rat

rat

Hamster, one of the twelve zodiac, the first of the earthly branches. Mice are small, agile and flexible, and they have the strongest courage and the most frequent activities.

There are three main reasons why rats rank first in the list of Chinese zodiac: first, the arrangement of Chinese zodiac in folklore. Second, ancient Chinese scholars explained the relationship between the earthly branches and the animals from the perspective of the ancient day and night. Third, according to the Chinese belief in Yin and Yang, twelve kinds of animals are divided into yin and Yang. The Yin and Yang of animals are arranged according to the odd and even differences of their toes. Animals usually have the same number of left and right toes, while rats only have four front feet and five back feet. They are odd and even in the same body.

Basic introduction

rat

Pinyin: SH ǔ

Liu Zongyuan, a writer of the Tang Dynasty, wrote a fable about a man who was born in the year of his son, "rat, son God, because he loves rat.". Another example similar to the characters in Liu Zongyuan's fable can be seen in the copy of Echinochloa crusgalli: "what's the surname of Yancheng? The owner thinks that he is meant to be a rat, but he is not a cat. When he sees a rat, he is forbidden to be caught. For a long time, rats have a lot of interest, and they are not afraid of people

In history, there was a day for mice to marry women. Generally on the 25th night of the first lunar month, every household does not light the light. The whole family sits on the Kang of the main hall, silent, eating "mouse claws" and other food made of flour in the dark. The purpose of silence is to provide convenience for the mouse to marry her, so as not to offend the mouse and bring hidden trouble to the next year. Taiwan residents believe that the third day of junior high school is a small year. It is said that the night of the third day of junior high school is the wedding day of mice. The folk paper-cut saying "mice get married" is a reflection of this belief. Therefore, if people do not light the lights at night, they scatter rice and salt on the ground. People have to go to bed in the morning, which does not affect the happy event of mice.

In the old days, there was a custom of avoiding mice in Shanghai. When a mouse goes out to look for food, it falls to the ground, which is called "rat failure". It is said that most of the people who see it are unlucky. They die of disease and must be solved. The method is to beg for white rice along the street, which is called baijiami. When you go home to cook, you can dissolve it after eating.

In Jianghan plain area of Hubei Province, the first night is regarded as the day when a mouse marries a girl, which is commonly known as "rat adds a box". On that day, every family should put the cakes with flowers in the dark. It is forbidden to pound rice and grind noodles. Adults and children are not allowed to make noise. If rats are disturbed, they will make trouble in the coming year. In some areas of Qinghai, there is a custom of "steaming blind mice". Every year on the 14th day of the first month of the lunar calendar, every family uses flour to make twelve mice. They do not pinch their eyes. Then they steam them in a steamer. When the Lantern Festival comes, they set up a supply table and light a lamp to burn incense. They beg the mice to only eat grass roots and not hurt the crops, so as to ensure a good harvest this year. On the first day of the first lunar month, the Korean people will carry out the folk activities of rat fire on this day. Farmers' children scattered straw on the ridge and lit it to achieve the goal of Burning Weeds and driving voles away. This folk activity is conducive to killing rats and insects, and plant ash can also fertilize the field. In addition, ziri is a rat, which burns a smoky rat fire on this day. Its symbolism makes people get psychological satisfaction.

Zodiac

Rat man

Year of birth

：1924、1936、1948、1960、1972、1984、1996、2008、2020

The origin of history

It is said that one day the Jade Emperor will arrange the twelve Chinese zodiac animals, and set the order of ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig and cat. The Jade Emperor asked them to come second the next day. At that time, the cat and the mouse were good friends. The cat said to the mouse, "tomorrow, you should wake me up early. I am one of the twelve zodiac animals. Tomorrow, I will go to heaven." The mouse agreed.

The next day, the mouse woke up. Instead of waking up the cat, he went to heaven. At that time, it was time for the Jade Emperor to rank in the order of ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig and cat. The Jade Emperor asked the animals if they had any opinions, but the mouse raised an objection: "I don't think cats should be chosen. He doesn't respect you at all. You see, he's still sleeping. He doesn't pay any attention to the arrangement of the zodiac The Jade Emperor saw that the cat was really sleeping! In a rage, he decided never to allow the cat to go to heaven again. At the same time, he put the mouse in place of the cat. The mouse said again: "I must be in the first place!" "Why? Do you contribute more than cattle?" "People think I'm much bigger than a cow." The Jade Emperor had no choice but to let people judge. People from the world to the clouds say, "Oh! What a big cow Then they saw the mice standing on the cow's head and said, "what a big mouse! It's bigger than a cow The Jade Emperor had to put the mouse first.

There are three main reasons why rats rank first in the list of Chinese zodiac animals

One is the arrangement of zodiac in folklore. According to a folk story of the Han nationality, Emperor Xuanyuan wanted to choose twelve animals to serve as palace guards. The cat asked the mouse to sign up, but the mouse forgot. As a result, the cat was not elected, so he made enemies with the mouse. The elephant also came to the competition, and was chased away by the mouse. The rest of the animals, originally led by the cow, but the mouse ran to the cow's back, and the pig followed suit, so the mouse ranked first and the pig ranked last. The tiger and the Dragon did not agree. They were named the king of the mountain and the king of the sea, behind the rat and the ox. The rabbit didn't accept it and ran with the dragon. As a result, he was ahead of the dragon. The dog was angry and bit the rabbit, so he was punished in the penultimate. Snake, horse, sheep, monkey and chicken also went through some competition and arranged their positions one by one, and finally formed the order of rat, cow, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog and pig. Legend is not a scientific explanation of the problem, but it reflects people's desire to explain the choice of the zodiac.

Second, ancient Chinese scholars explained the relationship between the earthly branches and the animals from the perspective of the ancient day and night. When it's dark and chaotic, rats come out to move in the middle of the night, biting the chaotic state between the heaven and the earth out of the gap, "rats bite the sky", so they belong to rats.

Third, according to the Chinese belief in Yin and Yang, twelve kinds of animals are divided into yin and Yang. The Yin and Yang of animals are arranged according to the odd and even differences of their toes. Animals usually have the same number of left and right toes, while rats only have four front feet and five back feet. They are odd and even in the same body.

symbolic meaning

The first symbolic meaning of the rat is spirituality, which includes its dexterity and performance channeling.

The rat is sensitive to smell, timid and suspicious, and has high vigilance. In addition, its body is very dexterous, and it runs like flying through the wall and over the wall. It also has two other abilities: from tens of meters or even hundreds of meters high, the roof of the building is attached to the ground, it turns around and gasps like nothing. It can do whatever it wants to do, and there is absolutely no worry about its life. Although it is not water, it is lively However, the narrow ditch and shallow water pond can't stop it. In order to survive, it can drill several meters at the bottom of the water without any damage.

So it's a waste of effort to fall or drown the mice. People often use "better than a mouse" to describe someone's shrewd and clever. The shrewd of a mouse has become a standard of analogy. It can be seen that its cleverness has reached a considerable level, just as people will say "better than Mercedes Benz" rather than "better than Volga" when they describe a car with excellent quality. Similarly, to describe a person's quick action and timely response, we often say that he is "as fickle as a mouse". It is also believed that rats are psychic and can predict good or bad luck.

In fact, rats are born in nature and grow up in nature. It's normal for them to respond to the unexpected events that will happen in nature, such as earthquake, flood, drought, locust plague, etc. This is a special instinct of the earth creatures, but some of their knowledge is limited to human beings, and their mystery and laws have not been revealed. On the eve of the Tangshan earthquake, people were surprised to find that rats were running out of the suburbs, or huddled in the streets and other relatively open places in groups. It is not clear what this sign implies. Similar things must have happened many times in ancient times, so mice became psychic gods in human mind. We can get a glimpse of it through Duke Zhou's explanation of Guan rat in his dream.

The second symbolic meaning of rats is strong vitality.

One is its strong fecundity and high survival rate. For example, a mother mouse can produce 5 to 10 pups per fetus in a natural state, with a maximum of 24 pups. The gestation period is only 21 days. The mother mouse can get pregnant again on the day of delivery. After 30-40 days of development, the pups mature, and the females join the ranks of reproduction. In this way, the mother mouse can have about 5000 children a year, and the number of grandsons, granddaughters, great sons and great grandchildren is beyond calculation. According to research, there is a unique chemical substance in the body of the mother rat, which can stimulate the male rat to prostrate under its "pomegranate skirt" forever. This is probably one of the reasons why the rat kingdom can give birth and raise. Therefore, the folk nickname the good mother of children as "Rat fetus" or "rat belly", which is stronger than its fertility.

Rats have high survival rate and long life span. If they are not attacked by natural enemies cats or large-scale exterminations by human beings, most of them will be able to enjoy their old age, die, and have a full family, which is beyond the reach of other animals.

Cultural customs

Stories about rats

Tang dynasty

Liu Zongyuan, a litterateur, wrote a fable about a man who was born in the year of his son, "rat, son, God, because he loves rat.". Another example similar to the characters in Liu Zongyuan's fable can be seen in the copy of Echinochloa crusgalli: "what's the surname of Yancheng? The owner thinks that he is meant to be a rat, but he is not a cat. When he sees a rat, he is forbidden to be caught. For a long time, the rat is big

Chinese PinYin : Shu