How the Chinese Zodiac works

The Chinese zodiac belongs to a calendar tradition with many centuries of history in China, also celebrated in other East Asian cultures. Each year is linked to one of twelve animals and, in the sexagenary cycle, to one of five Wu Xing elements and to a yin or yang polarity. This tool takes your birth date and shows your animal, element and polarity, the year’s name in Chinese characters (stem and branch) and the animals traditionally considered most and least compatible.

The animal comes from the zodiac year: the cycle repeats every 12 years in the order Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The tool uses a table of Chinese New Year dates from 1900 to 2100: with the option ticked, anyone born before the New Year of their birth year receives the previous year. The element depends on the last digit of the year (each pair of consecutive digits shares an element); an even digit means yang, an odd one yin. Affinities come from the animal’s trine; the challenging animal is the one opposite in the cycle.

Example: someone born on 15 January 1990 was born before that year’s Chinese New Year, which fell on 27 January, so the year counted is 1989: Snake, element Earth, polarity yin (己巳). The Snake’s trine includes the Ox and the Rooster, and the challenging animal is the Pig. This content is cultural and for entertainment only and is not a substitute for professional advice or for the guidance of someone who studies and practises the Chinese tradition.