Last updated: 4 November 2026
My Zodiac Guide is an independent reference and reading service for the Chinese zodiac. It exists because most zodiac sites stop where the interesting part begins: they tell you your animal and leave out the element, the polarity, the year boundary and the reason any of it matters.
What this site actually does
Three things, in this order:
- It explains the system accurately — the twelve branches, the ten stems, the sixty-year cycle, the five elements (五行, Wu Xing), and how the year boundaries work.
- It gives you a reading grounded in that system, not a personality list you could have got from any horoscope app.
- It tells you plainly what the tradition does and does not claim, so you can decide how much weight to give it.
How we calculate — and where the ambiguity is
Chinese zodiac years do not begin on 1 January. Two conventions are in circulation and they disagree for up to eight weeks each year:
- Lichun (立春), the solar term that opens spring on 3–5 February. Traditional almanacs and most practitioners count the year from this moment.
- Lunar New Year, the new moon between 21 January and 20 February. This is the boundary most consumer sites use.
Anyone born between those two dates has two defensible answers. Our calculator shows both, labels which is which, and never silently picks one.
The Lichun instants we publish are computed from the sun’s apparent longitude and land within about ten minutes of published almanac values; Chinese New Year dates come from a standard lunar calendar conversion. Our year table is generated and checked against known dates rather than typed by hand. If you find a date you believe is wrong, tell us — we will check it and correct the page with a note.
What we refuse to do
Four things, because getting them wrong would make everything else worthless:
- We do not predict events. A reading describes a temperament and a traditional framing. It does not know what will happen to you.
- We do not give medical, legal or financial advice, and we do not dress any of those up as zodiac guidance.
- We do not sell fear. Tai Sui and Ben Ming Nian are described as what they are — scheduling conventions and cultural customs — not as threats that a product can neutralise.
- We do not invent people. There are no fabricated testimonials, no stock-photo experts, and no invented customer numbers on this site.
Who we are
A small independent editorial team. We are not a temple, a professional association, or a licensed practitioner body, and we do not claim to be. What we claim is care with sources: the calendar mathematics is computed and validated, the interpretive material follows documented tradition, and where a practice is regional or contested we say so instead of flattening it into one confident answer.
Corrections and contact
If something is wrong — a date, a translation, a relationship between two signs — write to support@myzodiacguide.com with the page and the correction. Corrections are published, not quietly edited.