The zodiac is the everyday name for the year branch. This page lays out the calendar relations of all twelve animals: which Gregorian years belong to each, the minute each year begins, and the six fixed tables that relate the animals to one another. Every number is computed by the same engine, and every lichun instant printed here can be checked against an ephemeris.
Two common errors: changing the animal at New Year, and changing it at the lunar new year. This site changes it at lichun — the instant the sun reaches 315° of ecliptic longitude — and prints that instant to the minute. Note that in 2025 lichun falls on 3 February.
| Year | Year pillar | Lichun (Beijing time) | Animal if born after it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 甲辰 (Jia Chen) | 2024-02-04 16:27 | Dragon |
| 2025 | 乙巳 (Yi Si) | 2025-02-03 22:10 | Snake |
| 2026 | 丙午 (Bing Wu) | 2026-02-04 04:02 | Horse |
| 2027 | 丁未 (Ding Wei) | 2027-02-04 09:46 | Goat |
| 2028 | 戊申 (Wu Shen) | 2028-02-04 15:31 | Monkey |
| 2029 | 己酉 (Ji You) | 2029-02-03 21:20 | Rooster |
| 2030 | 庚戌 (Geng Xu) | 2030-02-04 03:08 | Dog |
The rule: born at or after that instant, you take that year's animal; born earlier, the previous year's. For January and February birthdays the instant matters, not the year.
Open any animal for its full page: the year table, lichun instants, the years it offends the year branch, and its relations to the others.
Each animal recurs twelve times in 144 years. A year missing from the table falls outside the window.
| Animal | Branch | Element | Gregorian years |
|---|---|---|---|
| 子 Rat | 子 | 阳水 | 1900, 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020, 2032 |
| 丑 Ox | 丑 | 阴土 | 1901, 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009, 2021, 2033 |
| 寅 Tiger | 寅 | 阳木 | 1902, 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010, 2022, 2034 |
| 卯 Rabbit | 卯 | 阴木 | 1903, 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011, 2023, 2035 |
| 辰 Dragon | 辰 | 阳土 | 1904, 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012, 2024, 2036 |
| 巳 Snake | 巳 | 阴火 | 1905, 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013, 2025, 2037 |
| 午 Horse | 午 | 阳火 | 1906, 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014, 2026, 2038 |
| 未 Goat | 未 | 阴土 | 1907, 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015, 2027, 2039 |
| 申 Monkey | 申 | 阳金 | 1908, 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016, 2028, 2040 |
| 酉 Rooster | 酉 | 阴金 | 1909, 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017, 2029, 2041 |
| 戌 Dog | 戌 | 阳土 | 1910, 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018, 2030, 2042 |
| 亥 Pig | 亥 | 阴水 | 1911, 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019, 2031, 2043 |
Branch relations are fixed tables: harmony, clash, harm and break each pair one-to-one, while trines and meetings take three branches at a time. This site computes them and stops — no "combination is good, clash is bad" layer is added.
Note that Yin-Hai and Si-Shen appear on this table while also being six-harmony pairs. Schools disagree on whether a pair that already combines should also count as breaking; both are printed here and the divergence is stated rather than resolved.
The tradition groups the relation between your animal and the year branch into five kinds. They can stack — a self-punishing branch in its own year is both "own year" and "punishment". This site publishes the relations only: no fortune reading, and nothing sold to fix them.
| Relation | What it means |
|---|---|
| 值太岁 | your animal is the year branch — ben ming nian |
| 冲太岁 | your branch sits six positions from the year branch |
| 刑太岁 | your branch shares a punishment group with the year branch, or both self-punish |
| 害太岁 | your branch forms a six-harm pair with the year branch |
| 破太岁 | your branch forms a six-break pair with the year branch |
Rat (Clash) · Ox (Harm) · Rabbit (Break) · Horse (Own year+Punishment)
Rat (Harm) · Ox (Clash+Punishment) · Goat (Own year) · Dog (Break+Punishment)
Computed from the fixed tables: each row is this animal's relation to the 2027 year branch (Wei). The year-specific page carries that animal's own year list and lichun instants.
| Animal | Branch | Relation to the 2027 year branch |
|---|---|---|
| 子 Rat | 子 | Harm |
| 丑 Ox | 丑 | Clash + Punishment |
| 寅 Tiger | 寅 | none |
| 卯 Rabbit | 卯 | none |
| 辰 Dragon | 辰 | none |
| 巳 Snake | 巳 | none |
| 午 Horse | 午 | none |
| 未 Goat | 未 | Own year |
| 申 Monkey | 申 | none |
| 酉 Rooster | 酉 | none |
| 戌 Dog | 戌 | Break + Punishment |
| 亥 Pig | 亥 | none |
Year-level pages (twelve month pillars, the instant the year changes over): 2026 · 2027
One page per animal: every fixed-table relation to the other eleven — six harmony, trine, clash, harm, break, punishment — plus a computed 12-row table. No compatibility percentages: relations are lookups, not probabilities.
Rat · Ox · Tiger · Rabbit · Dragon · Snake · Horse · Goat · Monkey · Rooster · Dog · Pig
Enter a birth date, and optionally the time, for an exact answer. The result tells you if you sit on the lichun boundary — which is precisely where most zodiac sites get it wrong.
Every enumerable component of ba zi has its own page here. Each page is computed by the same engine and can be checked item by item — none of it is a personality table.