A different kind of snake year
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On the morning of Chinese New Year's Eve, WXPN (Penn's excellent radio station) had a nice program about the significance of the festival and some of the events that would be going on to celebrate it — including activities in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
WXPN did its homework, and most of the information they conveyed was correct, but one thing they repeatedly said stunned me. They didn't call "shé nián 蛇年" "year of the snake" in English, which I had always and ever heard it referred to as. Rather, they referred to "shé nián 蛇年" as "Year of the Wood Snake". So I searched for it on the internet and, lo and behold, it turned up quite often as "wood snake".
"year of the wood snake" 3,650,000 ghits
"year of the snake" 75,800,000 ghits
How / why did this happen?
At first I suspected that some kind-hearted translator wanted to make "shé 蛇" sound more benign than "snake" or even "serpent" does in non-Sinitic languages — from the Garden of Eden up to the "snake in the grass" of the present day. I realize that snakes have their defenders, but most people flinch at the flick of their forked tongue or recoil at the sight of their fangs. So maybe whoever came up with "wood snake" as a translation for "shé 蛇" thought it sounded more appealing than just "snake".
The problem, though, is that "wood snake" is an incorrect translation for Sinitic "shé 蛇".
The scientific name for "wood snake" is Tropidophis melanurus.
Tropidophis melanurus, commonly known as the dusky dwarf boa, Cuban wood snake, or Cuban giant dwarf boa, is a nonvenomous dwarf boa species endemic to Cuba. There are three subspecies that are recognized as being valid, including the nominate subspecies described here.
Here's the Chinese Wikipedia version of the entry for Tropidophis melanurus, which matches the English version closely:
古巴林蚺（學名：Tropidophis melanurus）是蛇亞目林蚺科下的一個無毒蛇種，主要分布於古巴。目前，古巴林蚺之下已有三個亞種被確認。
(source)
Since this type of snake is clearly associated with the Caribbean and not with East Asia, it's unsuitable to be a member of the Chinese zodiac.
There is, however, a different explanation for the expression "wood snake" in regard to the New Year. Viz., fengshui masters and Daoist priests tell us that each year is identified with one of the five elements / phases (metal, water, wood, fire, earth). When the "wood" year of the five elements cycle coincides with the "snake" year of the zodiacal cycle, then we get a "wood snake" year. Unfortunately, I didn't hear WXPN or any other expositor tell us that we'd have to wait another sixty years to have a "wood snake" year. Starting in 2026, we'll have to wait another 59 years to celebrate a "wood snake" year in 2085. (see here and here)
The sexagenary cycle, where calendrical sequences of ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches intermesh, is a different matter, though latterly also connected to the cycle of five elements through the division of the ten heavenly stems. Only a fengshui master or Daoist priest could explain the full implications of the intermeshed and interconnected cycles, especially when you add in the "double hours" of a day:
In the Chinese sexagenary cycle, the hours of the day are also divided into a 60-term cycle, where each "double hour" is associated with one of the 12 "Earthly Branches," meaning that a full day is made up of 12 distinct time periods, each corresponding to a specific animal symbol within the cycle; this allows for a detailed timekeeping system where both the day and the hour share a specific designation within the sexagenary cycle. (AIO 1/30/25)
Beyond normal human intelligence.
Selected readings
- "The Alphabet and the Zodiac" (12/6/22)
- "Wheat and word: astronomy and the origins of the alphabet" (3/15/24)
- "Slick, Slithery and Slippery" (1/27/25)
- "Chinese names, stroke counts, and fengshui", Pinyin News (1/19/06)
- "Turtle this and snake that" 1/3/25)
- "Roman dodecahedra between Southeast Asia and England, part 5" (6/7/24) — with extensive bibliography
Philip Taylor said,
January 30, 2025 @ 12:53 pm
I confess that I was surprised when some of the Jacquie Lawson "thank you" notes that I received made reference to "The year of the wood snake" (example below) — I had not mentioned "wood" on the e-card, so it was not clear to me why some of my correspondents had latched on to that phrase. All is now a little clearer in the light of Victor's post, but I would love to know who it was that first coined that phrase for the current lunar year …
J.W. Brewer said,
January 30, 2025 @ 1:28 pm
I have in recent years noticed some smallish percentage of people using a "full" sexagenary-cycle phrase, as e.g. "Water Rabbit" two years ago or "Metal Ox" four years ago. But when I first encountered the basic twelve-animal sequence as a boy living in Japan 50-odd years ago I don't remember that at all. Our first New Year's after we moved there marked the commencement of a Year of the Tiger (Gregorian A.D. 1974), which was significant since as we learned both of my parents had been born in a prior Tiger year (1938). But that this was a Wood Tiger year compared to their birth in an Earth Tiger year did not come up as best as I can recall. I am myself now coming up this summer on the 60th anniversary of my own birth, as I was born in the last Wood Snake year and am now completing the full cycle.
jhh said,
January 30, 2025 @ 1:40 pm
In Japanese studies, there's talk of girls born in the year of the "Fire Horse," (hinoeuma) who have a hard time getting married because they are supposed to bring an early death to their husbands (for which reason, the birth rate plummets in those years) So when I saw "wood snake," I think I understood what was going on. Are there no parallel traditions in China about the "fire horse" year?
katarina said,
January 30, 2025 @ 1:41 pm
That's like calling the Chinese "year of the pig" the "year of the boar" in English, which I've seen sometimes.
As we know, in English "pig" has the connotation of "gluttonous, slovenly, stupid". So you hear words like "Don't be such a pig!
Or "Don't be pig-headed ! " which means don't be stupidly obstinate.
In the Chinese zodiac the pig stands for "good luck, prosperity…" and the pig symbolizes a " hard working, peace-loving person, truthful, generous, reliable…." (google AI overview).
It seems the real pig has clean habits, is smarter than a dog, has a very good memory, etc. ( AI overview).
katarina said,
January 30, 2025 @ 2:03 pm
Boar: animal of " great strength, speed, and ferocity" (google).
Certainly a better image than that of the (in English) proverbially lazy, gluttonous pig.
Victor Mair said,
January 30, 2025 @ 2:04 pm
@J.W. Brewer
Heartiest congratulations to you on your sixtieth birthday in the 60th year of the sexagenary cycle in which you were born!
Chips Mackinolty said,
January 30, 2025 @ 6:00 pm
Dear Language Log,
You have no idea how much pleasure you give this ageing bloke! Sometimes too obscure for me, other times a complete joy like today's discussion. And best wishes to @J.W.Brewer! At the biblical three score and ten I beat you!