of the world, the Three Sovereigns and the Five Emperors to the present: it has been passed down for thousands of years. (The Three Sovereigns) - Emperor "Fuyi" overthrew the rule of the matrilineal society and established the patriarchal clan society: The emperor "Suiren" not only had the theory of drilling wood to make fire, but also created painting, book language and totem culture: more importantly, he was the original founder of the names of animals and plants, and he was also the founder of breeding and nomadic industries: Renhuang The legend that "Shen Nong" tasted hundreds of herbs and built medicine is only a part of "Shen Nong"'s achievements. The most important achievement of "Shen Nong" was to bring the barbaric predators of "humans" into an agricultural and civilized society that eats grains. The origin of the twelve zodiac animals must start with "Shennong".
The formation of agricultural society is the transformation from "beast" to "human" in the process of human evolution. Agriculture: It is the crystallization of human science. Of course, this cannot be accomplished by one person. It is the product of exploration, research and hard work of outstanding and thoughtful people in an era. During the "Shen Nong" period, there was no written language, and there were not as many language words as there are now. In order to protect each other, there was a name for communication, so the "Shen Nong" began to name themselves after animals in the early days, because people named themselves after "rat" Inspired by the fact that millet can be eaten and cured, human agricultural society came into existence. Therefore, the first human being with a name was called "Rat". Ox, tiger, rabbit and dragon are related to Pangu and the Three Emperors. The earliest dragon refers to It is a large reptile of water and land. Later, people called snakes dragons. Yellow snakes became "Emperor" and dragon became the special term for "Emperor", followed by snakes. Horses, sheep and dogs were domesticated by humans. What came out was mainly nomadic farming based on them. Chickens and pigs naturally entered the circle of human life after the rise of human agriculture. Monkeys are considered to be the smartest animals in the animal kingdom. Monkey brains have become people's natural supplements. Raising monkeys and eating fresh monkey brains has become a popular choice for people at that time. It was this group of "celebrities" who developed agriculture in Shichang. Crops are very seasonal. If you don't sow, fertilize and water on time, there will be no harvest. To develop agriculture, it is necessary to grasp the agricultural seasons. That is, the "celebrities" at that time developed the first "calendar" of mankind. This book was specially designed for agriculture. The "calendar" is divided into one year, four seasons, eight sections and twenty-four solar terms. {There are detailed explanations in "Kan: Zhouyi"}. The most primitive agriculture is "slash and burn". The harvested millet is piled in the open air. There are birds in the sky and rats underground. They are all interested in millet. In order to prevent rats, people build a circular platform with soil and stack the millet on this platform. In order to prevent birds, people would insert a long pole in the middle of the grain pile and tie a streamer on the top of the pole to drive away the birds (the origin of the word hexagram). In addition, a person would have to guard the pole. Beside the grain pile, there are people guarding it no matter day or night. Over time, people established twelve hours from the regular changes of the pole shadow caused by the sun and moonlight. Each hour is named after the inventor. This appears: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit...the animal name hours.
After "Pangu" developed and spread the concept of "Heaven - God", human beings began to engage in sacrificial activities, and professional sacrificial institutions and sacrificial personnel gradually emerged. In ancient times, sacrificial personnel were representatives of "gods". After developing into tribal society, sacrificial institutions and personnel became service agencies for tribal leaders. It is also the highest authority after the leader. It not only controls the killing power of the tribe, but also controls all people's daily activities. The progress of human civilization is inseparable from the "sacrifice" activity. It is the "sacrifice" activity that opens up the spiritual realm of mankind. Culture, writing, art, music... are all inseparable from the root of "sacrifice", and more importantly, "sacrifice" "Sacrifice" inherits and develops human spiritual civilization. During the "Shen Nong" period, the sacrificial content expanded to the production field. Sowing, harvesting, praying for rain, disaster relief... all were conducted by the sacrificial department to conduct grand sacrificial ceremonies.
With the development of agricultural technology, "numbers" have become more and more important in life, and a number system has been developed in which "yao" is the written number and "celestial stems and earthly branches" are the readings. "Heavenly Stems" read the day and hour, and "Earthly Branches" read the hours. The reason for "spending the Spring and Autumn Period and living the life" is: day means daytime, Zi means night. During the day, "Jia" is the head, and at night, "Zi" is the head. Zi, Chou , Yin, Mao... have become synonymous with time. It has also become a professional term used in sacrificial activities. With the advancement of society, numbers have evolved into (one, two, three,...) written numbers, and the reading number system of (1, 2, 3,...) has been passed down to this day. And (heavenly stems, earthly branches, twelve beasts) have become special terms for recording "years and times".
The earliest calendars, hours, heavenly stems, and earthly branches created by mankind have been passed down by sacrificial institutions, and the method of recording time with the names of animals such as rat, ox, tiger, and rabbit has indeed been passed down among the people.
By the Xia Dynasty: people created a more complete and accurate calendar. According to the law of the moon, months were produced under the "year", and a complete time pattern of year, month, day and hour was produced. That’s why we used the heavenly stems to record the day: the earthly branches to record the months and hours, and the heavenly stems and earthly branches to connect them to record the year. In order to distinguish the month and hour, the names of the twelve beasts were added to the time record, and the twelve beasts were passed down as the record time. (Lao Tzu: Later, the sacrificial institution evolved into "Taoism") The twelve zodiac signs were not created until the Song Dynasty: "The Book of Changes" was the product of the Song Dynasty students who failed to take up positions after passing the scientific examination. That is, these unemployed students appeared to make a living. . (Talk about the "Zhouyi" in detail) In order to enrich the content of the "Zhouyi" and make the "Zhouyi" more convincing, the twelve o'clock beasts were changed to the twelve zodiac animals. In other words, the twelve zodiac animals only began to appear in the "Zhouyi" during the Song Dynasty. "Book of Changes".