Chinese Zodiac Story - Tiger

A long, long time ago, the lion rather than the tiger was a Chinese zodiac sign. However, the lion was too ferocious and notorious, so the Jade Emperor in charge of Chinese Zodiac wanted to remove the lion from the list and he had to choose another animal to replace the lion. At this time, the Jade Emperor thought of the tiger guardian in front of the Heavenly Palace.

Previously, the tiger guardian was an unknown animal on the earth. It learnt various martial arts, such as catching, flapping, biting, rushing and jumping, from the Master Cat and became a warrior in the forest. All the animals contesting with it were killed or injured. Since then, the tiger became the king in the forest. Later, the Jade Emperor heard that the tiger was very brave, so he ordered the tiger to go to the heaven. After coming to the heaven, the tiger defeated the guardians of the Jade Emperor and became the new guardian.

But soon later, the animals and birds acted wildly because there was no one to take in charge and they caused a disaster to human world, shocking the Land God who hurriedly reported to the Heavenly Palace and asked the Jade Emperor to suppress the animals. The Jade Emperor sent the tiger to come down to earth and the tiger required the Jade Emperor to record a merit for every of its victory.

For mortal world peace, the Jade Emperor granted the tiger's demand.

After coming down to earth, the tiger learnt that the lion, the bear and the horse were the most powerful animals at that time, so it challenged them and defeated them with its power and excellent skills. Other animals ran away upon learning the news and hid in the uninhabited forest. The mortal world was joyful and the human beings thanked the tiger for the great deeds.

When the tiger returned to the Heavenly Palace, the Jade Emperor carved three horizontal lines on its forehead for its three victories. Later, the mortal world was disturbed by the East Sea Turtle Monster and the earth was in a flood; the shrimps and crabs did evil in the world. This time, the tiger came to earth again and bit the Turtle Monster to death. The Jade Emperor was so happy that he carved a vertical line among the three horizontal lines. Therefore, an eye-catching Chinese character "王" (literally king) appeared on the forehead of the tiger. From then on, the tiger became the king of all animals. Today, we can still see the imposing Chinese character "王" on the forehead of tigers.

Afterward, the Jade Emperor replaced the lion with the tiger on the list of Chinese zodiac. The tiger became a zodiac sign while the lion was expelled to the distant south. Of course, the tiger came to the mortal world from the Heavenly Palace to keep the peace forever.

Stories of Other Zodiac Animals: