Later, after the four heavenly kings returned to the Heavenly Palace to guard the Nantianmen, the Jade Emperor decided to choose 12 animals to represent the human zodiac and make them gods. In order to embody the principle of fairness, the Jade Emperor ordered that all animals on the earth could be selected in the Heavenly Palace on a specified day, and only the top 12 animals who arrived in the Heavenly Palace were taken as the ranking order.
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The zodiac signs are Zi (mouse), Ugly (ox), Yin (tiger), Mao (rabbit), Chen (dragon), Si (snake), Wu (horse), Wei (sheep), Shen (monkey), You (chicken), Xu (dog) and Hai (dog).
In this way, a concept interpretation system has been formed, which has become an image philosophy in folk culture, such as the zodiac in marriage, the blessing in temple fairs, the animal year and so on. In modern times, more people regard the zodiac as the mascot of the Spring Festival and become a symbol of entertainment and cultural activities.
As a long-standing symbol of folk culture, the zodiac has left a lot of poems, Spring Festival couplets, paintings, calligraphy and paintings and folk arts and crafts that depict the image and symbolic meaning of the zodiac. Apart from China, many countries in the world issue stamps of the zodiac during the Spring Festival to express their wishes for the New Year in China.
Reference source; Baidu encyclopedia-Zodiac mouse