The Chinese Zodiac Race: Why the Rat Won, Where the Cat Went, and Who Swaps Which Animal

The Rat rode the Ox and pushed the Cat into the river, or so the tale goes. Outside China, Vietnam put the Cat back in, and even Thai sources disagree on whether the dragon year is a dragon or a nāga.

The Great Race, all twelve finishers

The version English Wikipedia tells in full starts at the river. The Cat and the Rat were poor swimmers but clever, so they asked the Ox for a ride, and the Ox, kindhearted and a little naive, carried them both. As the Ox neared the far bank, the Rat pushed the Cat into the water, jumped off and dashed to the Jade Emperor to take first place. The Ox had to settle for second. The Tiger came third: strong as it was, it admitted to the Jade Emperor that the current kept pushing it downstream.

The Rabbit came fourth. It hopped across from stone to stone, thought halfway over that it was going to lose, then grabbed a floating log that eventually washed ashore. The one who helped it was the Dragon. It could fly, yet it finished fifth, because it had stopped to bring rain to a village, and on the way it saw the Rabbit clinging to the log and blew a puff of breath to push it to the bank. Then the Horse galloped in, but the Snake had been hiding on its hoof and slithered out, startling the Horse into rearing back. The Snake took sixth and the Horse seventh.

The Goat, the Monkey and the Rooster reached the river together. The Rooster found a raft, and the Monkey and the Goat tugged the weeds out of the way. Pleased with their teamwork, the Jade Emperor made the Goat eighth, the Monkey ninth and the Rooster tenth. The Dog should have been the best swimmer and runner of them all, but it spent its time playing in the river, explained that it needed a good bath after a long journey, and only just scraped in at eleventh. Last was the Pig, arriving right as the Jade Emperor was about to close the race: it had got hungry, stopped to eat and fallen asleep. The Cat drowned, and the tale says that is why cats hate water and hate rats.

Other versions: the Rat always cheats, just differently

The one thing that never changes is that the Rat wins by a trick; the victim and the method change with the teller. In one version the Rat talks its way onto the Ox's back by promising to sing to it, then hops off at the finish line. In another it stows away on the back of the Dog, who is too focused on running to notice, and steals the Cat's place at the line. The Cat lunges at the Rat and hits the Dog by mistake, which is why, the story says, cats and dogs fight. A third story has no river at all: the Rat tricks the Cat into missing the banquet.

There is also a Buddhist version. Before the Buddha departed this world, he summoned every animal on Earth to come to him, but only 12 came to say goodbye, so he named a year after each one in the order they arrived. English Wikipedia flags both this and the banquet version as needing a citation, and it flags the river version too, noting that the article is missing information on where the folktale comes from and how old it is.

Why no Cat? The legend and the historians give different answers

The legend gives a moral reason: the Rat cheated. History gives a practical one: the animal wasn't there. English Wikipedia says most historians agree the Cat is missing because cats had not yet been introduced to China; they arrived later from India along with Buddhism. The same article admits that the twelve animals date from the early stages of Chinese civilization, which makes their real origins hard to trace.

What evidence there is says the cycle is old. Thai Wikipedia says zodiac animal images have been found archaeologically from before the Qin dynasty, which ruled in 221-207 BC. English Wikipedia adds that the choice of animals varied from region to region before being standardized under the Han dynasty. As for when the race story itself was first told, none of the sources we read says.

Thailand's year of the dragon: dragon, great snake, or nāga?

Here the sources we checked disagree, and we won't pick a side. English Wikipedia says the Thai zodiac has a nāga in place of the Dragon. The Royal Institute Dictionary, Thailand's official dictionary, defines ma-rong as "the 5th year of the zodiac cycle, whose sign is a great snake," and the year after it, ma-seng, as having a small snake for its sign. The table on Thai Wikipedia gives "great snake" in the Thai column and nāga in the Pali column, yet the opening paragraph of the same page says the ma-rong year is the dragon year, and so does its list of year animals.

What every source agrees on is that the names "great snake" and nāga really are in Thai texts, so Thai has two snake years in a row, a great snake and a small snake. That lines up neatly with the Malay zodiac, where, according to English Wikipedia, the Dragon is usually equated with the nāga and is sometimes called Big Snake (ular besar), while the Snake year is called Second Snake (ular sani). In Cambodia the dragon and the nāga are interchangeable.

The Thai year names are themselves a travel record. The Royal Institute Dictionary marks chuat, chalu and khan (rat, ox and tiger) as Khmer words. For the pig year, English Wikipedia says the northern kingdom of Lan Na once used an elephant instead of a pig; modern Thai went back to the pig, but its name, kun, is still the word for elephant. And the Thai zodiac year doesn't turn at Chinese New Year: it turns on the first day of the fifth lunar month, or at Songkran, 13-15 April, depending on what it is being used for.

Which countries swap which animals

The zodiac left China with its positions intact, but some animals were swapped for ones that locals knew better. Vietnam changes 2: a water buffalo instead of the Ox, and a Cat instead of the Rabbit. The usual reason given is that 卯 (mao), the Chinese word for the rabbit year, sounds like mèo, the Vietnamese word for cat. English Wikipedia also cites the belief among East Asian farmers that cats bring luck and protect the crops. Japan has a sheep instead of the Goat and a wild boar instead of the Pig. The Malay zodiac has a mouse-deer instead of the Rabbit and a tortoise instead of the Pig.

The further into Central Asia, the bigger the changes. The Volga Bulgars, the Khazars and other Turkic peoples replaced animals with local fauna: a leopard for the Tiger, a fish or crocodile for the Dragon, an elephant for the Pig. The Kazakh cycle has a snail where the Dragon should be. The Persian version translated the dragon as nahang, "water beast"; by the 20th century that word meant almost only "whale," so the Persian dragon became a whale. And the Turkish version has kept its pig year since Ottoman times, despite Islam's prohibition.

What actually holds: the Horse and the Dog are never replaced

Counting one version as one vote, the way Mythsensus does, English Wikipedia's table lists 21 versions of the zodiac: China plus 20 others stretching from Japan to Turkey. We counted only the slots where a different kind of animal appears, not synonyms such as wild boar for pig or hen for rooster. The result: the Horse, the Dog and the Snake are never replaced. The Rat changes in just 2 versions, and the Ox becomes a water buffalo in just 1, Vietnam's.

The animal replaced most often is the Dragon, in 10 of the 20. Next come the Goat, which becomes a sheep in 9, the Rabbit in 7, and the Tiger and the Pig in 5 each. The Dragon is the only imaginary animal in the cycle, so each culture substituted something it knew: real animals such as the crocodile, fish, whale, snail and eagle, or a creature from its own mythology, such as the nāga. One caveat: these figures come from a single table, and some of its rows still lack citations.

The Cat lost in China but won a seat in 6 other versions, and an elephant turns up at both ends of Asia

In the Chinese tale, the Cat is the loser who got cheated. Count the whole table, though, and the Cat is in the zodiac in 6 versions: Vietnamese, Gurung in Nepal, Persian, Kazakh, Turkish and Khazar, where it shares the slot with the rabbit. In every one of them the Cat takes the same seat, the Rabbit's fourth place. No version lets it replace the Rat that pushed it into the river.

Something few Thai readers will know: Lan Na’s elephant in the pig year is not alone. English Wikipedia says the Volga Bulgars, the Khazars and other Turkic peoples also put an elephant in place of the Pig. In the table of 20 versions, the elephant appears twice, for Lan Na and the Khazars. Two places at opposite ends of Asia chose the same animal for the same slot, and none of the sources we read says whether the two are connected.

Finally

If you were born in a ma-rong year, you can call yourself a dragon, a great snake or a nāga and have a source to back you up. If you were born in a rabbit year in Vietnam, you're a cat. The Great Race is still a good story. It's just that the animals standing at the finish line don't look the same in every country.

Frequently asked

Why is there no cat in the Chinese zodiac?

The folktale says the Rat pushed the Cat into the river while they were riding the Ox across, and the Cat drowned. English Wikipedia says most historians agree cats had simply not reached China yet; they came later from India with Buddhism.

What order did the animals finish the zodiac race in?

Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig.

In the zodiac story, why did the Horse finish after the Snake?

The Snake had been hiding on the Horse's hoof. It appeared suddenly, startling the Horse into falling back, so the Snake took sixth place and the Horse seventh.

Is the Thai dragon year a dragon or a nāga?

Sources disagree. The Royal Institute Dictionary says its sign is a great snake, English Wikipedia says Thailand uses a nāga, and Thai Wikipedia's text calls it the dragon year while the table on the same page gives great snake and nāga.

Which countries have a cat in the zodiac?

Vietnam is the best known, with the Cat in place of the Rabbit. English Wikipedia's table also lists the Gurung of Nepal, Persian, Kazakh, Turkish and Khazar versions, 6 in all, and in every one the Cat takes the Rabbit's place.

When does the Thai zodiac year change?

Not at Chinese New Year. According to English Wikipedia it changes on the first day of the fifth Thai lunar month or at Songkran, 13-15 April, depending on the purpose.

Is the Chinese zodiac race story real?

It's a folktale. The zodiac itself is much older: Thai Wikipedia says zodiac animal images predate the Qin dynasty, and English Wikipedia says the set of animals was standardized under the Han. When the race story first appeared, no source we read says.

Sources for the traditions cited (5)

en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_zodiac

en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnamese_zodiac

th.wikipedia.org · th.wikipedia.org/wiki/ปีนักษัตร

th.wikipedia.org · th.wikipedia.org/wiki/ปีนักษัตร

dictionary.orst.go.th · dictionary.orst.go.th/

How we counted: 370 traditions from every continent, living and ancient, from sources in dozens of languages. One tradition, one vote, and only where a source confirms it. A tradition missing here is not evidence it lacks the belief, only that we found no document. Scriptural religions (Buddhist, Hindu, Chinese, Jewish, Christian, Muslim) are described in more detail than oral ones, and some records come through missionaries or outsiders. This page does not judge which belief is true.

Read next: Where astrology got its meanings (history) · Rahu swallowing the moon: where the Thai eclipse story comes from, and who eats the moon in 37 cultures · Where do the Thai colours of the day come from? The myths behind Thai fortune-telling · The Myths Behind the 12 Star Signs: the Golden Ram, Hera's Crab, Orion's Scorpion and the 13th Sign · Who Gave Humans Divination? 52 Origin Myths from 29 Cultures, and Where Tarot Really Came From

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