As early as the Warring States Period, people had associated twelve animals with the twelve branches, but they were not used for recording time, but for divination, and were called twelve birds or twelve beasts. What's more, the ancients divided each of these twelve animals into three categories of animals with similar attributes, making up thirty-six birds, which were used to expand the divination culture. There was a period when scholars believed that the twelve birds and the thirty-six birds might have been introduced from India along with Buddhism. Later, with the unearthing of Qin bamboo slips, the origins of the two were greatly advanced. "The Book of Songs? Xiaoya? Auspicious Day" records that "the auspicious day Geng Wu both sends my horse", which can also be regarded as evidence of the connection between the Wu horse and the Wu horse.
▲The thirty-six birds recorded on the bronze plate of the Six Dynasties
Some of the twelve birds on the Qin slips are a little different from the standards of later generations, but the overall difference is not big. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, The period is completely set. However, Thirty-six Birds is not well-known and has not been widely spread among the people. There are only a few ancient books with records. Coupled with the fact that it has been passed down and copied, there are more differences and differences.
▲Fangmatan Qin Slips
For a long time after the Warring States Period, the twelve birds were only associated with the earthly branches, and may be associated with the stems and branches in divination, but There is no connection with the zodiac signs. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, people began to generally associate the year of the stems and branches with the twelve animals as their own zodiac sign, also known as the zodiac.
"Book of Southern Qi? Five Elements" records the zodiac signs of several famous people: Chen Xianda is a pig, Cui Huijing is a horse, Donghun Hou (Xiao Baojuan) is a pig, and Liang Wang (Xiao Yan) is a pig. Dragon, Xiao Yingzhou belongs to tiger. Among them, the birth years of Chen Xianda (427 Dingmao) and Cui Huijing (438 Wuyin) are too far apart from their zodiac signs. There may be a mistake. Xiao Baojuan (483 Guihai), Xiao Yan (464 Jiachen), The zodiac sign of Xiao Yingzhou (462 Renyin) coincides with the stems and branches of the year of birth.
Volume 11 of "Book of Zhou" "Jin Dang Gonghu Biography" records a letter written by Yuwenhu's mother Yan to him. The letter said: "We were brothers in Wuchuan Town in the past. The older one (Yu Wen Shi Fei) is a rat, the second one (Yu Wen Dao) is a rabbit, and your body (Yu Wen Hu) is a snake." Combined with other historical data, it can be deduced that these three brothers were born in 508 (Wu Zi) and 511 years respectively. (Xinmao), 513 (Guisi). It may be that the chronology of the stems and branches is too abstract. When this chronology was introduced to the Turks, Sogdians, Khitans, Tubo and other ethnic groups, they often chose to use the twelve zodiac signs instead of the earthly branches, and the five colors or five elements to replace the heavenly stems, forming a system with their own national characteristics. Zodiac year. In this way, in the secular life of various ethnic groups in China, the zodiac chronology is more influential than the zodiac chronology. The twelve-bird divination method that has already been formed has been applied to the zodiac chronology and has become a fortune-telling theory.
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