The Story Behind the Chinese Zodiac

The Jade Chinese Zodiac Bracelet

From left to right: Snake, Dog, Tiger, Rooster, Dragon, Ox, Monkey

Clockwise: Rabbit, Sheep (goat or ram), Rat, Pig, Horse

Hello, friends! I would like to feature the interesting and well-known stories behind the Chinese Zodiac and how each year is named after the twelve animals. All the animals are featured in a jade bracelet.

 The 12 Zodiac animal signs (生肖 shengxiao) are, in order, the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep (ram or goat), monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. There are many legends to explain the beginning of the zodiac. One of the most popular reads, in summarized form, as follows:

The rat was given the task of inviting the animals to report to the Jade Emperor for a banquet to be selected for the zodiac signs. The cat was a good friend of the rat, but the rat tricked him into believing that the banquet was the next day. The cat slept through the banquet, thinking that it was the next day. When he found out, the cat vowed to be the rat’s natural enemy for ages to come.

Interestingly, the cat does make it into the Vietnamese Zodiac, in place of the rabbit (see below).

Another popular legend has it that a race was used to decide the animals to report to the Jade Emperor.

The cat and the rat were the worst swimmers in the animal kingdom. Although bad swimmers, they were both intelligent. They decided that the best and fastest way to cross the river was to hop on the back of the ox. The ox, being a naïve and good-natured animal, agreed to carry them across. However, overcome with a fierce competitiveness, the rat decided that in order to win, it must do something and promptly pushed the cat into the river. Because of this, the cat has never forgiven the rat, and hates the water as well. After the ox had crossed the river, the rat jumped ahead and reached the shore first, and it claimed first place in the competition.

Following closely behind was the strong ox, and it was named the 2nd animal in the zodiac. After the ox, came the tiger, panting, while explaining to the Emperor just how difficult it was to cross the river with the heavy currents pushing it downstream all the time. But with powerful strength, it made to shore and was named the 3rd animal in the cycle.

Suddenly, from a distance came a thumping sound, and the rabbit arrived. It explained how it crossed the river: by jumping from one stone to another in a nimble fashion. Halfway through, it almost lost the race but the rabbit was lucky enough to grab hold of a floating log that later washed him to shore. For that, it became the 4th animal in the zodiac cycle. Coming in 5th place was the dragon, flying and belching fire into the air. Of course, the Emperor was deeply curious as to why a strong and flying creature such as the dragon should fail to reach first. The mighty dragon explained that he had to stop and make rain to help all the people and creatures of the earth, and therefore he was held back a little. Then, on his way to the finish line, he saw a little helpless rabbit clinging on to a log so he did a good deed and gave a puff of breath to the poor creature so that it could land on the shore. The Emperor was very pleased with the actions of the dragon, and he was added into the zodiac cycle. As soon as he had done so, a galloping sound was heard, and the horse appeared. Hidden on the horse’s hoof is the snake, whose sudden appearance gave the horse a fright, thus making it fall back and gave the snake 6th spot while the horse took the 7th.

Not long after that, a little distance away, the ram, monkey and rooster came to the shore. These three creatures helped each other to get to where they are. The rooster spotted a raft, and took the other two animals with it. Together, the ram and the monkey cleared the weeds, tugged and pulled and finally got the raft to the shore. Because of their combined efforts, the Emperor was very pleased and promptly named the ram as the 8th creature, the monkey as the 9th, and the rooster the 10th.

The 11th animal is the dog. His explanation for being late—although he was supposed to be the best swimmer amongst the rest—was that he needed a good bath after a long spell, and the fresh water from the river was too big a temptation. For that, he almost didn’t make it to finish line. Just as the Emperor was about to call it a day, an oink and squeal was heard from a little pig. The pig got hungry during the race, promptly stopped for a feast and then fell asleep. After the nap, the pig continued the race and was named the 12th and last animal of the zodiac cycle. The cat finished too late (thirteenth) to win any place in the calendar, and vowed to be the enemy of the rat forevermore.

In Buddhism, legend has it that Buddha summoned all of the animals of the earth to come before him before his departure from this earth, but only twelve animals actually came to bid him farewell. To reward the animals who came to him he named a year after each of them, the years were given to them in the order they had arrived.

This jade bracelet is now more meaningful and unique as you can enthrall your friends with the intriguing and mesmerising stories behind it.

The Jade Chinese Zodiac bracelet is available at:

http://www.tmour.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=45_49&products_id=338

 

Taken from www.wikipedia.org

Welcoming The Festive Season

MAKAN MAKAN
By FARIDAH BEGUM

Taken from www.thestar.com.my

Add some mandarin orange zest to your savoury dishes and enjoy these same dishes with a flavourful festive twist!

THE Chinese New Year festive air comes with the mandarin oranges and even if the oranges appear two months before the actual day, they are reminders of a great festival to come.

Despite the decline in purchasing power of the households, the Chinese New Year is one festival where expense is no issue.

However, while the traditional foodstuffs must make their presence at the annual reunion dinner, some of us may want to make a small difference in the run-up to the festival, especially when relatives begin to gather where the matriarch or patriarch resides.

Then, perhaps a little twist – but one which keeps in tune with the flavour of the festival – can be observed in the dishes that are presented at the dining table.

Early this week, at a cooking demonstration where most of the participants would be celebrating the upcoming Chinese New Year, I decided that a new dish should be specially created for the occasion.

Initially apprehensive of the response, I thought I would just bulldoze through with my idea and see what comes out of it.

(Mind you, I had not even thought of the recipe the day prior to the cooking demonstration.)

So, before the grand audience, I sliced the chicken thinly and poured some of the syrup from the peeled mandarin oranges onto the meat. Next, I added a little corn flour, some white pepper powder and a little oyster sauce and left it to marinate for about half-an-hour.

Well, I must say, the end result was very encouraging, with the whole dish vanishing within minutes.

Faridah Begum is passionate about cooking and stuffing family and friends with food, whether tasty or not.

Mandarin Orange Chicken

Ingredients
300g chicken – sliced thinly
1 can peeled S&W mandarin oranges
2 teaspoons corn flour
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste
Spring onions – finely sliced
2 tablespoons cooking oil
5 cloves garlic, chopped finely
50g cashew nuts

Method
1. Drain the oranges but save half the syrup and put it into the chicken. Add the corn flour, oyster sauce, salt and pepper, and mix it well. Keep it marinated for at least half-an-hour.
2. Heat up a wok and put the oil in. Sauté the garlic until it is aromatic. Add the chicken and its sauce together.
3. Stir-fry until the chicken is cooked, with the syrup turning a little brown due to the caramelisation of the marinade.
4. Stir the chicken over very intense heat and make sure the fire is constant if you want the chicken to remain tender.
5. Quickly throw in the spring onions, cashew nuts and the mandarin orange slices.
6. Immediately switch off the fire, mix well and serve with hot rice.

Edited from www.thestar.com.my