Ancient Chinese Zodiac Calendar
The chinese animal zodiac or sheng xiao in pinyin literally translated as born resembling is rather interestingly a rotating cycle of 12 years with each year being represented by an animal and its reputed attributes. Originating from china the zodiac and its variations remain popular in many east asian and southeast asian countries such as japan south korea vietnam cambodia and thailand.
A year is divided into 12 period and each period has an animal assigned to it.
Ancient chinese zodiac calendar. The zodiac was based on chinese astrology and was used as a way to count years months days and hours in the calendar. Chinese astrology came to flourish during the han dynasty. This calendar can be traced back to the 14th century b c.
But there are not any real animals in the chinese zodiac. The shang oracle bones give evidence of a lunisolar calendar which has been much modified but persists to this day. The chinese calendar s origins can be traced as far back as the 14th century bce.
Originated from ancient zoolatry and boasting a history of more than 2 000 years it plays an essential role in chinese culture. However it was in 104 bc during the rule of emperor wu of the han dynasty that the current calendar was defined. The actual history behind the chinese zodiac is much less fantastical and much harder to find.
It is believed that the emperor huangdi huang ti or huang di introduced the calendar between 3000 and 2600 bce or around 2637 bce. Identifying this scheme using the generic term zodiac reflects sever. Over the years the chinese zodiac developed into a superstitution a way to tell the future by knowing when you were.
Chinese astrology is based on the traditional astronomy and calendars. Myths say that emperor huangdi the first chinese emperor in 2637 b c. The chinese zodiac was invented to simplify timekeeping in ancient china.
The lunar calendar has an animal ruling each year month day and hour called the four pillars. It is the same chinese calendar that is used today. Chinese astrology has a close relation with chinese philosophy and uses the principles of yin and yang and concepts that are not found in western astrology such as the wuxing the ten heavenly stems the twelve earthly branches the lunisolar calendar and the time calculation after year month day and shichen.
The chinese calendar was developed by many of the chinese dynasties of ancient china. Scientifically speaking the chinese zodiac could be said of as a way of dividing the jupiter year because it takes 12 years for jupiter to complete one orbit the sun. The word zodiac means circle of animals.
The chinese zodiac known as sheng xiao or shu xiang features 12 animal signs in this order. Rat ox tiger rabbit dragon snake horse sheep monkey rooster dog and pig. It s known from pottery artifacts that the animals of the zodiac were popular in the tang dynasty 618 907 a d but they were also seen much earlier from artifacts from the warring states period 475 221 b c a period of disunity in ancient chinese history as differing factions fought for control.
This calendar was called the taichu calendar. Chinese zodiac ancient china for kids. Invented the chinese lunar calendar which follows the cycles of the moon.
The chinese zodiac is a classification scheme based on the lunar calendar that assigns an animal and its reputed attributes to each year in a repeating 12 year cycle. The 12 year cycle is an approximation to the 11 85 year orbital period of jupiter.
