Among the twelve zodiac animals (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig), representing the twelve Earthly Branches used to denote the year of one's birth, the rooster ranks tenth and is referred to as "You" as it usually retreats to its roost between 5:00-7:00 pm every day for a rest. This period is also known as the "You period" of the twelve two-hour periods into which the day was traditionally divided, each being given the name of one of the 12 animals.

The rooster is the only domestic fowl used to symbolize the year of one's birth. This is because when the Jade Emperor of Heaven was conferring the zodiac animals, he only considered the animals that had made contributions to human beings, not taking domestic animals such as the rooster into account. One day, upon seeing the conferred horse with a golden saddle on its back greatly petted by human beings, the Rooster King, who was an emulative guy, felt extremely jealous.

The horse then said to him, "It is not difficult to win the love and esteem of human beings so long as you can bring your strengths into full play and earnestly do something for them. You are born with a good voice. If you can bring it into full play, you may be able to do something for human beings."

Much enlightened, the Rooster King went home and thought hard about what he could do with his good voice. Finally, it dawned on him that he could use his golden voice to wake up the soundly sleeping people at daybreak each day. From then on, he got up very early in the morning every day and sang at the top of his voice, arousing people from their deep sleep. The people, in return, felt grateful to him. However, the Jade Emperor of Heaven still would not consider fowls, which greatly agitated the rooster.

Late at night, with the Rooster King still not convinced, his ghost flew to the Heavenly Palace, and complained tearfully before the Jade Emperor of Heaven. Upon second thought, the Jade Emperor felt the rooster had in fact done a great service for the people. Considering that his standard for conferring zodiac animals might had been not perfect, he picked a red flower and placed it on the top of the rooster's head for comfort and commendation.

The next day, the Rooster King, with the red flower atop his head, visited the Four Big Heaven Kings, who upon recognizing "the imperial red flower", allowed him to take part in the competitive ranking of the twelve zodiac animals.

When the day for the final ranking of the twelve zodiac animals finally came, the rooster and the dog got up at the same time, and headed for the competition together. Steps away from the Heavenly Palace, the rooster, fearing the dog might get ahead of him, half walked and half flew ahead of the dog. By the time the dog realized this, it was too late, as the rooster had taken the tenth seat. Having no choice, he took the seat behind the rooster. From then on, the dog thought badly of the rooster, and kept chasing the rooster whenever he saw him. Even today, his anger still lingers, as roosters are often seen being chased by dogs. The rooster, though still wearing a red flower, felt so ashamed of himself that from then on he heralded the break of every day with a red face.

Editor: Catherine