The Chinese Zodiac Beast consists of five animals: HORSE, DRAGON, RAT, PIG, and ROOSTER. The HORSE is represented by the character 馬 (ma) which has five letters, the DRAGON is represented by 龍 (long) which has six letters, the RAT is represented by 鼠 (shu) which has three letters, the PIG is represented by 豬 (zhu) which has three letters, and the ROOSTER is represented by 雞 (ji) which has seven letters. These five animals are believed to be the guardians of the Chinese Zodiac and are used to represent the twelve-year cycle of the Chinese calendar.