In old tales and folk legends, children's rhymes and poems, the rabbit is portrayed as a cute, weak little saucer-eyed animal with a good heart or as a clever animal gifted with speed and agility. People in the olden days used to look up at the moon and imagine the Rabbit pounding the Elixir of Youth under a laurel tree and dreamed of living forever in an ideal world of peace and abundance free of worry and fear. The Rabbit was an emblem of longevity and the vital essence of the moon. Until a new year arrives, the rabbit always uses the same well-trodden path, but once spring comes after winter it pioneers a new path by cleverly calculating the fastest and safest path to its home in order to protect itself from other animals. Therefore, people born in the Year of the Rabbit walk the lone path of scholars or teachers who use their bright and meticulous brains.

If they chose an occupation suited to their inclinations, they work hard at it with passion and pride; however, out of greed, if they overly expanded a situation during the recess (in the winter, or before the New Year) or pursue higher ends beyond their means, things can go badly all at once. In short, the Rabbit inevitably ends up in a trap. What the Rabbit does when it faces death, unfortunately, is to continue going forward; the Rabbit does not know how to step back and investigate the situation. The deeper the trouble, the more it wants to move forward, so it's only a matter of time before the Rabbit's life crumbles to dust. In the end, the business goes bust, and he becomes sick and turns into human refuse. That perhaps explains why the path made by the Rabbit is very thorough and orderly. Like rabbits, people born in Year of the Rabbit are very clear in their personal relations, always drawing the line and showing who's top and who's below. They tend to carry out orderly conversations which must make sense to them theoretically.

People whose zodiac sign is the Rabbit would be rash to roll out their own theories to others or blur far-fetched stories with reality. Clever but often startled, the Rabbit represents a woman's heart because it signifies yin (陰) energy and thus is the Goddess of Yin (陰). The Rabbit enjoys spending time in the mountains, deep or low, at night. There's also a story about the Rabbit's red eyes. One day, the Rabbit dozed off fearlessly in the Tiger's east-facing den until sunrise. Seeing the Tiger enter the cave at dawn, the Rabbit fled for its life. Back in his burrow, the Rabbit tried to sleep facing east, directly under the sun. So that's how the rabbit's eyes became red. The story is associated with the mountain god, who is a woman with red eyes, or with the guardian spirit that supports the mountain god. But there's another tale in which the Rabbit detests the Monkey's bottom because it is the same color as the Rabbit's eye. This is known to be the origin of the saying, "The rabbit and the monkey dislike each other" (卯申怨嗔). It is said that there is no place in the world where monkeys and rabbits live in close proximity. How odd is the order of nature? The Rabbit envies the scent of the Pig's secretion and its strength, while it calmly accepts the Sheep's pitiful attitude, thus the expression: "Pigs, rabbits and sheep live in harmony" (亥卯未三合). The Rabbit's nose is half pig, half sheep. In terms of its disposition, the Rabbit has the simplicity of the Pig and arrogant pride of the Sheep.