Little Sketch of My Life: History of Twelve Chinese Zodiacs

A translation from: http://www.nongli.com/item1/shxwh/sxgs-1.htm

Long time ago, everything was so chaotic on earth. The king of heaven ordered one of the God called Tài Bái Jīn Xīng (太白金星) to establish 12 zodiac signs from different animals. Hence, the contest to find 12 animals to be the symbol of zodiacs was begun and announced on earth.

On a fine day, cat was fishing when suddenly a magpie, the bird, appeared and told him about this contest. Then the cat went back home excitedly. Arriving home, he found that mouse, his servant, was still doing the house work. Cat confidently told mouse that he would win the zodiac contest and become one of important zodiacs that rule lives on earth. He ordered the mouse to register him for the contest.

On the way to find the place for registration, he met monkey who discouraged him not to go there because the queue had already been too crowded. The mouse insisted him to tell the way to go to the temple to register his master. Monkey then told him the direction to go to the temple***

>>>At this time, there had been 8 animals that have registered for the contest, they were: dragon, tiger, cow, monkey, pig, chicken, snake, and dog.

Fox was the next turn talking to the interviewer. He said that he never done any crime and always behaved well, when just suddenly the rabbit interrupted “Fox should not be allowed to participate in this contest because he is very bad, stealing duck’s eggs couple days ago.” Rabbit’s protest was also supported by the horse which made fox left the place without being registered for the contest.

>>>Then 3 more animals had been registered: rabbit, horse, and goat.

Mouse eventually arrived at the place and had a queue behind the elephant. Looking at a long queue, he was a bit panicky. He told elephant, “I come here to register my master…Can I jump into your back to see how long will the queue be to get into my turn”. Sarcastically, the elephant said “Who the hell you are you bloody small thing want to jump into my body”. Hearing what elephant had said, mouse angrily bit his toe. As the response, elephant tried to step him violently. Mouse was too quick to avoid, and he hid himself inside the elephant’s trunk. The elephant then felt itchy on his trunk, thus he sneezed abruptly, throwing the mouse far away toward the registration desk.

At this moment, the owl was just going to sign the registration form, which would be the last form, when just suddenly the mouse landed on the form and pictured his feet as the signature on the form. The interviewer asked him, “What are you coming for?” Just before he said that he was going to register his master, he suddenly had another thought. Thinking to be one of important zodiacs would be a great idea. “I want to register for the contest on behalf of my self” he said.

Owl was extremely angry and initiated to snatch the mouse. Mouse carefully avoided it. Unfortunately, owl’s craw hit the interviewer’s face. The interviewer then punched the owl back, hitting owl’s face. Good chance for the mouse to escape. The mouse bowed to the interviewer who was so upset. “Ok…the last form, I give it to you” said the interviewer to the mouse.

The long queue was then dismissed. To each 12 animals that had been registered, by tomorrow, they must arrive in the heaven palace. The order of zodiac signs would be awarded based on the order of arrival, whoever would arrive first will be placed as the 1st zodiac sign, and so on***

Back home, mouse saw cat eating and drinking happily. “Yes, I have registered your name” mouse said when the cat asked about it. How happy the cat was, he then let mouse together with him ate the fish he had caught. Cat got drunk. When he was conscious, mouse had left home. The owl came to cat’s house and told everything about what mouse had done. Cat was mad and tried to chase the mouse.

Mouse came over to rabbit’s place to ask for protection. But rabbit was too afraid to deal with cat, so he refused mouse to stay in his house.

Mouse continued running, he saw cow that was still farming. Cow saw mouse behaving nervously. “You must have done any crime” he said to the mouse. “No, cow brother, I was confused as the cat has been rushing to the temple of heaven while you were still here.” What mouse had said made cow rushing to start his journey. “Cow brother, can you take me too? I really want to see this contest…it must be such a great event, too bad to miss it!” Cow let the mouse jump onto his back. And they started the journey together***

Fox wanted revenge to the rabbit. He got an idea, bringing some food and wine to tiger, and told him that rabbit said something bad about him. Tiger then immediately went to seek rabbit for an explanation. Rabbit tried to calm him down and explained that fox told lies. Tiger believed more to what rabbit had said. However, he was still emotionally unstable; he then ordered rabbit to spy other contestants whether or not they had started their journey.

Rabbit agreed and worked on it. Soon he knew that chicken was still at home, busy with his make up; dog and pig were chatting. Arriving at cow’s house, cow’s wife told him that her husband has left to the temple. Reporting this to tiger, both of them were also in rush to begin their journey as well. Fox saw rabbit running, he chased rabbit and bit rabbit’s long tail. Fox got the tail; however, rabbit with a shorter tail can run faster and faster leaving the fox***

It was a beautiful sunset time. Goat was watering flowers when suddenly cow passing and stepping on goat’s flower garden. Not a good situation! However, mouse quickly suggested cow to pay an amount of money for the damage. “Don’t waste time for this as the most important thing is to keep moving to reach the temple as soon as possible.” Cow agreed and goat was also ok with it. After a while, tiger passed by his house then also rabbit did. Goat suddenly realized that those animals had started their journey for the contest. He then told horse to begin the journey immediately.

>>>Fox passed by duck’s place. He blamed his bad day to the duck. Fox was just going to destroy duck’s house. Luckily, the horse which passed by the duck’s house saw fox’s nasty behaviour and with one kick knocked the fox out.

Cow and mouse had already entered the jungle, they got lost. Mouse then climbed up a tree to see the direction and told the cow the correct path. Cow let the mouse sat on his back when he swam crossing the big river. After a while, tiger also crossed to river. Rabbit used dried wood as a boat. Horse and goat also successfully crossed the river***

Sunrise in the following day, chicken, dog, and pig started their journey. Snake passed by their house, asking for a ride, but was rejected by the pig. So the snake continued moving on his trip with his own effort. Chicken, dog, and pig arrived in the river. Chicken and dog had a little argue about how to find a way to cross the river, while the pig tried to find other place to cross the river. Chicken and dog didn’t notice that pig went to find another spot to swim; they thought that the pig had already crossed the river. Thus, chicken was in rush to jump into the river. However, chicken can’t swim well. Luckily, the dog helped him by holding his wing. Pig also found a better spot that enabled him to cross the river.

Snake eventually arrived in the river side. Realizing that he can’t swim, he had an idea to ask help from the dragon who lived inside the river. He saw turtle, his own ancestral relative. He asked turtle to call the dragon inside the river to help him crossing the river. The dragon was awake. Both turtle and snake praised dragon’s power. Dragon was overly flattered, so he helped snake crossing the river. Dragon showed his power to create strong rain which eventually caused flooding. Therefore, the God came to warn him, advising him to ask cow’s help as cow had an ability to dig drainage to over come flooding. He immediately flew to find the cow. On the way, he met chicken, dog, and pig, and asked them whether they met cow. The dog lied by telling him the opposite direction. Dragon directly flew to the direction pointed by the dog. Chicken was disappointed on dog’s attitude; then chicken and dog had an argument again.

Monkey so far was in the first place, sitting on the big tree. The magpie asked him why he was still sitting there instead of going to the temple. Monkey said, “No need to rush, I want to do my business first selling fruit to other animals who passed this way.”

Cat passed by, and was offered to eat some fruit. Cat ate some fruits, but then left the place without paying. “Hey, this is not for free” shouted monkey. But cat misunderstood the offering. He thought it was monkey’s hospitality to offer him some fruits. He didn’t want to pay. Monkey slapped him violently till he dropped***

Cow and mouse passed by monkey’s stall, and were also offered some fruit. But mouse suggested cow to keep moving on as they can eat fruits on the way back home. Tiger, rabbit, horse, and goat consecutively took a rest in monkey’s fruit shop. Only snake didn’t stop there as he realized that his ability was least among others to reach the temple***

After some time searching a long way path, dragon realized that he had been cheated by the dog. He directly went to cow’s house. Cow’s wife told him that he had been heading to the temple. He then directly flew to the temple***

Cow finally arrived in the temple of heaven. Just before entering the gate, mouse with a rapid movement jumped from cow’s back and quickly entered the gate, then followed by the cow. The guard of the heaven gate loudly announced, “Number 1. mouse…, number 2. cow...”

Knowing that the little mouse was the 1st winner, the God wasn’t so pleased. Yet, the God still awarded him the golden robe with the label "子" (zǐ) on it, and cow was with the label "丑" (chǒu).

Cow realized that he had been used by his buddy. Mouse said “Cow brother, thank you for your help. I’ve never believed that this dream comes true.” Cow was eventually accepted the situation as he realized that together with the mouse, his journey was more efficient. Without his help, he might not be able to arrive at the temple earlier than other animals***

Monkey was still waiting for the last animals, chicken, dog, and pig. As usual, monkey persuaded them to take a rest and eat some fruit in his stall. Suddenly, the magpie came and told all of them that mouse and cow had arrived in the temple and been awarded the zodiac robes.

Hearing this news, they all got shocked and directly ran to the temple. Chicken was half running half flying. Dog was in his high speed. Monkey was jumping from branch to branch, which made his money pocket felt down, thus the whole money he collected also dropped to the ground. It was only the pig who kept walking unhurried while collecting the fallen money from monkey’s pocket***

The animals arrived based on the order were: mouse, cow, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, chicken, dog, and pig.

>>>Knowing that mouse was successful to reach the temple and became the 1st winner of the zodiac contest, both cat and owl committed, that during the day, cat will kill all mice, and at night, owl will be responsible to eradicate mouse and his descendants.

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>Hence, till today, the order of 12 Chinese zodiacs is fixed forming a 12 year cycle: mouse, cow, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, chicken, dog, and pig.

>The legend also tells us how rabbit has short tail; how cats and owls are main enemies of mice; but of course, it’s all based on the Chinese tale.

Many thanks to Jiangyang for the help