How do I find my Chinese zodiac sign?

Your sign is the animal of your birth year — but the year turns at Li Chun (立春, the solar term around February 4th), not on January 1st. If you were born in January or early February, you belong to the previous year's animal. The free calculator on this site resolves the boundary automatically and builds your full chart.

What are the 12 Chinese zodiac animals in order?

Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The order comes from the Great Race legend, where the Jade Emperor held a river crossing contest — the Rat rode the Ox's back and leapt ahead at the finish, which is why the small clever sign comes first.

Why are there five types of each sign?

Each animal year also carries one of five elements — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal or Water — pairing in a 60-year cycle. A 1988 Earth Dragon and a 2000 Metal Dragon share the Dragon's temperament but wear different coats: steadier versus sharper. Chinese astrology reads both animal and element together.

Is Chinese zodiac compatibility real?

Compatibility comes from the relationships between earthly branches: the six-harmony (Liu He) pair is the classic best match, the trine (San He) of three branches forms supportive alliances, and the clash (Chong) marks the challenging opposite. It is a folk taxonomy of temperament — useful reflection, not destiny.

What's the difference between the zodiac year and a BaZi chart?

The zodiac animal is just the year pillar — one of four pillars in a BaZi chart. Month, day and hour each add their own stem and branch. Two Rats born a month apart can have very different charts, because the zodiac is one layer of a much deeper system. The free calculator builds all four pillars.

Chinese Zodiac — All 12 Signs, Explained Without the Jargon

The Chinese zodiac (生肖, Shēngxiào) assigns an animal to each year in a repeating twelve-year cycle: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig. Each year also pairs with one of five elements — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water — producing a full cycle of sixty. It is not just a birth-year curiosity: in BaZi, the zodiac animal is the year branch, one of eight characters in your full chart.

The basics

Three things most people get wrong

1 — The year turns in February, not January. The zodiac year begins at Li Chun (立春), the "start of spring" solar term, falling around February 4th. Born on February 2nd, 1990? You are a Snake, not a Horse. The single most common mistake in Chinese astrology is a January/early-February birthday.

2 — There are five of each animal. A 1988 Earth Dragon and a 2000 Metal Dragon are both Dragons, but the element changes the coat: the Earth Dragon builds institutions, the Metal Dragon cuts through them. Anyone who tells you "all Dragons are the same" has only read the menu, not the meal.

3 — The animal is one layer, not the verdict. Your zodiac sign is the year pillar — the broad, public layer of a BaZi chart. The month, day and hour pillars add the other six characters. Two Rats born weeks apart can live very different weather. Treat the sign as your birthyear's hometown; treat the full chart as the biography.

The system

How compatibility actually works

Compatibility is not vibes — it is arithmetic between earthly branches, with three named relationships. The six harmony (六合, Liu He) pairs complementary branches into "secret friends": Rat-Ox, Tiger-Pig, Rabbit-Dog, Dragon-Rooster, Snake-Monkey, Horse-Goat. The trine (三合, San He) groups three branches into supportive alliances — the water trine of Rat-Dragon-Monkey, the fire trine of Tiger-Horse-Dog, the metal trine of Ox-Snake-Rooster, the wood trine of Rabbit-Goat-Pig. And the clash (冲, Chong) marks the six oppositions — Rat-Horse, Ox-Goat, Tiger-Monkey, Rabbit-Rooster, Dragon-Dog, Snake-Pig — the magnetic, exhausting pairs. Classical, structural, and more interesting than a horoscope column.

The twelve