The Pig closes the cycle, and Chinese culture gives it the most pleasant set of associations in the twelve: plenty, honesty, and a household that has enough. Being last matters here. The Pig arrives after everyone else has finished competing.
The Pig character
Pigs hold 21:00 to 23:00, the hours when the household settles, and the sign is associated with comfort, sincerity and an absence of scheming. You are usually the easiest person in the room to trust, partly because you do not do subtlety. The character 豕, pig, sits under a roof in 家, the word for home, which tells you how the animal was understood: wealth you keep under your own roof.
What the Pig does well
- Generosity that does not keep accounts. You give because giving is easier than managing the alternative.
- You are honest in a way that people find relaxing, since you are not positioning.
- Real capacity for enjoyment, which makes you good company and a decent host.
- Persistence with comfort as the goal: you build stability faster than ambitious signs do.
Where the Pig goes wrong
- Comfort is easy to over-fund. The Pig’s classic warning is indulgence in the things that feel fine.
- You can be taken advantage of, and you often know it and let it continue.
- Avoidance of conflict can look like agreement until you simply do not do the thing.
The five Pig elements
Every sign appears in five versions, one per element, on a sixty-year loop. The element changes the temperament more than the animal does.
| Element | Years | How it reads |
|---|---|---|
| Wood Pig | 1935, 1995, 2055 | The most enterprising Pig. Wood gives the sign direction and a taste for building something lasting. |
| Fire Pig | 1947, 2007 | Warm and sociable, with more edge than the sign usually carries. Fire Pigs push back. |
| Earth Pig | 1959, 2019 | The most grounded and the best at holding wealth. Earth suits this sign particularly well. |
| Metal Pig | 1971, 2031 | Sharper and more disciplined. Metal Pigs keep the generosity and drop the indulgence. |
| Water Pig | 1983, 2043 | The Pig in its element. Intuitive, generous to a fault, and prone to worrying quietly. |
Pig compatibility
The traditional relations put the Pig closest to Tiger (the six-harmony pair) and to Rabbit and Goat in the trine. The Snake sits directly opposite, and the Monkey is the harm relation. None of this decides a relationship. It describes where two people have to work harder, which is more useful than a score.
| Pairing with | Relation | What it usually means |
|---|---|---|
| Rat | — | no formal relationship; behaviour matters more than the chart |
| Ox | — | no formal relationship; behaviour matters more than the chart |
| Tiger | Secret friends · 六合 | the six-harmony pair; easy accord and shared instincts |
| Rabbit | Trine · 三合 | a natural ally; low friction, similar pace |
| Dragon | — | no formal relationship; behaviour matters more than the chart |
| Snake | Clash · 相冲 | directly opposite; strong pull, opposite rhythms |
| Horse | — | no formal relationship; behaviour matters more than the chart |
| Goat | Trine · 三合 | a natural ally; low friction, similar pace |
| Monkey | Harm · 相害 | each reads the other wrong; quiet, lasting friction |
| Rooster | — | no formal relationship; behaviour matters more than the chart |
| Dog | — | no formal relationship; behaviour matters more than the chart |
| Pig | Same animal · 年年相刑 | mirrored strengths, and mirrored blind spots |
For two-way scores and the full matrix, see the compatibility chart.
Pig years
A birth date in January or the first days of February usually belongs to the previous animal, because the Chinese year starts at Lichun rather than on 1 January. Use the calculator when the date is near the boundary.
| Year | Element | Cycle |
|---|---|---|
| 1935 | Wood Yin | 乙亥 |
| 1947 | Fire Yin | 丁亥 |
| 1959 | Earth Yin | 己亥 |
| 1971 | Metal Yin | 辛亥 |
| 1983 | Water Yin | 癸亥 |
| 1995 | Wood Yin | 乙亥 |
| 2007 | Fire Yin | 丁亥 |
| 2019 | Earth Yin | 己亥 |
| 2031 | Metal Yin | 辛亥 |
| 2043 | Water Yin | 癸亥 |
Ben Ming Nian for the Pig
Your Ben Ming Nian (本命年, “native year”) is any year that repeats your animal. For the Pig the next one is 2031, and it runs from Lichun in February 2031 to Lichun in February 2032. The most recent was 2019. Tradition treats the year as one for caution rather than celebrity: red clothing, and in folk practice red string, worn through the year. Nothing about it is required, and nothing about it is dangerous.
The Pig in Chinese culture
The Pig holds 亥, 21:00 to 23:00, when the household was closed for the night and pigs were bedded down. It is the twelfth and last animal, which folk tradition reads as arriving at the feast after the work. The character 豕 sits inside 家, home, under the roof radical, a fossil of the old household economy in which a pig was the family’s stored wealth. Pig imagery means prosperity in festival art; the animal is not an insult the way it is in English.
Questions
What years are the Year of the Pig?
Pig years are 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019, 2031, and next 2043. The zodiac year opens at Lichun in early February, so January birthdays usually belong to the Dog.
Is the Pig an insult in Chinese culture?
No. The animal stands for prosperity and a well-provisioned household, and 豕 sits inside 家, the word for home. The negative reading, laziness or indulgence, is a milder version of the same idea about comfort.
Who is the Pig most compatible with?
The Tiger is the six-harmony partner, and the Rabbit and Goat are trine allies, a combination traditionally described as generous and calm. The Snake is the direct clash and the Monkey the harm relation.