Page 116 - Chinese Porcelain Vol I, Galland

H CHINESE PORCELAIN.

Doolittle, p. 581 : " Every Chiuaman is said to be born
under a certain animal, or to ' ' to a certain animal.
belong
The Chinese this idea '
usually express by saying his animal is
the rat,' or ' his animal is the monkey,' as the case may be.
The phraseology simply means that he was born during the
year when the character corresponding to the ' rat,' or to the
'monkey,' enters into the term which denotes that year
' "
to the of Date
according chronological cycle sixty (see
"
Marks "). Now these twelve animals play an important part
in as some at the
fortune-telling, practised by present day."
Eat.— Grutzlaff, vol. i. p. 35 : " Eats are everywhere in-
digenous, but emigrate occasionally in large troops, when they
rivers and ditches, and devour and harvests. Such
pass crops
calamities are recorded in Chinese but border
history, they
upon the incredible."
"
Davis, vol. ii. p. 327 : The common rat attains sometimes
to an immense size, and is well known to be eaten by the lowest
orders of the Chinese. These creatures inhabit hollows in the
banks of rivers and canals, and are taken at night by means
of a lantern, which, being held to the mouths of their holes,
causes the inmates to the entrance to reconnoitre,
approach
when the dazzles their in such a manner as to lead
light eyes
to their easy capture."
The rat is the first animal of the Duodenary cycle, and
therefore represents the beginning — the first cause. There is
"
one species called in Chinese chin ctiu, or cash rat," and
therefore supposed to indicate riches. These rats are permitted
in houses rather than lose the good omen of their presence.
It is these (weasels ?) that are generally represented when the
rat is used as a symbol.
Ox. — " Middle Kingdom," vol. i. p. 251 "The oxen are some-
:
times no than an ass, and have a small between
larger hump
the shoulders. The buffalo, or ' water-ox,' as the Chinese call
it, is not as large as the Indian or Egyptian animal, but much
the beast used in It
largest agriculture. is very docile, and
about the size of an English ox ; the hairless hide is a light
black colour."
"
Doolittle, p. 225, in processions of the Five Eulers : The
buffalo-headed assistant, the horse-faced assistant, the cock-
headed assistant, and the duck-mouthed assistant, are images