Lucky numbers
2 7
Most recent year
2015
Branch position
8
The goat in the cycle
The Year of the Goat is the eighth of the twelve in the Chinese zodiac, tied to the earthly branch 未 (wèi). Goat years run 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015, 2027 and 2039. Its fixed element is Earth and its polarity is yin, the quiet half of the pair. English has never settled on the animal, because the Chinese word 羊 (yáng) covers sheep, goats, rams and antelopes without distinguishing between them. Goat, Sheep and Ram are all translations of the same character.
未 (wèi) is the early-afternoon branch, the double-hour from 1pm to 3pm, and the same character does duty in classical Chinese as the negative particle for something that has not happened yet. In the Great Race story the Goat reached the river with the Monkey and the Rooster and did not swim at all. The three crossed on a raft the Rooster had spotted, with the Goat and the Monkey hauling it clear of the weeds. The Jade Emperor rewarded the teamwork and handed out eighth, ninth and tenth in that order.
A separate element rotates over the animal on a ten-year cycle, keyed to the last digit of the year: 0 and 1 Metal, 2 and 3 Water, 4 and 5 Wood, 6 and 7 Fire, 8 and 9 Earth. So 2015 was a Wood Goat, and 2027 will be a Fire Goat. The overlay sits on the branch's own fixed Earth rather than replacing it. One thing to check before claiming the sign: the zodiac year turns at lunar new year. The 2015 Goat year did not open until 19 February, so a baby born that January was still a Horse.
- 羊 · yáng
- 8 of 12
- Earth
- Yin
- 2, 7
- 4, 9
- Brown, Red, Purple
- Carnation, Primrose
- North
- Cancer — unrelated systems, see below
Goat years, and the date each one starts
1931
from 17 Feb
1943
from 5 Feb
1955
from 24 Jan
1967
from 9 Feb
1979
from 28 Jan
1991
from 15 Feb
2003
from 1 Feb
2015
from 19 Feb
2027
from 6 Feb
2039
from 24 Jan
Each goat year runs from the date shown until the day before the next lunar new year. Born on 10 January 2015? You are not a goat; that year had not started yet. The full year table covers 1924 to 2044 if you need to check a different year.
What the tradition says about goat people
Chinese astrology reads Goat-year people as the gentlest of the twelve. Mild in manner, slow to take offence, strongly drawn to making things. Creative work runs through every traditional description, along with a well-developed sense of taste and a preference for collaborating over directing. The tradition also credits the sign with more persistence than its soft surface suggests, and describes a private stubbornness about personal convictions that rarely turns into an open argument.
The honest half of the reading is about nerve. Descriptions of the Goat keep returning to indecision, worry about failing and a habit of waiting for somebody else to move first. The sign is said to like being looked after and to enjoy flattery more than is good for it, which older texts file under vanity. Timidity in public and a reluctance to work alone are the two most repeated criticisms. This is a character sketch attached to a birth year, not a finding about anyone.
Why 2, 7
The Goat's pair matches the He Tu (河图), the number chart that assigns two digits to each of the five elements: 1 and 6 to Water, 2 and 7 to Fire, 3 and 8 to Wood, 4 and 9 to Metal, 5 and 10 to Earth. The Goat's fixed element is Earth, and in the generating cycle Fire produces Earth, so the Fire numbers are read as the ones that feed the sign rather than drain it. 2 carries a separate warmth in everyday Chinese, where 好事成双 (hǎo shì chéng shuāng) says good things arrive in pairs.
4 and 9 are the Metal numbers on the same chart. Earth produces Metal, and in five-element reading the child element draws on the parent and thins it, which is the stated ground for putting them on the Goat's avoid list. For 4 that agrees with ordinary Chinese usage anyway, since 四 (sì) sits uncomfortably close to 死 (sǐ), death, and buildings across China skip the fourth floor. 9 is the harder case: 九 (jiǔ) is a homophone of 久 (jiǔ), long-lasting, and is auspicious almost everywhere else. The Goat is one of the signs the reference lists actually agree on, which is not true of every animal in the cycle.
Lucky
2 7
Chinese number luck runs largely on homophones. 八 bā (8) sits close to 發 fā, to prosper; 四 sì (4) sits close to 死 sǐ, death. The Chinese numbers page works through the whole set.
Goat compatibility
Goat at work and in love
Goat — work and money
The professions traditionally matched to the Goat are the making and the caring ones. Illustration, interior design, music, editing, floristry, hairdressing, paediatrics, teaching small children: the common thread is craft in a low-conflict setting. Sources agree the sign works better inside a team than at the head of one, and several state plainly that a Goat put into a competitive sales or courtroom role will be unhappy there whatever the ability.
Where the readings turn cautious is on self-promotion. The Goat is described as reluctant to argue its own case, which older texts blame for careers that stall at the point where someone has to ask for the raise. The advice that follows is to find a place that notices work without being told about it. Treat this as folklore built from the sign's character sketch; no birth year sorts anyone into a profession.
Goat — love and family
Chinese astrology reads the Goat as devoted, easily hurt and slow to say anything first. Traditional descriptions have the sign waiting to be approached and then holding on hard once attached, with a need for reassurance that partners are sometimes told to supply deliberately rather than on request. The same texts warn that a Goat will absorb friction instead of naming it, and that whatever was absorbed surfaces late and all at once.
The Goat's trine (三合) is with the Rabbit and the Pig, three branches spaced four apart around the circle of twelve, which classical texts read as matched temperaments. Its clash (六冲) is the Ox, 未 against 丑, the branch sitting six places away and therefore directly opposite. There is also the 六合 harmony pair, 午 with 未, which sets the Goat alongside the Horse. That is why the Horse turns up as a recommended match in modern lists despite having no place in the trine.
The Cancer question
Charts that pair the goat with Cancer are matching the goat's earthly branch to the solar month it governs in the traditional calendar. That is a real correspondence inside Chinese timekeeping. It is not a claim that the two astrologies agree, because they were built in different places for different purposes and neither borrowed from the other. Treat it as a curiosity rather than a second opinion on your western sign.
Year of the Goat — frequently asked
All three, and the Chinese does not decide it. 羊 (yáng) is a general word covering sheep, goats and rams alike, so translators pick whichever reads better to them. Chinese depictions of the sign usually show a horned goat, which is why Goat has become the more common English choice, but nothing in the original settles the question.
1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015, 2027 and 2039.
2 and 7, with 4 and 9 listed as unlucky. Both sets come from the He Tu number chart rather than from wordplay: 2 and 7 belong to Fire, which feeds the Goat's Earth, while 4 and 9 belong to Metal, which draws on it.
本命年 (běn mìng nián) is your own zodiac year, the one carrying your birth animal, and it comes round every twelve years. Tradition counts it a risky year rather than a favourable one, on the reasoning that you have come back around to face the deity governing your sign. The usual countermeasure is red: a red cord, a red belt or red underwear, and it should be given by an older relative rather than bought for yourself. For Goats the next one is 2027.
Sources give brown, red and purple as the sign's colours, the carnation and the primrose as its flowers, and north as its direction. These correspondences vary between sources far more than the numbers do, so any single list is one tradition's version rather than a settled answer.