Do you know about Zodiac culture?
The zodiac (shi ai sheng xiao) takes twelve, which coincides with the ancient people's inductive understanding of natural phenomena.
The ancients divided the stars near the ecliptic and equator into "28 stars". Twenty eight constellations represent one kind of animal respectively. In ancient times, the Zhou Tian was divided into twelve parts, represented by twelve Branches, and the twelve dominates the zodiac, which has a corresponding relationship with the twenty-eight stars. Wang Ying, a great scholar in the Ming Dynasty, believed that 28 kinds of animals belonged to 28 stars and "dominated by seven Yao", forming a pattern of "female earth bat, virtual sun mouse, dangerous moon swallow and Zi Ye". Li Changqing of the Qing Dynasty believed in the "Song Xia Guan Fu Yan" that the 28 constellations are matched with animals "that is, the first 12 genera are doubled", "the golden dragon, the Chen official, and the horned wood Jiao are attached to Yan. The Jiao and the dragon are also", which reflects the collection of 28 kinds of constellations based on the 12 zodiac signs. However, it is inevitable that there will be a supplementary meeting. The records of 28 stars with animals are later than the 12 zodiac.
Chinese ancestors felt the cycle of alternating cold and heat, and plants withered and flourished, which was called "one year old". The moon's profit and loss cycle is also related to "year-old" - twelve full moons are exactly one year old. Using Jupiter as the annual cycle, the "year star" orbits for exactly 12 years. "Zhou Li, chunguan, Feng Xiangshi" said: "the palm ten has two years old, ten has two months, and ten has two hours". In addition to counting the year and month, twelve is also used to measure the hour.
Twelve are also often used in other areas. "Zuo Zhuan · the seventh year of AI Gong" contains that "the king of Zhou also made the things on the letter, but only twelve. It is thought that the number of heaven is also great." According to the records in Mandarin · Jinyu IV, "there are 25 cases of the son of the Yellow Emperor, and 14 of them have surnames, which are 12 surnames". "Later Han Dynasty · biography of Gou Shuang" said: "so the son of heaven married twelve women, and the number of days is also. There are equal differences among the princes below."
"Twelve celestial phenomena" is also a general term for weather in ancient times, namely darkness, overcast, rain, snow, ice, fog, dew, frost, wind, sand, thunder and electricity "Twelve Meridians" is the cognition of traditional Chinese medicine on human meridians; Ancient music has "Twelve laws"; There are "Twelve foods" in diet; There are "Twelve clothes".