Rooster
雞生肖 · 十二生肖
The Rooster (雞) — the popular zodiac label for the Earthly Branch Yǒu (酉), Metal in element.
The Rooster (雞) is the popular Chinese-zodiac (生肖) animal that corresponds to the Earthly Branch Yǒu (酉). Most people find their animal by birth year — recent Rooster years include 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017 — which is why the zodiac is the friendly, everyday entry point into Chinese astrology.
But the animal is the popular label, not the technical unit. What a Bazi (八字) chart actually reads is the branch Yǒu (酉) — its element (Metal), its hidden stems, and how it interacts with the other branches. The Rooster is one familiar face of that branch; the traits below are a long cultural tradition, not a fixed rule about anyone born in its year.
- 地支
- Yǒu (酉)
- 五行
- Metal
- 陰陽
- 陰
- 近年年份
- 1993, 2005, 2017…
流行傳統特質
The popular tradition associates the Rooster with being observant, candid, and exacting — a detail-keeper who notices what others miss and says what it sees plainly. These are cultural characterisations passed down in almanacs and folklore — a shared vocabulary people enjoy, not a deterministic personality test. Read them as a starting point for curiosity, not a verdict: plenty of people born in a Rooster year recognise little of this, because a whole chart (and a whole life) is far larger than one year-branch.
相合與相沖
The zodiac's compatibility lore is really the relationships between Earthly Branches, told through the animals. The Rooster sits in a three-harmony trinity (三合) with the Snake and the Ox — branches that reinforce each other. Its six-harmony (六合) partner is the Dragon (六合), a pairing said to combine smoothly. Its clash (六沖) is the Rabbit — the branch directly opposite, a high-tension axis. These describe structural relationships between positions, not promises about specific people.
出生年份
Recent Rooster years (Gregorian): 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017, repeating every 12 years. One important caveat: the zodiac year turns at the start of the Chinese lunar year (late January to mid-February), not on 1 January — so anyone born in January or early February near a year boundary may actually belong to the previous animal. The only reliable way to know your true year-branch is to compute the chart, which uses the exact solar terms.
跨系統對照
| 系統 | 對應 | 說明 |
|---|---|---|
| Earthly Branch (地支) | The branch Yǒu (酉) — the technical unit behind the animal | The Rooster is the popular face of the branch Yǒu (酉). The branch — its Metal element, hidden stems, season, and interactions — is what a Bazi chart actually reads. Same position, two registers: the animal is the folk label, the branch is the working part. |
| BaZi (八字 / Four Pillars) | Only your YEAR branch — one of four | In a full Bazi chart the Rooster is just the YEAR pillar's branch. The chart has four branches (year, month, day, hour) and four stems; your day stem (日主) is the real reference point for the self. The zodiac animal is roughly one-eighth of the picture — a popular slice, not the whole reading. |
| Western astrology | A loose parallel only — both are 12-fold, birth-based popular systems | There is no sign-to-animal mapping: the Chinese zodiac runs on a 12-year cycle, Western sun-signs on a 12-month one. The only real parallel is the shared idea of a twelvefold, birth-based popular framework — not a translation between them. |
Your birth-year animal — the Rooster (雞) — is the popular entry point into a much larger system, not a fixed personality and not a destiny. The traditional traits are cultural associations, never predictions, and the same animal plays out completely differently across different people and full charts. For what your chart actually says, read the Earthly Branch Yǒu (酉) and compute your full four-pillar chart.