One date · one exact year boundary
Chinese zodiac year calculator
Find the animal, stem, phase and polarity carried by a birth date. The result turns on Chinese New Year—not January 1—and names the exact interval used.
Your Chinese zodiac year
1999
Yin Earth Rabbit
Position 16 of 60 · Open the full Yin Earth Rabbit reference →
Read the result in layers
The animal is only half the year name
The Earthly Branch supplies the familiar animal. The Heavenly Stem supplies a phase and polarity. Together they form one of sixty valid year pillars.
- 01Boundary
Chinese New Year decides which civil-year label applies to the date.
- 02Branch
One of twelve branches supplies the animal and its fixed cycle position.
- 03Stem
One of ten stems supplies Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal or Water in Yang or Yin form.
The calculation, line by line
How one date becomes a stem–branch year
The calculator makes two decisions in order: first it locates the date inside a Chinese New Year interval, then it places that year on the repeating sixty-position stem–branch cycle.
- 01
Find that civil year's Chinese New Year
The boundary is the first day of the first lunar month, not 1 January.
- 02
Choose the zodiac year interval
A date before the boundary stays in the previous zodiac year; a date on or after it enters the new one.
- 03
Count from the 1984 Jia‑Zi anchor
1984 is position 1. The year difference is reduced modulo 60, then one is added for the human-readable position.
- 04
Read the two synchronized wheels
The position modulo 10 selects the Heavenly Stem; modulo 12 selects the Earthly Branch and animal.
Your worked calculation
16 February 1999
- Boundary test
- On or after 16 February 1999 → use 1999
- Sixty-year position
- ((1999 − 1984) mod 60) + 1 = 16
- Stem wheel
- Position 6 of 10 → 己 Ji
- Branch wheel
- Position 4 of 12 → 卯 Rabbit
This calculator follows Chinese New Year for the familiar outer-animal label. Four Pillars uses Li Chun for its chart-year boundary, so the full birth-chart tool can briefly show a different year pillar. Read the boundary method.
Boundary questions
What the calculator does—and does not do
Use this result for the Chinese New Year boundary and outer year label. A complete Four Pillars chart applies a different year boundary and adds the month, day and optional hour coordinates.
Does the Chinese zodiac year start on January 1?
No. This calculator changes the popular outer-animal year on Chinese New Year, the first day of the first lunar month. A January or February birthday may still belong to the preceding animal year.
Why do some Four Pillars calculators give another year?
Four Pillars practice normally changes its year pillar at Li Chun, the Start of Spring solar term. Chinese New Year and Li Chun can be days or weeks apart, so the two answers can briefly differ without either calculation being internally inconsistent.
Is the animal the whole Chinese astrology chart?
No. The animal is the Earthly Branch of one year coordinate. A Four Pillars chart also reads month, day and hour pillars, while the year stem supplies phase and polarity.