Chinese zodiac
Monkey
Monkey — Shen, the 9th of the twelve earthly branches. It comes round every twelve years, each time with the next of the five elements, so the same animal and element meet again every sixty years.
In Japan this branch is read saru, monkey, and the day of the sixty-day cycle that pairs it with metal (kōshin) gave its name to a folk belief whose stones and shrines often carry three monkeys covering their eyes, ears and mouth. The best-known carving of them, over the sacred stable at Nikkō's Tōshō-gū, did most to spread the picture of 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil'; the saying itself is usually traced to a line in Confucius's Analects.
The Monkey's earthly branch
The branch, Shen (申), is older than the Monkey and names more than a year: it is also one of the twelve double hours of the traditional day, a month of the Chinese solar year and a point of the compass.
- Branch
- Shen 申The 9th of twelve. The animal is written 猴.
- Polarity
- YangPaired only with the yang stems, so every Monkey year starts in an even-numbered calendar year.
- Element of the branch
- MetalThe Monkey's own, the same every year. The element in the table below belongs to the year.
- Double hour
- 15:00–17:00Read today off the local clock. Traditionally kept by the sun, so noon fell in the middle of the Horse's double hour.
- Solar month opens
- 7 August 2026At Liqiu, Start of Autumn, when the sun reaches 135°. Beijing time, that has been 7 or 8 August in every year from 1920 to 2026.
- Bearing
- 240°Between south and west, counting clockwise from the Rat at due north.
- Triad
- Rat, Dragon, MonkeyThe three branches four apart, which the tradition groups under Water.
- Opposite
- TigerSix places on: the opposite hour, month and bearing.
The hours, bearings, triads and branch elements are the standard correspondences of the earthly branches. The month dates are worked out here from the sun's position, on the Beijing calendar, for every year from 1920 to 2026. What the solar terms are →
A January or early-February birthday can belong to the year before
The Year of the Monkey does not begin on 1 January. In 2016 it began on 8 February. A baby born on 1 January 2016 — before that date — would be a Goat, not a Monkey.
The new year falls between 21 January and 20 February, and until it arrives the previous animal is still in charge. Each year's own date is in the table below.
Every year of the Monkey since 1920
| Year | Began on | Element |
|---|---|---|
| 1920 | 20 February | Metal Monkey |
| 1932 | 6 February | Water Monkey |
| 1944 | 25 January | Wood Monkey |
| 1956 | 12 February | Fire Monkey |
| 1968 | 30 January | Earth Monkey |
| 1980 | 16 February | Metal Monkey |
| 1992 | 4 February | Water Monkey |
| 2004 | 22 January | Wood Monkey |
| 2016 | 8 February | Fire Monkey |
The animal repeats every twelve years; the element repeats every ten, so the same pairing — such as Fire Monkey — is sixty years apart.