Lucky numbers
5 7 8
Most recent year
2017
Branch position
10
The rooster in the cycle
The Year of the Rooster is the tenth sign of the twelve-year Chinese zodiac cycle, carrying the earthly branch 酉 (yǒu). Rooster years are 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017, 2029 and 2041. The sign's fixed element is Metal and its polarity is yin. Because the zodiac year opens at the lunar new year rather than on 1 January, the exact date matters: the 2017 Rooster year began on 28 January 2017, so a baby born earlier that month belongs to the Monkey.
酉 (yǒu) holds the double-hour from 5pm to 7pm, the stretch of early evening when the working day stops, and it sits due west on the branch compass. In the Great Race the Rooster never swam. It spotted a raft at the riverbank and crossed on it with the Monkey and the Goat, the other two pulling the raft clear of the weeds. Tenth place was what that shared crossing earned it. The Goat came eighth and the Monkey ninth off the same raft, so three of the twelve places were settled by one act of cooperation.
The element riding over the animal turns on a separate 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. 1993 was a Water Rooster and 2017 a Fire Rooster. 2029 will be an Earth Rooster, with the branch keeping its fixed Metal underneath. The animal's name is auspicious in itself: 鸡 (jī), chicken or rooster, differs from 吉 (jí), lucky or auspicious, only in tone, which is part of why roosters appear so often in new year decoration.
- 鸡 · jī
- 10 of 12
- Metal
- Yin
- 5, 7, 8
- 1, 3, 9
- Gold, Brown, Yellow
- Gladiolus, Cockscomb
- South, Southeast
- Virgo — unrelated systems, see below
Rooster years, and the date each one starts
1933
from 26 Jan
1945
from 13 Feb
1957
from 31 Jan
1969
from 17 Feb
1981
from 5 Feb
1993
from 23 Jan
2005
from 9 Feb
2017
from 28 Jan
2029
from 13 Feb
2041
from 1 Feb
Each rooster year runs from the date shown until the day before the next lunar new year. Born on 10 January 2017? You are not a rooster; 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 rooster people
Chinese astrology describes Rooster-year people as visible. Sources lead with hardworking, observant and confident, and read the sign as the one that notices the detail everybody else walked past. Talkative appears on every list, alongside frank, open and honest, and the tradition treats a Rooster's promise as something that gets kept. Punctuality and timekeeping attach to the sign directly, taken from the animal's actual job: the bird that announces the hour whether or not anyone wants to hear it.
The complaints are just as consistent. Roosters are called boastful, and older descriptions say they will narrate their own achievements until the room goes quiet. Expecting to be listened to is named as a fault, as is getting agitated when they are not. Bluntness filed under honesty in one paragraph gets refiled under tactlessness in the next. Chinese astrology also warns that a soft heart leaves the sign easy to take advantage of. That is folklore about a branch, not a claim about anyone born in 1981.
Why 5, 7, 8
Sources give the Rooster 5, 7 and 8, with 1, 3 and 9 on the avoid side. Only one of those has a published reason. 八 (bā) sits a tone away from 發 (fā), to prosper, which is why 8 turns up on most of the twelve lists and why number plates full of eights sell at auction in China. For 5 and 7 no source offers anything Rooster-specific. The general readings are that 五 (wǔ) echoes 吾 (wú), me, and that 七 (qī) echoes 起 (qǐ), to rise, but neither is tied to this branch.
The avoid list is the stranger half. 九 (jiǔ) is a homophone of 久 (jiǔ), long-lasting, and it was the emperor's own number, yet the Rooster is told to keep away from it. Nobody explains the exception. The He Tu (河图) chart, which pairs Metal with 4 and 9, does not rescue it either, since Metal is the Rooster's fixed element and the chart therefore predicts the opposite of what gets published. Lists also disagree with each other. chinesenewyear.net repeats 5, 7 and 8 but swaps the avoid numbers to 2 and 6, and moves the lucky directions from south and southeast to northeast and east.
Lucky
5 7 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.
Rooster compatibility
Rooster at work and in love
Rooster — work and money
The professions traditional lists match to the Rooster are the ones where somebody has to be seen and heard. News broadcasting, sales, public relations, teaching and journalism all appear, along with running a restaurant or a salon. The common thread is an audience. A second cluster runs through surgery, dentistry, soldiering, firefighting and police work, which the tradition attaches to the sign's watchfulness rather than its voice. Farming shows up too, the oldest association of the lot.
What the readings warn about is the same trait seen from the other side. A Rooster who has decided how a job should be done is described as difficult to redirect, and criticism lands badly. Older texts also note a tendency to spend energy on the presentation of work rather than on the work. Roles demanding quiet backroom patience with no recognition attached are what the tradition tells the sign to avoid. This is character sketching stretched over a job list, not employment advice.
Rooster — love and family
Chinese astrology reads the Rooster as loyal and exacting in equal measure. Traditional descriptions have the sign committing early and completely, then holding a partner to a standard it set without ever announcing it. Honesty is the stated strength and the stated problem at once, since this is the sign that says the thing everyone else had agreed to leave alone. What the readings say a Rooster wants is somebody who takes the commitment as seriously as it does.
The Rooster's trine (三合) holds the Ox and the Snake, three branches spaced four apart around the twelve, which classical astrology treats as one matched set. Its clash (六冲) is the Rabbit, 酉 against 卯, six places away and therefore directly opposite on the circle. A separate relationship, the 六合 harmony, joins 酉 with 辰, the Rooster with the Dragon, which is why the Dragon keeps appearing on compatibility lists that have nothing to do with the trine.
The Virgo question
Charts that pair the rooster with Virgo are matching the rooster'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 Rooster — frequently asked
5, 7 and 8, with 1, 3 and 9 listed as unlucky. The 9 is the odd one, because 九 (jiǔ) is a homophone of 久 (jiǔ), long-lasting, and 9 is auspicious almost everywhere else in Chinese culture. No source explains the exception.
1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017, 2029 and 2041, each twelve years after the last.
Because of a pun that runs through Chinese painting. The cock's comb is 冠 (guān), the same character as an official's hat, and 冠 also means first place. A rooster shown beside a cockscomb flower reads as a wish for appointment to office and then promotion. Gladiolus is listed alongside it.
Tradition says the opposite. Your own animal's year is your 本命年 (běn mìng nián), it comes round every twelve years, and it is counted as a year to be careful in rather than a fortunate one. The customary response is to wear red for its whole length, often a belt or socks given by an older relative instead of bought for yourself. No year has any measurable effect on anything, but the custom is real and widely kept.
No, you are a Rooster. The 2018 Dog year did not begin until 16 February, so the whole of that January and half of that February still belonged to the Rooster. Anyone born in the first weeks of a year should look up their birth year's lunar new year date before settling on a sign.