The Goat and the Eighth Earthly Branch

The Goat, also given as Sheep or Ram, is paired with wei, the eighth earthly branch, whose double-hour runs from one to three in the afternoon and whose phase is earth. The Chinese word yang covers both goats and sheep without distinguishing them, which is why English renderings of this sign vary and why no translation is more correct than the others; the animal shown depends on region, with sheep more usual in the north and goats in the south. The character yang also forms part of the words for auspicious and for beauty, and the sign carries associations of mildness, artistry, tenderness and a preference for peace. The goat belongs to the san he triad with the Rabbit and the Pig and stands opposite the Ox.

Because yang the character can denote either goat or sheep without distinguishing them, classical Chinese texts describing the eighth branch's animal are frequently ambiguous in a way modern translators must resolve by context or regional convention rather than by the text's own wording, and this same ambiguity extends into ritual practice: the sacrificial animal offered in ancient Chinese state rites under the sign of yang is likewise not specified as sheep or goat in the earliest sources, a genuine linguistic gap rather than a case of the ancient authors simply not caring which animal was meant.