Chinese Zodiac Signs

The 12 signs in order

The table below gives each sign's Chinese character, earthly branch, fixed element and a handful of recent years. The years are lunar years: someone born in January before Chinese New Year belongs to the previous sign.

“Recent years” shows the latest year at or before the current Horse year, except for the Goat, whose next year is 2027. For the full sequence, use the Chinese zodiac years chart.

Why the animals are in that order

The best-known explanation is a folk tale. The Jade Emperor announces a race; the animals must cross a river. The Rat rides on the Ox and jumps off at the finish, taking first place. The Ox comes second. The other animals finish in an order shaped by speed, help, distraction and luck, depending on the version. In the story, the Cat is left out, and that is why cats and rats are supposed to be enemies.

It is a good story. It is not a historical account of the calendar's invention. The race narrative is a folk explanation, told in many versions, and the details differ by region. The 12-animal set is firmly attested by the Eastern Han dynasty: the philosopher Wang Chong, writing around 80 CE, lists the animals in connection with the earthly branches in his Lunheng. Earlier Qin and Han materials contain related animal lists, but the familiar standard set developed over time rather than arriving in a single decree.

Animals, branches, hours and directions

Each animal is paired with one of the 12 earthly branches (地支, dìzhī). The branch system is older than the animal labels and is used across Chinese astrology, calendars, medicine and feng shui. The animals are a memorable overlay on a technical structure.

The directions are the 12 traditional compass sectors, each 30° wide. The “hours” are double-hours; the Rat hour begins at 23:00 and runs to 01:00. Different traditions handle the exact cusp differently.

What each sign is known for

The short labels below are the traditional archetypes, not fixed personality results. A full reading in Chinese astrology would also consider the year stem, month, day, hour and the relationships between them. The animal is the most famous layer, not the whole system.

How to find your sign

Find your birth year in the table or use the Chinese zodiac calculator. The crucial detail is the cutoff: the animal year begins at Chinese New Year, which falls between January 21 and February 20. If you were born in January or the first half of February, you may belong to the previous year's animal.

Some Chinese astrology traditions, especially BaZi, use a different boundary — the solar term Li Chun, “Start of Spring,” usually around February 4 — because they work from the solar year rather than the lunar year. That is one reason two sources can give different answers for a birthday near the cusp. The calculator on this site uses Chinese New Year, the convention most people mean when they ask for their “Chinese zodiac sign,” and states the cutoff in the result.

Three things the zodiac is not

1. It is not a list of 12 personality types. The animal is one recurring label in a much larger system. Birth year alone does not determine character, and the traditional system is not a validated personality test.
2. It is not a moral ranking. The Rat is not “bad” because it is first, and the Pig is not “lazy” because it is last. Those readings are cultural shorthand, and they vary between Chinese and English-language traditions.
3. It is not the same as Western sun-sign astrology. Western sun-sign astrology uses the sun's position in the tropical zodiac at birth; the Chinese system uses a lunisolar calendar, stems, branches and elements. The two systems do not map cleanly onto each other.

Sources and further reading