according to legend who created the chinese zodiac
Chinese zodiac In Buddhism, legend has it[citation needed] that Gautama Buddha summoned all of the animals of the Earth to come before him before his departure from this Earth, but only 12 animals actually came to bid him farewell. To reward the animals who came to him, he named a year after each of them. The years were given to them in the order they had arrived.
History of China Written records of the history of China can be found from as early as 1500 BC[1][2] under the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BC).[3] Ancient historical texts such as the Records of the Grand Historian (c. 100 BC) and the Bamboo Annals (before 296 BC) describe a Xia dynasty (c. 2070–1600 BC), which had no system of writing on a durable medium, before the Shang.[3][4] The Yellow River is said to be the cradle of Chinese civilization, although cultures originated at various regional centers along both the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers. These Neolithic civilizations, known as the Yellow River and Yangtze civilizations, arose millennia ago. With thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the world's oldest civilizations,[5] and is regarded as one of the cradles of civilization.[6]