Updated on
Jan 18, 2024
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Cultures Zodiac Wheels rat
ox
tiger
rabbit
dragon
snake
horse
ram
monkey
rooster
dog
boar

Zodiacs

Chinese astrology has a history of over 3,000 years. Ancient Chinese people invented 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches for chronological purposes. Since most common people were illiterate, 12 animals were designated to symbolize the 12 Earthly Branches in order to be better remembered.
This is the animal in you.

Here's another example of East meets West. The Western culture adopts a linear timeline. The Chinese adopts a cyclical timeline. Every sixty years, the cycle recurs again. Hence the Zodiacs.
As western horoscope, which is based on monthly moon cycle to foresee the future, Zodiacs can accurately read the personality of each person based on his or her birth animal.
Due to a slight time shift, Chinese people have two New Years and two birthdays each year. The confusion can also arise if one is trying to figure out their birth animal if one is born in between Jan 21 and Feb 20.
If your child was born on Jan 18, 2004. His birth animal is still ram and not monkey.

Gifted, generous, adaptive, expressive, and sociable. Inventive and original. Thirst for knowledge. Good memories. Respectful to elders. Loyal and devoted as friends. Good in competition and problem solving. Good as actor and trader.	Monkey	Deceptive, condescending, indifferent, unreasonable, egotistic, opportunistic, and guileful. Impatient and discouraged easily. Passionate but adulterous. Food fetish but not overeating. Relation can be tense.
2016, 2004(1/22), 1992(2/4), 1980(2/16), 1968(1/30), 1956(2/12), 1944(1/25), 1932(2/6), 1920(2/20), 1908(2/2)		Compatible: Rat and dragon Incompatible: Horse
Julius Caesar, Annie Oakley, Eleanor Roosevelt, Betsy Ross, Harry S. Truman, Leonardo da Vinci, Alice Walker, Sacha Distel, Diana Ross, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, Omar Sherif, Jimmy Page, Roger Daltrey, George Lucas

The Ranking

The animals can be very cunning. They all descent on earth by punishment later, and turn politicians.
There are stiff competitions to head the gang. Here's the unofficial story.
When Buddha ready to leave earth, only 12 animals came to bid farewell. So he chose them to represent each year, but each wants to be the first sign. So God leads them to the Silver River (Yin Her, aka Milky Way). Whoever reaches the shore across first will lead, and the rest will be ranked accordingly.
When the race starts, rat sneaks onto the head of ox, since Chinese cow is known to be the best swimmer. As predicted, ox reaches the shore first, but rat jumps ashore ahead of ox.

On the side note, you may wonder why cat is not included in the Zodiac? Here's another unofficial story based on the cat's version.
Rumor has it that Buddha summoned all animals to his temple in which he would rank the first 12 arrivals, to be the specific symbols of each year in a 12 year cycle.
On the night before departure, cat made a pack with his pal, the rat, that whoever woke up first the next morning must wake the other up so they can depart together. But the rat broke his promise. He woke up pretty early and journeyed to the temple alone. The rat was first to arrive. The next to arrive were ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and boar respectively. When the cat got there, the ceremony was over. That's why cats love to kill rats nowadays.
Listen to Al Stewart's Year Of The Cat for the whole story.

All questions, comments, and suggestions can be directed to the club