Chinese Zodiac Years Chart, 1924 to 2043

When does the Chinese zodiac year start?

A Chinese zodiac year begins at Li Chun (立春 lì chūn, "spring begins"), the moment the sun reaches ecliptic longitude 315 degrees. That instant lands on February 3, 4, or 5 depending on the year: in 1924 it fell on February 5, in 2025 on February 3, in 2026 on February 4. The zodiac year does not begin on January 1. It also does not begin at Lunar New Year, which follows the new moon and wanders between late January and mid February. The classical sources describe Li Chun as the first of the twenty-four solar terms (節氣 jié qì), the frame the imperial almanac was organized around: the 協紀辨方書 (Xié Jì Biàn Fāng Shū, "Treatise on Harmonizing Times and Distinguishing Directions"), compiled in 1739 for the Qianlong Emperor, builds its date-selection system on exactly this solar-term frame.

The year-pillar rule the chart follows is the Zi Ping (子平) convention of BaZi (八字 bā zì, the Four Pillars), the method modern lineage teachers such as Joey Yap and Master Raymond Lo work in: the year pillar, and with it the zodiac animal, changes at the Li Chun instant, which is published to the minute in China Standard Time. A birth before that minute belongs to the previous year's pillar. That is why every row in the chart carries a date range instead of assuming January 1, and why the boundary dates differ from year to year. If a birthday falls on a boundary date itself, the hour matters: the free BaZi calculator resolves the pillar from the full birth date and time.

How does the 60-year cycle work?

Each year carries a two-character pillar (干支 gān zhī): one of ten Heavenly Stems (天干 tiān gān) paired with one of twelve Earthly Branches (地支 dì zhī). Stems and branches advance together, one step per year, and the pairing repeats after exactly 60 years, the sexagenary cycle (六十甲子 liù shí jiǎ zǐ). The Chinese zodiac years in this chart span two full turns of that wheel: the first opened with 甲子 (Jiǎ Zǐ, the Wood Rat) on February 5, 1924, and the second opened with the same pillar on February 4, 1984. Turning 60 still carries the name 花甲 (huā jiǎ) in Chinese because that is the birthday when a person's own pillar returns.

The element column tracks the year's stem, and it moves in two-year steps: 1984 and 1985 are Wood years, 1986 and 1987 Fire years, then Earth, Metal, and Water before Wood returns. In Wu Xing terms each element arrives once in Yang form and once in Yin form, which is why 1994 is the Yang Wood Dog (甲戌 Jiǎ Xū) while 1995 is the Yin Wood Pig (乙亥 Yǐ Hài). The rolling stem element is not the animal's fixed element: the Dog is fixed Earth in every Dog year, whatever stem the year carries, and a full reading weighs both layers. The year pillar is also only one of four; a written BaZi Premium reading works from the month, day, and hour pillars as well, which no year chart alone can do.

Find your year, then meet your animal's stones

Your row names your animal, and the animal opens the stones. Each of the twelve animals keeps a primary stone and two supporting stones in Crystal Cassandra's pairing notes, matched to the animal's fixed element and polarity. This is a pattern, not a verdict: the pairings are traditional starting points, and each animal's page explains the reasoning stone by stone.

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