Chinese zodiac
Rat
Rat — Zi, the 1st 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.
The Rat opens the cycle, and its double hour straddles midnight, which is why folk reckoning and most Chinese fortune-tellers begin the new day at 23:00, though the official calendar begins it at midnight. The usual story for the order is a race called by the Jade Emperor; in the version most often told, the Rat crosses the river on the Ox's back and jumps down first at the finish.
The Rat's earthly branch
The branch, Zi (子), is older than the Rat 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
- Zi 子The 1st of twelve. The animal is written 鼠.
- Polarity
- YangPaired only with the yang stems, so every Rat year starts in an even-numbered calendar year.
- Element of the branch
- WaterThe Rat's own, the same every year. The element in the table below belongs to the year.
- Double hour
- 23:00–01:00Read 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 December 2026At Daxue, Major Snow, when the sun reaches 255°. Beijing time, that has been 6, 7 or 8 December in every year from 1920 to 2026.
- Bearing
- 0°Due north.
- Triad
- Rat, Dragon, MonkeyThe three branches four apart, which the tradition groups under Water.
- Opposite
- HorseSix 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 Rat does not begin on 1 January. In 2020 it began on 25 January. A baby born on 1 January 2020 — before that date — would be a Pig, not a Rat.
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 Rat since 1920
| Year | Began on | Element |
|---|---|---|
| 1924 | 5 February | Wood Rat |
| 1936 | 24 January | Fire Rat |
| 1948 | 10 February | Earth Rat |
| 1960 | 28 January | Metal Rat |
| 1972 | 15 February | Water Rat |
| 1984 | 2 February | Wood Rat |
| 1996 | 19 February | Fire Rat |
| 2008 | 7 February | Earth Rat |
| 2020 | 25 January | Metal Rat |
The animal repeats every twelve years; the element repeats every ten, so the same pairing — such as Metal Rat — is sixty years apart.