Similar to common practice in Western countries, Chinese often describe people as the Chinese Zodiac animals, to symbolize different personalities, characteristics, habits, temperaments, etc. However, you will find that Chinese people have gone much farther that. They have also developed a philosophy dealing with combinations.

	Group I: rats and cows. Rats on behalf of wisdom, cows on behalf of hard-working. The combination of the two is very important. Wisdom is useless without hard work, as a vital spark; and if in reverse, it becomes a folly. This is actually the ancestors’ expectations and demands for the Chinese people.
	Group II: tigers and rabbits. The tiger on behalf of fierceness, the rabbit represents prudence. The combination must be made in order to achieve the so-called bold but cautious. If the brave forfeit caution they become reckless, but stubbornly cautious becomes timid.
	Group III: dragons and snakes. The dragon is a symbol of toughness, while snakes represent flexibility. Too tough is easy to break, too soft is weak and loose is assertive, so hardness with softness served as a model to duplicate by the ancient Chinese.
	Group VI: horses and sheep. The horse represents heading straight for goals, the sheep represents tractability. If a person is too straight for his interests, but doesn't take his surrounding into consideration, he is bound to suffer and will probably be unable to achieve his goals. However, a person who is always looking around will lose his direction. So indomitable mettle must be closely combined with the amiable nature.
	Group V: monkeys and roosters. The monkey represents flexibility; rooster crows from time to time, represent consistency.. Consistency must be tightly integrated with flexibility. A combination of harmony between them, on the one hand, makes for the overall stability and order, on the other hand, it enables continuous adaptive movement.
	Finally, dogs and pigs. Dogs represent loyalty, pigs represent easy-goingness. A person who is too loyal yet doesn’t know how to be easy-going will exclude others. This is what Chinese people have always adhered to, common folks and royalty alike.

What is the origin of the Zodiac? Here's a fairy tale that tries to answer that question:

Once upon a time, the Jade Emperor wanted to elect representatives of 12 different kinds of animals. He dispatched immortals to the animals, asking them to join the election in the Heaven Temple - whoever came sooner had a better chance of winning. At the time, the cat and rat were good friends. The cat loved to sleep, but he also intended on participating in the elections, so he entrusted the rat with the responsibility to wake him up. However, the rat soon forgets the cat’s request.  He spoke to the cow, which gets up early and runs fast, asking him to go riding with him. The cow agrees.

On this day, while the cat's still crouching in his sweet dreams, all animals have set out for the congregation in the Temple. As expected, the cow comes in first. However, sitting on the back of the cow, the rat wisely jumps forward and takes the lead. So the Jade Emperor ranks the rat first, the old cow second; the tiger follows up, ranked third and the rabbit is the next, ranked fourth; the dragon arrives very late, but his giant, beautiful stature draws the Jade Emperor’s attention, who thus ranks him fifth, and says his son could rank sixth. However, the dragon is disappointed because his son did not come today. Right then, the snake rushes forward and says to the Emperor: "He is my father-in-law, I’m his adopted son, let me rank the 6th!" So the snake gets sixth place; the horse and sheep also arrive, but they have been showing mutual humility and respect for those ahead of them. The Jade Emperor sees the two are so polite, so he lets them come in seventh and eighth. The monkey is originally placed in last place, but he is able to jump on the clouds in heaven, pulling himself to the ninth position; then the rooster, the dog and the pig were selected consecutively.

The cat does not wake up until the end of the competition. Seeing the rat win first place, he gets so angry that since then he’s been chasing the rat all over the world.

Check your own animal sign in the table and do the following exercise.
 nǐ shǔ shén me
- 你属什么？(What animal sign were you born under?)
  wǒ shǔ tù
- 我属兔。(I was born in the year of the Rabbit / Mine is the Rabbit.)

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