Is my Chinese zodiac sign just my birth year animal?

The year animal is one branch out of eight characters. A full chart pairs a stem with a branch for the year, month, day and hour — and the day stem, the Day Master, is the one the other three are read against. Most popular Chinese astrology uses only the first of the four.

Why does my sign change around Chinese New Year?

Two boundaries are in common use and they disagree by days or weeks. Many zodiac calendars turn the animal year at Chinese New Year; Four Pillars practice turns the stem-branch year at Li Chun, the start-of-spring solar term in early February. A birth between them carries one label under each convention.

Is this a Four Pillars chart?

Yes. It shows the year, month, day and optional hour pillars, their hidden stems, and the Ten Gods relationships to the Day Master. Visible element counts and hidden-stem occurrences are shown separately.

Why does the month animal depend on my birth time?

The stem-branch months begin at solar terms, which are astronomical events with a time of day, not calendar dates. Li Chun 2021 occurred at 22:58 China Standard Time on 3 February; the chart places that instant on the selected birthplace zone's clock. A fixed offset can be entered instead.

What is the Day Master?

The stem of the day pillar. In Four Pillars it stands for the person, and every other character in the chart is read by how it relates to that one phase — whether it generates it, is generated by it, controls it, or is controlled by it.

Calculated chart · four time scales

Your layered profile

27 January 1998Asia/Shanghai birthplace zoneUTC+08:00 at birthChinese New Year outer yearLi Chun Four Pillars chart

Start with the familiar Ox year, then read inward through month, day and hour. Every coordinate below opens into the guide that explains it.

年 · 月 · 日 · 時Year, month, day and hour nested in one moment

Start with your Day Master and chart relationships

Your shown Day Master is 甲 Jia, Yang Wood. It is the day stem against which the chart names other stems. Without a birth time, a 23:00–23:59 birth may move the day pillar under this site's late-Rat convention.

Year stem 丁 Ding: Hurting Officer because Fire is generated by the Day Master's Wood, with different polarity.
Month stem 癸 Gui: Direct Resource because Water generates the Day Master's Wood, with different polarity.

Read all four pillars → Then open the stems inside each branch →

Four coordinates · one moment

Your chart at a glance

The familiar zodiac year is shown first. Month, day and hour then place the same birth inside progressively smaller cycles.

01Outer · Chinese zodiac year
丁丑
Yin Fire Ox
7 February 1997 – 27 January 1998
Ox branch Fire phase Year boundary
02Inner · Month
癸丑
Yin Water Ox
Opens 5 January 1998 at 21:18 (Asia/Shanghai) · Minor Cold (小寒 Xiǎohán)
Ox branch Solar-term months
03Day · Day Master
甲戌
Yang Wood Dog
Day stem 甲 Jia is the chart's Day Master.
甲 Jia How Ten Gods are named
04Secret · Hour
—
Time not supplied
Use a local birth time to calculate the fourth pillar.
Add a birth time Double-hour map

Outer-year record

How 1997 gets its name

The year name joins one Heavenly Stem to one Earthly Branch. Open any underlined value to follow that coordinate into the reference.

Heavenly Stem: 丁 Ding · Yin Fire
Earthly Branch: 丑 Chou (Ox)
Five phase: Fire
Polarity: Yin
Zodiac-year dates: 7 February 1997 – 27 January 1998

Four Pillars · 四柱

The chart beneath the animal labels

Each column joins a Heavenly Stem above an Earthly Branch below. The relation line names how each visible stem stands to the Day Master.

01Year pillar年柱
丁丑
Yin Fire Ox
Stem
丁 Ding · Yin Fire
Branch
丑 Chou · Ox
To Day Master
伤官 Hurting Officer
Turns at Li Chun for the Four Pillars chart.
02Month pillar月柱
癸丑
Yin Water Ox
Stem
癸 Gui · Yin Water
Branch
丑 Chou · Ox
To Day Master
正印 Direct Resource
Opened by Minor Cold.
03Day pillar日柱
甲戌
Yang Wood Dog
Stem
甲 Jia · Yang Wood
Branch
戌 Xu · Dog
To Day Master
日主 Day Master
The reference stem for the rest of the chart.
04Hour pillar時柱
Time not supplied
Add a birth time
A local birth time is required.

甲 Jia is the Day Master. It is the reference used to name the chart’s Ten Gods relationships. Read the relationship rule →

Current cycle · 流年

2026 annual pillar

流年 means the running year. Its stem is read against the Day Master, and its branch is compared with each branch in the natal chart.

Running year: 丙午 Yang Fire Horse
Li Chun boundary: 4 February 2026
Annual stem: 丙 Bing · Yang Fire
Annual stem to Day Master: 食神 Eating GodFire is generated by the Day Master; the polarities are same.

午 Wu · Horse

How the annual Horse meets your natal branches

A shared three-branch group is named as a shared group; two branches alone do not complete the full group.

01Year pillar丑 Ox
Six Harm 六害
02Month pillar丑 Ox
Six Harm 六害
03Day pillar戌 Dog
Shared Three Harmony group 三合 — Tiger · Horse · Dog → Fire

Visible phase balance

What this chart is made of

Each pillar carries a phase in its stem and another in its branch. The 6 visible characters below are the first layer a reading compares with the Day Master.

甲

Yang WoodDay Master · 日主

Open this phase

Wood1 / 6
same phase as the Day Master
Fire1 / 6
is generated by the Day Master
Earth3 / 6
is controlled by the Day Master
Metal0 / 6
Not present in the visible chart
Water1 / 6
generates the Day Master

Metal does not appear in these 6 visible characters. Add a birth time to include the hour’s two characters in this count. See how all five phases relate

Hidden stems inside your chart

Your 3 calculated branches contain 9 hidden-stem occurrences. Primary, middle and residual name each stem’s place inside its branch.

Year · Ox 丑: 己 Ji · primary · Yin Earth · Direct Wealth
癸 Gui · middle · Yin Water · Direct Resource
辛 Xin · residual · Yin Metal · Direct Officer
Month · Ox 丑: 己 Ji · primary · Yin Earth · Direct Wealth
癸 Gui · middle · Yin Water · Direct Resource
辛 Xin · residual · Yin Metal · Direct Officer
Day · Dog 戌: 戊 Wu · primary · Yang Earth · Indirect Wealth
辛 Xin · middle · Yin Metal · Direct Officer
丁 Ding · residual · Yin Fire · Hurting Officer

Wood 0 · Fire 1 · Earth 3 · Metal 3 · Water 2. These are occurrences inside branches, counted separately from the visible characters; primary, middle and residual are not equal-strength weights.

Metal appears inside the branches even though absent from the visible-character count.

Explore all twelve branches’ hidden stems →

Cycle year 1997 · 丁丑 Ding–Chou

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Explore another date

Change the date or local time and the full result recalculates.

Read the Four Pillars