Rooster: Rival of Evil

The Year of the Rooster begins on February 9, 2005, and ends on January 28, 2006.

The rooster is a symbol of luck for the Chinese. First of all, the pronunciation of rooster in Chinese is ji (first tone), similar to that of auspicious (ji, second tone), so images of roosters are often found in Chinese folk art. For example, in the northern countryside, children wear a decoration called chunji (spring roosters) on their caps during the spring festival, because roosters symbolize auspiciousness in the spring. Chunji always holds some beans in their mouths. The beans resemble diseases such as smallpox and measles. Chunji will be thrown away at the Lantern Festival, thereby dispensing with the diseases.

Roosters are rivals of insects, so legend has it that roosters eats up wudu (the five poisonous creatures, namely, the snake, scorpion, centipede, lizard and toad). Wudu are two-edged in Chinese culture. On the one hand, they are symbols of evil; while on the other hand, they can protect people from other evils. However, roosters, as the unbeatable rivals of these poisonous creatures, are widely admired in folk culture. Two thousand years ago, Chinese used roosters and their blood as sacrifices to drive evil away. In some cultures, the rooster transformed into a god, as in the Jingpo minority, where each side involved in a lawsuit will bring a cock with them and wait for a cock's crow. The losing side will be the side whose cock crows first. Some other minorities use eggs when engaged in augury.

The nature of the rooster also makes it popular. When a rooster crows, the day breaks and dawn comes, so it signifies hope and vitality. What's more, it is also a symbol of punctuality and credibility, since it crows almost at the same time everyday. In Chinese culture, ghosts are active at night and are afraid of daytime. When the rooster's crow, it means the daytime is coming, so ghosts are also afraid of roosters.

In addition to the above mentioned exemplary features of roosters, they are sometimes equally common. Roosters are not rare animals and they do not possess distinctive abilities, so it has to be diligent, seeks food all the time and does not live an easy life. Jipaming means the destiny of seeking on the ground all the time like a rooster, or rather, not a rich or easy life.

In effect, animal signs were a way to record time for the ancient Chinese. Each animal has positive and negative legends in Chinese culture, so do not worry about jipaming!

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How do the Chinese record time?

The Chinese calendar, or the lunar calendar, is a fascinating system. All information about time, the year, month, day and hour, are presented in terms of the five elements -- metal, wood, water, fire, and earth -- which are believed to be basic components of everything in the universe. The Year of the Rooster, 2005, is symbolized by two elements, with wood sitting on top of metal.

The Chinese calendar year functions with a 60-year cycle. Years are classified according to the 10 Heavenly Stems (jia, yi, bing, ding, wu, ji, geng, xin, ren and gui) and 12 Earthly Branches (zi, chou, yin, mao, chen, si, wu, wei, shen, you, xu and hai). The succession of Stems and Branches produces a 60-year cycle. The primary association of the Stems is with the five elements, which are divided into yang and yin forms.

The Earthly Branches are more familiar, since one association is with 12 zodiacal animals, which in Buddhist tradition are supposed to be the animals that responded when the Buddha called to them.

The 60-year cycle starts with jiazi, the first elements of Stems and Branches and ends with guihai, the last elements of Stems and Branches. 2005 is a xinyou year.