Chinese Astrology for Beginners: Choose Your Chart
Start with your full birth date for an animal year, add your birth time for a BaZi or Zi Wei chart, or choose a date and activity for an almanac search.
Your animal year
Use the Chinese zodiac year calculator for an animal and year element. January and February birthdays need the complete date because Chinese New Year changes the answer.
Your birth chart
BaZi uses four pairs of stems and branches: year, month, day and hour. Zi Wei Dou Shu instead puts stars into twelve palaces using the lunar birth date and two-hour birth period.
A date or a direction
The almanac lists traditional activities by date. Kua and Eight Mansions organize compass directions. Choose the task before entering a birth record: these tools answer different questions.