About five thousand years
ago, Emperor
Huang Ti worked
on the first cycle marking the birth of Chinese Astrology. Unlike Western
Astrology which is based on the earth's yearly orbit of the sun thereby passing
through the zodiac's twelve signs, Chinese astrology is founded on the
sixty-year period it takes for Saturn to make two full orbits of the sun. This is also the
amount of the time it takes for Jupiter to orbit the sun five times. The sixty-year cycle
therefore, can be divided astrologically into five periods of twelve years, the
time it takes for Jupiter to make one complete orbit. The Chinese calendar is represented by
twelve signs with each of the five periods covering a complete rotation of the
Chinese signs.
The Chinese cycle commences
with the Year
of the Rat and
ends with the Year
of the Pig. The
naming of the twelve signs after animals comes more from legend than from
fact. The Lord
Buddha, as legend would have it, once invited all animals to meet
Him one New Year. The twelve animals that turned up were those that Buddha
honored by having the astrological years named after them. Buddha named the
years in order of the appearance of the animals before him— the rat, ox, tiger,
rabbit (or hare), dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig (or
boar).
The years are classified according to the polarity of
all 'natural energies. The Yang which is positive, masculine and daytime makes the
years under it active, assertive, vigorous, and spontaneous. On the other hand,
the Yin known to be feminine, negative
and nighttime, also makes the signs under it passive, gentle, intellectual and
intuitive. The Yang signs
are the Rat, Tiger, Dragon, Horse, Monkey and Dog; the Yin signs are the Ox, Rabbit, Snake, Goat, Rooster
and Pig.
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