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Chinese zodiac & five-element calculator

Enter a birth date to get the zodiac animal, stem-branch year, element and yin/yang polarity — with the solar-term caveat most sites get wrong.

Birth date

Bazi practice starts the year at Lichun, the solar term around 3–5 February. Popular almanacs start it at Chinese New Year, a lunar date between 21 January and 21 February.

Calculated from the sexagenary cycle: stem = (year − 4) mod 10, branch = (year − 4) mod 12. No lookup tables, no server, no stored data.

Year pillar

Cycle position

Sexagenary number
Stem element / polarity
Branch element
Same pillar returns

Traditional relations

Clash (六冲)
Trine (三合)
Same-animal years

Clash and trine groupings are classical pairings used in almanacs. They describe tradition, not measured effects.

The twelve branches

A full Bazi chart has four pillars — year, month, day and hour — and needs an exact birth time and place. This tool computes the year pillar only, which is the part everyone means by "my Chinese zodiac sign". Read what the other three pillars do →

No account, no tracking of your inputs: this tool is plain JavaScript and every number stays on your device.

About this tool

Why does my animal change if I was born in January or February?
Because the Chinese zodiac year does not start on 1 January. Popular practice uses Chinese New Year (a lunar date, mid-January to mid-February), while Bazi practitioners use Lichun (立春), the solar term around 3–5 February. This tool shows both readings when your date falls in the ambiguous window.
Can this predict my future or my investments?
No. It is published for entertainment and cultural interest only. We never combine metaphysics with financial guidance — that boundary is deliberate.

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