Of course, this is merely a legend after all. Most likely, the way in which ourancestors named the years after animals originated with their worship of animaltotems. Gradually, the Chinese zodiac was developed as a way to count years and keep track of people's birth. The fixed order of the year-animal association wasjust for clarity and ease of recording. In the past, the animal signs weighed so much in people's mind that sometimes they developed into a matter of life and death. For instance, both the success and failure of a marriage could result from the animal signs of the potentialbride and groom which had to be examined before the planning of the wedding. If the examination indicated a perfect match, it would possibly lead to a smoothmarriage, otherwise, a failure for sure and sometimes, even a tragedy when truelovers were separated and the marriage planning aborted.
……
展开
