We all know the five elements, metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.
We also know the twelve genera: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig.
The twelve earthly branches should also know: Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, and Hai.
We can find that the twelve genera actually correspond to our twelve earthly branches, so for the convenience of memory, the combination is: Zi Mouse, Ugly Ox, Yin Tiger, Mao Rabbit, Chen Long, Si Snake, Wu Ma, Wei Yang, Shen Monkey, Rooster, Hu Dog, Hai Pig.
With the above basic knowledge, we will then correspond the genus and the earthly branch to the five elements:
Genus: Pig and rat are water, tiger and rabbit are wood, snake and horse are fire, monkey and rooster are gold. Cows, dragons, sheep, and dogs belong to the earth.
Earthly branches: Hai and Zi belong to water, Yin and Mao belong to wood, Si and Wu belong to fire, and Shen and You belong to gold. Chou, Chen, Wei, and 戌 belong to the soil.
Mathematically, the number 12 cannot be divided into five equal parts in the form of an integer. Since it can't correspond to the five elements evenly, why should it be matched with four soils at once, which actually accounts for one-third of 12, is there any reason?
In fact, the problem of the 12 earthly branches corresponding to the five elements, the five elements themselves have also encountered, that is, how to correspond to the four seasons.
In terms of orientation, wood corresponds to the east, fire corresponds to the south, gold corresponds to the west, water corresponds to the north, and then earth corresponds to ** — this is completely understandable, not far-fetched. But how do the five elements correspond to the four seasons?Is it like adding another season like adding a "**?".
Not to mention, our ancestors really adopted this method.
Seasonally, wood corresponds to spring, fire corresponds to summer, metal corresponds to autumn, water corresponds to winter, and then earth corresponds to long summer. It can be said that this long summer is really pieced together out of thin air!So, how did you come up with it?
For the sake of calculation, let's consider a year as 360 days. If it is divided into four seasons equally, then spring, summer, autumn and winter are 90 days each. However, in order to leave time for the "soil", the last 18 days of the last month of spring, summer, autumn and winter are deducted from the "long summer", so that the spring, summer, autumn and winter are only 72 days, and the "long summer" is 4x18 equal to 72 days.
We all know that some months have 31 days, and the extra days are 365 days when combined with the magical February.
Now, Changxia has been formed, and "soil" naturally corresponds to this. However, the nature of the same 18 days, but different seasons, must be different. Therefore, the last 18 days of spring are corresponded to by Tatsuto, the last 18 days of summer are corresponded to by Mito, the last 18 days of autumn are corresponded to by Utsuto, and the last 18 days of winter are corresponded to by Choutu.
Because the "last 18 days" correspond to different seasons and contain the "residual qi" of the season, Tatsu and Chou are wet soil, and Wei and 戌 are dry soil. Among them, Chen is the yang damp soil, and the ugly is the yin and damp soil;It is a dry soil of yang, not a dry soil.
Chen, Shu, Chou, and Wei are also known as the land of the four libraries. Among them, "Chen" is a reservoir, "戌" is a fire reservoir, "Wei" is a wooden reservoir, and "ugly" is a vault.
Because of the one-to-one correspondence between the genus and the earthly branch, the ox (ugly), the dragon (Chen), the sheep (Wei), and the dog (戌) belong to the earth.
The above is the origin of the four five elements of the twelve earthly branches and the twelve genera, and the wisdom in them is sincerely admirable.