CHINESE ASTROLOGY SIGNS

Background
The ancient Chinese astronomers called the five major planets by the names of the Five Elements. Venus is Metal (gold); Jupiter is Wood; Mercury is Water; Mars is Fire; Saturn is Earth. The position of the five planets, the sun, the moon, and comets in the sky, and the Chinese zodiac sign at the time a person was born determine the destiny of a person's life according to Chinese astrology. A laborious system of computing one's fate and destiny based on one's birthday and birth hours (known as 紫微斗數) is still used regularly in modern day Chinese astrology. The twenty-eight Chinese constellations (宿 xìu) are quite different from the eighty-eight Western constellations. For example, the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) is known as 斗 dǒu; the belt of Orion is known as 參 shen, or the "Happiness, Fortune, Longevity" trio of demigods. The seven northern constellations are referred to as xúanwǔ (玄武). Xuan Wu is also known as the spirit of the northern sky or the spirit of Water in Taoism belief.

In addition to astrological readings of the heavenly bodies, the stars in the sky form the basis of many fairy tales. For example, the Summer Triangle is the trio of the cowherd (Altair), the weaving maiden fairy (Vega) and the "tai bai" fairy (Deneb). The two forbidden lovers were separated by the silvery river (the Milky Way). Each year on the seventh day of the seventh month in the Chinese calendar, the birds form a bridge across the Milky Way. The cowherd carries their two sons (the two stars on each side of Altair) across the bridge to reunite with their fairy mother. The tai bai fairy acts as the chaperone of these two immortal lovers. See Qi Xi for more versions of this story.

The Binary 60 Year cycle (Yin Yang)
There is a binary Yin Yang cycle, which enlarges the 5 element cyle to a cycle of ten (seen below). Even years are yang, odd years are yin. Since the zodiac animal cycle of 12 is divisible by two, every zodiac can only occur in either yin or yang: the dragon is always yang, the snake is always yin, etc. This combination creates a 60-year cycle, starting with Wood Rat and ending with Water Pig. The current cycle began in the year 1984.

Five Elements
The Yin or Yang is broken down into Five Elements ( Water, Wood, Fire, Metal (Gold), Earth) on top of the cycle of animals. These are modifiers and effect the characteristics of each of the 12 signs. Each element has features that apply to both years and the animals. Each of the 12 animals are governed by an element plus a Yin Yang Direction. Divided into 4 groups

Water
The North
Communication
Intuition
Sensitivity
'Governs'
Rat, Ox, Pig

Wood
The East
Creativity
Nurturing
Growth
'Governs'
Tiger, Hare, Dragon

Fire
The South
Passion
Intelligence
Movement
'Governs'
Snake, Horse, Goat

Metal (gold)
The West
Useful
Dependable
Strong
'Governs'
Monkey, Rooster, Dog

Earth
The Center
Balance
Foundations
Reliability

Additionally there is Earth which does not govern over any animals and is the central balance of all elements. It also can lend qualities to all 12 animals as well.

The elements are also associated with colours. The traditional correspondences are green to Wood, red to Fire, brown to Earth, white to Metal, and black to Water. Some websites denote the years by the colour and zodiac sign (as opposed to animal sign and element). See [1]. (Notice the title "Green (Wooden) Chicken Year".)

The Twelve animals
Each individual personality is is associated with an animal which represents it. This is where many Chinese Astrology descriptions in western society draw solely from. Each year in the 60 year cycle contains twelve animals, each with five possible elements, which distinctively variate the base animal's personality which equals to 60 possible combinations.

The Twelve Zodiac Animals
rat
ox
tiger
rabbit (or hare)
dragon
snake
horse
goat (or sheep)
monkey
rooster
dog
pig (or boar)

Inner Animals and Secret animals
It is common misconception that there are only the singular animal assigned by year. These yearly cycles represent what others percieve you as being, while a person might appear to be a Dragon they might actually be a Snake internally and an Ox secretively. Combined with 5 elements makes for 8640 combinations (5 elements, 12 animals, 12 months, 12 times of day) The inner animal is assigned by the month of birth. This dictates your own love life and inner persona and is critical to understand and know to properly calculate compatibility with other signs. It may be considered what the individual wishes to become, or believes to be their true self. The secret animal is determed by exact time of birth and is your own true sign with your personality is based in. It is important to compensate for daylight savings or any clock adjustment performed by your country as it is mapped according to the sun's location and not the local time.

These are critical for the proper use of Chinese astrology. Many western displays of the Chinese zodiac improperly omit these critical components as well as the elements for easier consumption and understanding. Chinese Astrology is deeply rooted in mathematics and binary.

The Months
The Twelve animals also apply to the lunar months. The month born effects a persons inner animal as stated above.

January - Rat
February - Ox
March - Tiger
April - Rabbit
May - Dragon
June - Snake
July - Horse
August - Sheep
September - Monkey
October - Rooster
November - Dog
December - Pig

The Hours
The Chinese zodiac is also used to label times of day, with each sign corresponding to a "large-hour" or shichen , which is a two-hour period. (24 divided by 12 animals) The large hour a person is born is their secretive animal as stated above.

The following hours are in Beijing local time (UTC+8).

23:00 - 01:00: rat
01:00 - 03:00: ox
03:00 - 05:00: tiger
05:00 - 07:00: rabbit
07:00 - 09:00: dragon
09:00 - 11:00: snake
11:00 - 13:00: horse
13:00 - 15:00: goat
15:00 - 17:00: monkey
17:00 - 19:00: rooster
19:00 - 21:00: dog
21:00 - 23:00: pig

Origin Stories
The 12 Zodiac animal signs (shengxiao) are, in order, the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep (or goat), monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. There are many legends to explain the beginning of the zodiac (see Origins of the Chinese Zodiac). One of the most popular reads, in summarized form, as follows:

The rat was given the task of inviting the animals to report to the Jade Emperor to be selected for the zodiac signs. The cat was a good friend of the rat, but the rat forgot to invite him. So the cat vowed to be the rat's natural enemy for ages to come.
Another popular legend has it that a race was used to decide the animals to report to the Jade Emperor:

All the animals lined up on the bank of a river and were given the task of getting to the opposite shore. Their order in the calendar would be set by the order in which the animals managed to reach the other side. The cat wondered how he would get across if he was afraid of water. At the same time, the ox wondered how he would cross with his poor eyesight. The calculating rat suggested that he and the cat jump onto the ox's back and guide him across. The ox was steady and hard-working so that he did not notice the commotion on his back. In the meanwhile, the rat snuck up behind the unsuspecting cat and shoved him into the water. Just as the ox came ashore, the rat jumped off and finished the race first. The lazy pig came to the far shore in twelfth place. And so, the rat got the first year named after him, the ox got the second year, and the pig ended up as the last year in the cycle. The cat finished too late (thirteenth) to win any place in the calendar, and vowed to be the enemy of the rat forevermore.
Some versions of the tale say that the cattle nominated a water buffalo to represent them because he was more proficient at water. The trade was acceptable because both animals are members of the family of bovines.

Another version of the tale expands the race. The route ran through a forest, over ranges of plains and grasslands, and along a stream, before finally crossing a lake to the destination town.

Yet another variation tells of two different races. The first involved all the animals, in two divisions to avoid the fast animals dominating the top, and the top six in each division would "make the cut" for a second round, which would then determine the order of placement of the animals in the zodiac. This format is rather like the one that the National Football League uses to determine its playoff teams (six from each conference).

Interestingly, the cat does make it into the Vietnamese Zodiac, in place of the rabbit (see below).

The Lunisolar Calender
Since the (traditional) Chinese zodiac follows the (lunisolar) Chinese calendar, the switch over date for the zodiac signs is the Chinese New Year, not January 1 as in the Gregorian calendar. Therefore, a person who was born in January or early February may have the sign of the previous year. For example, 1990 was the year of the horse, but anyone born from January 1 to January 26, 1990 was born in the Year of the Snake (the sign of the previous year), because the 1990 Year of the Horse began on January 27, 1990. There are many online sign calculators which share the same JavaScript (from this website [2]) that will give a person the wrong sign if he/she was born in January or early February.

There are some newer astrological texts which follow the Chinese Agricultural Calendar (the jie qi), and thus place the changeover of zodiac signs at the solar term li chun (beginning of Spring), at solar longitude 315 degrees. (See Chinese calendar)

CHINESE ASTROLOGY SIGNS

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