|
More than 3,000 years ago, Chinese people invented
the 10 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches for chronological
purposes. These signs are used to designate the hours, days, months
and years. However, since most people at that time were illiterate,
the signs were difficult to use. Later, to make things easier to
memorize, people used animals to symbolize the12 Earthly Branches.
The animals in order are the mouse, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake,
horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
Many Chinese people strongly believe that the time of a person's
birth is the primary factor in determining that person's personality.
Many fortune-tellers, when telling your fortune, say what they need
to know are your exact time of birth. Then, whether you are successful
in your life and career, or whether you will be happy is clear to
the fortune-tellers.
According to one legend, during a Chinese New Year celebration,
Buddha invited all the animals to his kingdom, but unfortunately,
for reasons only known to the animals, a total of 12 turned up.
The mouse was naturally the first, followed by the ox, then the
tiger, the rabbit and so on and finally the pig.
Out of gratitude, Buddha decided to name the year after each of
the animals in their order of arrival, and people born of that year
would inherit the personality traits of that particular animal.
These animals are also supposed to have some influence over the
period of time they were named after.
It is essential in China that every person knows which animal sign
he is born under. That is because it has been implicitly agreed
upon that no important steps of life should be taken without consulting
first the Chinese Zodiac. Some Chinese consider this superstition,
but many truly believe that the signs reveal the hidden secrets
of a person's character.
By the 5th century, the Chinese had cataloged 1464 stars.
In Beijing, there were about 5,000 stargazers.
Ancient astrologers could correctly predict when tides, seasons,
and other things, just by looking at the stars and planets. One
of the uses for astrology was for farming - the proper time to plant
and harvest crops.
A lot of the Chinese looked to the stars, but some were drawn to
the Earth, trying to solve riddles and mysteries of math. They did
not know that everything was made from hundreds and millions of
atoms, but instead they thought everything was made up of the five
elements: fire, earth, metal, water and wood. They looked at how
these elements could change, and explained how nature worked in
those terms. Wood goes through a basic change to become fire (flames),
fire turns into the earth (ashes), earth makes the metal (iron and
other metals) mined from the earth. Metal brings water (metal collects
dew if outside over night). And to make the circle, water produces
wood (wood plants need water to grow). The scientists did not think
of the five elements as DNA, but more like changing things in nature;
and that is how the Chinese viewed life and nature.
Mythology:
The roots of this interpretive art are based deeply in the classical
philosophy of Confucius, Lao-tse and the Yi Jing (I Ching). According
to Chinese legend, Buddha determined the order of the twelve signs,
upon celebration of the Chinese New Year (which falls on different
dates, from mid-January to mid-February.) The Buddha invited all
of the animals in the kingdom together for a meeting, but only 12
creatures attended.
In keeping with Chinese
legend, the twelve animals quarreled one day as to who was to
move the cycle of years. The gods had been asked to determine
and so they held a contest: whoever was to succeed in the other
bank of the river would be first, and the remainder of the
animals would obtain their years in response to their finish.
All the twelve animals
gathered at the river financial institution and jumped in.
Unknown to the ox, the rat had jumped upon his back. Because the
ox was about to jump ashore, the rat jumped off the ox's again,
and received the race. The pig, who was very lazy, ended up
last. That is why the rat is the first yr of the animal cycle,
the ox second, and the pig last.
The Chinese language
animal indicators are a 12-year cycle used for relationship the
years. They characterize a cyclical concept of time, relatively
than the Western linear idea of time. In the Chinese language
calendar, the start of the year falls someplace between late
January and early February. The Chinese have adopted the Western
calendar since 1911, but the lunar calendar remains to be used
for festive events such because the Chinese New Year. Many
Chinese calendars will print each the photo voltaic dates and
the Chinese language lunar dates.
A cultural sidelight of
the animal indicators in Chinese folklore is that horoscopes
have developed across the animal signs, very similar to
month-to-month horoscopes within the West have been developed
for the different moon indicators, Pisces, Aries, etc. For
instance, a Chinese horoscope may predict that an individual
born in the Year of the Horse can be, cheerful, fashionable, and
loves to go with others. These horoscopes are amusing, but not
regarded critically by the Chinese language people.
|
