The Tiger in the Chinese Zodiac
Lord of beasts, eater of ghosts
- Earliest record
- the 210s BCEThe daybook (rishu) from Shuihudi tomb 11, Yunmeng, deposited about 217 BCE, pairs the branch with the animal in its 'Robbers' section; the Fangmatan Qin daybooks, dated by their readers to the late Warring States or Qin, carry the same pair.
Wang Chong's Lunheng, around 80 CE, reports that sign animals prey on each other by the Five Phases. Wood overcomes earth, so the tiger masters dog, ox and sheep. Then he asks why the rat's water does not drive off the horse's fire.
Wang Chong, Lunheng, 'The Nature of Things' (Wu shi), trans. Alfred Forke, Lun-Hêng Part I (1907).
The tiger, third of the twelve animals paired with the earthly branches; it stands for the branch yin (寅).
More context
The tiger belongs to the branch yin (寅), third of the twelve earthly branches, not to be confused with the yin of yin and yang. The Shuihudi daybook, buried about 217 BCE, says "yin is the tiger". Its thief of a yin day is sturdy and sparse-whiskered, with dark marks on the face. Around 80 CE Wang Chong recorded its pairing with wood and the tiger. Ying Shao, around 195, quotes a lost book: two brothers, Shentu and Yulei, fed harmful ghosts to tigers. So, he says, officials painted tigers on gates at the year's end. Recent tiger years began in 1998 (wuyin), 2010 (gengyin) and 2022 (renyin), each counted from the lunar New Year.
Light
Painted on gates at the year's end, the tiger stood guard: the yang beast that devours ghosts, set exactly where evil would try to come in.
Shadow
Ying Shao records people burning tiger skin to drink and tying on its claws against evil: the guardian's power was sought in the dead animal's body.