In China, a multi-ethnic country, the zodiac is not exclusive to the Han people. Many ethnic minorities use the twelve zodiac signs to record their years. First, let’s take a look at the comparison table of the twelve zodiac signs of various ethnic groups.
Comparison table of the twelve zodiac animals of various ethnic groups
Yi people in western Guangxi
Twelve animals: dragon, phoenix, horse, ant, human, chicken, dog, pig , bird, cow, tiger, snake
Yi people in Ailao Mountain
Twelve beasts: tiger, rabbit, pangolin, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig, Rat, ox
Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou Yi people
Twelve beasts: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig
p>Hainan Li Nationality
Twelve animals: chicken, dog, pig, rat, cow, insect, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey
Yunnan Dai Nationality
Twelve beasts: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, big snake, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, elephant
Guangxi Zhuang
Twelve beasts: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig
Mongolian
Twelve beasts: tiger, rabbit , dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig, rat, cow
, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig
Kirgiz tribe
Twelve beasts: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, fish, snake, horse, sheep, Fox, chicken, dog, pig
It can be seen from the above table that the zodiac signs of many ethnic minorities in my country, such as Mongolian, Zhuang, and some Yi people, are influenced by the Han people and are basically the same as the Han people. However, some ethnic groups have developed some variations while accepting the Han zodiac culture. The Yi people in Ailao Mountain use the pangolin to occupy the position of the dragon in the zodiac series; the Kirgiz people in Xinjiang use fish instead of the dragon in the zodiac series. A fox is used instead of a monkey; compatriots of the Li ethnic group in Hainan use twelve zodiac animals to mark the day, with chicken as the first sign and monkey as the tail; the Dai people living in the Xishuangbanna area use oxen instead of cattle and goats as sheep. Hai's zodiac sign is not pig but elephant. . It can be roughly seen from the above changes that when various ethnic groups choose the zodiac animals, due to different living environments and different species, they choose the closest animals as the zodiac animals, which brings certain differences to the zodiac culture. In addition to variations in the selection of zodiac animals, ethnic minorities have also developed their own different methods of counting years and dates, and have also produced many folk customs related to the zodiac.
(1) The Twelve Zodiac Signs of the Yi People in Liangshan
The Yi people use the Twelve Animal Calendar, also called the Twelve Zodiac Calendar. There are legends about the origin of the twelve zodiac signs (animal calendar) of the Yi people (see Wang Changfu's "Etiquette and Customs of the Yi People in Liangshan"). For the Yi people living in Liangshan area of ??Sichuan, the year, month and day are marked by rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Each animal name has one year, and one cycle lasts twelve years. There is a convenient formula for calculating years and ages: "One round is thirteen, two rounds are twenty-five, three rounds are thirty-seven, four rounds are four Nineteen, five rounds of sixty-one, six rounds of seventy-three..." and so on. The Yi people in Liangshan also use twelve zodiac animals to mark the year, including rat month, ox month, tiger month, rabbit month, dragon month, snake month, horse month, sheep month, monkey month, rooster month, dog month and pig month. Twelve months. The big month of each month has thirty days, and the small month has twenty-nine days. The big month and the small month are determined according to whether the moon of the previous month is fifteen or sixteen. The fifteen-round moon is a small moon and twenty-nine days, and the sixteen-round moon is a big moon. Thirty days. However, the first month used in different places is different. Some places use the Horse month as the first month, some places use the Sheep month as the first month, and some places use the Monkey month as the first month. The method of recording dates also uses twelve beasts. Twelve days form a cycle, which is not limited by years and months (including leap months). It can be postponed indefinitely and never ends.
The calendar of the twelve zodiac signs of the Yi people is also used in folk witchcraft for fortune-telling. The Yi people of Liangshan believe that people are closely related to the five elements of wood, fire, earth, iron and water. Man can only live in harmony with it, which is his destiny.
The destiny of human beings lies in the ten kinds of destiny formed by the combination of five elements and "male" and "mother", namely "wood male", "wood mother", "fire male", "fire mother" and "earth male". The harmony of "Tou Mu", "Tiegong", "Iron Mu", "Shui Gong" and "Jellyfish" is called "Te Bu Te Mo". "Te" means harmony, "Bu" means Yang, and "Te Bu Te Mo" means harmony. "Mo" is yin, and it is believed that the above ten fates are harmonious combinations of yin and yang. In addition, the ten kinds of destiny are matched with the twelve zodiac signs to form a "chronological periodic table", which is used to calculate people's destiny with a sixty-year periodic table.
The twelve zodiac signs of the Yi people are also used in marriage. The Yi people attach great importance to ethnicity, class and other conditions when choosing a mate and getting engaged. In addition, it is also important whether the birth dates of the man and woman are consistent. The folk formula is: " Rabbits, pigs and sheep go together, cows, snakes and chickens go together, dogs, horses and tigers go together, monkeys, dragons and rats go together. "Those who match the above formula are compatible. If they don't match, it's not very strict. The most taboo is for those born in the zodiac of tiger to be matched with those born in the year of chicken or sheep. "Tiger comes to eat chickens and sheep."
(2) The Twelve Zodiac Signs of the Dai Nationality
According to Mr. Zhang Gongjin’s point of view, around the time of the Han Dynasty, the Han people’s method of keeping track of the stems and branches was gradually introduced into the Dai area. This method of keeping track of the stems and branches It has been used to this day (see Zhang Gongjin's "Dai Culture", published by Jilin Education Press in 1986.) It is still an important part of the Dai calendar. The method is the same as that of the lunar calendar, which is to match the ten heavenly stems and the twelve earthly branches to form sixty years. These sixty numbers are used to record the years and days, and at the same time, the twelve earthly branches are used to record the months. Probably not long after the stems and branches were introduced into the Dai area, the twelve zodiac signs of the Han people were also introduced. The twelve zodiac animals of the Dai people are slightly different in different places. In Dehong area, they are exactly the same as those of the Han people. In Xishuangbanna, "pig" was changed to "elephant" , the dragon is a "big snake" or a "dragon", which is slightly different. The twelve zodiac animals used by the Dai people are rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, serpent, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and elephant.
In Xishuangbanna and other places, the twelve zodiac signs match the earthly branches and are used not only to mark the year, but also to mark the month and day, such as the year of the rat bone〖ZW(〗The "bone" in the Dai calendar is the year , "blood" is the moon, "skin" is the sun, ox bone in the Chou year, tiger bone in the Yin year; rabbit blood in April, snake blood in June, horse blood in July; monkey skin, You. Japanese chicken skin and so on…. It can be seen that after the twelve zodiac signs in the Han lunar calendar were absorbed into the Dai calendar, their use range is wider than that of the lunar calendar.
(3) Tibetan Zodiac Signs
Traditional belief is that the Tibetan zodiac chronology was brought over by Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty when she married Songtsen Gampo in the seventh century AD. According to the Tibetan zodiac, sixty years is a period of time, which is called "Huiteng" in Tibetan, which means wood rat. The Tibetan people's sixty years start from the year of the wood rat, which is equivalent to the year of the year of the Han people. The Tibetan zodiac calendar has the characteristics of integrating yin and yang, the five elements, and animals, so it is called "Yin Fire Rabbit Year", "Yang Earth Dragon Year", and "Yang Gold Monkey Year".
The specific coordination of the Tibetan zodiac chronology, yin and yang, and the five elements corresponds to the ten heavenly stems, with A and B as wood, Bing and Ding as fire, Wu and Ji as earth, Geng and Xin as gold, and Ren and Gui as water. Of the above five pairs, the former in each pair is Yang and the latter is Yin. Although the Tibetan calendar does not clearly indicate the heavenly stems and earthly branches, it implies the order of the stems and branches. In addition, in the Tibetan calendar, male and female are used instead of yin and yang. For example, the yin year of the Golden Ox is also called the female year of the Taurus, and the yang year of the water tiger is also called the male year of the water tiger.
(4) The twelve zodiac signs of the Naxi people
The Naxi people are an ethnic minority living in Yunnan Province and are a branch of the ancient Qiang people. The Naxi people also use the zodiac to mark their days, with a unique method and directions. They divided the twelve months of the year into big and small months, with 30 days in each month. The first day of a single month is the monkey day. According to monkey, rooster, dog, pig, rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, In the order of Horse and Sheep, the 29th day of a single month is the Rat day; when entering a double month, the first day of the double month is separated by the Ox day and is designated as the Tiger day, and then in the order of Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep... ...In order, the last day of the double month should be the Sheep day; and then into the single month, the first day of the single month should be the Monkey day, and the day after the Sheep day should be the Monkey day. There is no need to skip the zodiac sign. ? The Naxi people are very particular about choosing a mate and naming their children, especially the meaning of the zodiac in their nomenclature.