The rabbit is the fourth sign of the Chinese zodiac, replaced by the cat in the Vietnamese version, probably through a pun or a mistranslation of the sign's name. As a birth-sign the rabbit is read for gentleness, tact, refinement and caution, the temperament of a prey animal that survives by prudence rather than force, and it is among the most benign and least aggressive of the twelve. Its association with the moon carries into the calendar, and it is linked with the pre-noon hours and, in the elemental scheme, with wood and the season of spring. Its universal fertility symbolism, from its famous rate of breeding, sits alongside the calendrical meaning rather than in it.
A point of natural history worth noting against the calendar image: the animal in the Chinese zodiac's fourth sign, tu, covers both rabbits and hares, and the two are biologically distinct, hares (Lepus) being born furred and mobile while rabbits (Oryctolagus and relatives) are born blind and naked in a burrow; European and Chinese art has moved fairly freely between the two without much concern for the distinction, so a given zodiac image labelled rabbit may show either animal. East Asian tradition gives the animal a separate lunar story, distinct from the sign's own calendrical use: the Moon Rabbit, seen in the dark markings of the full moon, is said in Chinese and neighbouring traditions to pound the elixir of immortality with a mortar and pestle, most often as companion to the moon goddess Chang'e.