Chinese calendar · Institutional reference
The twelve-year animal cycle
Hong Kong Observatory
Twelve animals follow the twelve earthly branches. The same branch keeps its animal as the associated stem changes across the full sixty-pair cycle.
Open the source text ↗Where to begin
Compare the branch and animal diagram, then the five Shen-year examples.
Keep in mind
English animal names vary: the introduction uses mouse, while Rat is common elsewhere; goat, sheep and ram can identify the Wei position. Our creative reflection questions are not HKO personality descriptions.