Chinese zodiac: Difference between revisions

Traditionally, the Chinese have counted years using two simultaneous cycles, one of length 10 (the "celestial stems") and one of length 12 (the "terrestrial branches"); the combination results in a repeating 60-year pattern. Mapping the branches to twelve traditional animal deities results in the well-known "Chinese zodiac", assigning each year to a given animal. For example, Saturday, January 28, 2017 CE (in the common Gregorian calendar) begins the lunisolar year of the Rooster.

The celestial stems have no one-to-one mapping like that of the branches to animals; however, the five pairs of consecutive stems each belong to one of the five traditional Chinese elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water). Further, one of the two years within each element's governance is associated with yin, the other with yang.

Thus, 2017 is also the yin year of Fire. Note that since 12 is an even number, the association between animals and yin/yang doesn't change. Consecutive Years of the Rooster will cycle through the five elements, but will always be yin, despite the apparent conceptual mismatch between the male animals and the female aspect.

Thus, 1984 was the year of the Wood Rat (yang), 1985 was the year of the Wood Ox (yin), and 1986 the year of the Fire Tiger (yang); 2017 - which, as already noted, is the year of the Fire Rooster (yin) - is the 34th year of the current cycle.

Therefore 1984 was '''甲子''' (''jiă-zĭ'', or jia3-zi3). 2017 is the 34th year of the current cycle, '''丁酉''' (''dīng-yŏu'' or ding1-you3).