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The Myth and Folklore of the Pig Zodiac

Pig Mythology and Folklore

A pig ranks last in the Chinese zodiac, and it belongs to the genus “Hai” with the twelve lands, so “Hai Shi” at twelve o’clock in the day is called “Pig Shi” from 9:00 to 11:00 in the evening. Pig is the material”.

From 9 to 11 o’clock in the evening (ie “Hai” time), pigs sleep the most soundly at this time, the snoring is the loudest, the muscles of the whole body tremble the most, and the meat grows the fastest, so the Hai Shi belongs to the pig.

Pigs are one of the six animals. The relationship between Chinese people and pigs is extraordinary. Most of people’s meat comes from pigs. The whole body of the pig is a treasure, which is used by people. As an agricultural country, pigs have an indissoluble bond with hundreds of millions of farmers. People recommend twelve kinds of animals as zodiac signs, and naturally they will use the animals that are closest to their lives to represent them. Of course, it is a matter of course for the pig to become the zodiac sign.

There is also a folk legend about the pig being the zodiac sign. In ancient times, there was a member outside the family, the family wealth was huge, the fertile land was thousands of hectares, but he had no children under his knees. Who knew that when he was approaching his sixtieth year, he had a son. The family rejoices, the relatives and friends congratulate, and there is a large banquet outside the members to celebrate the successor. At the time of the feast, a physiognomist came to the child and saw that the child had a wide forehead, a big face, wide ears and moles, a full sky, white and fat, and he concluded that the child must be a person of great blessing and great honor.

This fat boy, Fu Lisheng and Fuli Xiao, has only been able to stretch out his hands since he was a child, and open his mouth to eat. Little did he know that after the child grew up, his parents died, his family declined, his property was sold, and his servants scattered. The fat boy continued to live a life of spending money, until he finally died of starvation in his room. After his death, the fat boy was haunted, and went to the underworld to complain to the King of Hell, saying that he was born rich and noble, and he couldn’t die in such a bleak way.

The King of Hell brought this ghost to the Jade Emperor in the sky, and asked the Jade Emperor to judge. The Jade Emperor summoned the Kitchen God in the world and asked how the rich and noble man could starve to death in the room. Not doing farming, sitting on empty mountains, squandering and profligate behaviors report one by one.

When the Jade Emperor heard this, he was furious, and ordered the officials to obey the order, and asked the fat boy to wait and see. The Jade Emperor said: “Although your fate is good, but you are lazy, I will punish you as a pig and eat rough chaff.” This time coincides with Tiangong is picking zodiac signs. On this day, the officials of the palace took “eat chaff” as “as the zodiac”. Immediately, the fat boy was brought down to the world. From then on, the fat boy became a pig, which not only ate rough chaff, but also became a zodiac sign.

Another said that pigs became the zodiac sign by their own efforts. On the day when the zodiac was arranged in the Tiangong, the Jade Emperor stipulated that they must arrive at the Tiangong at a certain time, and the twelve animals that arrived first were selected as the zodiac signs. , then got up in the middle of the night and rushed to line up to be the zodiac sign.

Due to the long distance and many obstacles, the pigs were desperately trying to climb to Nantianmen, but the time to arrange the zodiac had passed, but the pigs begged hard, and the other six animals also begged for mercy, and finally moved the gods and put the pigs into Nantianmen, Be the last zodiac sign. In this way, horses, cattle, sheep, chickens, dogs, and pigs “six animals” have become the zodiac signs in the world.

All major sacrifices of the Han nationality must use pig sacrifices, and the pig head is the most important, commonly known as “pig head three animals”.

Wugu people’s “New Year’s Miscellaneous Songs”: “Hangzhou custom, worship the gods at the end of the year and the pig’s head… Those who choose wrinkles like the character for longevity are called ‘pig’s head with longevity'”. Nowadays, in the twelfth lunar month of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, pickled salty pig heads are still stocked as New Year’s goods. Cantonese people love to use roasted pigs to worship their ancestors on Qingming Festival. As the saying goes, “everyone has a share of pork that is too big”, which describes the whole family sharing the offerings after the sacrifice.

Shaanxi has a wedding custom of sending pig’s trotters. The day before the wedding, the man will send four catties of pork and a pair of pig trotters, which is called “gift hanging”, and the woman will return the pig’s front trotter. Hoofs come, hooves go.” The Han Manchus in the Northeast also have marriage “li Niang meat”. At the wedding of the Blang people in Xishuangbanna, the two men and women use bamboo poles to string pork and distribute it to each family to show their “flesh and blood relationship”.

In the past, in Sichuan, where there were unfortunate illnesses, the elders in the family set up incense cases to beat the sow ghost, offering sacrifices to exorcise the evil spirits. When offering sacrifices, choose the auspicious day of the zodiac, kill the old sows, put their internal organs in the main room, and eat them after the sacrifice.