Jenny Lao-Phillips
2020 is a special year. Macau just celebrated the 20th anniversary of its handover. We enter into another decade. And this week, we are also beginning another cycle of the Chinese zodiac. The Chinese New Year of 2020 brings us into the Year of the Rat again, the first of the twelve animals that symbolize the Chinese zodiac. In fact, using the twelve animals to represent the change of year dates back to ancient times, over 4000 years ago, way before we had the calendar. But why these twelve animals? Why do we begin with the Rat? For that explanation, we have different versions of the stories.
The more well-known story of the Chinese zodiac is the myth of the heavenly god who called for a race amongst the animals to choose twelve to represent each year for humans to keep track of time. All the animals were called to cross a river, and the first 12 would be chosen. Obviously, the Rat came first and since then, represented the first of the twelve-year cycle. Legend has it that the Rat and the Cat were good friends, and on the day of the race, they got the Buffalo to carry them across the river. However, the Rat got greedy and wanted to be the first to arrive, and so pushed the Cat into the river. Once the Buffalo arrived at the finish line, the Rat jumped off and was the first to cross the line. This legend also explains why cats hate rats to this day.
Another story of how the twelve animals were chosen relates to the 12 hours of the day used in ancient times. Here is an equivalence of the ancient terms used for time: 子時 (Zii Si) 23:00 – 01:00; 丑時 (Cau Si) 01:00-03:00; 寅時 (Jan Si) 03:00-05:00 ; 卯時 (Maau Si) 05:00-07:00; 辰時 (San Si) 07:00-09:00; 巳時 (Zi Si) 09:00-11:00; 午時 (Ng Si) 11:00-13:00; 未時 (Mei Si) 13:00-15:00; 申時 (Shen Si) 15:00-17:00; 酉時 (Jau Si) 17:00-19:00; 戌時 (Seot Si) 19:00-21:00; 亥時 (Hoi Si) 21:00-23:00.
Legend has it that when people decided to come up with a way to count years, they used the sequence of the hours of the day, and chose 12 animals to represent each hour. Zii Si (midnight) was the beginning of a day. The reason the Rat is the first amongst the zodiac was that amidst the quietness of midnight, people used to hear only the squeaking of the rats. So, the Rat was chosen to represent Zii Si, the first hour. Meanwhile, Cau Si is the time people got up to feed their buffaloes in the farm. So, the Buffalo represents the second year. Jan Si (the third hour) was the time of dawn when people heard tigers roar. Maau Si (fourth hour) was sunrise, when rabbits started hopping around.
Then, as the sun was rising, the sky started to get foggy, so San Si was the time that people could see the dragon, or claimed to see a dragon among the clouds and fog. Zi Si was the time that snakes came out, and noon time, Ng Si, the brightest hour of the day, was represented by the fiery and hardworking horse.
Mei Si was the time to feed the goats. Monkey ran around at Shen Si. Roosters and chicken had to be brought back into the house before it got dark at Jau Si. Seot Si was the time after dinner that heads of houses brought their dogs out for security checks before closing for the night. Finally, at Hoi Si, people got up to feed their pigs. And that is a lesser-known version of how the twelve animals were chosen, and why the Rat is the first in the cycle.
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