What is the Four Empty Zodiac?

Earth, water, fire and wind are the "big four".

Earth, water, fire and wind are all related to dragons.

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.

The zodiac is an intuitive representation of the twelve earthly branches, namely, Zi (mouse), Ugly (ox), Yin (tiger), Mao (rabbit), Chen (dragon), Si (snake), Wu (horse), Wei (sheep), Shen (monkey), You (chicken) and Xu (chicken). 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.

The zodiac is twelve, which coincides with the ancient people's inductive understanding of natural phenomena.

China ancestors felt the cycle of alternating cold and summer, and plants withered and flourished, which was called "one year old". The moon's profit and loss cycle is also related to "age"-twelve full moons are exactly one year old. With Jupiter as the annual cycle, the period of revolution of the "old star" happens to be twelve years. "Zhou Li? Guan Chun? Feng said, "Ten palms are two years old, ten palms are February, and ten palms are two days. "In addition to calculating years and months, twelve palms are also used to measure hours.

Twelve is also often used in other aspects. Zuozhuan? For seven years, "Zhou Wang also did things, but there were twelve. "I think there are too many days." "Mandarin? According to Zeus, "The Yellow Emperor has twenty-five sons, and fourteen sons have surnames, making them twelve surnames." Used to be "? Gou Jian said, "Therefore, the son of heaven married twelve women, and the number of days was also many. "There are different grades below the princes."

"Twelve astronomical phenomena" is the general term for weather in ancient times, that is, darkness, overcast, rain, snow, ice, fog, dew, frost, wind, sand, thunder and electricity; "the twelve meridians" is the cognition of Chinese medicine on human meridians; There are twelve methods for ancient music; There are "twelve foods" in the diet; There are "twelve clothes" for dressing …

There are many myths and legends about the origin of the zodiac. Among them, the most popular story is that the Jade Emperor enfeoffed the 12 Zodiacs. It is said that in order to distinguish the four seasons, the young and the old, and stabilize the secular order, the Jade Emperor decided to classify the secular people. In order to facilitate people's lives, he also made a detailed division of the day.

First of all, according to the suggestion of Taibai Venus, he divided a day on earth into twelve hours on average as a reference standard for ordinary people's life. He felt that this was not enough, and a complete set of annual rings should be established to correspond to twelve hours. How to distinguish twelve years in a cycle? After careful consideration, we decided to choose twelve qualified animals as representatives. When the animals heard the news, they all showed their magical powers and rushed to the time pavilion in the sky to report. In the end, the clever mouse first came to heaven, occupied the position of children, and became the "King of the Twelve Zodiacs", followed by cattle, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, monkeys, chickens, dogs and pigs, occupying their respective corresponding hours, and were named "Fine mouse, ugly cow, Wei Yinhu, Mao Hui rabbit and Chen Shen" respectively. The Jade Emperor announced the birth of the zodiac. From then on, the year of the rat began, the year of the pig ended, and so on. The zodiac is a cycle every twelve years, and it never stops on earth. With these norms, human order is more stable and people's lives are more harmonious. Of course, this is just a kind of myth and legend, which embodies people's beautiful imagination and is not strictly scientific. In fact, the ancients also conducted relevant textual research and research, among which the highest degree of recognition is that the living habits of animals determine the zodiac.