The Chinese Zodiac! (十二生肖)

 

 

Ever wonder how the twelve animals came to be? Well, we are here to answer your questions. First off, in the Chinese Zodiac, each of the twelve animals represents one year out of twelve years. Let’s start off with the traditional story(gùshi故事) of the Chinese Zodiac. Although there had been several variations throughout the years, the foundation of the story stayed the same.

One day in China, the Jade Emperor (玉皇大帝yùhuángdàdì), who was the ruler of the heavens, decided on the day of his birthday(生日shēngrì) to have a race among all of the animals. The emperor would dedicate the twelve years to whoever the first twelve winners were. The race would be a swimming race and the animals would have to cross a wide and rapidly flowing river.

On the day of the race, all the animals lined up at the starting line. However, there was a problem. The rat and the cat, who were the best of friends, realized that they were not the best swimmers and asked the ox to give them a ride on his back. The kind ox agreed, but as the ox crossed the river, the clever rat pushed the cat off the back of the ox and into the rushing water beneath. Just as the ox approached the finish line, the rat quickly jumped off the ox and came in first place. The ox then came in a close second. Therefore, the Jade Emperor congratulated them and honored rat and ox with the first and second year of the year, respectively.

Then, after a while, the tiger, after tremendous efforts swimming across the river, finished as the third zodiac year. Next, the rabbit, which did not even swim, but rather hopped on the nearby rocks to cross the river, came in fourth place. Right after the rabbit, the dragon swooped in. The dragon explained that he did not come in earlier because he had to stop to make rain for the people and animals that needed water. The Jade Emperor then named the fifth year of the zodiac after the dragon.

Just then, as the horse was galloping towards the finish line, the sly snake slithered from around the horse’s hooves and caused the horse to jump back in surprise. The snake finished in sixth place in the race and the horse, seventh. Next to come are the goat, monkey, and rooster. The rooster had found a raft that was able to take them across the river and decided to work together with the goat and monkey to push themselves across the river. The Jade Emperor was very happy with the teamwork they displayed and named the goat the eighth year, the monkey the ninth, and the rooster the tenth zodiac animal.

Not long afterwards, the dog arrived and was given the eleventh year. The dog explained that he could not resist taking a bath in the clean water. After a long while, the boar arrived, explaining that he was hungry and was tempted to snack and feel asleep during the race. Finally, the Jade Emperor said that the last zodiac year would be named after the boar. Thus, this is the story of how the twelve zodiac animals came to be.

The End.

 

 

 

 

Actually, you may be wondering, “Whatever happened to the cat from the beginning of the story?” Well, after the cunning rat pushed the cat into the water, the cat slowly made its way out of the water and to the finish line. But, to the cat’s dismay, the race was long over by the time she arrived and everybody had gone home. The cat was furious at the rat’s act of betrayal and vowed to never forgive the rat. This is why to this day, cats and rats will always be enemies.

Here are the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac in order:

Rat- 鼠 Shǔ

Ox- 牛 Niú

Tiger- 虎 Hǔ

Rabbit- 兔 Tù

Dragon- 龙 Lóng

Snake- 蛇 Shé

Horse- 马 Mǎ

Goat- 羊 Yáng

Monkey- 猴 Hóu

Rooster- 鸡 Jī

Dog- 狗 Gǒu

Pig- 猪 Zhū

I hope everyone liked this story! Stayed tuned for more intriguing and enticing posts!