Chinese Zodiac Calculator
The animal from the BaZi year branch, with zodiac ties, Tai Sui, Nayin and Shensha.
What the animal follows
The Chinese zodiac maps the twelve earthly branches onto twelve animals: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. The animal is decided by one thing only — the branch of the birth year pillar. This page does not read the lunar year off an almanac; it takes the BaZi year pillar, so it uses the same year boundary as the BaZi Chart.
Start of Spring, not lunar new year
The year pillar turns at Start of Spring, not at the lunar new year. In 2026 Start of Spring falls on February 4: born February 3, the animal is still Snake; born February 5, it becomes Horse. The result page prints the year pillar as its stem-branch pair, so a date near the festival is easy to check.
Ties, Tai Sui and Nayin
The result page carries four blocks. Zodiac ties splits into Harmonious matches (Six Combination, Triple Combination and Triple Meeting signs) and Watch for (Six Clash and Six Harm), and each column adds four branch groups worked from the year branch element: Supports you, Same rhythm, Pressures you and Costs you effort. Tai Sui this year checks the year branch against the current year for Encounter, Clash, Harm, Break and Punish; any one of them marks the year Inauspicious, and only a clean run marks it Auspicious. Shensha lists the stars carried by the four pillars, split into Auspicious and Caution, each with its meaning. Nayin gives the Stem-Branch pair and its element for each pillar.
Birth hour and unknown hour
Shensha and Nayin need all four pillars, which is why the form takes a birth hour. When the hour is unknown, selecting Birth hour unknown casts the chart for the Wu hour at 12:00 noon. The animal and the year, month and day pillars stay exactly as they are; only the hour pillar and the stars hanging off it are counted from noon. Everyone born in the same year shares a year pillar, an animal and the same relation tables.
FAQ
Is giving a birth time risky?
A birth moment on its own points to no one: many people share the same two-hour slot, and the pillars and the chart come out the same for all of them. The information worth protecting is ID numbers, home addresses and passwords.
Where is a chart record stored?
A record holds only the values entered in the form. Its result link rebuilds the same chart from that record; no page lists records: the link is the only way back to it and is not shown elsewhere; to keep it from others, do not share it.
Is the zodiac set by the lunar new year?
No. It follows the earthly branch of the BaZi year pillar, which turns at Start of Spring, so a date near the festival is checked against the year pillar printed at the top of the result.
Does the zodiac need a birth city?
No. The animal comes from the earthly branch of the year pillar, and that branch depends only on the birth date and where Start of Spring falls. The form takes a birth hour because Shensha and Nayin need all four pillars. The city field exists for the BaZi Chart, where longitude corrects clock time into True Solar Time; this page does not use it.
What is true solar time?
True solar time is local sun-based time corrected by longitude and equation-of-time differences. In plain words: the same clock time can map to slightly different solar time in different cities, and that can affect BaZi boundary judgment.
Do I need to convert birth time to Beijing time?
No. Enter your birth time as it was kept where you were born; no conversion to Beijing time is needed. Classical timing had no concept of “Beijing time”; the two-hour segments of the day were set by the Sun’s position where you were born. BaZi likewise reads the Five Elements and shifts in energy from the positions of the Sun, Moon, and related celestial cycles.
