The Year of the Rat and the Year of the Rabbit: the story of the Great Race

What is the Great Race?

The Great Race is the folk tale that explains the order of the twelve zodiac animals. In the version told by the Confucius Institute for Scotland, the Jade Emperor, ruler of heaven, called a race to decide the places, and the last and hardest obstacle was a wide river. The Royal Mint's telling adds that the first twelve animals to sign up could take part, and the order they finished in became the order of the calendar.

The V&A in London tells it the same way: the animals held a race to decide their order, and each one's place in the cycle is where it crossed the line. Like most good folk tales, it comes in many versions.

How did the rat come first?

By being clever. The rat is small and could not cross the river alone, so it hitched a ride on the ox. The V&A sums it up neatly: the rat "comes first by hopping on the ox's back, then jumping ahead at the last moment". The Confucius Institute says the ox offered the ride, and the rat "cheekily stole the first prize" by leaping from the ox's back across the finishing line.

The Royal Mint tells a sweeter version. The rat sang to encourage the ox as they went, but the ox could not hear it from the ground, so the rat climbed up onto the ox's shoulder to sing into its ear. The ox sped up, the rat crossed the river "without so much as getting his feet wet", and just before the finish it jumped down and sprinted ahead to win. The hard-working ox came second.

Why is there no cat in the Chinese zodiac?

Because of the rat, the story says. In the Royal Mint's telling, the cat and the rat were close friends. The cat liked to sleep late, so the rat promised to wake it on the morning of the race, then forgot. The cat overslept, missed its chance and, the Mint says, "still holds a grudge to this day". In the Confucius Institute's version, the rat simply never told the cat about the race. Either way, the tale says, that is why cats chase rats.

The cat does get a place somewhere. The V&A notes that Vietnam's zodiac has a cat instead of a rabbit.

How did the rabbit come fourth?

Versions differ, and none of the museum tellings we read gives the rabbit's race in detail. One popular version, quoted by the Asia Media Centre, says the rabbit was proud of its speed and teased its neighbour the ox. "Thinking that he would obviously be first, he went off to the side and napped." When it woke, three animals had already arrived, the ox among them. So the rabbit, fast but a little too pleased with itself, finished behind the rat, the ox and the speedy tiger.

Here is the full order, as the Royal Mint and the Confucius Institute give it.

How old is the Chinese zodiac?

Very old. The V&A says the custom of pairing an animal with each year in a twelve-year cycle can be traced back to at least the Han dynasty, which ran from 201 BC to 220 AD. The race story came to explain the order; the order itself is part of the old Chinese calendar.

That calendar worked differently from ours. Before 1912, the V&A explains, each Chinese year was named by pairing one of ten "heavenly stems" with one of twelve "earthly branches", and each earthly branch had its animal. Put together, the pairs ran in a cycle that repeated every sixty years.

The animals have been made in art for well over a thousand years. The V&A holds a set of earthenware figures of the zodiac animals from the early 8th century, from the Tang dynasty, when showing them with human bodies and animal heads became popular. Matching a person's character to the animal of their birth year, the V&A adds, is a more recent idea.

What does the Year of the Rat mean?

The rat stands for brains. The Confucius Institute for Scotland describes it as "a smart animal representing intelligence, intuition and curiosity", and says people born in Rat years are thought to be smart, frank, intuitive and agile. The Royal Mint's rat is "clever" and quick-thinking, though it adds, fairly, that the rat did break its promise to the cat.

Being first also makes the rat the start of every new cycle. When 2020 began, the Royal Mint noted, "the cycle starts anew". That Year of the Rat ran from 25 January 2020 to 11 February 2021, the Confucius Institute says.

Curiously, rats were rarely drawn on old Chinese objects. The V&A says the rat "was seldom employed as decorative motif" on antique pieces, and the rat teapot and cup in its collection were made in Jingdezhen in 2008, the Year of the Rat.

What does the Year of the Rabbit mean?

The rabbit stands for gentleness and long life. The Asia Media Centre lists the traits Chinese tradition gives the rabbit and people born in its years: gentle, quiet, elegant, alert, quick, skilful, kind and patient, and inclined to avoid a quarrel.

The rabbit also lives on the moon. In Chinese legend, a rabbit pounds the elixir of immortality on the moon, the V&A explains, which is why the rabbit is "often associated with the moon". An emperor's summer court robe from the Xianfeng reign (1851 to 1861), now in the Palace Museum, shows the moon with its rabbit. The World of Chinese says the Jade Rabbit keeps the moon goddess Chang'e company, and that in poetry "Jade Rabbit" even became a gentle nickname for the moon.

Long life is part of the rabbit's story too. The World of Chinese notes that an old Chinese text, Ge Hong's Baopuzi, claimed rabbits that reach 500 years old turn white, and that rare white or red rabbits were once seen as lucky signs. In Beijing, colourful clay rabbit figures called Tu'er Ye, "Lord Rabbit", have been made since the Ming dynasty for the Mid-Autumn Festival, and are still a much-loved children's toy.

Which years are Rat years and Rabbit years?

Each comes round every twelve years. The rabbit years below are those listed by the Asia Media Centre; the rat years follow the same twelve-year cycle from the 2020 Rat year.

What do the stories say about real rats and rabbits?

If the zodiac rat has charmed you, read rats as pets: what to know before you get them, our full pet rat care guide and how rats became pets. For more rat legends, try famous rats in books, films and history.

The zodiac rabbit, gentle and alert but a bit too confident, also rings true. Real rabbits are watchful animals with a big personality once they trust you; our guide to rabbit behaviour and body language explains what they are telling you, and our rabbit facts page has plenty more. If you are thinking of a pair, start with rabbits as pets.