It’s been confusing us all, but the big debate is finally over. We’re about to enter the Year of the Goat, NOT THE SHEEP, god damn it!
Although Hong Kong’s festive decorations suggest that the two species can be interchanged at will, a leading Chinese linguist is insisting that the animal zodiac that has caused so much confusion among English speakers is almost definitely a goat.
Head of the department of Chinese language and literature at Chinese University, Professor Ho Che-wah, told the SCMP that the Chinese word “yang” in ancient oracle bone script looks like a pointy-faced animal with horns, which can be interpreted to mean sheep, goat or ram in English.
However, Ho thinks it was most likely intended to be a goat as the bearded bleaters were eaten by the rich in ancient China and associated with positive things.
For example, the word “envy” originally described someone salivating over a goat, perhaps in a “thou shalt not covert thy neighbour’s ox” (Exodus 20:17) kind of way.
The word for “Beautiful” in oracle bone script also apparently looks like a person with a headdress made out of goat horns.
If that’s not proof enough, Han dynasty scholar Dong Zhongshu once said that people should be more like goats because: goats don’t hurt people with their horns, kids always bow down when drinking milk, and goats never cry or howl.
Hmmm… we guess this video wasn’t available in Big Dong’s day then…
Happy Year of the Goat!
Photo: Matt Kemberling
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