Chinese Zodiac Basics

We've all heard of the year of the rat, the year of the horse and so on. These represent the Chinese zodiac. There are twelve in all with an animal for each one. Initially, they were called the Twelve Earthly Branches and Ten Celestial Stems and they didn't have animals associated with them, but were used for recording dates only. They have been used ever since the Shang dynasty.

Now the twelve Earthly Branches each have an animal assigned to them by Buddha. They are: - the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and boar. If you were wondering why there is no cat, a folk tale explains it in this way.


When the animals found out that they were to be assigned a year each by Buddha, they were quite excited. Two friends, rat and cat decided to go together, but everyone knows how cats like to doze and friend rat failed to wake up the cat, who slept through it all. That's why cats now hate rats.

On the big day, cheeky rat decided to beg a lift on ox's head. This was because he was so little; he thought he would not be considered important enough to be assigned the first year. When the two were close to the finish line, rat jumped off ox and ran over the finish line first; therefore he was assigned the first year, while ox got second.

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