{"id":4371,"date":"2026-09-16T02:25:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T18:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/vietnamese-zodiac\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T15:29:54","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T07:29:54","slug":"zodiaque-vietnamien","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/fr\/vietnamese-zodiac\/","title":{"rendered":"Le zodiaque vietnamien : pourquoi le 4e signe est un chat et non un lapin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<link rel=\"preconnect\" href=\"https:\/\/fonts.googleapis.com\">\n<link rel=\"preconnect\" href=\"https:\/\/fonts.gstatic.com\" crossorigin>\n<link rel=\"preload\" href=\"https:\/\/fonts.googleapis.com\/css2?family=Archivo:wght@400;500;600;700;800;900&#038;family=Noto+Sans+SC:wght@400;500;700&#038;family=Spline+Sans+Mono:wght@400;500&#038;display=swap\" as=\"style\" onload=\"this.onload=null;this.rel='stylesheet'\"><noscript><link rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https:\/\/fonts.googleapis.com\/css2?family=Archivo:wght@400;500;600;700;800;900&#038;family=Noto+Sans+SC:wght@400;500;700&#038;family=Spline+Sans+Mono:wght@400;500&#038;display=swap\"><\/noscript>\n<script src=\"https:\/\/unpkg.com\/@phosphor-icons\/web@2.1.1\" defer><\/script>\n<style>\n\/* The Zodiac Lore \u2014 Year\/Animal\/Compat page style \u2014 BRAND-UNIFIED to new homepage (Style B). 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At the fourth branch, <span class=\"tzl-cn\">\u536f<\/span> <em>M\u00e3o<\/em>, Vietnam reads <strong>Cat<\/strong> where China reads Rabbit. At the second branch, <span class=\"tzl-cn\">\u4e11<\/span> <em>S\u1eedu<\/em>, Vietnam reads <strong>Water Buffalo<\/strong> where China reads Ox.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"tzl-note\">\n    <span class=\"mark\"><i class=\"ph ph-warning-circle\"><\/i><\/span>\n    <div>\n      <h3>One shared wheel, two local readings<\/h3>\n      <p>This page is about how the zodiac was localized as it crossed into Vietnam. It is not part of the Chinese system as observed in China. It is an East-Asian variant that shares China&#8217;s twelve Earthly Branches but reads two of them differently.<\/p>\n    <\/div>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"tzl-section\">\n    <h2>Two changes, not one<\/h2>\n    <p>Vietnamese uses <span class=\"tzl-cn\">con gi\u00e1p<\/span> (<em>con gi\u00e1p<\/em>) for &#8220;zodiac sign,&#8221; and Sino-Vietnamese readings for the twelve Earthly Branches themselves \u2014 <em>T\u00fd, S\u1eedu, D\u1ea7n, M\u00e3o, Th\u00ecn, T\u1ef5, Ng\u1ecd, M\u00f9i, Th\u00e2n, D\u1eadu, Tu\u1ea5t, H\u1ee3i<\/em> \u2014 which line up directly with \u5b50\u4e11\u5bc5\u536f\u8fb0\u5df3\u5348\u672a\u7533\u9149\u620c\u4ea5. Ten of the twelve branches carry the same animal as the Chinese list. Both sit near the beginning of the cycle: <strong>S\u1eedu (\u4e11)<\/strong>, where China&#8217;s Ox becomes a <strong>Water Buffalo<\/strong> (<em>tr\u00e2u<\/em>), and <strong>M\u00e3o (\u536f)<\/strong>, where China&#8217;s Rabbit becomes a <strong>Cat<\/strong> (<em>m\u00e8o<\/em>).<\/p>\n    <p>The two swaps have different characters. The buffalo-for-ox difference is commonly understood through Vietnam&#8217;s agricultural environment, where the water buffalo has long held a central working and cultural role \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.voanews.com\/a\/why-vietnam-is-celebrating-the-year-of-the-cat-not-the-rabbit\/6928201.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">VOA News reports<\/a> that Vietnamese tradition simply &#8220;honor[s] &#8230; the buffalo instead of the ox.&#8221; Unlike the cat-for-rabbit case below, this one attracts much less debate, but the agricultural link is best read as cultural context rather than a single proven historical cause. The rabbit-for-cat change is the one people actually debate, because nobody agrees on a single clean explanation for it \u2014 see below.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"tzl-section\">\n    <h2>The twelve animals, Vietnam side<\/h2>\n    <p>Reading the branch around, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Vietnamese_zodiac\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Vietnamese sign for each branch<\/a> looks like this. The branch itself is shared with China; the animal word is the one a Vietnamese speaker would actually use to name someone&#8217;s birth-year sign.<\/p>\n    <div class=\"tzl-table-wrap\">\n      <table class=\"tzl-table\">\n        <thead>\n          <tr><th>Branch<\/th><th>Vietnamese sign<\/th><th>Meaning<\/th><th>Chinese animal<\/th><th>Same as China?<\/th><\/tr>\n        <\/thead>\n        <tbody>\n          <tr><td><span class=\"tzl-cn\">\u5b50<\/span><\/td><td><em>T\u00fd<\/em><\/td><td>Rat<\/td><td>Rat<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><\/tr>\n          <tr><td><span class=\"tzl-cn\">\u4e11<\/span><\/td><td><em>S\u1eedu<\/em><\/td><td><strong>Water Buffalo<\/strong><\/td><td>Ox<\/td><td><strong>No<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>\n          <tr><td><span class=\"tzl-cn\">\u5bc5<\/span><\/td><td><em>D\u1ea7n<\/em><\/td><td>Tiger<\/td><td>Tiger<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><\/tr>\n          <tr><td><span class=\"tzl-cn\">\u536f<\/span><\/td><td><em>M\u00e3o<\/em><\/td><td><strong>Cat<\/strong><\/td><td>Rabbit<\/td><td><strong>No<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>\n          <tr><td><span class=\"tzl-cn\">\u8fb0<\/span><\/td><td><em>Th\u00ecn<\/em><\/td><td>Dragon<\/td><td>Dragon<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><\/tr>\n          <tr><td><span class=\"tzl-cn\">\u5df3<\/span><\/td><td><em>T\u1ef5<\/em><\/td><td>Snake<\/td><td>Snake<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><\/tr>\n          <tr><td><span class=\"tzl-cn\">\u5348<\/span><\/td><td><em>Ng\u1ecd<\/em><\/td><td>Horse<\/td><td>Horse<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><\/tr>\n          <tr><td><span class=\"tzl-cn\">\u672a<\/span><\/td><td><em>M\u00f9i<\/em><\/td><td>Goat<\/td><td>Goat \/ Sheep<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><\/tr>\n          <tr><td><span class=\"tzl-cn\">\u7533<\/span><\/td><td><em>Th\u00e2n<\/em><\/td><td>Monkey<\/td><td>Monkey<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><\/tr>\n          <tr><td><span class=\"tzl-cn\">\u9149<\/span><\/td><td><em>D\u1eadu<\/em><\/td><td>Rooster<\/td><td>Rooster<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><\/tr>\n          <tr><td><span class=\"tzl-cn\">\u620c<\/span><\/td><td><em>Tu\u1ea5t<\/em><\/td><td>Dog<\/td><td>Dog<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><\/tr>\n          <tr><td><span class=\"tzl-cn\">\u4ea5<\/span><\/td><td><em>H\u1ee3i<\/em><\/td><td>Pig<\/td><td>Pig<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><\/tr>\n        <\/tbody>\n      <\/table>\n    <\/div>\n    <p class=\"tzl-muted\">S\u1eedu and M\u00e3o carry Vietnam&#8217;s two outright animal substitutions. Every other branch, including \u4ea5 (H\u1ee3i, Pig) \u2014 where, among China, Vietnam, Korea and Japan, Japan alone substitutes a Wild Boar \u2014 keeps the same animal as the Chinese list.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"tzl-section\">\n    <h2>Why a cat, not a rabbit?<\/h2>\n    <p>No single explanation is settled fact \u2014 independent sources report at least three different theories side by side.<\/p>\n    <p><strong>The linguistic theory<\/strong> is the one most often repeated. The fourth Earthly Branch, <span class=\"tzl-cn\">\u536f<\/span>, is read <em>M\u00e3o<\/em> \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/M%C3%A3o\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a Sino-Vietnamese word for the branch itself<\/a>, with the older variant <em>M\u1eb9o<\/em> also attested \u2014 and those forms sound close to <em>m\u00e8o<\/em>, the Vietnamese word for &#8220;cat.&#8221; In the Chinese zodiac, \u536f is the branch associated with the Rabbit, but \u536f itself names the branch, not the ordinary Chinese word for rabbit \u2014 that word is \u5154 (<em>t\u00f9<\/em>). News coverage often compresses this into a simpler line \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.voanews.com\/a\/why-vietnam-is-celebrating-the-year-of-the-cat-not-the-rabbit\/6928201.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">VOA News reports it as<\/a> &#8220;the Vietnamese made their own interpretation of the Chinese word for rabbit, &#8216;mao.&#8217; In Vietnamese, this sounds like &#8216;meo,&#8217; which means cat&#8221; \u2014 but the more precise version is a sound resemblance between the Sino-Vietnamese branch reading and the Vietnamese animal word, not between a Chinese word for &#8220;rabbit&#8221; and a Vietnamese word for &#8220;cat.&#8221; Under this linguistic hypothesis, the substitution may have arisen through phonetic reinterpretation as the zodiac terminology was transmitted into Vietnamese. That remains a theory of how the change happened, not a documented account of a single historical decision.<\/p>\n    <p><strong>The distinctness theory<\/strong> is the second explanation the same VOA report carries: some Vietnamese explanations regard the rat and rabbit as too similar in size or behavior \u2014 both small, quick field animals \u2014 to justify keeping both in the cycle, so the cat, a natural rat-hunter, was substituted to keep the two animals visually and behaviorally distinct. (The rat and rabbit\/cat sit at the first and fourth branches, not next to each other in the cycle \u2014 the resemblance argument is about the two animals themselves, not their position in the sequence.)<\/p>\n    <p><strong>The agricultural theory<\/strong> ties the swap to rice farming rather than language: with rodents threatening rice stores, a rat-hunting cat had everyday practical value in a way a rabbit did not. This theory fits a broader agricultural context in which both cats and water buffaloes had highly visible practical roles in Vietnamese rural life, but that shared context does not by itself prove why either zodiac substitution originally occurred.<\/p>\n    <p>A fourth account lives in folklore rather than linguistics or agriculture: in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.govietnam.tours\/vietnamese-zodiac-signs-legend-stories-personalities\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">some Vietnamese tellings of the Jade Emperor&#8217;s Great Race<\/a> \u2014 the story used across the region to explain the zodiac&#8217;s animal order \u2014 the cat and the rat cross the river riding on the buffalo&#8217;s back, and the rat shoves the cat into the water to remove a rival for first place. The cat survives because it can swim, arriving fourth instead of first \u2014 which is also told as the folk reason cats chase rats to this day. This is a legend, not a documented historical account, and it explains a story-world rivalry rather than settling which theory above is historically correct.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"tzl-section\">\n    <h2>Cat folk meaning vs Rabbit folk meaning<\/h2>\n    <p>The two animal labels carry somewhat different folk associations in China and Vietnam. Neither layer is a claim about real personality \u2014 these are inherited symbolic readings of the sign, presented here as tradition.<\/p>\n    <div class=\"tzl-card-grid\">\n      <div class=\"tzl-card\">\n        <span class=\"label\">China \u00b7 \u536f<\/span>\n        <strong>Gentleness and caution<\/strong>\n        <p>In Chinese folk symbolism the rabbit is linked to quickness, gentleness and a wary, self-protective streak \u2014 an animal that survives by staying alert rather than by force.<\/p>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"tzl-card\">\n        <span class=\"label\">Vietnam \u00b7 M\u00e3o<\/span>\n        <strong>A working household guardian<\/strong>\n        <p>In Vietnamese folk symbolism the cat is tied to its practical role guarding rice stores from rats. Modern folk descriptions often extend this into traits like independence and adaptability, echoing how the Great Race story has it survive the rat&#8217;s betrayal by swimming.<\/p>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"tzl-card\">\n        <span class=\"label\">Shared root<\/span>\n        <strong>Same branch, different beast<\/strong>\n        <p>The branch <span class=\"tzl-cn\">\u536f<\/span> and its position in the twelve-year cycle are identical; only the animal and its symbolism were localized.<\/p>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/div>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"tzl-section\">\n    <h2>Water buffalo is not the same idea as a &#8220;Water Ox&#8221;<\/h2>\n    <p>The two ideas sound alike but answer two completely different questions. Vietnam&#8217;s <strong>Water Buffalo<\/strong> is an animal label: S\u1eedu is conventionally represented by the water buffalo (<em>tr\u00e2u<\/em>), where China&#8217;s \u725b (<em>ni\u00fa<\/em>) at that branch is, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.edu\/openlearn\/languages\/chinese\/year-the-ox-chinese-new-year\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">as a noun, &#8220;a generic term for cow, bull, cattle, ox&#8221;<\/a> \u2014 a broader word, not one that names a specific species.<\/p>\n    <p>A Chinese <strong>&#8220;Water Ox&#8221;<\/strong> year, by contrast, is a year-cycle label, not an animal label. In the Chinese system, each year pairs an Earthly Branch with a Heavenly Stem, and the stem \u2014 not the branch \u2014 supplies a rotating <a href=\"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/chinese-zodiac-elements\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal or Water<\/a> designation. So a &#8220;Water Ox&#8221; year is simply an Ox-branch year whose stem happens to fall in the water phase of that rotation. &#8220;Water&#8221; here describes the year&#8217;s stem, not a different bovine species. The two labels look similar in English but sit on entirely different axes: one is a country-level substitution of which animal \u4e11 names, the other is a stem-level cycle that runs inside China&#8217;s own system regardless of which animal is meant.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"tzl-section\">\n    <h2>Vietnam vs the rest of East Asia<\/h2>\n    <p>Vietnam&#8217;s two substitutions sit at S\u1eedu (buffalo for ox) and M\u00e3o (cat for rabbit). <a href=\"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/japanese-zodiac\/\">Japan<\/a> keeps both of those as Ox and Rabbit and instead substitutes a Wild Boar at the twelfth branch, \u4ea5, where Vietnam keeps Pig (H\u1ee3i). <a href=\"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/korean-zodiac\/\">Korea<\/a> keeps the standard Chinese list at all twelve branches, with no substitutions documented. So among China, Vietnam, Korea and Japan, Vietnam is the only one that changes more than one animal, and the only one whose changes sit at the front of the cycle rather than the end.<\/p>\n    <p>A useful way to hold the three apart: Japan&#8217;s difference is at the last branch (\u4ea5), Vietnam&#8217;s differences are at the second and fourth branches (S\u1eedu\/\u4e11 and M\u00e3o\/\u536f), and Korea has none at all.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"tzl-note\">\n    <span class=\"mark\"><i class=\"ph ph-calendar-blank\"><\/i><\/span>\n    <div>\n      <h3>Which New Year? A same-day rule that can still slip<\/h3>\n      <p>Vietnam&#8217;s T\u1ebft and China&#8217;s Lunar New Year both follow the same broad lunisolar rules \u2014 Vietnam uses UTC+7, China uses UTC+8 as the local reference time for the calculation \u2014 and in most years that timezone difference makes no practical difference to the date. 1985 is a documented exception, and <a href=\"https:\/\/honguyenviet.com\/amlich\/calrules_en.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the mechanism is more specific<\/a> than a simple time-zone offset: the winter solstice preceding that new year fell on December 21, 1984 in Hanoi but December 22 in Beijing, the same day as a new moon. Because the lunar month containing the winter solstice must be counted as month 11, the two calendars ended up assigning different lunations to month 11 and every month after it, until Vietnam&#8217;s calendar absorbed the gap with a leap month that spring. The result: Vietnam&#8217;s T\u1ebft fell on January 21, 1985, while China&#8217;s Lunar New Year fell on February 20 \u2014 a full lunar cycle apart. <a href=\"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/chinese-zodiac-year-of-the-cat\/\">The site&#8217;s cat-year page<\/a> covers this boundary case in more depth. Outside of rare cases like this, treat the two calendars as running together.<\/p>\n    <\/div>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"tzl-faq\">\n    <details>\n      <summary>Is the Vietnamese zodiac the same as the Chinese zodiac?<\/summary>\n      <p>Almost. All twelve Earthly Branches are identical, and ten of the twelve animal readings match. Vietnam substitutes two animals: a Water Buffalo for the Ox at S\u1eedu (\u4e11), and a Cat for the Rabbit at M\u00e3o (\u536f).<\/p>\n    <\/details>\n    <details>\n      <summary>Why does Vietnam use a cat instead of a rabbit?<\/summary>\n      <p>No single explanation is settled. Sources report at least three competing theories: a linguistic one (the branch \u536f is read M\u00e3o\/M\u1eb9o in Sino-Vietnamese, close to m\u00e8o, the Vietnamese word for cat), a distinctness theory (avoiding two similar small field animals, rat and rabbit, in the same cycle), and an agricultural one (a rat-hunting cat had more everyday value in rice-farming Vietnam than a rabbit). A separate Great Race folk story gives cats a swimming rivalry with the rat instead.<\/p>\n    <\/details>\n    <details>\n      <summary>Does Vietnam always use a water buffalo instead of an ox?<\/summary>\n      <p>Yes \u2014 S\u1eedu (\u4e11) is conventionally represented in Vietnamese tradition by the water buffalo (tr\u00e2u). The comparison is with the Chinese zodiac label conventionally translated as &#8220;Ox&#8221;; Chinese \u725b (ni\u00fa) itself is a broader bovine term rather than the name of one narrowly fixed species.<\/p>\n    <\/details>\n    <details>\n      <summary>Is a &#8220;Water Ox&#8221; year in the Chinese system related to Vietnam&#8217;s water buffalo?<\/summary>\n      <p>No, and this is a common mix-up. Vietnam&#8217;s water buffalo is an animal-label swap, present in every year on the S\u1eedu\/\u4e11 branch. A Chinese &#8220;Water Ox&#8221; year is a year-cycle label: the Heavenly Stem paired with an Ox\/\u4e11 year, not the branch itself, supplies the rotating Water designation, so &#8220;Water&#8221; describes the year&#8217;s stem, not a different bovine species.<\/p>\n    <\/details>\n    <details>\n      <summary>Which other animals differ between Vietnam and China?<\/summary>\n      <p>Only S\u1eedu (\u4e11, Water Buffalo instead of Ox) and M\u00e3o (\u536f, Cat instead of Rabbit). The other ten branches, including H\u1ee3i (\u4ea5, Pig) \u2014 where, among China, Vietnam, Korea and Japan, Japan alone substitutes a Wild Boar \u2014 carry the same animal as the Chinese list.<\/p>\n    <\/details>\n    <details>\n      <summary>Do Vietnam and China always celebrate the New Year on the same day?<\/summary>\n      <p>Almost always, since both follow the same broad lunisolar rules, but not without exception. Vietnam uses UTC+7 and China UTC+8 as the local reference time; in rare cases \u2014 1985 is a documented one \u2014 that shift moves the winter solstice onto a different calendar date in each place, which changes which lunar month counts as month 11 and cascades into a full lunar month&#8217;s difference until the gap is absorbed by a leap month.<\/p>\n    <\/details>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"tzl-next\">\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/chinese-zodiac-year-of-the-cat\/\"><span>The cat sign<\/span><b>Cat Chinese Zodiac: the deeper history<\/b><\/a>\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/japanese-zodiac\/\"><span>Another variant<\/span><b>Japan&#8217;s boar-for-pig substitution<\/b><\/a>\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/korean-zodiac\/\"><span>No substitutions<\/span><b>Korean zodiac: the same twelve animals<\/b><\/a>\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/learn-great-race-legend\/\"><span>The origin story<\/span><b>The Great Race legend, explained<\/b><\/a>\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/chinese-zodiac-elements\/\"><span>Five elements<\/span><b>How Water, Wood, Fire, Earth &amp; Metal rotate<\/b><\/a>\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/60-year-chinese-zodiac-cycle\/\"><span>The wheel<\/span><b>The 60-year stem-branch cycle<\/b><\/a>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <div class=\"tzl-section\" id=\"go-deeper\">\n    <h2>Curious how your own sign reads in the Chinese system?<\/h2>\n    <p>Your own Chinese animal, element, and full stem-branch chart are a separate, more personal layer:<\/p>\n    <div class=\"tzl-links two\">\n      <a href=\"\/product\/personalized-reading\/\"><strong>Personalized Reading<\/strong>Your full stem-branch write-up: exact animal, element, and what that traditionally means for you specifically \u2014 as a printable report.<span>See the reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a>\n      <a href=\"\/product\/couple-chinese-zodiac-compatibility-report\/\"><strong>Couple Compatibility Report<\/strong>How your sign and a partner&#8217;s sign read together, using the Chinese branch system this comparison is built on.<span>See the report &rarr;<\/span><\/a>\n    <\/div>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <!-- DISTILL-CHECK: keywords=[vietnam, \u8d8a\u5357, water buffalo, \u6c34\u725b, cat, \u732b, m\u00e8o, \u536f, great race legend]; hits=[references\/origins.md#L137-142 \u8d8a\u5357\u5510\u4ee3\u8d77\u7528\u5341\u4e8c\u751f\u8096\/\u536f\u4f4d\u4e3a\u732b\/\u6c34\u725b\u4ee3\u725b(\u5f85\u6838,\u5df2\u7528\u72ec\u7acb\u6e90VOA News\/Wikipedia\u6838\u5b9e), references\/origins.md#L603-605 \u8d8a\u5357\u732b\u65e0\u5154\u6761\u76ee(OCR\u6709\u8bef\u5df2\u6807\u6ce8,\u672a\u91c7\u7528), references\/shier-shengxiao-culture.md#L659-662 \u8d8a\u5357\u732b\u5e74+\u8bed\u8a00\u5b66\u5047\u8bf4\u6761\u76ee(\u5df2\u7528VOA\u72ec\u7acb\u6838\u5b9e), references\/lived-experience-bank.md#L82-89 \u6c34\u725b\/\u9ec4\u725b\u5730\u7406\u5206\u5e03\u4e0e\u751f\u8096\"\u6c34\u725b\"\u4e94\u884c\u672f\u8bed\u7684\u7269\u79cd\u6df7\u6dc6(\u5df2\u8f6c\u5316\u4e3a\u672c\u9875\"Water buffalo vs Water Ox\"\u72ec\u7acb\u5c0f\u8282), references\/\u5f85\u84b8\u998f\u4e66\u76ee\u63a8\u8350.md#L124-142 \u660e\u786e\u5efa\u8bae\u672c\u9875\u9009\u9898\"Chinese zodiac across Asia...Vietnam, Japan, Korea\"] -->\n\n  <div class=\"tzl-editorial\">\n    <h3>Editorial note<\/h3>\n    <p>Folk and symbolic readings on this page are presented as tradition, not as science about real behaviour or personality. The calendar-fact layer (branches, animal substitutions, the \u725b\/water buffalo distinction, the T\u1ebft\/Lunar New Year divergence) is stated separately from the symbolic and legendary layer. The twelve Vietnamese sign animals and Sino-Vietnamese branch names follow Wikipedia&#8217;s Vietnamese zodiac reference; the three competing explanations for the cat-for-rabbit swap (linguistic, distinctness, agricultural) and the buffalo-for-ox swap are reported by VOA News; the more precise framing of the linguistic theory (M\u00e3o\/M\u1eb9o as the Sino-Vietnamese branch reading, rather than &#8220;the Chinese word for rabbit&#8221;) follows Wiktionary&#8217;s entry for M\u00e3o, linked inline above; the note that Chinese \u725b (ni\u00fa) is a generic term for cattle, ox and bull rather than a single fixed species follows The Open University&#8217;s Chinese-language reference on the Year of the Ox, also linked inline; the Great Race cat-and-buffalo folk story is a widely retold legend, not a documented historical account, and is presented here as folklore only. The 1985 T\u1ebft\/Lunar New Year divergence and its winter-solstice mechanism follow a published explanation of Vietnamese lunar calendar rules, cross-linked above; the site&#8217;s own cat-year page covers the same case in a China-facing context. Nothing here is financial, medical, or relationship advice. This page is a companion to the site&#8217;s Chinese system pages \u2014 Vietnam, Japan and Korea are local variants of the same twelve-branch wheel, not additions to China&#8217;s own zodiac.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n{\n  \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n  \"@type\": \"BreadcrumbList\",\n  \"itemListElement\": [\n    {\"@type\": \"ListItem\", \"position\": 1, \"name\": \"Home\", \"item\": \"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/\"},\n    {\"@type\": \"ListItem\", \"position\": 2, \"name\": \"Vietnamese Zodiac\", \"item\": \"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/vietnamese-zodiac\/\"}\n  ]\n}\n<\/script>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">\n{\n  \"@context\": \"https:\/\/schema.org\",\n  \"@type\": \"FAQPage\",\n  \"mainEntity\": [\n    {\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Is the Vietnamese zodiac the same as the Chinese zodiac?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Almost. All twelve Earthly Branches are identical, and ten of the twelve animal readings match. Vietnam substitutes two animals: a Water Buffalo for the Ox at S\u1eedu (\u4e11), and a Cat for the Rabbit at M\u00e3o (\u536f).\"}},\n    {\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Why does Vietnam use a cat instead of a rabbit?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"No single explanation is settled. Sources report at least three competing theories: a linguistic one (the branch \u536f is read M\u00e3o\/M\u1eb9o in Sino-Vietnamese, close to m\u00e8o, the Vietnamese word for cat), a distinctness theory (avoiding two similar small field animals, rat and rabbit, in the same cycle), and an agricultural one (a rat-hunting cat had more everyday value in rice-farming Vietnam than a rabbit). A separate Great Race folk story gives cats a swimming rivalry with the rat instead.\"}},\n    {\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Does Vietnam always use a water buffalo instead of an ox?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Yes, S\u1eedu (\u4e11) is conventionally represented in Vietnamese tradition by the water buffalo (tr\u00e2u). The comparison is with the Chinese zodiac label conventionally translated as Ox; Chinese \u725b (ni\u00fa) itself is a broader bovine term rather than the name of one narrowly fixed species.\"}},\n    {\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Is a \\\"Water Ox\\\" year in the Chinese system related to Vietnam's water buffalo?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"No, and this is a common mix-up. Vietnam's water buffalo is an animal-label swap, present in every year on the S\u1eedu\/\u4e11 branch. A Chinese \\\"Water Ox\\\" year is a year-cycle label: the Heavenly Stem paired with an Ox\/\u4e11 year supplies the rotating Water designation, so Water describes the year's stem, not a different bovine species.\"}},\n    {\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Which other animals differ between Vietnam and China?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Only S\u1eedu (\u4e11, Water Buffalo instead of Ox) and M\u00e3o (\u536f, Cat instead of Rabbit). The other ten branches, including H\u1ee3i (\u4ea5, Pig) where, among China, Vietnam, Korea and Japan, Japan alone substitutes a Wild Boar, carry the same animal as the Chinese list.\"}},\n    {\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Do Vietnam and China always celebrate the New Year on the same day?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Almost always, since both follow the same broad lunisolar rules, but not without exception. Vietnam uses UTC+7 and China UTC+8 as the local reference time; in rare cases, 1985 is a documented one, that shift moves the winter solstice onto a different calendar date in each place, which changes which lunar month counts as month 11 and cascades into a full lunar month's difference until the gap is absorbed by a leap month.\"}}\n  ]\n}\n<\/script>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zodiaque vietnamien \u00b7 Les 12 con gi\u00e1p \u00b7 Les m\u00eames douze branches que la Chine Le quatri\u00e8me signe du Vietnam : un chat, et non un lapin Le Vietnam a h\u00e9rit\u00e9 du m\u00eame syst\u00e8me zodiacal \u00e0 douze branches que la Chine, mais la tradition vietnamienne remplace deux des douze animaux, et non un seul. \u00c0 la quatri\u00e8me branche, \u536f (M\u00e3o), le Vietnam d\u00e9signe le chat l\u00e0 o\u00f9 la Chine d\u00e9signe le lapin. \u00c0\u2026 <a title=\"Le zodiaque vietnamien : pourquoi le 4e signe est un chat et non un lapin\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/fr\/vietnamese-zodiac\/\" aria-label=\"En savoir plus sur Vietnamese Zodiac: Why the 4th Sign Is a Cat, Not a Rabbit\">En savoir plus<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"rank_math_title":"Vietnamese Zodiac: Why the 4th Sign Is a Cat, Not a Rabbit","rank_math_description":"Vietnam shares China's twelve Earthly Branches but reads two animals differently: a Cat replaces the Rabbit, and a Water Buffalo replaces the Ox. Here is why.","rank_math_focus_keyword":"vietnamese zodiac, vietnamese zodiac signs, vietnamese zodiac animals, con giap, vietnamese zodiac cat","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4371","page","type-page","status-publish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4371"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4371\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4376,"href":"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4371\/revisions\/4376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thezodiaclore.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}