Ancient Eighteen Flying Stars
Chinese Zodiac Years Chart: 12 Signs by Birth Year
Find your Chinese zodiac animal by birth year in a 1924–2035 chart. See all 12 signs in order and verify January or February birthdays by exact date.
Direct answer
The Chinese zodiac follows a 12-year cycle tied to the twelve Earthly Branches. Find the Gregorian birth year in the chart below to get a candidate annual animal. If you were born in January or February, verify the full birth date against the source’s year boundary before treating that animal as final: common public lists often change at Lunar New Year, while some named chart methods use Li Chun. Destin Field uses Li Chun for its birth-year stem and branch, but this page remains a year-table guide rather than a chart calculator.
How to read it
Each animal returns every twelve years in the fixed order Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. The table groups Gregorian year numbers from 1924 through 2035 so you can locate the repeating branch quickly.
A four-digit year is only a first lookup. Traditional years do not universally change on January 1. Someone born near the beginning of a Gregorian year may still belong to the preceding animal under a Lunar-New-Year convention, or may cross earlier under a method that uses Li Chun.
When two pages disagree, keep the exact local birth date and ask which boundary each page applies. Do not combine two animals into a cusp. A boundary is a change point, and two different conventions can return two internally consistent labels for the same date.
The annual animal is the animal attached to the year’s Earthly Branch. A full stem-branch year also includes a Heavenly Stem, which is why people born under the same animal can have different year elements. The annual label is not a complete Four Pillars or Zi Wei Dou Shu chart.
The most stable shared meaning is calendrical: each animal names an Earthly Branch and a place in the repeating year cycle. Art and popular traditions add symbolic associations, but personality lists vary by time, region, and source. This table does not treat those associations as measured traits or a verdict about destiny.
Destin Field uses the recorded local date, birth time, birthplace, calendar conversion, and documented Eighteen Flying Stars rules to build a twelve-palace chart. Use this years chart for calendar orientation, then use the free chart only if you want that separate twelve-palace calculation.
Chinese zodiac years from 1924 to 2035
Rat years
1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020, 2032
Ox years
1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009, 2021, 2033
Tiger years
1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010, 2022, 2034
Rabbit years
1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011, 2023, 2035
Dragon years
1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012, 2024
Snake years
1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013, 2025
Horse years
1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014, 2026
Goat years
1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015, 2027
Monkey years
1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016, 2028
Rooster years
1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017, 2029
Dog years
1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018, 2030
Pig years
1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019, 2031
Example
The table lists 1990 under Horse. That is the candidate annual animal for the Gregorian year. A person born in January or February 1990 must still compare the exact birthday with the boundary used by the source before accepting Horse rather than the preceding Snake year.
Common misunderstandings
- A zodiac year does not universally begin on January 1.
- Being born near a boundary does not create a blended Chinese zodiac cusp.
- An annual animal does not prove personality, compatibility, health, wealth, luck, or a future event.
Reading boundary
This table is a cultural calendar reference, not a personality test or prediction. Verify the year boundary for January and February births before using an annual animal label.
Questions people ask
What are the 12 Chinese zodiac signs in order?
Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. These are annual Earthly Branch animal labels, not the twelve palaces of a Zi Wei Dou Shu chart.
What do the 12 Chinese zodiac signs mean?
Their shared historical function is calendrical: each animal identifies one Earthly Branch and one position in the repeating cycle. Symbolic and personality associations vary across periods and sources, so they are cultural interpretations rather than measured traits.
What is my Chinese zodiac sign by birth year?
Find the Gregorian year in the twelve-animal list, then verify the exact date if the birthday is in January or February. The result depends on the boundary used by the source.
Why is my Chinese zodiac different on another website?
The other page may change years on January 1, Lunar New Year, or Li Chun. Compare the declared year boundary before comparing meanings.
Does the Chinese zodiac repeat every 12 years?
The animal and Earthly Branch repeat every twelve years. The complete stem-branch name repeats every sixty years because the Heavenly Stem also changes.
Is 2026 a Horse year?
The year table associates 2026 with Horse. The exact start date still depends on whether a source uses Lunar New Year or Li Chun.
Does Destin Field calculate my annual zodiac animal?
The free chart calculates a separate Eighteen Flying Stars twelve-palace chart. It determines a year stem and branch using its documented Li Chun boundary, but it is not presented as a simple zodiac-animal calculator.
Editorial record
Research sources
Chart positions are calculated from documented rules. The written interpretation explains those positions in modern language. A reply from the site owner is a separate human opinion; neither is presented as a quotation from the historical texts.
- System
- Textual Reconstruction of the Ancient Eighteen Flying Stars System
- Author
- Yilong Cheng
- Source review
- Destin Field source review
- Updated
- Wikisource — Purple Star Astrology, Xu Daozang edition
- Chinese Text Project — Purple Star Astrology, Volume One
- Historical edition — Complete Fine Manuscript of the Eighteen Flying Stars Purple Star Astrology, ISBN 9789866171680 (translated bibliographic title, not the Destin Field system name)
- Hong Kong Observatory — The 12-Year Animal Cycle
- Hong Kong Observatory — Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Set of twelve zodiac animals
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