12 Chinese zodiac animals inside-painted glass ball : Some People Juggle Geese

Item description / significance
This is an inside-painted (inner-painted, reverse painted) glass ball depicting the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig).

Bought where
in China on Xianyu, the Chinese second-hand marketplace app (from a seller in Yingkou, Liaoning, northeast China)

Age and origin
Painted in 1996, according to the inscription, probably Hengshui, Hebei Province, in northern China

What I like about it
What attracted me is that the quality of the painting (the level of detail) is high, and the fact that the subject matter is the 12 zodiac animals. Many inside-painted balls are similar to each other (there are lots depicting the Qingming festival, for example), but this is one of only two I have ever found of the zodiac animals, and the other one is not, shall we say, an attractive quality level. (See for yourself.)

See below for information about the inscription, the Chinese characters that accompany the animals, and photos of this sphere, including photos from the seller.

Inscription

The inscription begins at the top right.

First, it describes the subject: 十二生肖圖 Shí’èr shēngxiào tú.

Then it gives the year, season, and month when it was made: 丙子, bǐngzǐ, 1996, 冬, dōng, winter, 土月, tǔyuè, “dirt” month (?).

The year is written using the traditional 60-year cycle system, which involves combining one of 10 “heavenly stems” with one of 12 “earthly branches”.

Then it says 志远作, zhìyuǎn zuò, ambition work.

Chinese zodiac animals and the “earthly branches”

There is a faint red Chinese character beside each of the zodiac animals in the painting. It’s not the word for the animal! I encountered these previously, when I bought some zodiac animal tiles in Singapore.

You can see 丑 and 子 near the center, for cow and rat.

Each zodiac animal is associated with one of the twelve “earthly branches”. Combined with the ten “heavenly stems”, these create the traditional 60-year cycle. Here’s a list of the 12 zodiac animals in order, with the animal words followed by the earthly branches.

Rat (鼠 shǔ) , 子 zǐ
Ox (牛 niú) , 丑 chǒu
Tiger (虎 hǔ) , 寅 yín
Rabbit (兔 tù) , 卯 mǎo
Dragon (龍/龙 lóng) , 辰 chén
Snake (蛇 shé) , 巳 sì
Horse (馬/马 mǎ) , 午 wǔ
Goat (羊 yáng) , 未 wèi
Monkey (猴 hóu) , 申 shēn
Rooster (雞/鸡 jī) , 酉 yǒu
Dog (狗 gǒu) , 戌 xū
Pig (豬/猪 zhū) , 亥 hài