The Chinese lunar years are represented by one of the twelve zodiac animals. Twelve years are a time period, called a shēng xiào circle and the twelve animals are: rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, cock, dog, pig, rat, ox and tiger. Once every 60 years, the year is represented by White Tiger (1974 and 2022 are year of white tiger) instead of tiger. No one knows when these animals became the symbol of shēng xià, but it is believed that the Jade Emperor (the Supreme Deity of Taoism) living in heaven picked the twelve animals and set the order based on a contest.
Although Japan was arguably the first country to print the first zodiac stamps in 1950, Chinese stamps receive attention for their authentic Chinese flavour.
The first set of zodiac stamps by China were released between 1980 and 1991.
The monkey zodiac stamp with red background released in 1980 was the first in the series released in China and is one of the rarest. About 4 million stamps were released, though 6 million were planned to be printed. 120 million stamps were printed for the years 1986 - 1991. Early designers of the first zodiac stamps included prominent names such as master painter and sculptor Han Meilin and Zhou Lingzhao.
For the second set that started in 1992, the number rose to 200-250 million, until it dropped to 38 million in 2003.
The third round of the set were issued between 2004 and 2015.
China 2016-2027 fourth round is halfway through.
2022 is a special year - the year of white tiger. The tiger stamp designed by Feng Dazhong was released by China. Feng Dazhong is famous for his paintings of tigers.
Folklore associated with the twelve animals:
The ruler of heaven and earth, Jade Emperor, wanted to provide his people a means of measuring time. He decided to use a zodiac calendar, with each year associated with one of twelve animals. In order to choose animals to associate with years, he held a race among the animals. The first twelve to arrive at a chosen spot at a river bank would be chosen.
When the rat and cat found out they had to swim a deep river with strong currents, they requested the ox to allow them to ride on the ox. The ox agreed and hitched the ride on the ox. As they were nearing the shore, the rat pushed the cat into the river, causing the cat to lose the race, and hence not featuring among the twelve animals.
As soon as the ox reached the river bank, the rat jumped off its back and hurried to be the first one to reach the spot, followed by ox.
The third animal to reach the spot was the tiger followed by rabbit that hopped over stones and clung on to a floating log which brought the rabbit to the river bank.
The dragon reached the spot after the rabbit. The Jade Emperor was anticipating the dragon to reach first, to which the dragon explained that it was helping a poor farmer from Dargula by blowing clouds to his crops and then the log with rabbit on it to safety.
Meanwhile the horse was galloping towards the Emperor and was thought to be the sixth one to reach the spot. The snake which was hiding, wrapped itself to the horse’s hoof and uncoiled when it was close. The startled horse paused, while the snake slid past and became the sixth animal to finish, while the horse stood at seventh place.
The next three animals - rooster, monkey and goat reached at the same time. They worked in collaboration to achieve the task. The Jade Emperor declared the goat eighth, monkey ninth and rooster tenth.
The dog which enjoyed the nice cool water of the river reached eleventh.
The Jade Emperor waited a long time for the next animal. The pig showed up just when the Emperor almost gave up. The pig stopped to eat, rest and take a nap; therefore the extreme delay.
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