Reading The Animal And Element

In Chinese folk astrology a year is read first through its animal and then adjusted by its element. The rabbit, read as a cat in some regional versions of the cycle, is considered the gentlest of the twelve signs, tied to the moon, to longevity and to diplomacy. East Asian moon lore places a rabbit pounding the elixir of immortality under this same sign. The element modifies that base reading: in the five phase (Wu Xing) system Metal governs the west, the color white, the season of autumn and the virtue of righteousness. A Metal year is traditionally read as a season for consolidation and firm decision; Metal is held to feed Water and to be held in check by Fire.

Put together, 1951 reads in the folk tradition as a Rabbit year with a Metal cast, Metal's firmness tempering the animal's own temperament rather than replacing it. The same twelve animal cycle, adapted with local variation, also orders the traditional calendars of Vietnam, where the rabbit is usually read as a cat, and of Japan, where the pig is usually read as a boar; the underlying stem and element layer that gives 1951 its Metal cast specifically is a Chinese addition that these neighboring traditions do not all keep in the same form. Older reckonings also put the same twelve branches to work outside the calendar of years: the same order once named the twelve double hours of the day and the twelve compass points, so Rabbit marks a direction and a stretch of the clock in those older systems as well as this year.