Year of the Monkey

[Syd]

For those that didn't know it's the year of the Monkey. I found this image of a funky monkey and thought it would prompt those in the forums to share their Chinese Zodiac signs. We got any Monkeys here?

Myself I'm a Metal Boar/Pig ;)

http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/images/ezine/Taiji_monkey.jpg

[Shade]

I'm an Earth Rooster.

No chance of me going into space then on one of Bush's mad missions :D

late addition......just found this on the site where you got that monkey pic Syd. It says for me for this year

"You’ll be financially strong but easily trapped in a love net."

Ooer.....

[Virtuous]

Earth Sheep here

[Syd]

Shade, ;)

You gotta love that love net mate... ooer indeed! Just make sure the missus is in the net somewhere too! *L*

[Kinjiro Tsukasa]

Tiger, here. Appropriate, no?

[Shade]

Syd,

what i like is the way it doesnt just say love triangle.

Love net makes it sound like lots going on :D

As for the missus, she'd have me in a very large net swinging from a tall tree just for even THINKING about it.

[Syd]

Shade,

*L* Yeah that ambiguous NET thing rather than triangle bizzo is sure tasty. You could have a veritable toad in the hole going on and not know it! ;)

It's always the same with the Chinese. They say something like 5 Treasure soup and the 5 treasures are basic ingredients found in any old broth! But man! hey! Wait a minute! When they say 5 Treasure you go WHOAAA!!! Thats gotta be something I HAVE TO HAVE!!! *L*

[hwardo]

I'm a metal monkey:

[hwardo]

It seems that my horoscope for the year is ugly.

[clutchdoctor]

Tiger, here. Appropriate, no?

Same here...seems to be me.

[Dark Blade]

I'm a dragon, myself :)

Btw, some of you have posted "earth" or "metal" creatures, what’s the difference? :confused:

[Dark Blade]

Here's out it all came to be, or so the legend goes.


Each Chinese Lunar Calendar Year is represented by one of the 12 animals. Five cycles of the 12 years make up one complete cycle of 60 years. When a Chinese reaches his/her 60th birthday, he/she usually celebrates it with large banquet because he/she completed a full cycle. The order of the 12 animals is as follows: Year of the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and lastly, the Year of the Boar.

Legend has it that many centuries ago, Chinese has no means to measure time. Jade Emperor, the Emperor of Heaven, decided to arrange a contest. He invited all animals to a race on his birthday. The first 12 animals who cross the swift current river and reach the designated shore would be assigned to the 12 Zodiac Years.

The cat and the rat, who were once good friends and poor swimmers, convinced the ox to carry them across the river. Being naive, gullible, good-natured, the powerful swimmer ox agreed. As they were crossing the river, the rat was worried that the cat might win the race; so the rat pushed the cat into the river. This explains why cats hates rats because they never forgave the rat for the incident. Right before the ox and the rat reached the shore, the rat jumped off the ox's back and took first place in the race.

As the Jade Emperor named the ox as the 2nd zodiac animal, the tiger reached the finished line. Panting his way toward the Jade Emperor, the tiger explained that he had difficulty crossing the river because the current kept pushing him down stream. With his powerful strength, he was able to reach the shore safely. The Emperor recorded the tiger as the 3rd zodiac animal.

From a distance, the crowd heard a thumping noise. Twitching its pinkish nose, the rabbit told the crowd that he had to hop from one stone to another in order to cross the river. Luckily, he was able to get hold of a floating log which finally washed him to shore. The Emperor named the rabbit, the 4th zodiac animal.

In the 5th place came the dragon flying and belching fire in the air. Jade Emperor was very curious as to why the dragon came in late for he can fly and swim. Because the mighty dragon could not bare to see his people and all the creatures on earth suffer a drought, he had to stop to make rain. When he reached the river, he spotted a helpless little rabbit clutching tightly to a log, so he gave a little puff and blew the log with the rabbit on it to the shore.

Just as the Jade Emperor complimented the dragon for his consideration, he heard the horse whining and galloping. Out from the horse's hoof sneaked out the shrewd slimy snake. The sudden appearance and the hissing of the snake startled the horse and made him jump backwards, thus forcing the horse to fall in 7th place and the snake to take the 6th place in the race.

From a distance, approached the sheep, the monkey, and the rooster. The rooster proudly described how he had spotted a raft from a high ground, picked up the sheep, and the monkey. Along the way, the monkey and the sheep helped clear the weeds, pulled and pushed the raft to the shore. The Emperor complimented the trios for their combined efforts and named the sheep the 8th of the zodiac animals, the monkey the 9th, and the rooster the 10th.

Just as the Emperor was making the record official, next came the dog . The dog was trying to justify to the Emperor why, being one of the best swimmer, he was late. It turned out that the dog hadn't had a bath for a long time. The river water was so clean and fresh that he had to stop. The dog was recorded as the 11th zodiac animals.

Jade Emperor was about to dismiss the crowd and retire from the long day when he heard an oink and a squeal from the little pig who was waddling down the path. Needless to explain, the pig was hungry during the race and he stopped for a feast. After the feast, he felt tired and took a little nap. The little pig made it as the last of the 12th zodiac animals.



Taken from : http://www.newcastlechinatown.co.uk/nct/festival/mythology_Zodiac_Animals.php

[Shade]

Cool post Dark Blade :)

Have a look at this link regarding the elemental part.

http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/info/horoscope/index.php

late addition....(mental note....helps if you actually add the link......)

This is where i found out about my impending love net :D

Oh by the way Syd, what are you saying that 5 treasure soup doesnt have actual treasure in it? Are you nuts??

[surgingshark]

Boar Here.
Speaking of monkeys, I get to see my first live exhibiton of Monkey Kung Fu next month! Yaay!

Boar-1983-WATER...coincidence? :D

[Dark Blade]

Oh right! Thanks!:D

[nzric]

Fire Dragon. Excellent!!

[Shade]

Fire Dragon. Excellent!!

Sounds damn cool eh? (or hot depending on how you look at it) :D

Much better than using the usual star signs we are accustomed to. Just imagine it at some local watering hole.....'Hey what sign are you?' , 'Fire Dragon!' , 'Wow, take me i'm your's' :D

Hey and if you ever wanted to change from calling yourself nzric, Fire Dragon wouldnt be a bad choice!

[Koryo]

Fire tiger here. I agree, Chinese astrology sounds so much cooler than western astrology. I mean, Bruce Lee was a "golden double dragon"

[nzric]

How can you be a double dragon?

[Syd]

Rich,

Yeah you can be, but it's a little more complex than the basic external sign and then element stuff. You have all the complexities of Western Astrology with the Chinese Zodiac also which goes into branches and palaces and on and on. Essentially it's true that Bruce is a double dragon as I read the details of it years ago when I did my own Chinese Horoscope from a chunky book which gave you the full blown chart and in depth readings.

[Shade]

Syd, you dont remember what the book was called by any chance do you?

Cos like i havent already got about 50 to read at the moment already.

[Syd]

Shade. *L*

Ahhh let me have a think, I actually gave the bugger to a mate years ago. It is commonly found and is written by a woman who has about 12 books in the series dedicated to each Chinese animal. You then go through the book and do your complete life chart which took me about two whole days of plotting and calculating *LOL*

It's a Wong but I might have the wong name afterall. Thats when the little Chinese guy turns to you and says...

"It's fried rice you plick!" ;)

Leave it with me I'll get back on this one.

Best, Syd

[Maximicus]

Fire Tiger Baby! Better than a water rat!

[hwardo]

Wouldn't be Eva Wong, would it? She's a pretty famous writer on the subject.

[Syd]

It's not Eva Hwardo but she's like Eva in terms of her profile in writing about Chinese bits and bobs.

[Maximicus]

Hmmm, after looking at that link being a Fire Tiger this year sounds pretty bad. Gull stones? Neck problems? All Cons and no Pros? Meh, at least FIRE TIGER sounds kewl!

[Shade]

ok cheers Syd, i'll have a peek around my favourite book store as well in the meantime and see if they have anything that looks like that. They have an impressive stock of books on these types of subjects which is cool.


p.s. was it Man-Ho Kwok by any chance?

[Syd]

Shade,

No it's actually a female author... I'm heading to amazon now to see if I can trace the author. Hmmm I can't find the old series anymore, it may be out of print? I seem to recall the book being by Theodora Lau but I may be wrong. I'll have to take a trip to the Theosophical Society and see if it's still on the shelves.

[xuande]

Fire dragon here.

If you find out/remember what that book was Syd it would be great, most of the stuff I've seen is pretty superficial.

[ranger]

i'm metal monkey. any thoughts about metal monkeys personality or anything? :)

[nzric]

Metal Monkey - sounds like an 80's teen horror flick

[wayofthedragon]

my in the chinese zodiac....my element is water
my animal is the dog

here are some things about the dog in chinese zodiac
http://www.chinavoc.com/zodiac/dog/person.asp
http://www.chinavoc.com/zodiac/dog/five.asp#five

you can also find more, and on the other chinese zodiacs from the same site

[hwardo]

I'm a metal monkey too-- I was told that we are impulsive and curious, and that this year, we need to be more careful, because there are accidents in our future. (uh oh)

[ranger]

really? there's no harm in being careful right? follow you on that lol :D

[axelb]

I'm a metal Monkey :D

this year has certainly been a very fortunate one for me!