Cattle occupy this position in the ecliptic. The story of "When I was young, I was covered with weeds, and when I was old, I was covered with happy ever after" comes from the story that in ancient times, cows were servants in front of the Jade Emperor's palace and often traveled between heaven and earth. Once, the farmer asked the jade emperor to bring some grass seeds to green the world. The jade emperor thought it was reasonable and asked his royal highness who would like to sow grass seeds on the earth.

The old cow said, "Jade Emperor, I would like to plant grass seeds on the earth." The jade emperor agreed, but the old cow acted rashly. No sooner had she walked out of the worse gate than she fell down and scattered grass seeds all over the floor. In the second year, farmers with overgrown weeds could not grow crops. When the Jade Emperor knew about it, he punished his ancestors for eating grass and helping farmers. Fortunately, when Niu knew her mistake, she changed her efforts and won unanimous praise.

The origin of the zodiac

There are two main theories about the detailed sources of the zodiac. The first argument comes from stellar theory. The ancients divided the ecliptic and the stars near the equator into "twenty-eight nights", and "night" also means "year". In ancient times, Sunday was divided into twelve parts, represented by twelve branches. Twelve branches belonged to the zodiac, and the zodiac had a corresponding relationship with twenty-eight stars.

Every year, the zodiac corresponds to an animal, thus forming a cycle. The second argument comes from totem theory. The ancestors of primitive society often used some animals, inanimate objects or graphics of natural phenomena as protectors and symbols of their clans, that is, totems. Animal totems in the zodiac may also be influenced by ancient totems.

In addition, some people say that the China Zodiac is unique because it was originally introduced to China from India. In ancient India, there were twelve kinds of animals as pronouns of twelve o'clock, while China culture directly adopted Indian expressions in the translation process.