You must have heard about the story of how the twelve astrological animals came to be associated with Chinese astrology. In that story, these twelve animals were accorded their positions in the twelve year cycle based on the timing of their arrival at the Buddha’s Parinibbana.
According to scholars, there is another version. But be warned, this one is rather dry and base on conjectural interpretation of ancient texts. It seems that these twelve animals were in existence during the time of the Western Zhou period. If you like, this takes us as far back as 1046 bc. The Buddha was born in 563bc. That is to say, the twelve animals were around 500 years before the Buddha was born.
(for those of historical bent, the animals were mentioned in the Shi Jing Xiao Ya Ji Re)
In an extremely superficial way, the twelve animals and its vernacular version is a fun way of human psychology. If you look at the supposed character traits, personality and qualities associated with each of the twelve animals, you will see how this is so.
For example, the Rat person is said to possess a thirst for learning (curiosity), hardworking but short sighted in outlook, has great self respect and confidence yet has good self restraint, suspicious and prone to arrogance. He or she is kind and can mingle with all levels of society making many friends. Good planner, scheming, copious energy and more. . the list goes on.
Of course, this is just the superficial version. The study becomes more complicated (aren’t all things?) when the yin yang and five elements are brought in for a detailed analysis which is just exactly what the learned astrologer would.
All this makes very interesting study and undeniably, offers many insights into the human psyche. On a personal level, I find that Chinese astrology is a great way to understand myself. Each one of us is born with individual strengths and weaknesses. Through being aware of my own weaknesses, I can begin to try to make improvements. Astrology becomes just like a close friend who will point out to us what we lack and what we need to do. It is painful when our ego is poked for the truth always hurts but the reward is growth.
So you see, Chinese astrology is a very deep subject and offers many hours of fun and lessons if approached positively. For parlor fun, the Buddha fairy tale is a nice one nonetheless and adds that extra flavor to astrological studies. It is also more digestible.
