#chinese zodiac
My envelope for @capsulecorner Lunar Gallery. Happy year of the boar!
(all credits on the images go to their respective creators; if this post infringes on any copyrights, please message me, and I will take it off this post)
So, most people probably know that the Chinese zodiac consists of 12 animals, and that they change yearly, commonly referred to as “year of the (animal)”. 2020 (or traditionally called the Gengzi/庚子 year, according to the Sexagenary Cycle/”Heavenly Trunks and Earthly Branches”/天干地支) is the Year of the Rat. Personally, I was born on a Year of the Rat, and I know a bunch of people who were also born on a Year of the Rat, which means that 2020 is our zodiac year/本命年!
But hold the celebrations……
Because traditionally speaking, when your zodiac year comes around, it’s actually considered to be a very bad thing for you.
Why is that?
This concept is called “犯太岁” in folk belief, which basically means “offending the reigning deity of the year”, and it originated from Daoism, where it’s called “冲克岁君” (same meaning). In religious Daoism, there is a group of 60 different deities called Taisui (太岁; all 60 are deified historical figures) who take turns reigning over the years (1 deity per year). If this next year is your zodiac year, then you have offended the reigning Taisui of that year.
You might be asking yourself, how did I offend the reigning Taisui?
Turns out it has more to do with the Sexagenary Cycle (天干地支/“Heavenly Trunks and Earthly Branches”). The Sexagenary Cycle is an ancient system for reckoning time that goes in cycles of 60 years each, and is applied to the Lunar Calendar (meaning the “years” referred to here are years as dictated by the Lunar Calendar). The 60 years are further divided into groups of 12 each, with each of the 12 being an “Earthly Branch” (地支), and each are paired up with an animal, forming the Chinese zodiac we know today. While there is a Taisui reigning over a given year, the zodiac animal of the year would assist the deity. Some people might know the pressure of working under a powerful boss who has a lot of credentials, and this is presumed to be how it is for the zodiac animal of the year. So for example, people who were born in Year of the Rat might be punished (this “punishment” usually manifest as extremely bad luck, for example, getting into a serious accident, losing a lot of money, etc) by the reigning Taisui along with the Rat, should anything go wrong.
Thankfully, tradition says that there are some things we can do to avoid an impending year of misfortune. Traditionally, people would burn offerings and pray to the reigning deity of the year to show their piety and appease the reigning Taisui. These rituals are called “安太岁” (or “摄太岁” in Hong Kong), which literally means “calming Taisui”, and are still practiced in parts of China today. However, in modern times, the more common method is to wear red-colored clothing items (usually belts or undergarments) when the person’s zodiac year comes around (at least from the eve to the 1st of the new year), in an attempt to gain back the “lost” luck (red is traditionally seen as a “lucky” color symbolizing all good things).
But regardless of whether you live by these traditions or not……
Happy Lunar New Year!
Source: TravelChinaGuide
What is it?
The Chinese zodiac, known as Sheng Xiao or Shu Xiang, features 12 animal signs in this order: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig.
Originated from ancient zoolatry and boasting a history of more than 2,000 years, it plays an essential role in Chinese culture. The 12 Chinese zodiac animals in a cycle are not only used to represent years in China, but also believed to influence people’s personalities, career, compatibility, marriage, and fortune.
There is an animal representing each year, but the “year” is defined by the Chinese lunar calendar, NOT the Gregorian year you are familiar with from Jan. 1st to Dec. 31st.
The dates of Chinese Lunar New Year vary every year, but will fall on a day in January or February. If you were born on a day during March to December, it won’t be difficult to figure out your zodiac animal sign, but for people with birthdays in January or February, there are bigger chances of mistaking their signs.
Find your sign:
Look for your birth date on this chart. For more specifics, click here.
An alternative method:
Divide your year of birth by 12 and read about the remainder. If the number of the year can be divided with no remainder, take the remainder as zero. Each remainder corresponds to an animal sign.
0: Monkey 1: Rooster 2: Dog 3: Pig
4: Rat 5: Ox 6: Tiger 7: Rabbit
8: Dragon 9: Snake 10: Horse 11: Sheep
EXAMPLES:
Take someone born in 1968.
1968/12=164 (no remainder)
No remainder equals to 0, which indicates Monkey sign.
Take someone born in 1996.
1996/12=166.333333
Take 0.333333 (remainder) and multiply by 12.
0.333333 x 12 = 3.9~ (round up to 4)
4 indicates the Rat.
Once you find your sign, learn more about it!
Source: TravelChinaGuide
What is it?
The Chinese zodiac, known as Sheng Xiao or Shu Xiang, features 12 animal signs in this order: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig.
Originated from ancient zoolatry and boasting a history of more than 2,000 years, it plays an essential role in Chinese culture. The 12 Chinese zodiac animals in a cycle are not only used to represent years in China, but also believed to influence people’s personalities, career, compatibility, marriage, and fortune.
There is an animal representing each year, but the “year” is defined by the Chinese lunar calendar, NOT the Gregorian year you are familiar with from Jan. 1st to Dec. 31st.
The dates of Chinese Lunar New Year vary every year, but will fall on a day in January or February. If you were born on a day during March to December, it won’t be difficult to figure out your zodiac animal sign, but for people with birthdays in January or February, there are bigger chances of mistaking their signs.
Find your sign:
Look for your birth date on this chart. For more specifics, click here.
An alternative method:
Divide your year of birth by 12 and read about the remainder. If the number of the year can be divided with no remainder, take the remainder as zero. Each remainder corresponds to an animal sign.
0: Monkey 1: Rooster 2: Dog 3: Pig
4: Rat 5: Ox 6: Tiger 7: Rabbit
8: Dragon 9: Snake 10: Horse 11: Sheep
EXAMPLES:
Take someone born in 1968.
1968/12=164 (no remainder)
No remainder equals to 0, which indicates Monkey sign.
Take someone born in 1996.
1996/12=166.333333
Take 0.333333 (remainder) and multiply by 12.
0.333333 x 12 = 3.9~ (round up to 4)
4 indicates the Rat.
Once you find your sign, learn more about it!
I’m going to be drawing every member of the Chinese zodiac (and then some) starting with the one, the only, rat prince
Year of the Boar
A little overdue, but happy year of the boar!
I’m quite fond of this papier-mâché boar figure I got at the local shrine.
You know that feeling… when you’re about to eat a chocolate chip cookie but you bite into it and it’s actually a raisin cookie? That’s what I’m going through right now
I’m drawing a comic to explain
No offense to rabbits but when you go your whole life thinking you’re a dragon. You can understand my disappointment
[image descriptions in alt text]
This is a painting I did for the Dallas Zoo’s “Zoo to Do” art auction event in 2019 to help raise money for the zoo. The theme was Tigers. With 2022 being the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese calendar, I thought I would finally post these
I was REAL proud of this one, though I do wonder where it wound up?.. (Hopefully not in the home of a transphobe ️⚧️)
Comment how much you think it sold for - closest answer gets a million points and a bunch of tiger emojis
You know what I find so cool about the zodiac miraculous’ within the show? There are alot of explicit ways in which they are used appropriately to their Chinese numbers meaning. Let me give you a couple of examples without elaborating too deep with others and please remember that I’m not of any chinese/asian heriantage myself, so my knowledge is limited to the research I can make. As per usual, if I made any mistakes feel free to correct me:
(btw, in the original Miracle box layout the Zodiac miraculous were indeed in the right order, they were merely upside down. So 12 (Pig) was the first from the top and 1 (Mouse; I know normally it’s a Rat but the show calls it Mouse so that’s what I’m using too) was at the bottom. But that’s something for a completely different post in the future)The real life zodiac order is:
Mouse, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig
So for example the Rabbit is animal number 4 and in Chinese 4 is the number of bad luck, like 13 in the western world, because it sounds so much like the word for “death” (四, pinyin: sì; Cantonese Yale: sei). So fitting to that, not only is the Rabbit narratively directly linked to Chat Blanc and DEATH, it is also color-coded with the color white (and blue, which often comes alongside black and green - CN and CB, you get it). Which, as many probably already know, was/is the color of mourning in Chinese culture.
Or the Goat! The Goat is animal number 8 and that’s the luckiest number in China! And therefore in the show the goats power is like a light version of the Lucky Charm and concealed in the only other miraculous jewelry that is a two-piece pair - like Ladybugs earrings!
Or the Rooster as well, animal number 10. As far as my research could get me chinese people don’t talk too much about the number 10 in these regards because of its “intense” nature. Basically 10 symbolizes having reached your full potential, being at your very peak, but that also means that from this peak onwards there is nowhere to go but downhill. Like the rooster miraculous within the show. The rooster has the unlimited power of CHOOSING his power himself and yet he is highly limited by not getting to use it to fulfill a desire.
His power has the potential to be boundless, the very peak of the miraculous powers, and yet from this very peak the way he can actually manifeste his powers will inevitably always be significantly beneath the high point he and his powers stand for.
Then we have the Snake, miraculous number 6 which sounds like the manderin word for “ “flowing, smooth, or frictionless” (溜, pinyin: liū) which culturally indicates a smooth process in life. Just like the Snakes powers, which benefit everyone but themselves since from an outsider perspective the Snake just uses his powers once and thats it, the situation is solved/where is it, while from the insider perspective we of course know that there is MUCH more effort involved than that.
6 stands for an easy flow in life, just like the Snakes powers look like for everyone on the outside and this interestingly also applies to Luka himself. He is very easy going on the outside and wants to make life easier for everyone through his patience and help and yet season 4 also showed that not only are there more complex emotions underneath, the way he uses his methods as Luka and Viperion don’t automatically lead to morally flawless solutions or even anywhere close to the best ones (“Wishmaker” and “Ephemeral”). Lifes situation is just where it is now and he and therefore everyone else is going with the flow he created because no one but him is any wiser of what happened within his power usage or what he himself feels regarding certain things.
And the Mouseisnumber 1, which isn’t too special of a number in China from what I can gather, but its meaning is culturally linked to being alone, but in first place and the winner. Just like the Mouse miraculous being portrayed as basically a lonely one person-army, for both its good and its bad implications:
Btw, 1 having the meaning of lonely also explains the DogMiraculous,the 11th zodiac animal:
11th of November is the Single’s day in Chinese culture, which is 1x4 (remember 4 being the unluckiest number?) and therefore connected directly to loneliness and bad luck especially in relationships. This perfectly corresponds with Sabrina and Félix using the Dog miraculous in their respective contexts.
Aaaaaaaand that’s it for now! I have wanted to point this and more out for a LONG while already, but I’m still waiting for a specific official confirmation in Canon that the s4 finale has now validated me in 100% that I’m right. I have much more to say in season 5 when we finally HAVE IT, but at this point I guess there is no need to not talk about a couple of things while we wait for s5.
Chinesenewyear.net is a very indepth site on the zodiac and thier meanings and realtions.
Among notable insights:
The Rat and Ox are classed as most comparable in relationship. As are the Tiger and Pig.
Roosters are known for their creativity and are often artists.
Monkey is sloppy if he’s uninterested in a thing but intense and dedicated if the task is one he likes.
Horse is positive and Energetic, driven and expressive ( like Gamer) they are the Head/leader of the six domestic animals (Horse, Ox, Pig,Goat, Dog and Rooster) and was the first miraculous in this group given out.
Lots more thing s on the site.
The Year of the Tiger // print available
~ happy lunar new year y'all ~
My zodiac sign isn’t the tiger but it’s still one of my favs so I thought I’d make a tiny tribute to these majestic furbebs.
Largely made from wood, paper, poly clay & air dry clay.