As an important part of China's excellent traditional culture, zodiac culture has a history of thousands of years. At the time of the Year of the Tiger, researchers interpreted many animal names, including ten zodiac animals, from the jian mu excavated from the tomb of Liu He, the Marquis of Haixia in the Han Dynasty in Nanchang, of which the tiger appeared four times.
Jian Mu includes Bamboo Jane, Wooden Jane, Bamboo Stick and Wood Stick, which is one of the main forms of ancient Chinese books and a "priceless treasure" in archaeological discoveries. In November 2015, a batch of Jian Mu was excavated from the tomb of Liu He, the Marquis of Haidian, and more than 5,200 bamboo Janes were stripped out after preliminary protection treatment. The cultural preservation restoration work of Zhu Jian is still continuing, and the research team of Hai Di Jian Mu is simultaneously interpreting the text through infrared scan photos. At present, a number of Confucian documents such as the Analects, the Book of Rites, and the Book of Filial Piety have been sorted out, which is a major discovery of excavated classic documents. Relevant documents from the period of Liu Heren Changyi and Marquis Haidi were also found in Zhujian, which provided new physical materials for the study of the Western Han Dynasty king and the hierarchy of hou, as well as the education, culture, and cultivation of the upper class.
Lai Zulong, a member of the research team and a researcher at the Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, said that the batch of bamboo janes that found the zodiac animals was named "Yi" Jian because of the same yin and yang symbols, sixty-four gua gua order, and seasons, directions, months and other information that appeared in the content as today's "Zhou Yi". It is speculated that the ancients combined this information to perform divination and auspiciousness. What is more interesting is that ten species of zodiac animals appeared, namely: rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, sheep, chickens, pigs; monkeys did not appear, but scorpions (long-tailed apes) appeared, and dogs disappeared.
Lai Zulong said that the origin of the zodiac signs is still a mystery. The earliest excavated document that has so far been found to link zodiac animals to the twelve branches of the earth is the Sleeping Tiger Di Qin Jian in Hubei Province, many of which use divination to speculate on the physical characteristics of thieves. Experts believe that the zodiac system may have existed in the pre-Qin period, but the twelve animals have not yet been fixed. The earliest document that records the same lineage as today's zodiac sign is Wang Chong's "On Balance" of the Eastern Han Dynasty, which dates back more than 1900 years.
The discovery of Yi Jian has given people a clearer understanding of the evolution of the zodiac, and the zodiac system existed in the Western Han Dynasty but was not fully shaped.
Li Zero, a member of the research team and a professor of humanities at Peking University, wrote in the article "Preliminary Interpretation of the Book of Yi Zhan" in the Sea Dusk Bamboo Book that in the past, most people thought that the thirty-six birds were the expansion and supplement of the zodiac, that is, twelve branches in December, and then divided into Meng Zhongji every month, thus constituting the number of thirty-six. Now it seems that the zodiac is gradually developed and shaped by thirty-six birds.
"The twelve animals that match the twelve branches of the earth gradually evolved into the twelve zodiac signs of people and things like society in the process of easy occupation." Lai Zulong said. After comparing the "Yi" Jian with the Sleeping Tiger Qin Jian and the Fang Ma Tan Qin Jian and the Kong Jia Po Han Jian, he speculated that rats, cows, tigers, rabbits, chickens, and pigs were determined as the zodiac signs around the time of the Qin and Han Dynasties, and that dragons, snakes, horses, and sheep should have been determined in the early Western Han Dynasty, and the latest determination may be monkeys and dogs.
In the above four documents, the "Yi" Jian of Haixia is the latest, in addition to the zodiac animals, there are also "leopards, fish, jackals, wolves, jiao, geese" which belong to the thirty-six birds, as well as "mantises (larvae of the scarab beetle), cranes, partridges (roe deer), finches" and other animals that do not appear in the zodiac and thirty-six birds. These records once again confirm that today's zodiac signs are repeatedly screened and shaped from many animals.
Archaeology is about filling in or correcting history, but it also often leads to new puzzles. For example, why does the tiger appear more frequently in the "Yi" Jian of the Sea Dusk, and does it represent its status as the king of all beasts?
Draft: Wang Wei
A "Yi" jian of hai di with "tiger" in the content (provided by Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology)
Reporter: Yuan Huijing, Thoughtful