What is the Chinese zodiac?
The Chinese zodiac is a twelve-year cycle of animals: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. Each year also carries one of five elements, so a full cycle of animal and element takes sixty years. Your animal comes from your birth year, counted from Lunar New Year.
Twelve animals, five elements
The twelve animals are attached to the twelve earthly branches, an ancient set of counting signs. Zi, the first branch, is the Rat; Hai, the last, is the Pig. The animals turn over once a year, so the Rat returns every twelve years. 1,2
Each year also has one of ten heavenly stems, and the ten stems fall into five pairs, one pair for each element: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Stepping through stems and branches together gives sixty different year names before the first returns, so a Fire Horse year such as 2026 last came in 1966. 2,3
More than a year sign
The birth-year animal is the part most people know, but Chinese fortune-telling also reads the stem and branch of the birth month, day and hour, four pairs in all. Practitioners judge certain combinations harmonious or clashing with others. 2
The animals and the calendar spread to many other countries of East and Southeast Asia. 4
How old it is
The counting signs are very old: late Shang oracle bones, from about 1300 to 1050 BCE, date divinations by days of the sixty-day cycle. Animals were attached to the branches by the Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE) at the latest, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art says the familiar order was settled by the Eastern Han (9–220 CE). 5,6,7,4
The story of a race among the animals, which explains their order, is a folk tale told many ways. It explains the sequence, not the history.
How the machine works it out
Calculated facts only, worked out the same way the machine does it.
- The five elements are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. Each element covers two years in a row, so the same animal and element pair returns every sixty years.
- The machine counts the year from Lunar New Year (Beijing date), not from January 1.
Where the idea comes from
Era by era, with sources. More in the Reading Room.
- Ancientc. 1300–1050 BCELate Shang oracle bones date divinations by the sixty-day stem-and-branch cycle. 5,6
- ClassicalEastern Han, 9–220 CEThe order of the twelve animals is settled; with the stems, the sixty-year cycle counts years in China until the 20th century. 4
- Today2026A bing-wu year, the Fire Horse, began on 17 February 2026. 3
Common misconceptions
“Your animal changes on January 1.” It changes at Lunar New Year, between late January and late February. 1
“The five elements are the same as Western astrology's four.” Different system: wood and metal have no Western equivalent, and the elements belong to the years, not the animals. 2
Questions people ask
What is my Chinese zodiac animal?
The animal of your birth year, counted from Lunar New Year. January and early February birthdays may belong to the year before.
What is my element?
It comes from the last digit of the birth year (in the Chinese year): 0–1 metal, 2–3 water, 4–5 wood, 6–7 fire, 8–9 earth.
Why sixty years?
Ten stems and twelve branches line up again only after sixty steps. 2
Sources
- What year is it today?, Hong Kong Observatory. Read on .
- Heaven Stems and Earth Branches, University of California San Diego (David K. Jordan). Read on .
- Lunar New Year 2026: the Year of the Horse, The University of Sydney. Read on .
- Set of twelve zodiac animals, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Read on .
- Oracle bone collection (Or 7694/1506-2125), British Library. Read on .
- Inscribed Plastron Ping 0063, Museum of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica. Read on .
- Review of Zooarcheology of the 12 Animals of the Chinese Zodiac (ed. Shitara Hiromi), The University of Tokyo, Biblioplaza. Read on .