中国十二生肖

翻译：童真

The Chinese animal signs are a 12-year cycle[周期] used for dating the years. They represent a cyclical concept[观念] of time. The Chinese Lunar Calendar[阴历] is based on the cycles of the moon, and is constructed[创立] in a different fashion than the Western solar calendar[阳历].

The repeating cycle of the Twelve Animal Signs is as follows: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. Therefore, every twelve years the same animal name would reappear.

According to Chinese legend, the twelve animals quarreled one day about who was to head the cycle of years. The gods were asked to decide and they held a contest ?whoever was to reach the opposite bank of the river first, would be first on the calendar, and the rest of the animals would receive their positions according to their finishing order. All the twelve animals gathered at the river bank and jumped in. Unknown to the ox, the rat had jumped upon his back. As the ox was about to jump ashore[上岸], the rat jumped off the ox’s back and won the race. The pig, who was very lazy, ended up last. That is why the rat is the first year of the animal cycle, the ox second, and the pig last.

The animal signs also serve a useful social function for finding out people’s ages. Instead of asking directly how old a person is, people often ask what is his or her animal sign. More often though, people ask for animal signs not to compute[计算] a person’s exact numerical age, but to simply know who is older among friends and acquaintances[熟人].

中国生肖以12年为一周期，以此来纪年。这是一个反复循环的纪年法。中国阴历是根据月相变化而创造出来的，其计算方法有别于西方阳历。

反复循环的十二生肖所代表的动物分别是：鼠、牛、虎、兔、龙、蛇、马、羊、猴、鸡、狗和猪。因此，相同的动物每隔12年便会再次出现。

根据中国传说，有一天，12种动物争吵着谁应该排在这循环的首位。它们要求天神作决定，于是天神举行了一场比赛―哪只动物最先到达河对岸就能排在日历的第一位，随后的动物按其到达的先后来排名。12种动物于是齐集在河岸上，一起跳进水里。鼠在牛不留意时跳上了牛背。当牛快要跳上岸时，鼠跳下牛背，赢得了比赛。而非常懒惰的猪最后到达对岸。因此，在十二生肖中，鼠排第一，牛排第二，而猪排在最后。

十二生肖在社交场合也很有用，人们可以通过它来估算别人的年纪。人们不用直接询问对方的年龄，通常只需问他（她）的属相就可以了。然而更常见的是，人们问对方的属相不是用来计算其确切的岁数，而是了解一下在朋友当中谁的年纪比较大。