Chinese preparing for Year of Rabbit celebrations

Publish Date:01/15/1999

Byline:Juping Chang

Chinese people the world over are preparing to usher in the Year of the Rabbit with family reunions, sumptuous feasts and celebratory firecrackers. This time around, the new lunar year begins on Feb. 16 of the Western calendar.

The Year of the Rabbit is named after an animal which symbolizes immortality, prosperity, cleverness and politeness in Chinese culture. The Chinese zodiac is in fact made up of twelve auspicious animals, with the rabbit positioned fourth in the cycle of years. The rabbit is preceded in sequence by the rat, ox and tiger, and followed by the dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.

An ancient legend tells of the Chinese zodiac's origins. It is said that the Jade Emperor was looking for 12 creatures to correspond with the "twelve earthly branches" used in the traditional Chinese way of counting the passage of time. The emperor decided to hold an animal race, from which the first 12 finishers would be chosen. During the race, the contestants had to cross a river. As the rat was not a good swimmer, he begged the water buffalo to carry him across on its back. The water buffalo agreed and the rodent jumped on. But when the beast of burden neared the bank, the conniving rat leaped ahead onto the shore and scurried away to claim first place in the zodiac derby. The water buffalo finished second, followed by the roaring tiger. Slashing ashore, the dragon was a stride away from the finish line when the rabbit scampered past it into fourth place.

Taiwan folklore expert Juan Chang-jui pointed out that the rabbit has played an important role in Chinese culture since the ancient times. Rabbit images appear on oracle bones which date to the 15th century B.C. Burial figurines from the imperial tombs of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220) have rabbit motifs in their designs. Also, the first rabbit farms in Chinese society were established during this dynasty, showing that the animal was closely linked with daily life as far back as then.

Preparations of the meat of this animal traditionally were used as offerings during religious ceremonies. Also, rabbit fur was used to make clothing, and the animal's internal organs and excrement were mixed into medical preparations for treating certain illnesses. The rabbit was an object of appreciation for people in traditional Chinese society. For example, cute and lovable rabbits were the cherished pets of Chinese children. Also, children up to age five wore shoes bearing the image of a rabbit's head. These rabbit's-head shoes were thought to help the tiny tykes walk faster.

Today in Taiwan and other Chinese societies across the globe, the image of the Jade Rabbit standing upright and preparing medicine in a mortar is associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival. During this festival, Chinese people eat a seasonal snack called "moon cakes," some of which have rabbit designs on them. At night, families and couples go outdoors to marvel at the year's brightest moon. Legend has it that a giant rabbit lives on the moon. Toward the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), clay rabbits were sold on the streets for children to buy and use during moon-worshiping ceremonies. In the Ching Dynasty (1644-1911), clay rabbits became toys for children to play with during the fall festival.

Rabbits were personified in clay statues, portraying everything from warriors to street vendors, some standing and others sitting. After the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, the making of clay rabbits elevated into an art form in northern areas of the nation. In ancient times, the rabbit was an especially conspicuous animal on Chinese New Year's Day as well as during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Households used to hang a rabbit's head on the door to keep away evil spirits and to beseech the gods for protection in the new lunar year.

During the Double Ninth Festival, hunters would go out into the mountains to hunt rabbits or hares. The ninth day of the ninth lunar month was considered the best time to eat them. One popular dish prescribed for people who felt lethargic was called tu jou bu hsieh tang, or "rabbit meat nourishing blood soup." Medical preparations abounded as well. Rabbit brains, for example, were consumed as a cure for chilblain and rabbit blood was used as a diuretic. In traditional Chinese society, concoctions made with ground up rabbit bones were considered good for people who had feeble feet. Rabbit liver was used to make wine and the urine of this animal went into diarrhea treatments.

One superstition was that a pregnant woman should not eat rabbit meat, else her baby would be born with a cleft lip. The superstitious also believed that raising rabbits attracted snakes. People born in the year of the rabbit are said to be gentle-natured, straightforward, diplomatic and well liked by their seniors and peers. But in Chinese culture the rabbit is not always seen as a docile animal, which is the norm in Western societies.

Chinese idiomatic phrases and literary allusions make disparaging portrayals of the rabbit, often allying him with the fox as the bullying nemeses of the turtle. The expression tu szu hu pei is one such idiom. It translates as "when the rabbit dies, the fox is sad," implying sympathy for one's own kind. The classical expression tu szu kou peng--"the hounds are killed for food after all the rabbits are bagged"--refers to the practice in ancient China of eliminating all the existing army generals when a new emperor takes the throne. Tu szu bu chih wo pien tsao--"a rabbit does not eat the grass near its own burrow"--implies that a thief will not rob his next-door neighbor. Moreover, there are a number of children's fables about why rabbits have red eyes, long ears, cleft lips and short tails. As one of these nursery stories goes, there once was a man who had three domesticated animals--a horse, a chicken and a rabbit. The horse was used for ridding and the chicken could lay eggs. The rabbit, however, was useless. The man thus decided to stop feeding the rabbit, and so it cried for 81 days until its eyes turned red. The moral of the story teaches children not to abuse animals.

As for the short tails, another fable tells of a rabbit that wanted to cross a river to eat the tempting green grass on the other side. In that he could not swim, he had to come up with a plan. The clever rabbit asked an adult turtle how many people were in his family. Hearing the encouraging answer and feigning disbelief, he told Mr. Turtle to have his family members line up across the river to prove that the clan was indeed large. The rabbit then used each shell protruding in the water as a steppingstone to swiftly cross the river. But before he could reach shore, the reptile family grew wise to his trickery. The last turtle jerked up and bit off the rabbit's tail down to a stub. The moral of the story is not to take advantage of others. Chinese fortunetellers use the zodiac animals to make determinations on whether couples are compatible. For example, people born in a rabbit year are regarded as good marriage partners for people born in a sheep or pig year. However, rabbit year people are seen as incompatible with rat, horse, dragon and rooster year people.

 

Mise à jour le 26 septembre 1999

Updated september, 26, 1999