Chinese astrology: the calendar behind the animals
Stems, branches, five elements and twelve animals. How the Chinese calendar counts its years.
About this shelf
Chinese astrology starts from the calendar. A person is placed by the year of birth, and in fuller readings by the month, day and hour as well, each one named with a heavenly stem and an earthly branch. The animal everyone knows is the branch of the birth year; its element comes from the stem.
This shelf explains the counting behind the animals: the 60-year cycle, why the animal year turns at Lunar New Year (or, for some practitioners, at the start of spring), and when the twelve animals settled into their order. It also covers what demographers found when Dragon and Fire Horse years shifted real birth rates.
What you will find here
- How ten stems and twelve branches make a 60-year cycle
- Why a January or February birthday can fall in the previous animal year
- The five elements and how each year gets one
- What birth-rate studies show about Dragon and Fire Horse years
In brief
Chinese astrology is built on the traditional calendar, which names each year with one of twelve animals and one of five elements, so the same pairing returns every 60 years.12
The animals and the calendar spread to many other East and Southeast Asian countries.2
Practitioners read birth year, day and hour together to judge which times suit which activities, and the Reading Room describes these beliefs alongside what historians and demographers have found.3
On this shelf
Coming to this shelf
Questions we are researching now. Each one goes up once every fact has a source.
- Why is my Chinese zodiac animal different in January and February?
- What are the Four Pillars (BaZi)?
- How do the five elements feed and check one another?
- Where did the story of the animals’ race come from?
The systems this shelf explains
The history lives here. The systems themselves, sign by sign and number by number, live on these pages.
Down the midway
Sources for this page
- The University of Sydney: Lunar New Year 2024: What does the Year of the Dragon mean?. Read on · University
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Set of twelve zodiac animals. Read on · Museum
- University of California San Diego (David K. Jordan): Heaven Stems and Earth Branches. Read on · University
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