Lucky numbers
2 5 8
Most recent year
2019
Branch position
12
The pig in the cycle
The Year of the Pig closes the twelve-year Chinese zodiac cycle and carries the earthly branch 亥 (hài). Pig years are 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019, 2031 and 2043. Its fixed element is Water and its polarity is yin. The year turns at the lunar new year rather than on 1 January, and that boundary catches people out: the 2019 Pig year began on 5 February, which makes anyone born on 20 January 2019 a Dog instead.
亥 (hài) is the double-hour from 9pm to 11pm, the last watch before midnight, and it sits north-northwest on the branch compass. The Great Race gives the Pig twelfth place for the most human reason on the whole list. It got hungry partway across, stopped to eat, then fell asleep, and the Jade Emperor was about to close the count when it finally turned up. Coming last carries no penalty in the cycle. The Pig simply ends it, and the following year the Rat starts everything again.
The element over the animal turns 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. 1995 was a Wood Pig and 2019 an Earth Pig, while the branch kept its fixed Water underneath. 2031 will be a Metal Pig. The animal is bound up with household prosperity in Chinese culture, and the writing carries the same idea: 家 (jiā), the word for home, is a pig drawn under a roof.
- 猪 · zhū
- 12 of 12
- Water
- Yin
- 2, 5, 8
- 1, 7
- Yellow, Grey, Brown, Gold
- Hydrangea, Daisy
- East, Southwest
- Scorpio — unrelated systems, see below
Pig years, and the date each one starts
1935
from 4 Feb
1947
from 22 Jan
1959
from 8 Feb
1971
from 27 Jan
1983
from 13 Feb
1995
from 31 Jan
2007
from 18 Feb
2019
from 5 Feb
2031
from 23 Jan
2043
from 10 Feb
Each pig year runs from the date shown until the day before the next lunar new year. Born on 10 January 2019? You are not a pig; 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 pig people
Chinese astrology reads Pig-year people as generous without keeping accounts. Diligence leads most descriptions, along with an ability to concentrate on one thing for a long stretch and a calm that holds when something goes wrong. The tradition credits the sign with handling trouble carefully rather than quickly. Sincerity is the quality every source names, and it is meant plainly: a Pig in these readings does not suspect other people of working an angle, because it does not work in angles itself.
That sincerity is also the stated weakness. Sources say a Pig never suspects trickery and is therefore easy to fool, a line older texts repeat with something close to sympathy. Impatience appears too, which sits awkwardly beside the concentration but is on every list. The most concrete complaint concerns money. The tradition holds that the Pig is lucky with it and poor at managing it, spending freely on comfort and on other people. It is a sketch attached to a branch, not a claim about anyone born in 1983.
Why 2, 5, 8
The Pig's published set is 2, 5 and 8, with 1 and 7 to avoid. 8 is the one anybody can account for. 八 (bā) sits a tone away from 發 (fā), to prosper, which is why it appears on most of the twelve lists and why number plates full of eights sell at auction in China. 2 has a general claim rather than a Pig-specific one, resting on the saying 好事成双 (hǎo shì chéng shuāng), good things come in pairs. For 5 no source gives a reason at all.
The avoid list is the more interesting half. 一 (yī) is usually read as neither auspicious nor inauspicious, with a suggestion of being alone, and 七 (qī) is genuinely two-sided in Chinese, echoing 起 (qǐ), to rise, and 欺 (qī), to deceive. The Pig is told to keep clear of both without explanation. The He Tu (河图) chart pairs Water with 1 and 6, and Water is the Pig's fixed element, so that chart would put 1 on the opposite side. The lists disagree with each other as well: chinesenewyear.net drops all three lucky numbers and gives 4 and 9 instead, then calls 2 unlucky.
Lucky
2 5 8
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.
Pig compatibility
Pig at work and in love
Pig — work and money
Traditional career lists for the Pig run through education, art, music, catering, fashion and the beauty trades, with transport added on. What holds that mix together is comfort, since most of it is work that makes life pleasanter for somebody else. Teaching recurs in every version, matched to the sign's patience rather than to any claim about brilliance. The tradition also says a Pig does well financially whatever the field, which is folklore attached to a branch and not a forecast about earnings.
The warnings all run to trust. A sign described as unable to imagine bad faith is placed badly in negotiation, competitive sales, or anywhere the other party is expected to misrepresent things. Older readings add that the Pig works hard and then undersells the result, letting quicker colleagues describe it first. What the same texts praise is stamina on long projects, the sort that need somebody still interested in month nine when the novelty has gone.
Pig — love and family
Chinese astrology reads the Pig as easy to love and slow to complain. Traditional descriptions have the sign giving generously and asking for very little back, then absorbing an imbalance for years rather than raising it. Sincerity is once again both the strength and the exposure. What the readings say a Pig wants is uncomplicated: somebody present, honest, and not playing a game it has no way of seeing.
The Pig's trine (三合) holds the Rabbit and the Goat, 亥 with 卯 and 未, three branches set four apart around the twelve. Its clash (六冲) is the Snake, 亥 against 巳, six places away and so directly opposite. That pairing also sets water against fire, since 亥 is a water branch and 巳 a fire one, making it one of the sharper elemental oppositions in the set. The separate 六合 harmony joins 亥 with 寅, the Pig and the Tiger, which is why the Tiger shows up on compatibility lists the trine cannot explain.
The Scorpio question
Charts that pair the pig with Scorpio are matching the pig'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 Pig — frequently asked
2, 5 and 8, with 1 and 7 to avoid. Only 8 has a reason anyone publishes: 八 (bā) is close to 發 (fā), to prosper. Sources disagree badly for this sign, though. chinesenewyear.net drops all three and gives 4 and 9 instead, and moves 2 to the unlucky side.
1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019, 2031 and 2043, twelve years apart.
Because the animal stands for wealth and plenty in Chinese zodiac culture, so the container for saved money gets made in its shape. The association runs into the writing system itself: 家 (jiā), the character for home or family, is the sign for pig placed under a roof, from the centuries when livestock lived alongside the household.
Tradition says the reverse. Your own animal's year is your 本命年 (běn mìng nián), it arrives every twelve years, and it is counted as a year to be careful in rather than a fortunate one. Wearing red for its full length is the usual countermeasure. 2031 is a Metal Pig year, and Metal is 金 (jīn), gold, so it also gets called a Golden Pig year. No year has a measurable effect on anything.
Look up the lunar new year date for your birth year before answering. Someone born on 20 January 2019 is a Dog rather than a Pig, because the Pig year did not start until 5 February that year. The boundary moves between 21 January and 20 February, so every January birthday and most early-February ones need checking.