The Jade Observatory library
Chinese Zodiac Guides: Signs, Cycles & Traditions
These 6 guides connect the 12 animal signs with their compatibility groups, the 60-year cycle and the Great Race story. Start with the comparison you need, or use the year-boundary guide to understand a January or February birthday.
Calendar fact · cultural context
A field guide to the twelve-animal tradition
These guides answer the questions the tools deliberately do not. A calculator can tell you that a birth date falls in a Dragon year; it cannot tell you why the year starts when it does, why the Dragon sits fifth, or what tradition means when it calls two animals compatible.
They split three ways. Two cover the traditional groupings—the trines and Six Harmonies (secret-friend) pairs that make signs compatible, and the six oppositions that make them clash. Two cover the system itself: how branches, stems and the sixty-year cycle fit together, and the Great Race story told about that order. One answers the calendar question directly, with the next Chinese New Year date.
Six researched paths
Explore the guide library
Start with the question you have now. Every guide links back to the calculator, year tables, and the complete animal reference.
- 01RelationshipsCompatible Chinese Zodiac SignsHow the four trines and Six Harmonies (secret-friend) pairs group the Chinese zodiac animals and what each traditional pairing means.Read the guide
- 02OppositionsIncompatible Chinese Zodiac SignsThe six clashing Chinese zodiac pairs, how each opposition follows the cycle, and what the traditional pairing means.Read the guide
- 03Twelve portraitsChinese Zodiac Sign CharacteristicsAll twelve Chinese zodiac animals side by side, comparing the strengths and challenges traditionally associated with each, and the Yin-Yang pattern running through them.Read the guide
- 04Calendar systemHow the Chinese Zodiac WorksHow the twelve earthly branches, ten heavenly stems and five elements combine into the sixty-year Chinese zodiac cycle, and why a year starts at Chinese New Year.Read the guide
- 05Great RaceLegends of the Chinese ZodiacThe Great Race story that explains the order of the twelve Chinese zodiac animals, the Cat variant, and why the legend follows the calendar rather than creating it.Read the guide
- 06Year boundaryWhy Your Zodiac Sign Changes at Chinese New YearA Chinese zodiac year begins at Chinese New Year, not 1 January. See which year is running and why January or early-February births may belong to the previous animal.Read the guide
Terminology reference
Understand the facts shown in every result
Start with a short definition in any result card, then use these references when you want the complete system behind that fact.