How could a rat finish ahead of an ox or a dragon? The Great Race offers a playful answer. It gives the calendar’s animals a cast of personalities, but it is a folk explanation of their order, not a historical record of the calendar’s invention.
A race with an unexpected winner
In the International Dunhuang Programme’s retelling, the Jade Emperor, a ruler of heaven in Chinese mythology, holds a race across a river. Rat rides on Ox and jumps ahead at the finish. Tiger and Rabbit follow; Dragon arrives fifth after helping Rabbit reach the bank.
Snake slips ahead of Horse. Sheep, Monkey, and Rooster arrive together on a raft, followed by Dog and finally Pig. The finish gives the animals their places in the cycle.
The story and the evidence
The same programme presents other legends, including an invitation from the Buddha rather than a race. It also shows a printed almanac from Dunhuang dated 877 CE with zodiac animal illustrations. The almanac is evidence of historical use; the race is a story that helps people remember and interpret the sequence.
Keeping these two kinds of material separate makes both more interesting. An entertaining explanation need not be the moment when a calendar system was actually created.
Twelve animals, many readers
The Chinese sequence is Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. You will also encounter “Goat” or “Ram” in English for the eighth animal. A different English label should prompt a closer look at the source, rather than an assumption that its sequence is wrong.
Enjoy the animals as characters and as a way into the calendar. A person born in a Rat year is not obliged to resemble the story’s Rat, and finishing last does not make Pig an unfavorable identity.
Sources & further reading
- Legend of the twelve Zodiac AnimalsInternational Dunhuang Programme, British Library
- Celebrating the Year of the Rooster: the twelve-animal sequenceThe Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Year of the... Goat? On sheep, ram, and goat translationsGriffith University