The Chinese zodiac and the legend of the great animal race
The rat riding the ox, the tricked cat, the late dragon: the legend of the great race and the true calendar origins of the twelve Chinese animals.
In China, and in much of East Asia, every year bears the name of an animal. The sequence is always the same: rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. After twelve years the cycle begins again. Unlike the Western zodiac, these animals do not correspond to visible constellations along the ecliptic but to a division of time, and their origin is told by a much-loved folk legend.
The race called by the Jade Emperor
According to the most widespread version, the Jade Emperor, ruler of heaven in Chinese folk religion, decided to choose twelve animals to mark the years and called a race: the order of arrival would set the order of the calendar. The course ended beyond a great river. The rat, small and a poor swimmer, persuaded the ox to carry it on its back; at the last moment it jumped down and crossed the finishing line first.
The ox came second, followed by the tiger, exhausted by the current. The rabbit crossed by hopping from stone to stone and clinging to a log. The dragon, which could have won by flying, arrived only fifth: according to the tale it had stopped to bring rain to a village, or to help the rabbit by blowing the log ashore. The pig, which had lingered to eat and sleep, was the last to arrive.
Why the cat is missing
Many versions add a character who was left out. The cat and the rat were friends and had agreed to set off together; but the rat did not wake its companion, or else pushed it into the water during the crossing. The cat arrived too late and ever since, says the legend, it has chased rats in revenge. It is a typical aetiological tale, explaining through a story a behaviour observed in nature.
In Vietnam the cycle is almost identical, but the cat itself appears in place of the rabbit, and the ox is replaced by the water buffalo. Variants such as these show that the series of animals, while stable in structure, has adapted over the centuries to the cultures that adopted it. In Japan and Korea too the cycle of twelve animals has been known for centuries, with small differences in names and depictions.
The earthly branches and the sixty-year cycle
Beyond the legend, the animals are tied to a very ancient calendar system, that of the twelve “earthly branches”, signs used to count years, months and hours. Combined with the ten “heavenly stems”, they form a cycle of sixty combinations which repeats every sixty years. Bamboo-slip texts found at Shuihudi, in a tomb of the third century BC, already associate animals with the branches, though with some differences from the present series.
A complete list close to today's appears in the Lunheng of Wang Chong, a philosophical work of the first century AD. The animal's year does not begin on the first of January but with the lunar new year, which falls between late January and mid-February. Each animal is also combined with one of the five elements of Chinese tradition: wood, fire, earth, metal and water.
The legend of the race, with the rat's cunning and the dragon's generosity, has made a system that was originally technical familiar to millions of people. In popular symbolism each animal has been given traits and qualities, and in China tradition holds that the year of one's own animal, returning every twelve years, is a time to be faced with particular caution.