十二生肖的英文介绍

十二生肖，是由十一种源于自然界的动物即鼠、牛、虎、兔、蛇、马、羊、猴、鸡、狗、猪以及传说中的龙所组成，用于记年。下面小编为大家整理的十二生肖的英文介绍，希望对大家有用!

十二生肖的英文介绍

The Shengxiào (Chinese:生肖), better known in English as the Chinese Zodiac, is a scheme that relates each year to an animal and its reputed attributes, according to a 12-year cycle.It has wide currency in several East Asian countries such as Korea and Japan.

Identifying this scheme using the term “zodiac” reflects several similarities to the Western zodiac: both have time cycles divided into 12 parts, each labels at least the majority of those parts with names of animals, and each is widely associated with a culture of attributing influence of a person’s relationship to the cycle upon their personality and/or events in their life. Nevertheless, there are major differences: the “Chinese” 12-part cycle is divided into years rather than months; contrary to the association with animals implied in the Greek etymology of “zodiac”, actually four of the Western “signs” or “houses” are represented by humans (one such sign being the twins “Gemini”) and one is the inanimate balance scale “Libra”; the animals of the Chinese zodiac are not associated with constellations, let alone those spanned by the ecliptic plane.

In Chinese astrology the animal signs assigned by year represent what others perceive you as being or how you present yourself. It is a common misconception that the animals assigned by year are the only signs, and many western deｓｃｒｉｐｔions of Chinese astrology draw solely on this system. In fact, there are also animal signs assigned by month (called inner animals) and hours of the day (called secret animals).

To sum it up, while a person might appear to be a Dragon because they were born in the year of the Dragon, they might also be a Snake internally and an Ox secretively. In total, this makes for 8,640 possible combinations (60 year cycle (5 elements × 12 animals) × 12 months × 12 times of the day) that a person might be. These are all considered critical for the proper use of Chinese astrology.