Twelve animals, twelve years, one loop. Most people know their animal and nothing else, which is like knowing your surname and stopping there. This page is the map: what the cycle is, how the order was decided, and where each sign sits in it.
The twelve signs
Rat 鼠23:00-01:00 · 1 of 12
Ox 牛01:00-03:00 · 2 of 12
Tiger 虎03:00-05:00 · 3 of 12
Rabbit 兔05:00-07:00 · 4 of 12
Dragon 龙07:00-09:00 · 5 of 12
Snake 蛇09:00-11:00 · 6 of 12
Horse 马11:00-13:00 · 7 of 12
Goat 羊13:00-15:00 · 8 of 12
Monkey 猴15:00-17:00 · 9 of 12
Rooster 鸡17:00-19:00 · 10 of 12
Dog 狗19:00-21:00 · 11 of 12
Pig 猪21:00-23:00 · 12 of 12How the cycle works
The zodiac runs on two counters at once. Twelve earthly branches (地支) carry the animals; ten heavenly stems (天干) carry the five elements in yang and yin pairs. Both advance together, so the pattern only repeats every sixty years. That is the sexagenary cycle, and it is why 1984 and 2044 are both Wood Rat years while 2024 is a Wood Dragon.
| Sign | # | Traditional hours | Recent years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rat 鼠 | 1 | 23:00-01:00 | 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020, 2032 |
| Ox 牛 | 2 | 01:00-03:00 | 1985, 1997, 2009, 2021, 2033 |
| Tiger 虎 | 3 | 03:00-05:00 | 1986, 1998, 2010, 2022, 2034 |
| Rabbit 兔 | 4 | 05:00-07:00 | 1987, 1999, 2011, 2023, 2035 |
| Dragon 龙 | 5 | 07:00-09:00 | 1988, 2000, 2012, 2024, 2036 |
| Snake 蛇 | 6 | 09:00-11:00 | 1989, 2001, 2013, 2025, 2037 |
| Horse 马 | 7 | 11:00-13:00 | 1990, 2002, 2014, 2026, 2038 |
| Goat 羊 | 8 | 13:00-15:00 | 1991, 2003, 2015, 2027, 2039 |
| Monkey 猴 | 9 | 15:00-17:00 | 1992, 2004, 2016, 2028, 2040 |
| Rooster 鸡 | 10 | 17:00-19:00 | 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017, 2029 |
| Dog 狗 | 11 | 19:00-21:00 | 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018, 2030 |
| Pig 猪 | 12 | 21:00-23:00 | 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019, 2031 |
Why the order is what it is
The Great Race story explains the sequence, and every version differs in the details. The Rat rides the Ox and jumps off at the bank. The Ox arrives second, the Tiger third. The Dragon stops to make rain. The Dog stops to play. The Pig eats and sleeps and comes last. Nobody treats the story as doctrine, and Chinese almanacs do not need it: the order follows the branches, and the branches follow the calendar.
Each animal also owns a double hour of the day. Rat is 23:00 to 01:00, Ox 01:00 to 03:00, and so on in order, which is why the sign is sometimes called your birth hour as well as your birth year.
Find your own sign
Enter a date and the calculator gives you the animal, element and polarity, plus both answers if your birthday sits in the days where the Lichun and Lunar New Year conventions disagree. The years chart covers 1924 to 2043 in one table if you prefer to look it up by hand.
Questions
How do I know my Chinese zodiac sign if I was born in January?
You probably belong to the previous animal. The Chinese year starts at Lichun, around 3 to 5 February, so anyone born in January or early February needs the exact date and sometimes the hour. The calculator handles the boundary and shows both conventions when they disagree.
Is my sign the animal for my birth year or my birth hour?
Both exist. The year animal is what people mean by “my sign”. The hour animal comes from the same twelve branches applied to the two-hour period you were born in, and it belongs to a fuller reading than a single zodiac profile.
Do the twelve signs include a cat?
No. The Vietnamese cycle replaces the Rabbit with the Cat, which is where most of the confusion comes from. In the Chinese cycle there is no cat, and the folk explanation is that the Rat tricked it out of a place in the race.