The Chinese Zodiac
- Readings Available
- English
- Duration
- 5:54 (minutes:seconds)
Long ago in China, the Jade Emperor decided to find a way of measuring time. On his birthday he told the animals that there would be a swimming race. The first twelve animals across the fast flowing river would be the winners. Each would have a year of the Zodiac named after it. All the animals lined up along the river bank. Two good friends, the Rat and the Cat, were worried because they were poor swimmers. Fortunately, they were clever. They asked the strong Ox if it would carry them across the river.
"Of course," said the kind Ox, "Just climb onto my back and I will take you across."
The Rat and the Cat quickly got on its back. They were very excited when the Ox soon took the lead in the race. Half way across the river the Rat pushed the Cat into the river leaving him to struggle in the water. To top that off, just seconds before the Ox was about to win the race, the Rat leapt on his head and jumped onto the bank to finish first.
"Well done," said the Jade Emperor to the proud Rat. "The first year of the Zodiac will be named after you."
The poor Ox had been tricked into second place and the second year of the Zodiac was named after it.
Shorty after that, the exhausted Tiger clawed his way up the riverbank the claim third place. Swimming against the strong currents had been an enormous struggle for it. The Jade Emperor was so delighted with its efforts that he named the third year after it.
The Rabbit was the next to arrive, but it hadn't swum across at all — it had hopped across on some stepping-stones. When there were no more stepping stones, it had found a floating log to carry it to the shore.
"I shall be very happy to call the fourth year after you," the surprised Jade Emperor explained.
Just then, a kind Dragon swooped down from the sky to take fifth place. "Why didn't you win the race? You could have flown across the river," the Jade Emperor asked.
"I was held up by the cries of some people and animals who needed water to drink. I had to make some rain for them," the Dragon explained. "Then when I was nearly here, I saw a poor little rabbit stopped dead on a log in the water. I blew a puff of wind so that the log would float to the riverbank."
"Well, that was very kind and generous of you. You will have the fifth year of the Zodiac named after you."
Next the Jade Emperor heard the sound of the Horse's hooves. Just as the Horse was about to arrive, a sneaky Snake wriggled out from around one of its hooves. The Horse was so surprised that it jumped backwards, giving the Snake a chance to take the sixth place in the race. The poor Horse had to be satisfied with seventh place.
Not long afterwards a raft arrived carrying the Goat, the Monkey, and the Rooster. They explained to the Jade Emperor how they had shared the raft that the Rooster had found. The Goat and Monkey had cleared away weeds and pushed the raft to the shore. The Jade Emperor was very pleased that the animals had worked together. He said the Goat would be the eighth Zodiac animal, the Monkey the ninth, and the Rooster the tenth.
The next animal to finish was the Dog. "Why are you so late?" asked the Jade Emperor. "You are one of the best swimmers of all the animals." "The water was so refreshing that I just had to splash around a bit," explained the Dog. Its reward was to have the eleventh year named after it.
Now there was one place left in the Zodiac and the Jade Emperor wondered when the last winner would come. He had nearly given up when he heard a grunt from the Boar. "You took a long time to cross the river," said the Emperor to the Boar. "I was hungry and stopped to eat," explained the Boar. "After the meal I felt so tired that I fell asleep." "You have still done well," said the Jade Emperor. "The last year of the Zodiac will be named after you.
As for the Cat, who had been pushed into the water by the Rat, it finally crawled out of the water. Unfortunately, it was too late to have a year named after itself. It felt very cross with the Rat, and since then, cats have never been friends with rats. From that day to this, the Chinese Zodiac has followed this cycle of years named after these twelve animals.