十二兽在古代也称十二禽、十二神、十二物、十二虫,民间称之为十二属相、十二生肖。世界上四大文明古国都有十二兽应用于历法的记载,只是形式和内容有所不同。一般认为,古埃及的十二兽是上承古巴比伦,下启古希腊。中国和印度的十二兽几乎完全一样,但与古埃及的绝然不同,似乎分属两个不同系统。当代民族学的发展为十二兽起源的研究提供了丰富的材料。在中国,不仅汉藏语系有众多民族在历法中应用十二兽,在阿尔泰语系诸民族中似乎更为普遍,特 Twelve animals in ancient times, also known as twelve birds, twelve gods, twelve objects, twelve insects, folk called the twelve genus, zodiac. There are twelve beasts in the ancient civilizations of the world that have been used in the calendars, but in different forms and contents. Generally believed that the ancient beast of Egypt, Babylon, Babylon, launched the ancient Greek. The twelve beasts of China and India are almost exactly the same, but unlike the ancient Egyptians, they seem to belong to two different systems. The development of contemporary ethnology provides a wealth of material for the study of the origin of the twelve beasts. In China, not only are there many ethnic groups in the Sino-Tibetan language family that apply the Twelve Beasts to the calendar, but they seem to be more prevalent in Altaic ethnic groups, especially