Fire and water
My wife is fire and I am water. I will explain.
During the summer of 2003 while my wife and I were preparing for our public wedding, we took an afternoon to speak to a reporter and cameraman from the local television station. We had arrived at my wife’s hometown in Liaoning Province located an hour away from the city of Dandong and a river separating China from North Korea. The city was small enough that a wedding between an American and a local girl claimed a spot on the evening news and the pages of the local newspaper.
This television reporter asked us about our Shēngxiào (生肖), translated commonly in English as the Chinese Zodiac, a common staple of Chinese small talk. The Chinese Shēngxiào have 12 birth year animals that include rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. My wife, born in 1977 is a snake. I born in 1972 am a rat. Allegedly, the snake and the rat are not the best of matches. The reporter said in Chinese “You are a rat and she is a snake. Snakes eat rats. Are you scared?”
If she literally was a snake and I was a rat, yes I probably would be scared. Rats however are considered the most clever of the 12 animals due to outsmarting all the others in a legendary race across a river. Perhaps that is why the rat is considered a water animal.
The Chinese reduced the basic elements of existence to be wood (木 mù), fire (火 huǒ), earth (土 tǔ), metal (金 jīn), and water (水 shuǐ). These basic elements intersect with the Shēngxiào: water signs are rats and pigs; Earth signs are oxes, dragons, goats, and dogs. Wood signs are tigers and rabbits. Fire signs are snakes and horses. Metal signs are monkeys and roosters. Also, every animal sign over a 60 year period aligns with one of the elements going from wood, fire, earth, metal and water. For example, someone born in 1949 would be an earth rat, 1961 a metal rat, 1972 a water rat, 1984 a wood rat, 1996 a fire rat, and 2008 was again an earth rat.
In the Chinese astrology conception, I am a rat, a water sign, born in 1972 which is the water rat year. My wife is a snake, a fire sign, and my wife was born in 1977 which is a fire snake year.
My wife is fire and I am water. But wait. There’s more.
The parallel is strangely also in the Western Zodiac. Western astrology divides the twelve signs of the zodiac into the four elements: Fire signs are Aries, Leo and Sagittarius, Earth signs are Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn, Air signs are Gemini, Libra and Aquarius, and Water signs are Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. In the Greek conception, I am a Pisces, a water sign, and my wife is a Sagittarius, a fire sign.
Looking closer at our signs, we find additional parallels. While my era of humans reduces matter and space to atomic particles and energy in space, earlier generations of fellow humans reduced existence to basic elements. The ancient Greeks understood the basic elements to be earth, water, air, fire, and aether. The Chinese reduced the basic elements of existence to be wood (木 mù), fire (火 huǒ), earth (土 tǔ), metal (金 jīn), and water (水 shuǐ).
These basic elements intersect with the Shēngxiào. water signs are rats and pigs; Earth signs are oxes, ,dragons, goats, and dogs. Wood signs are tigers and rabbits. Fire signs are snakes and horses. Metal signs are monkeys and roosters. Also, every animal sign over a 60 year period aligns with one of the elements going from wood, fire, earth, metal and water. For example, someone born in 1949 would be an earth rat, 1961 a metal rat, 1972 a water rat, 1984 a wood rat, 1996 a fire rat, and 2008 was again an earth rat.
The cities we grew up in also have this connection. I grew up just outside of a city in Tennessee named Portland, which suggests water even though the only port in that city was a railroad station several decades ago. My wife’s hometown is Fenghuangcheng, which translated means Phoenix City. She grew up in the shadow of Fenghuangshan, or Phoenix Mountain which looms above the city. The phoenix of course is a mythological bird that burns and is reborn from its own ashes.
The country’s to which we belong also reflect this difference. The symbol of the United States, the eagle, Eagles often are found near bodies of water and frequently are photographed swooping down to grab fish from rivers or lakes. China is most frequently associated with the Chinese dragon, a fire breathing mythological creature.
Does having my wife symbolically aligned with fire and me with water have any meaning or significance? It probably doesn’t have any more meaning than her being a snake or me a rat. But if snakes eat rats, water also extinguishes fire. We have survived 15 years despite having a mutual assured destruction strategy available to us. Perhaps it is because, not despite.
During the summer of 2003 while my wife and I were preparing for our public wedding, we took an afternoon to speak to a reporter and cameraman from the local television station. We had arrived at my wife’s hometown in Liaoning Province located an hour away from the city of Dandong and a river separating China from North Korea. The city was small enough that a wedding between an American and a local girl claimed a spot on the evening news and the pages of the local newspaper.
This television reporter asked us about our Shēngxiào (生肖), translated commonly in English as the Chinese Zodiac, a common staple of Chinese small talk. The Chinese Shēngxiào have 12 birth year animals that include rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. My wife, born in 1977 is a snake. I born in 1972 am a rat. Allegedly, the snake and the rat are not the best of matches. The reporter said in Chinese “You are a rat and she is a snake. Snakes eat rats. Are you scared?”
If she literally was a snake and I was a rat, yes I probably would be scared. Rats however are considered the most clever of the 12 animals due to outsmarting all the others in a legendary race across a river. Perhaps that is why the rat is considered a water animal.
The Chinese reduced the basic elements of existence to be wood (木 mù), fire (火 huǒ), earth (土 tǔ), metal (金 jīn), and water (水 shuǐ). These basic elements intersect with the Shēngxiào: water signs are rats and pigs; Earth signs are oxes, dragons, goats, and dogs. Wood signs are tigers and rabbits. Fire signs are snakes and horses. Metal signs are monkeys and roosters. Also, every animal sign over a 60 year period aligns with one of the elements going from wood, fire, earth, metal and water. For example, someone born in 1949 would be an earth rat, 1961 a metal rat, 1972 a water rat, 1984 a wood rat, 1996 a fire rat, and 2008 was again an earth rat.
In the Chinese astrology conception, I am a rat, a water sign, born in 1972 which is the water rat year. My wife is a snake, a fire sign, and my wife was born in 1977 which is a fire snake year.
My wife is fire and I am water. But wait. There’s more.
The parallel is strangely also in the Western Zodiac. Western astrology divides the twelve signs of the zodiac into the four elements: Fire signs are Aries, Leo and Sagittarius, Earth signs are Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn, Air signs are Gemini, Libra and Aquarius, and Water signs are Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces. In the Greek conception, I am a Pisces, a water sign, and my wife is a Sagittarius, a fire sign.
Looking closer at our signs, we find additional parallels. While my era of humans reduces matter and space to atomic particles and energy in space, earlier generations of fellow humans reduced existence to basic elements. The ancient Greeks understood the basic elements to be earth, water, air, fire, and aether. The Chinese reduced the basic elements of existence to be wood (木 mù), fire (火 huǒ), earth (土 tǔ), metal (金 jīn), and water (水 shuǐ).
These basic elements intersect with the Shēngxiào. water signs are rats and pigs; Earth signs are oxes, ,dragons, goats, and dogs. Wood signs are tigers and rabbits. Fire signs are snakes and horses. Metal signs are monkeys and roosters. Also, every animal sign over a 60 year period aligns with one of the elements going from wood, fire, earth, metal and water. For example, someone born in 1949 would be an earth rat, 1961 a metal rat, 1972 a water rat, 1984 a wood rat, 1996 a fire rat, and 2008 was again an earth rat.
The cities we grew up in also have this connection. I grew up just outside of a city in Tennessee named Portland, which suggests water even though the only port in that city was a railroad station several decades ago. My wife’s hometown is Fenghuangcheng, which translated means Phoenix City. She grew up in the shadow of Fenghuangshan, or Phoenix Mountain which looms above the city. The phoenix of course is a mythological bird that burns and is reborn from its own ashes.
The country’s to which we belong also reflect this difference. The symbol of the United States, the eagle, Eagles often are found near bodies of water and frequently are photographed swooping down to grab fish from rivers or lakes. China is most frequently associated with the Chinese dragon, a fire breathing mythological creature.
Does having my wife symbolically aligned with fire and me with water have any meaning or significance? It probably doesn’t have any more meaning than her being a snake or me a rat. But if snakes eat rats, water also extinguishes fire. We have survived 15 years despite having a mutual assured destruction strategy available to us. Perhaps it is because, not despite.
This is really interesting. Fascinating all the ways that have been come up with to classify people’s temperaments.
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