15
Then came the tiger. The tiger was roaring,” I am the first, right?”” No, you are the third,” said the Jade Emperor.
16
A whirlwind came in the sky as the dragon arrived.
12
The ox had no idea of what had just happened but heard the rat saying “ Big Brother Ox, Go! Go! Go! We are almost there! We can make it.”
13
The ox climbed up the shore and ran to the finish line.
3
福德宮
The Jade Emperor asked the Earth God to tell every animal how to be chosen as one of the animals for the twelve signs of the zodiac.
4
玉皇大帝公告
The river- crossing race
The rat jumped out of the ox’s ear and rushed to the finish line to win first place.
14
The ox was very angry. Ever since then, the ox always looked at the rat with his enormous eyes.
17
But the rabbit sprinted ahead and took the forth place.
The rabbit could not swim but jumped across the river on the backs of the other animals.
18
I had gone to the South China Sea to host a rainmaking ceremony and rushed back in a hurry but
The Story of Chinese Zodiac
1
Long, long time ago, people always forgot in which year they were born and could not figure out exactly how old they were.
6
At that time, the cat and the rat were very good friends. They met to discuss the race.
Let’s join the ox, We can point the way and he can carry us across the river.
We can’t swim. How are we gonna cross the river?
7
The cat and the rat went to see the ox. The ox said okay at once.
8
十 The day of the race soon came.
十
10
The cat became sleepy because he got up so early that morning.
He fell asleep as soon as he got on top of the ox’s back.
11
How eager the rat wanted to win first place. When the ox was a few second away from the opposite bank of the river, the rat pushed the cat into the water and went into one of the ox’s ears.
All animals are welcome to compete. The first twelve animals across the finish line will be chosen as the twelve animals of the Chinese zodicement, all the animals got very excited and everyone was talking about the race.
was to降o la雨te. 大 典
You could fly. Why did you arrive so late?
19
The sky was filled with flying dust. The horse was dashing at full speed, but as he was about to cross the finish line, the snake suddenly shot through to come in sixth. Poor horse.
二 Early that morning, before the rooster
生
woke up, the ox, the cat and the rat were already at the riverside.
二 生
肖
肖
渡
渡
河
河
比
比
賽
賽
9
The cat and the rat climbed onto the back of the ox. And then they started swimming across the river.
2
The Jade Emperor came up with an idea.
It’s too difficult to remember a year. It would be easier to remember an animal. Why don’t we choose twelve animals to represent the years?