From a cultural point of view, the key to the occurrence of human civilization is the invention of plant cultivation and animal feeding. If human beings can't grow plants and keep animals, they will always be in the primitive stage of fishing and hunting, and civilization will not come into being.

The transition from predatory fishing and hunting production to productive agriculture and animal husbandry production is a great revolution of human society. This great revolution has brought great changes to human society, and the lifestyle has also begun to transition from vagrants to settlers, thus gradually bidding farewell to the instinctive production activities and lifestyles left over from the animal kingdom.

The myth of "Five Sheep Holding the Valley" is said to have happened in the Zhou Dynasty, when China began to enter a civilized society and animal husbandry was very developed. The entry of the Chinese nation into a civilized society cannot be separated from the material foundation. In China, firstly, the development of animal husbandry domesticated sheep at the earliest time, thus solving the problems of hunger and good food for our ancestors.

From eating fish to eating sheep, it is the material embodiment of the progress of Chinese food civilization. Therefore, sheep are the most important to the activities and life of the ancestors of the Yellow Emperor. From the time of fishing and hunting, when wild animals were the main food source, to knowing how to adopt, with the accumulation of prey entering the animal husbandry period, food was preserved. "Livestock" is the beginning of food accumulation, and five animals become the staple food of health food, among which sheep is the main food, so "sheep" becomes the "food" for "nurturing", and "eating" and "sheep" constitute "nurturing"; "Kindness" (associated with food in ancient times) means having sheep in your mouth, and "eating" means eating sheep to fill your stomach. Judging from the "month", it shows that the staple food at that time was meat.

2. Virtue

Sheep are born beautiful, symbolizing purity and preciousness. In China, both the original meaning of beauty and aesthetic consciousness originated from eating. The original aesthetic consciousness contained in the word "beauty", that is, the aesthetic consciousness of interest, is the precedent of other human aesthetics. Aesthetic worship is the source of human aesthetic activities.

Another story about the origin of the word "beauty" comes from people who wore horns and sang and danced during labor or celebration in ancient times.

Kindness in the ancient concept, sheep is a symbol of goodness and kindness. There is a poem named "Lamb" in The Book of Songs, which uses a lamb as a metaphor for a noble doctor. There is a saying in Shuowen that "beauty and goodness are synonymous".

Living in groups is an important feature of sheep. There is a saying in the Book of Songs, "Who says you have no sheep, and there are three hundred dimensional groups?" "Shuo Wen" Xu Xuan notes: "Sheep are good." The resulting "mass" reflects the Chinese nation's emphasis on groups.

The filial lamb seems to understand her mother's hardships and difficulties, so she kneels when she is nursing. Lambs kneeling on their chests are endowed with the meanings of "filial piety" and "knowing courtesy". "The Story of the Spring and Autumn Period" said: "When a lamb eats its mother's food, it must kneel down and collect it, like a polite person."

In ancient France, the word "law" was "order". According to Shuowen, it is as flat as water. If you can't touch it straight, go, go. "This means that Buddhism should be as flat as a bowl of water, so it should come from" water "; Kun is a one-horned god sheep in ancient legends, that is, honest and honest. When people fight, they touch the wrong side with their horns, so the words Kun and Qu are used on the right. Fable is a symbol of fairness, notarization, law enforcement and avoiding evil.

A just and proper fact or act. An act that conforms to justice or public welfare is "righteousness". Sheep give people a good and kind feeling. Sheep sacrifice their lives or sacrifices for the people, and their words are righteous and law enforcement is like a mountain. So sheep have "righteousness".

Music is called "the first of eight tones" and is made of sheepskin. Primitive people like to sing and dance with a trumpet in their spare time. "Five Tones and Twelve Laws" is China's early musical system theory. Five tones are based on the sounds of cows, sheep, chickens, pigs and horses, and the sound of sheep barking is "business".

And sheep are docile by nature; Gregarious and harmonious; Music is "the sum of heaven and earth". The meaning of sheep: kind and easy-going, good luck. "Harmony" means impartiality. However, there are also many people. The ancients called it great virtue.

luck

"Sheep" was connected with "Xiang" in ancient times, and "Xiang" can also be written as "auspicious sheep", which means auspiciousness, and sheep is a symbol of "auspiciousness". At the beginning of the year, it was auspicious for the ancients to hang a sheep's head on the door, send the sheep in communication and use the sheep as a dowry.

Legend has it that when an antelope sleeps at night, it is different from ordinary animals and wild animals. It will find a tree, seize its position, jump hard and hang it on the branch with its horns, so as to ensure that its whole body is suspended and other wild animals can't reach it.

About the origin of antelope hanging horns, it was first seen in Yaya Stone Beast: the antelope sleeps at night and hangs its horns on the tree without leaving any trace to prevent the enemy from coming.

Song's Cang Bian said: "Poets praise love. In the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, people were interested in nothing but interest. Therefore, its beauty is thorough and exquisite, and it cannot be pooled. " He also used "the voice in the air, the color in the phase, the moon in the water and the image in the mirror" to describe this ethereal and mysterious poetic realm.

There is also: in the sixteenth year of Jingdezhen Lantern Legend, the Zen master said in public: "I am in charge of the West Road, so you can find words and sentences;" If I were a gazelle, where would you touch it? "

In the seventeenth year of Jingdezhen Lantern Legend, the Zen master told the public: "If you are a good hunting dog, you can only trace it. Suddenly I met a gazelle, and I knew nothing about it. "

Later, people understood it as Zen, and the metaphor did not involve reason and did not fall into the "punch line" of words.