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For those of you who do not know what the Chinese Zodiac
is or how it came to be, I have put together the following
page to give you all a history lesson. One of many legends
say that a race was organised to decide the animals that would
report to the Jade Emperor, who would then honour each by
using them to represent the 12 phases of the Zodiac.
The route taken by the animals went through a forest, over
ranges of plains and grasslands and along a stream, before
finally crossing a lake to the destination town.
So although the cat and the rat being the worst swimmers in
the animal kingdom, they were both intelligent. They decided
that the best and fastest way to cross the river was to hop
on the back of the ox.
The ox, being a naïve and good-natured animal, agreed to
carry them across.
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However, overcome with a fierce competitiveness, the rat
decided that in order to win, it must do something and promptly
pushed the cat into the river.
Because of this, the cat has never forgiven the rat, and
hates the water as well.
After the ox had crossed the river, the rat jumped ahead and
reached the shore first, and it claimed first place in the
competition.
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Following closely behind
was the strong ox, and it was named the 2nd animal in the zodiac.
After the ox, came the tiger, panting, while explaining to the Emperor
just how difficult it was to cross the river with the heavy currents
pushing it downstream all the time. But with powerful strength, it
made it to shore and was named the 3rd animal in the cycle.
Suddenly, from a distance came a thumping sound, and the rabbit arrived.
It explained how it crossed the river: by jumping from one stone to
another in a nimble fashion. Halfway through, it almost lost the race
but the rabbit was lucky enough to grab hold of a floating log that
later washed him to shore. For that, it became the 4th animal in the
zodiac cycle.
Coming in 5th place was the dragon, flying and belching fire into
the air. Of course, the Emperor was deeply curious as to why a strong
and flying creature such as the dragon should fail to reach first. |
The mighty
dragon explained that he had to stop and make rain to help all
the people and creatures of the earth, and therefore he was
held back a little. Then, on his way to the finish line, he
saw a little helpless rabbit clinging on to a log so he did
a good deed and gave a puff of breath to the poor creature so
that it could land on the shore.
The Emperor was very pleased with the actions of the dragon,
and he was added into the zodiac cycle. |
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As soon as he had done so,
a galloping sound was heard, and the horse appeared. Hidden on the
horse's hoof is the snake, whose sudden appearance gave the horse
a fright, thus making it fall back and gave the snake 6th spot while
the horse took the 7th.
Not long after that, a little distance away, the sheep, monkey and
rooster came to the shore. These three creatures helped each other
to get to where they are. The rooster spotted a raft, and took the
other two animals with it. Together, the sheep and the monkey cleared
the weeds, tugged and pulled and finally got the raft to the shore.
Because of their combined efforts, the Emperor was very pleased and
promptly named the sheep as the 8th creature, the monkey as the 9th,
and the rooster the 10th.
The 11th animal is the dog. His explanation for being late although
he was supposed to be the best swimmer amongst the rest was that he
needed a good bath after a long spell, and the fresh water from the
river was too big a temptation. For that, he almost didn't make it
to finish line.
Just as the Emperor was about to call it a day, an oink and squeal
was heard from a little pig. The pig got hungry during the race, promptly
stopped for a feast and then fell asleep. After the nap, the pig continued
the race and was named the 12th and last animal of the zodiac cycle.
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The cat finished too late (thirteenth) to win any place in
the calendar, and vowed to be the enemy of the rat forevermore.
This is one of the most popular legends but there are many
others.
Another legend says that the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac
were chosen by Buddha. When Buddha was near death he invited
all the animals to visit him. Only 12 came including the rat,
ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster,
dog and pig. For visiting him, Buddha named the 12 phases
of the Zodiac after the animals in the order they arrived
to see him.
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