h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Chinese Animal Zodiac - A4127799
Author: Emmily ~ One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor - U190758

According to this, I'm a Rat

As always, comments and suggestions welcome.

Emmily

I'm a Rabbit, although anybody who knew me aould have me down as a Monkey. Just goes to show how much truth there is in all of this.

Nice entry, btw

I *am* a monkey

QED. My point exactly

I'm a Fire Dragon

Nice Entry Just I noticed you haven't mentioned the elemental links to each animal, that is Fire, Metal, Water and Wood. These slightly change the personality of each individual.

Frood

there are 5 elements: metal, wood, fire, water and earth. Not all the chinese zodiacs I looked at included the elements, I didn't think they added much interest, and left them out.

Emmily

ah, but they cause subtle differences in personality you know... Fair enough not elaborating on them, but a cursory mention might be included as the elements are an important part of Chinese cultural ideologies

Ok Frood, I'll see what I can do. But of the 10 Chinese Zodiac websites I looked at only 3 mentioned the elements. 1 of those just had a load of links for 'readings' when elements was clicked on, nothing to do with elements. The other 2 mentioned the elements but not in what way they effected the animal signs.

I've got a book put by for me in the the shop I work in, on the year of the Rat, I'll get it later, and hope there's something in there that explains the elements.

Emmily

Fire Rabbit here which sounds sexy and cool....if a rabbit can be those things

My dad's a water rabbit which just makes me think of a runny nose

I'll have a look through this and dig out the books my aunt left lying around somewhere.

Kat

The elements are in the Rat book, but jeez they're complicated and confusing.

Not only are there 5 elelments, there's also yin/yang (positive/negative) all the elements seem to be split into yin/yang as well

When I can understand it enough, I'll add a passing reference to the elements, not sure when that will be.

Emmily

YOu could just simply add a sentence, something like "other aspects of the Chinese Zodiac include linking the Chinese beliefs surrounding yin and yang and the elemental struggles involving Earth, Water, Wood, Metal and Fire." it doesn't have to be drastic, just tought it was worth popping a teeny bit in so if people look further into it they won't be aghast by being called a Watery Boar
Frood

I've added a bit about the elements and yin/yang at the bottom, hope it makes sense.

Emmily

Hi Emmily,

Nice entry, very interesting and fun to read. I think that the final paragraph does a fine job of summarizing the additional complexities without going into too much detail.

However, if you are open to the idea of going into a little more detail it's really not that complicated. First, as you point out in the opening paragraph, the Chinese calendar is different from the Gregorian(or western) calendar. The Chinese calendar starts on a different date each year, between 21 January and 19 February. So, if your birthday is before the Chinese New Year, as far as the Chinese calendar/zodiac is concerned you were born in the prior year. The general rule is if you were born on or before 21 January subtract one from your year of birth. If you were born between 21 January and 19 February you need to look it up in a table to be sure. A Chinese friend of mine pointed this out to me - all these years I thought I was a Dog, but it turns out that since I was born in late January, I'm really a Rooster. Since my wife is a Snake (zodiologically speaking that is) and Roosters get along better with Snakes than Dogs do, it turned out for the better.

Regarding the Five Elements, this web site has a very nice description:

http://www.phillychinatown.com/chinese_topic/chinese_zodiac/chinese_zodiac_index.htm

The attributes of the five elements are here, notice that I've numbered them:

1 - Fire the south - passion, intelligence and movement
2 - Earth the centre - balance, reliability and foundation
3 - Metal the west - useful, strong and dependable
4 - Water the north - good communication, sensitivity and intuition
5 - Wood the east - nuturing, creativity an growth

Now, if you are interested, you can convert your year of birth to an element using a 'simple' six step formula (couldn't sleep last night so I did this instead).

1) Subtract 1906 from your year of birth
2) Divide the answer by 2
3) Drop the fractional portion, if any, from the answer
4) Divide the result by 5 to get the remainder
5) Add 1
6) Look the number up in element table

So, for example, if you are born in 1957 (after adjusting for Chinese New Year) the answer is:

1) 1957 - 1906 = 51
2) 51 / 2 = 25 and 1/2
3) Drop fraction to get 25
4) Divide by 5 to get 5 with a remainder of 0
5) Add 1 to 0 to get 1
6) Look up 1 in table to get 'Fire'

The above web-site has a detailed table that you can check your results against. Note: If you have Excel and like doing formulas, the above algorithm converts to Mod(Int((Year-1906)/2),5)+1

Finally, to factor in the Yin Yang stuff, briefly Yin is the female or negative sign (sorry, about the sexist implications) and Yang is male, and positive sign. Your year of birth is Yin if it's odd and Yang of it's even. Continuing the above example, someone born in 1957 is under the Yin sign because 1957 is an odd year. So 1957 = Rooster, Fire and Yin.

Of course, as I said the entry can stand as it is. Feel free to use or ignore any of the above.

Mark

you've been busy Mark, now I'm going to feel really mean.

I beleive that anything I put in an Entry with my name on, I should understand to the extent that if another Reasearcher asks me a question about it, I should be able to answer, I don't think I could do that if I added the complexites of the elements and yin/yang. I'd be much happier keeping it as it is.

I'd would be great if once this gets to the Front Page (assuming it does) if you could post that info in a thread on the Entry, so that anyone who wants to look deeper into their chinese horoscope can.

When I realised earlier, that I hadn't made it clear, that the Chinese new year is not only a different date from Western, but different each year, which could effect the year someone's born in, I was going add about that, but my brain needed a rest, will added about that soon.

Emmily

Hi Emmily,

No problem, it really didn't take long to come up with the algorithm. I'll be happy to post a message when the Entry makes it to the first page (which I'm sure it will). I really should have mentioned that as an alternative, instead of posting my 6 steps, you could just post a table (copy it from http://www.phillychinatown.com/chin...ese_zodiac/chinese_zodiac_index.htm ). I just thought the math was more fun.

Anyway, for future reference (I'm writing this here now so that I'll remember it for when I re-post on the front page) the math works because the elements are set in a repeating pattern of Fire, Fire, Earth, Earth, Metal, Metal, Water, Water, Wood, Wood (or 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5) and then back to the beginning. The minus 1906 was used because I had to start somewhere and I figured that nobody over 99 years old reads h2g2 anyway. The divide by 2 and lose the fraction produces a series 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6... the divide by 5 and take the remainder turns this into 0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 0, 0, 1, 1... Finally, add 1 to get the desired series.

Mark

We're supposed to use British English here rather than American English. So can you say Cock, rather than Rooster, please?

Hello Emmily. I know you mention it in your article, but it might be worth making it more obvious, that the zodiac signs are for the Chinese year, so people born in January are in the previous year.

You use a lot of commas, Emmily! I think you should remove the first and third comma in this sentence - The animal which came first, would be the first, right down to the last animal, being last in the cycle.

As the race begun - should be began.

Which is why the rat is first - you should not start a sentence like this. It should be a continuation of the previous sentence.

Make that Cockerel then, if you want to be pedantic. (However my personal opinion is to leave it as Rooster as that is the way in which the creature is referred to in all anglicised literature on the subject, as far as I'm aware. But my personal opinion has nothing to do with it and it's up to the Sub-Editors or Editors in the end)
Frood

A cockerel is a young male chicken. A cock is an adult male chicken, as well as being a male of any type of bird.

Fair enough, and a rooster is any bird that perches if you want to be all English Grammar School about it That's why I said cockerel, because the Chinese Zodiac personality traits are associated with a young male bird - "deep thinkers who always think they are right, and usually are. They tend to be a bit eccentric, and have difficulty in relationships with others. They are also capable and talented and give the impression of being adventurous, though at times selfish, and too out-spoken." Not an experienced and wise fowl, or cock. I'm getting sick of any excuse to use that word too
Frood