The Zodiac, also known as the Zodiac, is twelve kinds of animals in China that match the twelve earthly branches according to the year of birth, including rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs.
The origin of the zodiac is related to animal worship. According to the Qin bamboo slips unearthed in Yunmeng Shuihudi, Hubei Province and Fangmatan, Tianshui, Gansu Province, there was a relatively complete zodiac system in the pre-Qin period. The earliest handed down document that recorded the same Chinese zodiac as the modern one was Lun Heng written by Wang Chong in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
Poetry:
1. Zodiac poems were first written by Shen Jiong, a poet in the Southern Dynasties, and the zodiac is embedded in the first sentence in turn:
In the case of mice and dust, cattle and sheep came down at dusk.
Tigers sit in empty valleys for food, and rabbits open windows to the moon.
The dragon ridge is far green, and the snake willow lingers near.
Ma Lanfang is far away and breeds sheep in spring.
The monkey chestnut shames the fragrant fruit, and the chicken anvil leads to a clear cup.
Dogs are proud of owning, but pigs are carefree.
2. In the Song Dynasty, there was Zhu's "Reading Twelve Poems by Chen", and the rest made a smile;
In the evening, I heard that empty baskets were biting hungry mice, so I drove to the abandoned nursery in Niu Geng.
When I was a tiger, I listened to arrogance, and the old rabbit garden was unscrupulous.
You see, after sleeping for three winters, the dragon's head doesn't argue with the snake.
Destroying a car and killing a horse is easy to cook and drink.
Hand-planted monkey peaches hang green and raise crows.
The guest came to bark for tea, not to buy pork from the host.
3. The Ming dynasty poet Hu Yan also has in all previous dynasties' poems, and every sentence is quoted:
Cows and girls have hardly seen each other for years.
The rabbit grows longer in the middle of the month.
Dragons with beads often don't sleep, and drawing snakes is very tiring.
Has the old horse ever had horns, and the sheep angered the princes?
Don't laugh at the Chu people's crown bathing monkeys, but wish the chickens were empty nests.
Wuyang slaughtered dogs in Langzhong, and Ping Jin chased dogs in Haidongtou.