Yesterday, I published an article on the origin of the Chinese zodiac in the newspaper. I didn't expect it to be very high. In one day, I read more than 654.38+million, received nearly 300 comments and raised many valuable questions. Thank you. Now answer the questions that everyone is most concerned about in the comments.
The question that everyone is most concerned about is, what are the specific meanings of these animals in the zodiac? Why is it that only dragons are fictional and the other eleven are real? Because the article didn't give a specific answer, because many friends thought it was beside the point.
Yesterday's focus was on heavenly stems and earthly branches, mathematics, and more accurately, the evolution of the history and thought of mathematics. We do this because we seldom talk directly about animals themselves, because the essence of the zodiac is numbers, which are abstract rather than concrete, just like the twelve earthly branches and the ten heavenly stems.
For example, in the tradition of China, ten-day cadres are actually directly used as numbers, and the numbers of A, B and D are 1234. Even now, when we read A, B, C and D, we will naturally regard them as numbers, without thinking about the specific meanings of A, B, C and D beyond numbers.
The ugliness of children is equivalent to a, b, c and d, which is also a number, and it is also 1234. Similarly, rats, cows, tigers and rabbits are also four numbers, which are also 1234.
However, from a sensory point of view, because the Chinese zodiac is a specific animal, it is really difficult to understand them as numbers like 1234. Some people will ask why even numbers rank mice first and steak second, and they will take it for granted that the reason for this ranking lies in the characteristics of animals themselves, and then look for the answer.
This involves ancient history, deep thinking of human beings and the evolution of thinking. The most obvious is mathematics.
In the zodiac, there are actually two completely different mathematical forms and two completely different thinking. One kind of mathematics is "animal mathematics" and the other is "abstract mathematics". Animal mathematics is used to represent numbers, and abstract mathematics uses "1234" to represent numbers. These two mathematical forms correspond to two kinds of thinking, one is concrete and the other is abstract.
If we understand Judaism and later religions, we will know that they all have a core purpose: to oppose idolatry. It's hard for China people to really understand this, and it's hard to understand why these people take opposing idolatry so seriously and even kill people.
We will simply regard opposing idolatry as a problem. In fact, it is a question of thinking and mathematics. Idolatry is polytheism, that is, worshipping a specific god. These gods have concrete images, that is, idols, and then put them in God. At the same time, the types of gods are also five flowers, even including various animals, so they are called "polytheists".
Judaism, Christianity and Taoism are monotheistic religions and oppose idolatry. Their gods are abstract, with only concepts and ideas, and no idols. Those who have a specific god are polytheists. Therefore, the essential difference between "polytheism" and "monotheism" lies not in quantity, but in the essence of God, whether concrete or abstract.
Therefore, the fundamental difference between polytheism and monotheism is thinking and expression based on thinking. Expressed mathematically, it is the difference of mathematical forms. The polytheistic mathematics is "physical mathematics" including "animal mathematics", while the monotheistic mathematics is "abstract mathematics".
The last article has introduced the mathematics of ancient Babylon and "the mathematics of things". The calculation technology of ancient Babylonian mathematics is very developed, but the concepts of basic mathematics and number are very backward, and there is no independent abstract number. Their figures are specific and unit. There is no independent "one", only "one catty" and "one" together. At the same time, they also use various gods as numbers, especially in recording and expressing dates, that is, calendars, so another mathematical system using animal numbers appeared, and the animal calendar appeared.
To say that monotheistic mathematics is abstract and more concrete than polytheistic mathematics is by no means to say that abstract mathematics came into being with the evolution from polytheism to monotheism, but monotheism created abstract mathematics. On the contrary, it is not monotheism that creates abstract mathematics, but abstract mathematics creates abstract monotheism and monotheism.
Historically, the emergence of monotheism is the result of the transformation of polytheism by abstract thinking represented by abstract mathematics. And this process happened in China, which is the "Jedi Heaven Pass" recorded in Shangshu. I pointed this out in an article the other day and it was also published in the newspaper. Abstract thinking represented by abstract mathematics first appeared in China, that is, mathematics and thinking.
The dispute between idolatry and anti-idolatry between polytheism and monotheism is essentially a dispute between two kinds of thinking and two kinds of mathematical forms. Monotheism is not the creator of abstract thinking and abstract mathematics, but only human beings. Abstract thinking and abstract mathematics originated in China, because monotheism is the existence of China Thought. Therefore, the dispute between one god and many gods and the dispute between anti-idols and idols is the deepest dispute between China and the West. In the end, monotheism defeated polytheism, the essence of which was the victory of China's thinking. This is the real reason for the final disappearance of polytheistic civilizations in history, including the ancient two rivers civilization and the ancient Egyptian civilization.
Some friends may say, you are beside the point again. Obviously, the topic is about the zodiac. Why did it run again? I'm not digressing. In terms of its origin and essence, the ecliptic is not only a mathematical problem, but also a problem.
Modern people may take it for granted that mathematics is rational, but both are as hot as ice. In fact, in human history, mathematics and mathematics are integrated. I can give you some examples. In China, the higher god is the "One". What is "one"? It is not only a number, but also a god. Everyone knows Pythagoras in ancient Greece, and he is also considered a great mathematician. Modern people even think he is the "inventor" of abstract mathematics. In fact, he is a theologian and a great figure. The "one" in his eyes and the "one" in China's "Taiyi" are both digital gods. If he were still alive, he would be mad to know that he was called a "mathematician", because it means that he is an atheist, which is a great disrespect for God.
Of course, God has not been simplified into numbers, but mathematics is still regarded as a typical representative of God's wisdom and the incarnation of God. Because, at that time, mathematics was theology, and studying mathematics was studying God. Newton, whom we call the greatest man of modern times, devoted himself to this idea. Similarly, if he were still alive, he would be as crazy as Pythagoras when he learned that he was called a "mathematician" who insulted God.
Many people don't understand why Newton, as the greatest mathematician, was so obsessed with alchemy in his later years when he should have been very rational. In fact, Newton was "consistent in my way". In his eyes, mathematics and alchemy are the same, both studying the wisdom of God, and studying God is theology. It's just that modern people distinguish the two clearly.
Back to the zodiac. Why can I categorically judge that the ancient two rivers with animals as figures are completely contrary to the inherent tradition of China, and they have conflicting thinking in their eyes, so they can't coexist at the same time.
Because all the animals in the Zodiac are imported from China, and these animals are not real animals, but gods, it is meaningless to study these animals from the real animal attributes and their corresponding relationship with date and time. Because, to study these animals, we need to use theology, and it is the theology of the ancient two rivers. Therefore, in order to understand the true meaning of these animals, we must really understand their theological meaning, and we must understand the theology of the ancient two river basins. And this is impossible, and it doesn't matter.
In other words, among the two ancient rivers, the zodiac itself is also "the unity of gods and numbers", that is, the unity of gods and numbers. Since they are gods, although these animals have animal images, their essential connotation lies not in the animals themselves, but in the theological connotation they are endowed with. In this sense, these animal gods, in fact, also have abstract thinking factors, but the abstraction is incomplete or related to specific things.
In other words, although the zodiac is a real animal, its real connotation is fictional. It is in this sense that I said that "the zodiac" is an imaginary number. If we don't consider its theological connotation, then only the mathematical connotation is left, that is, the number symbol.
However, in China's zodiac, the dragon is a fictional animal, and the other eleven are real. In the context of China, dragons are fictional, and everything else is real. However, if we regard the zodiac as twelve kinds of animals, and these gods were introduced from two ancient rivers, it means that only the dragon is the real China, and other animal gods are directly introduced. For the imported gods, we can't know their theological connotation, because we don't know their theology, but for the gods designed by China, we understand, or we should understand, because the process of theological design took place in China.
It is in this sense that I said that only "dragon" is real, because it has real meaning to China, and the other eleven articles are empty, because they have no practical meaning to China.
But unfortunately, modern China only knows that dragons are very important and noble, and even says that they are descendants of dragons, but they don't know the specific meaning and truth of dragons. This has led to many hypotheses in academic circles, the most typical of which is totem theory.
In fact, the true meaning of the dragon is preserved in its Oracle Bone Inscriptions shape. Phoenix and Dragon are twin animals in China culture. Noble and fictional, it is often said repeatedly. The close relationship between phoenix and dragon is also reflected in its Oracle Bone Inscriptions glyph, which has the same glyph structure. This is completely invisible in modern Chinese character glyphs.
Limited by the space, I will not discuss the specific textual research process of the meanings of these glyphs, and draw a conclusion directly. The Oracle Bone Inscriptions shape of the dragon, the upper part, is either spicy or dry. The etymological meaning of Oracle Bone Inscriptions's Xin and Gan, my textual research conclusion is that they all refer to the book contract, Xin is a newly engraved book contract, and Gan refers to the book contract in a general sense, paying more attention to its physical form. Book deed and knot rope are two popular contract forms in China before the Spring and Autumn Period. A knot is a pair of knotted ropes, and a book deed is a pair of wood chips engraved with a deed.
The lower half of Oracle Bone Inscriptions's "Dragon" is very close to Oracle Bone Inscriptions's "Nine" and "Yan", and it is also a knot and the right rope of the knot. In the rope binding mechanism, the right rope refers to the rope held by the creditor, which is equivalent to modern IOUs, bonds and vouchers.
Therefore, the Oracle Bone Inscriptions-shaped dragon is composed of two forms of contract, namely, book contract and knot rope, and its essential meaning is contract. The Book of Changes: "In ancient times, the rule was based on knots, and later generations were followed by books. All officials ruled and all people kept it." This sentence better explains the "dragon", because the dragon is a combination of knots and books.
Oracle Bone Inscriptions's "Phoenix and Wind" glyph includes dragons, but it also has some extra structures. There are three kinds of redundant structures, one is branches swaying in the wind, the other is Oracle Bone Inscriptions's "fan", and the other is the water-character structure represented by four points. The meaning of these three additional structures is the same, which means that following the dragon can achieve world harmony, which is close to the "Kun" divination in Zhouyi. Wind and water refer to the consistency like wind and water. Everything is the same, that is to say, the world is one. So the whole glyph means contract with dragon.
In the tradition of the Middle Ages, "Dragon" is closely related to "Nine", such as "Water Control in Jiulong" and "Nine Children Born in Dragon".
It is also important to determine the meaning of the word "nine" by investigating other examples with the structure of "nine". The main meaning of "investigation" is exhaustive and diffuse. "Trajectory" means track. Why the car plus nine can represent the track, because nine is a knot, and this knot is exactly the same two ropes, and the track of the car is exactly the same. The meaning of "investigation" is obviously "nine" It can be inferred that the etymological meaning of "nine" means that when the creditor asks for payment with the rope on the right, the debtor will compare the rope on the left with the rope on the right and combine the two ropes to test whether they are the same. It also means that this rope is the original, and it is a real loan. This was once the "contract". And "nine" means that all the knots have been compared, and they are really the same. This also means that the contract execution is perfect.
The above is the related content of what is a genus incompatible with dragons, and it is about the sharing of mathematics. I watched the rabbit's zodiac, I hope this will help everyone!