The Water Monkey

general summary for a person born in a Water Monkey year of the Chinese calendar; outside astronomy

What the tradition reads

The Chinese zodiac is a calendrical tradition rather than an astronomical one, kept in this corpus as its own labelled system and never folded into a sun sign or a placement it happens to sit beside: it runs on the lunisolar calendar rather than on the ecliptic, and a year's animal and element are fixed by the date of the lunar new year, not by any planet's position. The twelve year animal cycle combines with the five element cycle, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water, each element holding for two consecutive years, to make a full cycle of sixty years before the same animal and element pairing recurs. The Monkey's own Wikipedia page states little beyond its years and elements, but the zodiac's traditional naming of the day's double hours remembers the Monkey's hour as the time when monkeys are lively. A widely used Chinese astrology reading of the sign describes people born under it as cheerful, energetic, intelligent, confident, inventive and natural leaders, though inclined, by the same reading, toward arrogance and restlessness. Water, the element of winter and of stillness turned inward, is read as deepening the Monkey's cleverness into reflection and adaptability, a quieter version of the same quality that runs calm on the surface but can turn elusive or withdrawn.

The story

Reaching the river with the Goat and the Rooster, the Monkey found the crossing blocked by tangled weeds. While the Rooster searched out a raft, the Monkey joined the Goat in tugging and pulling the weeds clear, and the three animals reached the far shore together through that combined effort. The Jade Emperor, pleased with their teamwork, named the Monkey ninth of the twelve, just behind the Goat. Water, the element paired with this particular Monkey year, comes from the Wu Xing, the five phase system used across Chinese thought for cycles of generation and control: Water is placed in the north and in winter, a period of reclusiveness, stillness and consolidation associated with coolness, generated by Metal's collecting and purifying and, in the same cycle, giving rise to Wood, which it nourishes. The Monkey and the Tiger stand directly opposite one another in the twelve year wheel, six years apart, and the tradition names that particular pairing one of the six clashes, the oppositions across the cycle it considers most likely to produce friction rather than ease. Against that, the tradition pairs the Monkey with the Snake in what it calls one of the six harmonies, a match it reads as running more easily than most.

Written from

Corpus key chinese:Water-Monkey.