中国生肖（英）_洋洋兔编绘_9787508550435

中国人习惯用生肖来计算年龄，而且这一习惯已延续上千年了。生肖陪伴人们那么久，由它回望古代先民，能看到生活智慧的光芒。本书从生肖的来历、排名开始，再分别介绍十二生肖。十二生肖，一个生肖一年，十二年轮回，正体现着古时的天文历法、岁时礼俗。而每一个生肖又有自己的历史、不同时代的不同作用以及人们赋予的文化内涵。Chinese people are used to count age by the zodiac animals, and this is a habit thousands of years old. Through the time-honored Chinese zodiac, we can catch a glimpse of the ancient wisdom in everyday life. Starting from the origin and the order of the zodiac, this book introduces and digs deep into the twelve zodiac. Each animal represents a year, and each has its own history, function and cultural meanings in different times. Altogether, the twelve animals form a twelve-year cycle, reflecting the astronomical calendar and cultural customs of our ancestors in the river of time.

Vivid Calendar, Best WishesThe Chinese zodiac is a classification scheme pairing an animal with a lunar year in a 12-year cycle. The zodiac animals include the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. Still in use today, it serves as a year mark of ones year of birth and age. Personally speaking, zodiac animals are integrated into peoples daily life. They are commonly used in address terms showing politeness when people introduce their family members and themselves. Moreover, the characteristics of each animal are believed to predict the personality traits of the person born that year, so relevant words and phrases are carefully selected to carry peoples best wishes for their beloved ones.The Chinese zodiac is an innovation of the ancient Stems-and-Branches system to get it closer to peoples life. As early as in the pre-Qin period (before 221 B.C), the system was established, comprising of ten Heavenly Stems, namely Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui and twelve Earthly Branches, namely Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, and Hai. Each heavenly stem was paired with an earthly branch in a certain sequence to represent one year, altogether forming a compound cycle of sixty years. Useful they may be, they were hard to pronounce and recognize. For the sake of convenience, people selected eleven livestock and beasts commonly seen in work and life, added with the dragon, the most representative legendary creature of the Chinese nation, as the alternative of the twelve earthly branches in daily communications. Each year was assigned with the corresponding animal in its sexagenary order, and was known as the year of that sign. Through thousands of years of integration with astrology, Taoism, legends and other knowledge, the Chinese zodiac has gone through numerous changes in types and sequence of the animal signs. It was not until the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD) in Wang Chongs classic, Lun Heng that the twelve signs of the zodiac and the order of their positions that we use today were finally established.In Chinese, the Chinese zodiac is sheng xiao. By definition, sheng means birth, and xiao resemblance. Put together, sheng xiao indicates that people are similar to the animal sign of their birth year in terms of mien, temperament, and characters. Such analogy expresses peoples blessings for the new born, and also reflects the open-mindedness and tolerance embedded in Chinese culture: men are born different, but are equally great.Over time, people have been fascinated by the Chinese zodiac, which has been given multiple meanings and enriched by literature and arts. Themed on the Chinese zodiac, countless poems were created, and touching stories were recorded in the folklore. Meanwhile, combined with divination, the Chinese zodiac also guided peoples living style and habits at that time through traditional customs. Via the Chinese zodiac, we are able to pass on the essence of Chinese traditional culture, and draw on the folk wisdom that has passed the test of history. Start reading now, if youre ready for stories full of wit and the Chinese culture deep and profound.LI Yeping

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