Chinese zodiac calculator

The Chinese Zodiac

The 'Chinese zodiac' (shengxiao, 'birth likeness') assigns each year one of twelve animals: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The animals are the popular face of the twelve 'earthly branches' (dizhi), an ancient Chinese counting cycle also used for months, hours and directions. The branches combine with ten 'heavenly stems' (tiangan), which carry the five phases — wood, fire, earth, metal and water — in yang and yin forms, to make a sixty-year cycle; 2024, for example, was a jiachen year, a Yang Wood Dragon.

The animal year begins at the lunar new year, which falls between 21 January and 20 February, so people born in January or early February usually belong to the previous animal. (Some traditional astrologers instead use the solar term Lichun, around 4 February.) The animals also rule the twelve 'double hours' of the day, and Chinese fortune-telling such as the Four Pillars (bazi) combines the stems and branches of the year, month, day and hour of birth.

The animal cycle spread across East and Southeast Asia with local variations: in Vietnam the Cat replaces the Rabbit and the Buffalo the Ox, while Japan uses the Wild Boar for the Pig. Popular stories explain the order of the animals with a 'great race' called by the Jade Emperor, in which the clever Rat rode on the Ox's back.