Myo (Rabbit)

Tradition sees the rabbit's nature in those born in its year: delicate, careful, good-hearted and wise, they are said to be well provided for all their lives and rarely in want. They are quick-tempered but quick to make peace, gentle and generous, warm and faithful to their word; clever and resourceful, but apt to start things without finishing them. Suspicious enough to "tap even a stone bridge before crossing", they are said to be less fortunate in love. Sensitive and full of humour, they may shine in the arts, and, like the rabbit, leap the obstacles in their path and get out of trouble by quick wits.

The museum adds an image from the rabbit's ways: all winter it follows the same well-trodden path, but in spring it works out the fastest and safest new route home — so those born in its year walk the lone path of the scholar or the teacher, with bright and meticulous minds. In the work that suits them they work with passion and pride; but if, out of greed, they overreach, things can go wrong all at once, for the rabbit, facing danger, does not step back but keeps going forward. They are clear and orderly in their relations with others.

The symbols encyclopedia also gives a portrait of each of the five rabbit years of the sixty-year cycle: those born in an eulmyo year (乙卯) are gentle outside and strong inside, persevering experts in their field; jeongmyo (丁卯), artistic, sensitive and devout; gimyo (己卯), putting honour before money and drawn to the mysterious; sinmyo (辛卯), pure and graceful, neat and skilful with their hands; gyemyo (癸卯), affectionate, bright and creative.

In Woncheong-ri, in Taean county, the classic Tale of the Rabbit (Tokkijeon) lives on in the place names: Myosaem, the "rabbit's spring", where the rabbit's liver was washed; Angung, the "inner palace"; Deokbawi, where the liver was dried. For the villagers who grew up with the tale, their village is where the Moon Rabbit lived. In the garden behind Gyotaejeon Hall in Gyeongbokgung Palace, where the queens of Joseon lived, one meets a rabbit figure and the image of a toad: the Moon Rabbit, the museum writes, stood for women's wish to live in the dream world of the gods.

Rabbits were part of everyday life. Hand-warmers called tosi, worn with traditional dress, were made of rabbit fur; rabbits appear on children's toys and stationery as a wish for children who are lovely and clever and grow up in a happy family; and in our own time the cartoon rabbit Mashimaro, off-beat and bold, has become popular in Korea and beyond with the old thrill of watching the weak beat the strong.

According to the Shuowen, the character 卯 means the rabbit and also "to break through the earth in spring": it has the shape of a gate opening on both sides. The second month is when all living things push up through the earth, full of yang energy, and the hours of the Rabbit, from five to seven, are when the day begins; so the Rabbit stands for the growth of all things, for prosperity and abundance, and for the start of the farming year. In the four pillars, 卯 means "to flourish", and its direction is due east, where the sun rises.

The symbols encyclopedia sets out what the rabbit has meant in Korea. Wisdom: in the tales the weak rabbit is the clever one and the strong tiger the fool. Abundance: the rabbit belongs to the moon, which waxes and wanes and is reborn, and whose cycle was likened to a woman's, so moon and rabbit became symbols of fertility; people even believed that the female rabbit conceived by gazing at the moon. Swiftness: the Korean slang verb tokkida, "to run off", comes from the rabbit. Timidity: "like a startled rabbit", "a rabbit startled by its own fart" — and for its simple, good heart the rabbit stood for ordinary people. Loyalty: in stories, swift as it is, it serves as messenger and guide. Long life: in Taoist belief the Moon Rabbit pounds the elixir of immortality.

In the Tale of the Rabbit, a turtle lures the rabbit to the undersea palace of the Dragon King, who needs a rabbit's liver to cure his illness. Realising the danger, the rabbit keeps its head, outwits the Dragon King and escapes with its liver — a lesson, the encyclopedia notes, that keeping one's wits can save one from any trouble. In the folk tale of the clever rabbit and the foolish tiger, the rabbit tells the tiger to dip its long tail into a hole in the ice to catch fish; the tiger freezes there and dies.

The rabbit came to the moon, says the tale of Jeseokcheon, because it offered itself in the fire for that god, who placed it in the moon for all to see; from this belief comes tobwol (兔月), a name for the moon. At Tocheon (兔遷) in Mungyeong, legend says, a rabbit running along the cliffs showed the way to the lost founder of Goryeo. And the rabbit's eyes are red, one tale says, because it once fell asleep in the tiger's east-facing den, fled at dawn when the tiger returned, and then tried to sleep facing the rising sun.

Folk painting often shows the rabbit in the moon, pounding with mortar and pestle — not rice, the museum explains, but the elixir of immortality — under the laurel tree whose bark was a precious medicine. Pairs of rabbits in folk painting express the wish for a happy family and a peaceful life; elsewhere a frightened rabbit flees from a falcon that glares at it, ready to strike.

The celadon incense burner with an openwork lid, National Treasure No. 95, stands on three rabbits: its round lid is the moon, and the rabbits beneath it speak of conjugal affection and the wish for many children.

The Rabbit, the Sheep and the Pig form one of the four harmonious triads (samhap, 삼합; 亥卯未三合): the rabbit, the museum says, envies the pig's scent and strength and calmly accepts the sheep's plaintive manner; its nose is half pig, half sheep, and its nature has the pig's simplicity and the sheep's haughty pride. The symbols encyclopedia adds the Dog among the Rabbit's friends and names the Rooster as the animal it clashes with.

The Monkey is the Rabbit's wonjin (원진; 卯申怨嗔), the animal in conflict with it: the rabbit hates the monkey's red bottom, the same colour as its own eyes — and nowhere in the world, it is said, do rabbits and monkeys live side by side. Wonjin, the encyclopedia explains, is a mixture of love and hatred, the resentment that lingers after a quarrel, and it weighs heavily in marriage compatibility.