CHINESE ZODIAC
What is Chinese Zodiac (Twelve Animals)?
Chinese Zodiac divination reads personality, compatibility, and the fortune tendencies of a given year from whichever of the twelve animals—Rat, Ox, Tiger, and so on—corresponds to a person’s birth year. Built on a calendar system that originated in China, it is shared broadly across East Asia.
Overview
- System
- Fate Reading (reads from the zodiac animal of one’s birth year)
- Origin
- East Asia (originated in China)
- What You Need
- Date of birth
- Best For
- Life, compatibility, work
- Time Frame
- Whole lifetime / one year
Origins & History
The twelve Earthly Branches began to be used in China as symbols for marking dates from around the Shang dynasty (roughly the 16th century BCE), and by the Warring States period had become widely established as a system indicating years, months, times of day, and directions. By around the Qin dynasty, each of the twelve branches—Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, and Hai—is said to have come to be paired with one of twelve animals, such as the Rat, Ox, and Tiger.
This idea of pairing the twelve branches with animals spread from China across East Asia and became widely established as a symbol of one’s birth year in Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and elsewhere. Today it is cherished as a form of divination that reads a person’s personality and compatibility from their birth-year animal, as well as fortune tendencies across the 12-year cycle in which the zodiac comes full circle.
How It Works
- 01Determine the corresponding zodiac animal (one of twelve, such as Rat, Ox, or Tiger) from the year of birth.
- 02Read basic personality tendencies from the qualities attributed to that zodiac animal.
- 03Judge compatibility tendencies from the combination of one’s own zodiac animal and that of another person.
- 04Read tendencies in fortune for a given year from where it falls in the 12-year cycle of the zodiac.
What It Reveals
Its distinguishing feature is that it lets you grasp personality and compatibility tendencies easily from birth year alone, giving it an approachable familiarity that carries over into everyday conversation. At the same time, because birth year is the only factor used, it is a simple method that cannot fully capture the finer personality traits or fortunes that vary greatly between individuals, and it is best used as a general guideline.
Related Methods
References
- 十二支 - Wikipedia (https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8D%81%E4%BA%8C%E6%94%AF)
- Wikipedia: Chinese zodiac (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_zodiac)