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The Myth and Folklore of the Sheep Zodiac
The Myth and Folklore of the Sheep Zodiac
Sheep is the eighth place in the Chinese zodiac, and it belongs to “Wei” with the twelve lands. Therefore, the “Wei Shi” of twelve o’clock in the day – from 1:00 to 3:00 in the afternoon is also called “Sheep Shi”. The Yi Gua means “Dui as a sheep”. In the five elements, sheep belong to fire, so they are fire animals.
From 1 to 3 p.m. (i.e., “Wai Shi”), it is said that sheep urinate most frequently at this time, and the urine can cure a kind of madness. Therefore, Wei Shi is a sheep.
In Chinese folklore, the sheep is as great as Prometheus in Greek mythology. Prometheus was sent to power for stealing fire from the sky, and the sheep sacrificed his life for stealing grain and seeds for the world. righteous. In the ancient Hongpan era, there were no grains in the world. Humans lived on vegetables and weeds. Severe malnutrition made them pale and hungry.
One autumn, a divine sheep came to the mortal world from the Heavenly Palace, and found that the human face was pale and sluggish. When I asked why, I realized that human beings don’t grow food, and they don’t even know what food is. Shenyang was very kind, and immediately told people to bring them some seeds next time. It turned out that at that time, only the Tiangong Royal Field was planted with nutritious food. The stingy Jade Emperor was reluctant to share the delicious food with humans.
After Shenyang returned to the Tiangong, he sneaked into the imperial field in the middle of the night while the guardian deity was asleep, plucked the five grains (rice, millet, wheat, beans, and hemp), put them in his mouth, and slipped into the mortal world before dawn. Humans were very curious when they heard that the Shenyang had brought them five grains and seeds. Shenyang gave the seeds to the human beings, and instructed the method of planting the five grains, and quietly returned to the Heavenly Palace.
Humans sowed five grains and seeds, and crops grew in the same year. When harvesting, humans see the ears of five grains, which are like sheep’s heads and tails. The harvested grains are fragrant and sweet, and the harvested linen clothes are light and warm. After harvesting in autumn and winter, people held grand sacrificial ceremonies to thank the gods for their kindness in sending seeds. This kind of peasant ancestor worship ceremony of autumn harvest and winter storage is still held in some rural areas.
The ceremony of offering sacrifices to the sheep with fire alarmed the Jade Emperor, and the Jade Emperor thought of the appearance of five grains in the world. Immediately thought of Shenyang bringing Gu Ge to the world. After finding out the situation, the Jade Emperor angered Shenyang and ordered Tiangong to slaughter the sheep in the human world, and asked people to eat the mutton. In the second year, a strange thing happened.
In the place where the sheep was like, grass first grew, and then lambs grew. Since then, the sheep have been passed down from generation to generation in the world, living by eating grass and selflessly using their meat and milk. Dedicated to human beings, human beings hold sacrificial offerings every year to commemorate the sacrifice of sheep.
When human beings heard that the Jade Emperor wanted to pick twelve animals for the human zodiac and bestow them as gods, people unanimously recommended the sheep as this zodiac. Although the Jade Emperor was brooding about the sheep stealing the valley, it was difficult for everyone to agree, and he had to agree that the sheep became the zodiac sign.
Fish and sheep are “fresh”, and sheep are the staple food popular in the north. Roasted whole lamb is a famous dish of Mongolian and Uyghur nationalities. Whole sheep table refers to cooking dishes with different colors, aromas and shapes with mutton. There are 44 kinds of dishes in the folk, 66 kinds in the officialdom, and 76 kinds in the emperor’s whole sheep table.
Sheep is also an important raw material for clothing. In addition to clothing, sheep fur is also used to make bedding, hats, shoes, boots, blankets, felts and other decorations.
The sheep’s head is popular among the Kazakh people in Xinjiang. The host prepares the sheep’s head to greet the guests. The guests first cut the sheep’s head with a knife, cut the rib meat for the elders, then cut the sheep’s ears for the young, and then cut a piece for themselves. [58] The game of “grabbing the sheep” is popular among ethnic groups in the Western Regions. The riders are divided into several teams and compete for the sheep several hundred meters away.
In the old days of Hebei in the sixth and seventh month of the lunar calendar, grandfather and uncle sent live sheep to the little nephew, and later changed to the noodle sheep. Legend has it that Chenxiang split the mountain to save his mother.
