One is the arrangement of the zodiac in folklore.
According to the folk story of the Han nationality, the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan wanted to select twelve animals to serve as palace guards. The cat asked the mouse to sign up, but the mouse forgot it. As a result, the cat was not selected and made an enemy with the mouse. The elephant also came to participate in the competition. The mice got into their noses and were driven away. The rest of the animals, originally pushing the cattle first, but the mice ran to the back of the cattle, and the pigs also started to coax, so the rats ranked first and the pork chops came last. The tiger and the dragon were not satisfied, and were named the king of the mountain and the king of the sea, behind the rats and cattle. Rabbit is not satisfied, and the dragon race, the result is in front of the dragon. The dog was not fair and bit the rabbit in anger, so he was punished in the penultimate. Snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys and chickens also went through a series of contests and arranged their positions one by one, and finally formed the order of rats, cattle, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs. Although the legend is not a scientific explanation of the problem, it reflects people's desire to explain the choice of the zodiac.
Second, ancient Chinese scholars explained the relationship between dizhi and Xiao animals from the perspective of the twelve hours of the ancient day and night.
In the middle of the night, the rats come out and bite out the chaos between the heaven and the earth. The rats bite the sky open, so they belong to rats. After the opening of the sky, the land is to be opened up. "The land is opened up in ugliness." cattle should be used to cultivate land, so ugliness belongs to cattle. Yin is the time when a man is born. When he is born, there must be death. There is no better place for people to die than a fierce tiger. Yin also has the meaning of awe, so Yin belongs to the tiger. At the time of Mao, it is the image of sunrise. The sun should have departed from the trigram, which is like fire. The Yin in it is the essence of the sun, that is, the moon. In this way, Mao belongs to the rabbit. Chen, the divinatory symbol of March, is at this time the season when dragons are in the rain. Chen naturally belongs to the dragon. The divinatory symbols of April, when spring grass is flourishing, is a good day for snakes, just like fish getting water. In addition, it was morning and the snake was returning to the cave. Therefore, it was a snake. In the afternoon and afternoon, Yang Qi reaches the extreme and Yin Qi is sprouting. The horse is an animal that gallops and runs, its hooves soar in the air, but tramples on the ground from time to time. It is Yang in the sky and Yin when stepping on the ground. The horse leaps forward between yin and Yang, so it becomes the zodiac of noon. Sheep, afternoon grass for the best time, easy to fat, this is not the time, so not sheep. After Shenshi, it is the time when the monkey crows near Xishan Mountain, and monkeys like to jump at this time, so the monkey matches Shen. You is when the moon appears, the moon belongs to water, should be the kangua. Kangua, the upper and lower Yin, and the middle of the Yang Yao represents the essence of the sun. Therefore, you belong to chicken. Night falls for the time of Xu. The dog is the animal that keeps watch at night, so it becomes a dog. Then when the time of Haishi arrived, the heaven and earth were immersed in a state of chaos, just like the fruit wrapped in the core, and all things in the world were covered at night. The pig is only know to eat the chaotic creature, so this pig became the sign of Hai. Zhu Xi, a famous Neo Confucianist in Song Dynasty, held this view.
Third, according to the Chinese belief in Yin and Yang, twelve kinds of animals are divided into yin and Yang.
In general, the number of the left and right toes of animals is generally the same, while rats only have four forefeet and five hind feet, and the odd and even are the same body, and the rare things are the most expensive. Of course, the first one is cattle, four toes (even); Tiger, five toes (odd); rabbit, four toes (even); dragon, five toes (odd); snake, no toe (parity); horse, one toe (odd); sheep, four toes (even); monkey, five toes (odd); chicken, four toes (even); dog, five toes (odd); dog, five toes (odd); Pig, four toes (even). Hong Xun of the Song Dynasty held this view, and Lang Ying, a scholar of the Ming Dynasty, classified it on the basis of it, and put forward the idea that "the earth branches in the lower part" in his book "the twelve zodiac" written by him. In front of the mouse, there are four claws, even number is Yin, hind foot is five claws, and odd number is Yang. The first half of Zishi is the Yin of last night, and the second half is today's Yang, which is just a symbol of Zi with rats. Cattle, sheep, pig's hoof, chicken's four claws, rabbit's lack of lip and four claws, snake tongue's point, the six should be even, belonging to Yin, accounting for six earthly branches. Tiger's five claws, monkey's and dog's five claws. Horse's hooves are round and not divided. All of them are odd numbers, belonging to Yang. Together with the rats belonging to Yang, they account for the other six earthly branches. Lang Ying's classification is borrowed from Hong Xun's, and the two are similar.
The above three explanations explain the arrangement of the zodiac from different angles. There are abundant folk legends about the arrangement of animals in the zodiac. The spread of these legends not only enriches the content of the zodiac, but also promotes the inheritance and development of the zodiac culture. This paper divides the twelve zodiac animals into two categories: Yin and Yang, and brings them into the concept of five elements belief of Chinese people. The purpose is to associate the animal signs with life rituals, and to correspond Yin and Yang, five elements with the zodiac, so as to explain other related cultural phenomena of life.