The Chinese horoscope · the twelve animals·9th of twelve
The Monkey
猴hóu
- Branch 申 · shēn
- Fixed element: Metal
- yang
- Hour: 15:00 to 17:00
- Direction: WSW
In a word
Clever, inventive, never short of ideas.
What tradition attributes to it
- They find a way through where the others see a wall.
- Funny, quick, they can make a whole table laugh.
- Curious about everything, they learn by playing.
- They adapt to any situation at all.
- Ambitious without looking it.
The other side
- The cunning can turn into manipulation.
- They get bored fast and give up halfway.
- They take few things seriously, people included.
In love
Charming, playful, they seduce easily and commit less easily. They need laughter and novelty; boredom makes them leave.
At work
Made for what calls for ingenuity: engineering, trade, creation, everything that reinvents itself. Rigid rules just make them want to get around them.
What helps
Pick one boring thing you keep putting off and do it all the way through, no shortcuts. Just to see whether you can.
By the element of the year
- Wood Monkey: steadier, more cooperative, they finish what they start.
- Fire Monkey: the most energetic and the most ambitious, carrying people along, sometimes tyrannical.
- Earth Monkey: more serious, reliable, better the more you know them.
- Metal Monkey: more independent, tenacious, aiming high and far.
- Water Monkey: the most sensitive and the most diplomatic, but they hide their hand well.
The Year of the Fire Horse
This year for the Monkey
Between the animal of the year and its own, tradition names nothing in particular: no triangle, no opposition, no secret friendship. An ordinary year, where the element counts for more.
The element of the year controls its own (Water puts out Fire, Metal cuts Wood): a year that demands more effort for the same result.
Chinese tradition reads the year by comparing this animal with the year's animal, then their two elements. It describes a mood, not events.
The years of the Monkey
- February 6, 1932 → January 25, 1933Water Monkey壬申
- January 25, 1944 → February 12, 1945Wood Monkey甲申
- February 12, 1956 → January 30, 1957Fire Monkey丙申
- January 30, 1968 → February 16, 1969Earth Monkey戊申
- February 16, 1980 → February 4, 1981Metal Monkey庚申
- February 4, 1992 → January 22, 1993Water Monkey壬申
- January 22, 2004 → February 8, 2005Wood Monkey甲申
- February 8, 2016 → January 27, 2017Fire Monkey丙申
- January 26, 2028 → February 12, 2029Earth Monkey戊申
- February 12, 2040 → January 31, 2041Metal Monkey庚申
From Chinese New Year to the last day of the Chinese year. If your birthday falls in January or early February, your animal is often the one from the year before: check your birth date in the list.
With the others
- Its affinity triangle: the Rat and the Dragon. Three animals four years apart, who understand one another without effort, says tradition.
- Its secret friend: the Snake. The quiet pair, the one that gets along without showing it.
- Its opposite: the Tiger, six years apart, directly across on the wheel of the twelve animals. Not a ban: a difference in pace, one you can learn to work with.
Traditional affinities, not verdicts. Two people are two whole charts, not two birth years.
And you?
Your sign is based on the actual date of Chinese New Year, and your birth time gives your animal of the hour.
See my sign