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

21 January 2004Asia/Shanghai birthplace zoneUTC+08:00 at birthChinese New Year outer yearLi Chun Four Pillars chart

Start with the familiar Goat 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 己 Ji, Yin Earth. 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 癸 Gui: Indirect Wealth because Water is controlled by the Day Master's Earth, with matching polarity.
Month stem 乙 Yi: Seven Killings because Wood controls the Day Master's Earth, with matching 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
癸未
Yin Water Goat
1 February 2003 – 21 January 2004
Goat branch Water phase Year boundary
02Inner · Month
乙丑
Yin Wood Ox
Opens 6 January 2004 at 08:18 (Asia/Shanghai) · Minor Cold (小寒 Xiǎohán)
Ox branch Solar-term months
03Day · Day Master
己亥
Yin Earth Pig
Day stem 己 Ji is the chart's Day Master.
己 Ji 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 2003 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: 癸 Gui · Yin Water
Earthly Branch: 未 Wei (Goat)
Five phase: Water
Polarity: Yin
Zodiac-year dates: 1 February 2003 – 21 January 2004

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
癸未
Yin Water Goat
Stem
癸 Gui · Yin Water
Branch
未 Wei · Goat
To Day Master
偏财 Indirect Wealth
Turns at Li Chun for the Four Pillars chart.
02Month pillar月柱
乙丑
Yin Wood Ox
Stem
乙 Yi · Yin Wood
Branch
丑 Chou · Ox
To Day Master
七杀 Seven Killings
Opened by Minor Cold.
03Day pillar日柱
己亥
Yin Earth Pig
Stem
己 Ji · Yin Earth
Branch
亥 Hai · Pig
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.

己 Ji 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: 正印 Direct ResourceFire generates the Day Master; the polarities are different.

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未 Goat
Six Harmony 六合 Shared Three Meeting group 三会 — Snake · Horse · Goat → summer / Fire
02Month pillar丑 Ox
Six Harm 六害
03Day pillar亥 Pig
No named fixed relationship

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.

己

Yin EarthDay Master · 日主

Open this phase

Wood1 / 6
controls the Day Master
Fire0 / 6
Not present in the visible chart
Earth3 / 6
same phase as the Day Master
Metal0 / 6
Not present in the visible chart
Water2 / 6
is controlled by the Day Master

Fire and Metal do 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 8 hidden-stem occurrences. Primary, middle and residual name each stem’s place inside its branch.

Year · Goat 未: 己 Ji · primary · Yin Earth · Friend
丁 Ding · middle · Yin Fire · Indirect Resource
乙 Yi · residual · Yin Wood · Seven Killings
Month · Ox 丑: 己 Ji · primary · Yin Earth · Friend
癸 Gui · middle · Yin Water · Indirect Wealth
辛 Xin · residual · Yin Metal · Eating God
Day · Pig 亥: 壬 Ren · primary · Yang Water · Direct Wealth
甲 Jia · middle · Yang Wood · Direct Officer

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

Fire and Metal appear inside the branches even though absent from the visible-character count.

Explore all twelve branches’ hidden stems →

Cycle year 2003 · 癸未 Gui–Wei

Run another chart

Explore another date

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

Read the Four Pillars