According to legend, the Jade Emperor, one of the most significant gods in traditional Chinese religion, organized a race and invited all of the world’s animals to participate.
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How did the Chinese zodiac animals get their names?
According to legend, the Chinese zodiac’s twelve animals were chosen through a race. The purpose of this race is to provide a time measurement for the participants. There could only be twelve winners, and the animals had to cross a fast-flowing river and reach the finish line on the coast in order to win.
Who designed the Chinese horoscope?
Beginning Jan. 26, Asian communities around the world will celebrate the Lunar New Year with food, firecrackers (to ward off evil spirits), red paper lanterns (red being a bright hue that foreshadows a bright future), and dragon and lion dances for good luck. (A group of dancers holds a model of the animal’s head and a long train depicting its body and moves sinuously to symbolize power and dignity; no lions or dragons are hurt.) Such customs come from an astrological system that dates back to the Shang Dynasty (about 1700 B.C. ), when soothsayers would burn turtle shells or goat or bovine shoulder blades and utilize the cracks to predict what would happen in the future. Years later, the remains of these “readings” were discovered and dubbed “dragon bones.” The time marks the beginning of the Chinese link to the celestial bodies that form the basis of the Chinese zodiac, despite the fact that these approaches were not technically astrological. (Photos of Chinese New Year celebrations can be found here.)
The Chinese calendar is based on the revolution of the moon, therefore the new year might fall anywhere between mid-January and late-February. According to tradition, Ta Nao, an Emperor Huang Ti’s minister, invented the calendar, which has been used in Asia from 4000 B.C. It is based on 12 temperaments represented by 12 symbolic animals: the rat, the ox, the tiger, the rabbit, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the sheep, the monkey, the rooster, the dog, and the pig (the dragon being the well-known favorite). The cycle restarts after 12 years, matching the duration of Jupiter’s solar orbit. (See “China’s Year of the Ox Isn’t So Bullish.”)
Each animal in the zodiac is linked to a specific element.
Metal, wood, earth, water, or fire are the elements given to each year. A person’s personality is believed to be defined by the mix of these two traits. For example, 2009 is the year of the earth ox, yet the ox’s fixed element is water; some say the combination of the two elements, earth and water, is destructive.
Animals and some of the years they connect to:
1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003: Goat/Sheep (well-mannered, altruistic, insecure, reckless)
1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, Monkey (independent, passionate, unscrupulous, infantile personality)
Rooster (1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005): resourceful, adventurous, short-sighted, impractical
1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006 (attentive, faithful, stubborn, guarded)
1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, pig/boar (sincere, cultivated, noncompetitive, gullible)
1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008 (hardworking, thrifty, quick-tempered, neurotic)
1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009 (patient, self-sacrificing, jealous, inflexible)
1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010, Tiger (fortunate, bold, vain, undisciplined)
1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011, Rabbit (ambitious, unflappable, aloof, private)
1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000 (intuitive, influential, demanding, judgemental)
1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001 (calm, intellectual, indolent, possessive)
1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002 (entertaining, forceful, egotistical, rebellious)
Elements that correspond to specific animals include:
Wood (tiger, rabbit, dragon) represents high moral standards and a proclivity for taking on too much.
Earth (not fixed because it is made up of the other four elements): practical and dependable, but lacking in inventiveness)
Aggressive, domineering, dynamic in voice and action (snake, horse, sheep)
When charting a person’s characteristics or predicting what the new year will bring, a Chinese astrologer takes all of these factors into account. These forecasts aren’t just for carnival sideshows or fortune cookies; in many Asian cultures, the year’s forecasts are closely scrutinized for omens relating to business, romantic, and family decisions in the future year. Some Chinese parents schedule their children’s births during dragon years in order to increase their children’s fortune. Some persons who were born in the “wrong” years have apparently been denied entry to weddings and funerals. Those planning for 2009 should be aware that, due to the lack of fire in this year’s prophecy, fortune tellers believe the economy will do no better than it did in 2008, the year of the rat.
What is the significance of the Chinese zodiac?
In Chinese culture, the Chinese zodiac is a significant factor. The signs have been used to date years in the Chinese calendar’s 12-year cycle for a very long time. The Chinese zodiac is significant because the animal signs have been employed in storytelling and folklore. These were used to generate the many personality qualities associated with each animal.
Even today, millions of Chinese people believe in the prophesies and “superstitions” contained in the Chinese zodiac. Some people in Chinese culture have based their relationships on the Chinese zodiac.
Some people, for example, look for mates and friends by looking for someone who has the same zodiac sign as them.
They also utilize it to figure out who they’d get along with and collaborate with the best. In general, the zodiac offers advice on how to live one’s life. The Chinese zodiac has a fascinating influence on Chinese culture and community.
- “Chinese Zodiacs,” as the title suggests. Chinaspree.com. http://www.chinaspree.com>, 21 July 2007.
Why was the cat omitted from the Chinese horoscope?
The Cat is the 13th animal emblem in the Vietnamese and Gurung zodiacs’ 12-year cycle, replacing the Rabbit in the Chinese zodiac. As a result, the Rabbit’s characteristics are assigned to the Cat. The Rat and the Cat are at odds.
Legends about the Chinese zodiac arrangement frequently include tales about why the cat was not included among the twelve animals. Because the Rat duped the cat into missing the Jade Emperor’s dinner, the cat was not invited, was unaware that the feast was taking place, and was not given a year, and thus began the animosity between cats and rats. Domesticated cats may not have been widespread in China at the time of the zodiac’s inception.
Another mythology, known as “The Great Race,” claims that all of the zodiac animals were on their way to the Jade Emperor. The Cat and Rat were the smartest of the animals, but they were also bad swimmers and ended up in a river. They both conned the helpful, ignorant Ox into letting them ride on its back across the river. The Rat pushed the Cat into the river as the Ox approached the opposite side, then hopped from the Ox and dashed to the Jade Emperor, becoming the first of the zodiac. The other animals made it to the Jade Emperor, but the Cat was sabotaged by the Rat and left to drown in the river. This is also supposed to be why cats are continuously on the lookout for rats.
There have been several theories as to why the Vietnamese, unlike all other countries that use the Sino lunar calendar, have the cat as their zodiac animal rather than the Rabbit. The most frequent reason is that “rabbit” (mao) sounds like “cat” in ancient Chinese (meo).
What is the origin of the zodiac signs?
The 12 zodiac signs, with which many people are likely familiar today, were created during this Ancient Greek period.
The signs of Aries (approximately March 21-April 19), Taurus (April 20-May 20), Gemini (May 21-June 20), Cancer (June 21-July 22), Leo (July 23-Aug. 22), Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22), Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22), Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21), Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21 These Western, or tropical, zodiac signs were named after constellations and paired with dates based on their apparent relationship to the sun’s position in the sky.
By 1500 BC, the Babylonians had divided the zodiac into 12 equal signs, with constellation names that were similar to those we know today, such as The Great Twins, The Lion, and The Scales, and these were later adopted into Greek divination. These 12 signs were popularized by the astronomer Ptolemy, author of the Tetrabiblos, which became a key work in the history of Western astrology.
“Ptolemy codified the idea that there were 12 signs of the zodiac that were 30 broad, and that the sun travelled through these signs on a regular basis throughout the year,” adds Odenwald. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “zodiac” derives from the Greek, from a term for “sculpted animal figure,” and the sequence in which the signs are normally enumerated also stems from that time period.
In the zodiac race, who came out on top?
The bull and rat were the first to arrive. The ox was overjoyed, thinking he would be the first sign of the year, but the rat had already slipped ahead and became the Chinese zodiac’s first auspicious animal. The rat won the race in this manner. So, what is the order of the Chinese zodiac’s 12 animals?
How reliable is the Chinese zodiac?
You might not know that Chinese astrology has been around for almost 5,000 years if you’ve just read about your Chinese zodiac sign on mass-produced place mats at Chinese restaurants. It’s a significant part of traditional Chinese culture, influencing perspectives on how to connect with the world in the best possible way, Chinese traditional medicine, and Feng Shui, the Chinese art of design. You might also be shocked to learn that your Chinese Zodiac sign is considered more accurate than your astrological zodiac sign by some astrologers, for a variety of reasons.
On the surface, Chinese and Western astrology appear to be very similar. According to the Feng Shui Institute, the Chinese zodiacSheng Xiaoincludes 12 primary signs, also known as terrestrial branches, each of which is symbolized by an animalRat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig, similar to western astrology. Your Chinese zodiac sign is based on your year of birth on the Chinese calendar, rather than your month of birth, and forecasts everything from your personality to how well you get along with others, according to Travel China.
The Chinese zodiac incorporates five earthy elements that interact to form a cycle of ups and downs for each sign, as well as your birth date, month, and time, making it far more complicated than Western astrology. Your Chinese horoscope, unlike Western astrology, is not set in stone, according to the website Your Chinese Astrology. Rather, it is up to you to apply the information to improve your future luck. Continue reading to learn more about your Chinese zodiac sign and how it may be even more accurate than your astrological zodiac sign:
Why is there no lion in the Chinese zodiac?
The lion was the Chinese zodiac sign in ancient times; there was no tiger. However, because the lion is a vicious creature, the supreme god wishes to revoke the lion’s Chinese zodiac classification. However, because the lion is the king of all animals, the supreme god is unable to do so.
Is the Chinese zodiac based on science?
Throughout history, the evolution of astronomy and astrology has been inextricably linked. However, in China, the two have traditionally had much greater ties than in Europe, where they have been mainly recognized as independent disciplines since the eighteenth century. Astronomy is now recognized as a scientific field that involves the observation of objects and occurrences outside of the earth’s atmosphere. Astrology, on the other hand, is more commonly defined as a sort of ‘divination,’ and is primarily concerned with making predictions about life on Earth based on the positions of celestial bodies in the sky. This assumes that happenings on Earth and in the sky are connected, and as such is a discipline that some take seriously while others dismiss.
The location of the major planets, sun, moon, and comets in the sky at the exact hour of a person’s birth, as well as the year in which they were born, according to Chinese astrological philosophy, can define a person’s destiny. Each year in China is associated with one of twelve animals and one of five elements, resulting in a sixty-year cycle. Although it is by no means scientific, accurate astrological prediction is a difficult process that some people take extremely seriously. By contrast, most Chinese are familiar with their year sign, and it is frequently mentioned in reference to compatibility with others, but it is no longer utilized seriously in significant decision-making.
Why are there 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac?
Reasons for Zodiac Rankings in the Heavenly Gate Race There was no Chinese zodiac once upon a time. The Jade Emperor desired 12 animals to serve as his guardians. He dispatched an immortal creature into man’s realm to spread the information that the sooner one passed through the Heavenly Gate, the higher one’s position.