Secretive Twelve Chinese Zodiac Signs
2 min readThe Shengxiao,better known in English as the Chinese Zodiac signs,is a scheme that The Shengxiao,better known in En relates each year to an animal and its reputed attributes,according to a 12-year cycle.It has wide currency in several East Asian countries such as Korea and Japan.
Identifying this scheme using the term “zodiac”reflects several similarities to the Western zodiac:both have time cycles divided into 12 parts,each labels at least the majority of those parts with names of animals,and each is widely associated with a culture of attributing influence of a person’s relationship to the cycle upon their personality and/or events in their life. Nevertheless,there are major differences:the”Chinese”12-part cycle is divided into years rather than months;contrary to the association with animals implied in the Greek etymology of “zodiac”,actually four of the Western”signs”or”houses”are represented by humans (one such sign being the twins”Gemini”)and one is the inanimate balance scale”Libra”,the animals of the Chinese zodiac are not associated with constellations,let alone those spanned by the ecliptic plane.
The zodiac traditionally begins with the sign of the Rat,and there are many stories about the origins of the Chinese Zodiac which explain why this is so.In Chinese astrology the animal signs assigned by year represent what others perceive you as being or how you present yourself. It is a common misconception that the animals assigned by year are the only signs,and many western descriptions of Chinese astrology draw solely on this system.In fact,there are also animal signs assigned by month(called inner animals)and hours of the day(called secret animals).
To sum up,while a person might appear to be a Dragon because they were born in the year of the Dragon.they might also be a Snake internally and an Ox secretively.In total.this makes for 8.640 possible combinations(60 year cycle(5 elements x 12 animals)x 12 monthsx 12 times of the day)that a person might be.These are all considered critical for the proper use of Chinese astrology.
