十二生肖:地支用字的“反象形”

The Twelve Chinese Zodiac Animals:the“counter hieroglyphy”of the Chinese characters used in the Twelve Earthly Branches

十二生肖是与十二支相配使用的十二种动物。十二支又称地支、十二辰,本义是一年中的十二个月。干支组合最早用于官方纪日,后被民间用于纪年。由于文字长期只被极少数人掌握,为便于记忆,人们以字形为基础,“反象形”出一些常见的动物,后经不断演化、优化而成十二生肖。十二生肖没有用于纪时的记载,故生肖动物十二时辰习性之说不可信。十二生肖是我国劳动人民的智慧创造,并非由西域传入。

The twelve zodiac animals are the twelve animals that match the twelve earthly branches.The twelve earthly branches are also called terrestrial branch and“twelve Chen”,which is meant to be twelve months of the year.It was first used for the official counting of the date,and later used for the counting of the year among the people.Because the Chinese characters have been mastered by only a few people for a long time,some common“counter pictograph”animals has been evolved for better memory among the common people.There is no record of the twelve zodiac animals used to record the time,so it's unlikely that the zodiac is related to their habits at the twelve hours.The zodiac is the wisdom of the laboring people in our country,and it was not introduced from the western countries.