A Folk Story Retold Through Memory, Culture, and a Bit of Old Wisdom
When I was young, the older folks in my hometown used to say something that puzzled me:
“The Rat may be small, but it stands at the head of the twelve zodiac animals.”
They would sit beneath the eaves on summer evenings, waving away mosquitoes, telling stories about how the Rat earned the first seat in the zodiac—
not by strength, not by beauty, not by speed,
but by cleverness, survival, and a strange kind of blessing wrapped in trouble.
As I grew older and read more, I realized the elders weren’t just repeating myths.
The Rat’s place at the top of the zodiac is not one story,
but many layers woven together:
- Myth
- Astronomy
- Agriculture
- Yin–Yang cosmology
- Family lineage culture
- Folk customs
- Human nature itself
Let me tell you the story the way they once told me—
and then show you the deeper meanings hidden under each layer.
1. The Old Story: How the Rat Outwitted the Others
The elders always began with the classic tale:
The Jade Emperor decided to choose twelve animals to represent the years.
The Ox planned to arrive early—steady, dependable as always.
The Rat, small and unnoticed, climbed onto the Ox’s back and hid in its fur.
When they reached Heaven’s Gate,
the Rat leapt off and landed first.
People in my hometown never told this as a tale of cheating.
They would smile and say：
“The Rat isn’t strong, but it knows how the world works.”
The story is less about cunning and more about intelligence born from necessity—
the kind of wisdom small creatures develop to survive in a big world.
2. The Rat in the Sky: A Zodiac Born from Stars
Later in life, I learned that before folktales existed,
the Rat already lived in the stars.
In ancient Chinese astronomy, the Rat corresponds to the Zǐ (子) sector of the sky—
a position marking the very beginning of the daily cycle,
from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m.,
the moment when yin reaches its deepest point and yang begins to rise again.
In other words:
The Rat rules the moment when night ends and a new day quietly begins.
To the elders, this made perfect sense.
They always said：
“When everything is asleep, the Rat starts moving.”
It sees what others can’t.
It acts when others don’t.
It begins when others rest.
And so it became the beginning of the zodiac.
3. Grain, Storage, and the Rat’s Strange Blessing
People today think of rats as pests,
but in ancient farming life, the Rat had a different meaning.
Before granaries were sealed with stone and metal,
rats and humans lived far closer.
Villagers watched where rats built nests,
because rats never settled in places without stored grain.
So an elder once told me：
“A house with rats means a house with food.”
In a world where harvests could fail,
and winters could be long and cruel,
seeing a rat wasn’t a curse.
It was a sign of abundance.
That is why the Rat became a symbol of:
- prosperity
- fertility
- continuity of family lines
- a home that would not go hungry
And that is why the Rat, of all animals,
was welcomed into the zodiac first.
4. Yin and Yang: Why the Rat Opens the Cycle
In the ancient Yin–Yang Five Elements system,
the Rat belongs to water,
the element of beginnings, seeds, gestation,
the hidden strength that gathers before bursting out.
The elders never said “Yin–Yang” directly.
They would put it more simply：
“All big things start small.
All bright things start in the dark.”
The Rat embodies this principle perfectly:
- small body → great adaptability
- hidden life → vital significance
- weak appearance → strong survival
- darkness → the birthplace of new energy
It symbolizes the very start of life,
and thus stands at the start of the twelve-year cycle.
5. The Rat and Human Ingenuity
The Rat is clever not by choice,
but by the demands of survival.
People in rural China always respected creatures that survived harshness:
- the rat that lived through famine
- the swallow that returned each spring
- the ox that worked through storms
- the sparrow that ate pests and saved crops
To survive meant to understand the world.
So when the elders spoke about the Rat,
they were also teaching us about human wisdom:
“Move early.
Watch closely.
Eat little.
Work quietly.
And know when to run.”
These qualities—resourcefulness, keen senses, adaptability—
were seen as virtues.
Not noble virtues,
but useful ones—
the kind needed to survive a difficult life.
6. The Rat as a Symbol of Fertility and Renewal
The Rat reproduces quickly—
a fact farmers noticed early.
Large litters meant stronger family lines,
and this connected the Rat to:
- fertility
- thriving households
- continuation of generations
This is why in some regions,
newly married couples were once gifted clay rat figurines
as a blessing for children.
The rat was never just a rodent.
It was a promise of life continuing.
7. The Rat in Folk Art and Rural Sensibilities
In paper cuttings from northern China,
you often see a rat holding a coin or sitting atop a grain jar.
My grandmother used to cut one every Spring Festival.
She said：
“Put a rat on the wall, and the year will not be empty.”
Folk art remembers things more honestly than books do.
It remembers what mattered:
- full vats of millet
- granaries sealed tight
- quiet nights with food enough
- children born healthy
- spring arriving on time
The rat appears again and again in these pieces
not as a pest,
but as a symbol of hope, continuity, and household fortune.
Conclusion
When people ask me now,
“Why is the Rat the first of the twelve zodiac animals?”
I don’t quote history books.
I think of the old folks back home waving their hands under the dim courtyard light,
telling stories that mixed myth with memory,
practical wisdom with poetry.
The Rat came first because:
- it begins when everything else sleeps
- it survives where others cannot
- it represents the start of time, the start of life
- it lives where grain—and thus prosperity—lives
- it carries the deep logic of yin transforming into yang
- and because ancient people saw in it
the cleverness needed to navigate a difficult world
Small body, great meaning.
That is why the Rat leads the way.
This is one of the old stories people in my hometown used to share.
