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Grex Synthesis Item 53: Chinese horoscopes
Entered by brighn on Thu Sep 1 05:46:03 UTC 1994:

Most of you are probably familiar with the basic concept of Chinese 
astrology if you have ever bothered to read your placemats in Chinese
restaurants.  However, these typically only give the most basic of 
information:  a listing of the twelve animals, and the characteristics
of people born in those years.  However, Chinese astrology can be somewhat
more complicated than that.  A short primer, then:
The basic unit in the system is the lunar year, consisting of either 12
or 13 complete lunar cycles.  For this reason, the Chinese New Year
(the first day of the first month) does not always fall on the same 
day in the western calendar.  However, it always falls during the morth
(er month) of Aqaurius (late Jan - late Feb).  Each month corresponds to
an animal, except for the superfluous 13th month in some years, and each
2-hour block of time (from the half-hour) corresponds to an animal, as
does each year.  Years are also identified by a cycle of the five
Chinese elements (although in pairs:  fire for two years, earth for
two, metal for 2, water for 2, wood for 2, then back to fire).  Within
each pair of years, the first is + and the second is -.  Hence there
is a longer cycle of 60 (12 animals x 5 elements) years.
The animals, in order, are: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit/Hare/Cat, Dragon,
Snake, Horse, Sheep/Ram, Monkey, Rooster/Chicken/Cock, Dog, Boar/Pig.
One's principle characteristics are determined by the year, then 
by the month, then by the hour.  F'rinstance, I was born around 7:00 pm
on March 4, 1968.  I'm principally an Earth Monkey (Monkeys are typically
pranksters and abstract-oriented, but Earth grounds them), but March is
the sign of the Rabbit, and 7-9 pm (oops -- ignore that bit about the
half-hour above) are the dog hours, so I have traits of those animals 
as well.  (All of this comes out of T. Lau's Handbook of Chinese
Horoscopes and S. White's New Chinese Astrology.  The former is better for
the technical stuff, but the latter has nicer, more thought-out 
interpretations.)

10 responses total.

#1 of 10 by arwen on Thu Sep 1 12:44:58 1994:

Ok...me...3-8-61 7:54am   Terrie 12-15-61 ??time??

#2 of 10 by md on Thu Sep 1 13:12:49 1994:

There is some discussion of this topic in item #2, above.

#3 of 10 by brighn on Thu Sep 1 20:39:57 1994:

Oops, sorry for the redundancies, although I think it's nicer to have
separate items for East and West, as well as having a summary in #0 
-- I didn't read all of #2 because of a couple of extremely long 
messages.
Anyway, animal months roughly correspond to Western zodiac symbols,
apparently well enough to not note the differences (Lau doesn't 
at any rate).  I.e., for all intents, Rat=Sag, Ox=Capri, Tiger=Aqua.
Rabbit=Pisces, Dragon=Aries, Snake=Taurus, Horse=Gemini, Sheep=Cancer,
Monkey=Leo, Rooster=Virgo, Dog=Libra, Boar=Scorpio.  Remember, though, 
some years have a thirteenth sign, somewhere in the year (its place shifts),
so if your animal doesn't seem to fit, try a neighboring one, or none at all.
Hours:  Rat -- 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. (i.e., surrounding midnight), then two
hours blocks, so each animal starts as follows:
Rat, 11 p.m., Ox, 1 a.m., Tiger, 3 a.m., Rabbit, 5 a.m., Dragon, 7 a.m.,
Snake, 9 a.m., horse, 11 a.m., Sheep, 1 p.m., Monkey, 3 p.m., Rooster,
5 p.m., Dog, 7 p.m., boar, 9 p.m.
Animals pretty much have the characteristics we give them in the west,
although pigs are fastidious (not sloppy), and rabbits are catty (which 
is why White calls them Cats).  For quick reference, White gives the
following quicky phrase mnemonics:
Rats Rule
Oxen persevere
Tigers win
Cats retreat
Dragons reign
Snakes feel
Horses control
Goats depend
Monkey entertain
Roosters know bdetter
Roosters know better, too.
Dogs worry.
Pigs preserve
Other questions?

#4 of 10 by arwen on Thu Sep 1 22:26:07 1994:

Pig preserves?  ewwww!

#5 of 10 by brighn on Fri Sep 2 05:43:54 1994:

Pickled pig's feet!
,

#6 of 10 by arwen on Fri Sep 2 12:57:55 1994:

Gee, we drift fast!
Stop the boat!  I wanna get off!

#7 of 10 by anne on Fri Sep 2 16:59:10 1994:

Okay- let's see if I have this partially- my b-day is 1-11-75
For month (capricorn) I'm ox/boar, for time (oops- it's 10:17 pm)
(oops, forget the ox/boar- I mean tjust ox)
Time: is boar-   I preserve on two levels?  What does this say?
Oh, and do you know what the animal is for 75?

#8 of 10 by md on Fri Sep 2 19:28:18 1994:

Thru 2/10, Wood Tiger.  Thereafter, Wood Rabbit.  For the
complete list, see /home/md/chinese.signs

#9 of 10 by brighn on Fri Sep 2 22:49:49 1994:

Actually, there's a slight word difference.  Boars preserve; 
oxen presevere.
Er, persevere.

#10 of 10 by anne on Mon Sep 5 04:02:38 1994:

I didn't catch that at first...

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