【双语】你好！中国 | 猫咪这么可爱，为什么十二生肖没有它？

都是被人类驯养的动物，有猪有鸡有狗，为何十二生肖排行榜上偏偏没有猫呢？

They are all animals domesticated by human beings. There are pigs, chickens and dogs. Why is there no cat in the twelve zodiac list?

传说，猫与老鼠确实是一起去参加玉皇大帝主办的十二生肖渡河选拔赛的，可没料到，在比赛过程中，狡猾的老鼠担心猫占了第一，就使坏将猫推下河。不擅长游泳的猫就这样遗憾地输掉了这轮排位赛。

It's said that the cat and the mouse did go together to participate in the twelve zodiac river crossing competition hosted by the Jade Emperor. But it wasn't expected that in the process of the competition, the cunning mouse worried that the cat was the first and pushed the cat into the river. The cat who is not good at swimming lost the round of qualifying.

这只是古人为十二生肖附会出来的来源传说，虽有趣但这并不是真实的。目前，更为科学和有据可考的解释是，亚洲家猫很可能起源于非洲的沙漠猫，在西汉以后才引入中国。而十二生肖在我国起源得非常早，那时猫尚未出现在百姓的生活中，自然就没有入选的机会。

This is just the source legend of the ancients for the twelve zodiac, although interesting, it is not true. At present, a more scientific and evidence-based explanation is that Asian domestic cats probably originated from desert cats in Africa, and were introduced to China after the Western Han Dynasty. The twelve animals originated very early in China. At that time, the cat did not appear in the life of the people, so there was no chance to be selected.

责编：保雪菲