Wood
years ending 4 or 5
Growth and expansion in the five-element system. 2024 was a wood dragon; the next wood year is 2034.
Read this before you look up your year
A Chinese zodiac year does not start in January. It starts at the lunar new year, which falls anywhere between 21 January and 20 February depending on the year.
So if you were born in January or the first half of February, the animal printed on a placemat is probably wrong for you. Someone born on 2 February 2024 belongs to the rabbit; the dragon year did not begin until 10 February. Someone born on 20 January 2023 is a tiger, because the rabbit year started on 22 January. The lookup table below gives the start date for every year from 1924 to 2044, checked against the Hong Kong Observatory's official Gregorian-lunar conversion tables, so you can look it up rather than guess.
The reason is calendrical, not mystical. The traditional Chinese calendar is lunisolar: months follow the moon, and the year begins at the second new moon after the winter solstice. Twelve lunar months come up about eleven days short of a solar year, so an extra month is inserted roughly every three years and the new year date swings back and forth across a month-wide window.
- 12 animals, one per year
- 60 years — 12 animals × 5 elements
- Lunar new year, 21 Jan – 20 Feb
- Fire Horse · from 17 Feb
- 子丑寅卯辰巳午未申酉戌亥
- 1924–2044
The twelve animals
Birth year to animal
1924Rat5 Feb1925Ox24 Jan1926Tiger13 Feb1927Rabbit2 Feb1928Dragon23 Jan1929Snake10 Feb1930Horse30 Jan1931Goat17 Feb1932Monkey6 Feb1933Rooster26 Jan1934Dog14 Feb1935Pig4 Feb1936Rat24 Jan1937Ox11 Feb1938Tiger31 Jan1939Rabbit19 Feb1940Dragon8 Feb1941Snake27 Jan1942Horse15 Feb1943Goat5 Feb1944Monkey25 Jan1945Rooster13 Feb1946Dog2 Feb1947Pig22 Jan1948Rat10 Feb1949Ox29 Jan1950Tiger17 Feb1951Rabbit6 Feb1952Dragon27 Jan1953Snake14 Feb1954Horse3 Feb1955Goat24 Jan1956Monkey12 Feb1957Rooster31 Jan1958Dog18 Feb1959Pig8 Feb1960Rat28 Jan1961Ox15 Feb1962Tiger5 Feb1963Rabbit25 Jan1964Dragon13 Feb1965Snake2 Feb1966Horse21 Jan1967Goat9 Feb1968Monkey30 Jan1969Rooster17 Feb1970Dog6 Feb1971Pig27 Jan1972Rat15 Feb1973Ox3 Feb1974Tiger23 Jan1975Rabbit11 Feb1976Dragon31 Jan1977Snake18 Feb1978Horse7 Feb1979Goat28 Jan1980Monkey16 Feb1981Rooster5 Feb1982Dog25 Jan1983Pig13 Feb1984Rat2 Feb1985Ox20 Feb1986Tiger9 Feb1987Rabbit29 Jan1988Dragon17 Feb1989Snake6 Feb1990Horse27 Jan1991Goat15 Feb1992Monkey4 Feb1993Rooster23 Jan1994Dog10 Feb1995Pig31 Jan1996Rat19 Feb1997Ox7 Feb1998Tiger28 Jan1999Rabbit16 Feb2000Dragon5 Feb2001Snake24 Jan2002Horse12 Feb2003Goat1 Feb2004Monkey22 Jan2005Rooster9 Feb2006Dog29 Jan2007Pig18 Feb2008Rat7 Feb2009Ox26 Jan2010Tiger14 Feb2011Rabbit3 Feb2012Dragon23 Jan2013Snake10 Feb2014Horse31 Jan2015Goat19 Feb2016Monkey8 Feb2017Rooster28 Jan2018Dog16 Feb2019Pig5 Feb2020Rat25 Jan2021Ox12 Feb2022Tiger1 Feb2023Rabbit22 Jan2024Dragon10 Feb2025Snake29 Jan2026Horse17 Feb2027Goat6 Feb2028Monkey26 Jan2029Rooster13 Feb2030Dog3 Feb2031Pig23 Jan2032Rat11 Feb2033Ox31 Jan2034Tiger19 Feb2035Rabbit8 Feb2036Dragon28 Jan2037Snake15 Feb2038Horse4 Feb2039Goat24 Jan2040Monkey12 Feb2041Rooster1 Feb2042Dog22 Jan2043Pig10 Feb2044Rat30 Jan
Where the twelve animals come from
The animals are a popular skin over an older administrative device. Chinese timekeeping has used a set of twelve earthly branches (地支) since at least the Shang dynasty oracle bones, pairing them with ten heavenly stemsto name days, then years. The branches are abstract characters: 子, 丑, 寅 and so on. The animal names were attached later, and the earliest surviving list matching the modern order comes from a Han-dynasty text, Wang Chong's Lunheng, written around 80 CE.
The Jade Emperor's race, in which the rat rides the ox across the river and jumps off first, is a folk explanation rather than a historical one. It is worth knowing because it is how the order is taught, and because it explains the running joke about the cat, who in most tellings is tricked out of a place and has hated rats ever since.
Versions of the same twelve-animal cycle run in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Mongolia and Kazakhstan, with local substitutions. Vietnam replaces the rabbit with a cat and the ox with a buffalo. Thailand keeps the rabbit but reads the whole cycle against its own calendar.
The five elements
Fire
years ending 6 or 7
Heat, visibility, quick movement. 2026 is a fire horse, the pairing that once measurably dented Japan's birth rate.
Earth
years ending 8 or 9
Stability and the centre of the compass. 2028 and 2029 are the next earth years, carrying the monkey and the rooster.
Metal
years ending 0 or 1
Structure, cutting, refinement. 2020 was a metal rat, which is why you saw that phrase everywhere that January.
Water
years ending 2 or 3
Flow, communication, adaptability. 2022 was a water tiger and 2032 will be a water rat, closing a sixty-year loop.
Two zodiacs, one word
English uses zodiac for both systems, which causes more confusion than it should. The western zodiac splits a single year into twelve segments by where the Sun sits, so your sign changes every few weeks. The Chinese zodiac gives a whole year to one animal and repeats every twelve. A person has one of each, and the two say nothing about one another.
Where sites pair them anyway (rat with Sagittarius, dragon with Aries), the pairing comes from lining the twelve earthly branches up with the twelve solar months of the traditional calendar. It is a mapping between two independent systems, not a translation. Each animal page here lists the pairing and says so.
For the numbers themselves, the more useful comparison is the culture-by-culture guide, where 8 being lucky in Chinese has a specific linguistic reason and 4 being avoided has a specific one too. If you want a number worked out from your own birth date rather than assigned by a year, that is what numerology and the Life Path calculator do.
Chinese zodiac — frequently asked
Find your birth year in the table above, then check the lunar new year date next to it. If you were born before that date, your animal is the one from the year before. Someone born on 2 February 2024 is a rabbit, not a dragon, because the dragon year did not start until 10 February.
Because it runs on a lunisolar calendar, not the Gregorian one. The year begins at the second new moon after the winter solstice, which lands somewhere between 21 January and 20 February. That is why the date moves by up to a month from year to year.
Rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig. The order is fixed and matches the twelve earthly branches of the traditional calendar. The Jade Emperor's race is the story told to explain it, not its origin.
Each year also carries one of five elements, rotating on a ten-year cycle keyed to the last digit of the year: 4 and 5 are wood, 6 and 7 fire, 8 and 9 earth, 0 and 1 metal, 2 and 3 water. Twelve animals against five elements gives 60 combinations, which is why the full traditional cycle is sixty years long, not twelve.
No. The western zodiac divides one year into twelve months by the Sun's position. The Chinese zodiac gives a whole year to each animal on a twelve-year loop. Some sites pair a rat with Sagittarius and a dragon with Aries, which comes from lining the twelve earthly branches up with the twelve solar months. The two systems developed separately and neither derives from the other.
Your běn mìng nián (本命年) is the year your own animal comes round again, every twelve years. Tradition treats it as an unlucky year rather than a lucky one, and the customary counter is to wear red, often a belt or underwear given by a family member. It is one of the few number traditions with a specific remedy attached.