Branch 9 of 12
Year of the Monkey (猴)
1992 · 2004 · 2016 · 2028
Fixed element Metal · yang · rules the hour 15:00–17:00
The Monkey at a Glance
- Position
- Branch 9 of 12
- Chinese
- 猴 (hóu)
- Fixed element
- Metal, yang
- Double hour
- 15:00–17:00 — the Monkey hour
- Recent years
- 1992, 2004, 2016
- Next year
- 2028, an Earth Monkey
- Trine (san he)
- Rat and Dragon
- Harmony (liu he)
- Snake
- Opposite (liu chong)
- Tiger
Character of the Monkey
Sharp, smart, curious, and mischievous. Monkeys are brilliant problem-solvers who approach life with wit and playfulness. Their quick minds and natural curiosity drive them to master many skills and disciplines. They are sociable entertainers who keep everyone laughing. Monkeys can find creative solutions that others would never imagine.
Every Monkey Year from 1900 to 2100
17 of them, twelve years apart. Because ten heavenly stems cannot divide evenly among twelve branches, the Monkey only ever meets five of the ten — so the Metal Monkey returns every sixty years, not every twelve. That sixty-year round is the sexagenary cycle, which is why a sixtieth birthday counts as a completion rather than just another decade.
1908
Earth
1920
Metal
1932
Water
1944
Wood
1956
Fire
1968
Earth
1980
Metal
1992
Water
2004
Wood
2016
Fire
2028
Earth
2040
Metal
2052
Water
2064
Wood
2076
Fire
2088
Earth
2100
Metal
Every Monkey year is yang, without exception. The stem's polarity and the branch's are both set by the parity of the year, so they can never disagree — there is no such thing as a yin Monkey, of any element. Counted across all twelve animals that rules out sixty of the hundred and twenty animal-element-polarity names in circulation, which the sexagenary cycle page sets out in full.
The Five Monkeys
The Monkey carries Metal as its own fixed element, whatever year it falls in. The year's stem then lays a second element over that, and the five phases relate to each other in fixed ways: Metal is generated by Earth and overcome by Fire, while it in turn generates Water and overcomes Wood. That is what separates one Monkey from another.
Each of the five has its own page, carrying the pair of characters that actually names the year, its position in the sixty-year round and why its polarity cannot be otherwise. The one for the Metal Monkey is the doubled case; the full set is linked from the headings below.
1944, 2004, 2064
Metal overcomes Wood, so here the sign has the upper hand over its own year.
1956, 2016, 2076
Fire overcomes Metal, making this the variant tradition treats as the tested one — the year works against the sign's own element.
1908, 1968, 2028, 2088
Earth generates Metal, so this variant is read as supported: the year feeds what the Monkey already is.
1920, 1980, 2040, 2100
Metal doubled — the year's stem matches the Monkey's own element, which is why this variant is the one singled out in almanacs.
1932, 1992, 2052
Metal generates Water, so the Monkey gives to this year rather than drawing from it — productive, and depleting if unchecked.
Who the Monkey Matches
Chinese zodiac compatibility is geometry on a circle of twelve, not a list to be memorised. Once you know where the Monkey sits — branch 9 — every claim below can be checked by counting.
San he · the trine · four places apart
Rat and Dragon sit four and eight places from the Monkey, so the three of them form an equilateral triangle in the cycle — and their double hours land eight hours apart, dividing the day evenly between them. Branches spaced this evenly are held to share an outlook, which is why this is the strongest of the affinities, and why the four trines are the same four groups in every school.
Tradition reads this group as the quick ones — animals that see an opening and take it. All three are credited with intelligence of the improvising sort rather than the patient sort, and with a competitive streak that can read as opportunism. The classic illustration is the legend of how the cycle got its order: the Rat crossed the river riding on the Ox's back and jumped off at the bank to arrive first.
Liu he · the six harmonies · the fixed partner
Snake. The twelve branches pair off into six couples, and the Monkey's partner is fixed — it has exactly one. Where the trine is a shared temperament, liu he is described as a secret or complementary alliance: the two cover each other's gaps rather than agreeing.
Liu chong · the clash · directly opposite
Tiger stands six places away, half the cycle, so the two branches face each other across the circle. That opposition is read as friction rather than catastrophe — an axis, and axes are where movement happens. Pig and Snake are three places off and are named as awkward in most lists, though the schools agree far less about these than about the clash.
None of this is a verdict on a relationship — it reads one factor, the birth year. A Vedic assessment weighs both Moons, the seventh house and the Mars positions: Kundli Milan works from the birth details rather than the year.
Lucky for the Monkey
- Numbers:
- 4, 9
- Colours:
- White, Blue, Gold
- Flowers:
- Chrysanthemum, Allium
Recorded by tradition, not calculated — unlike the years and the compatibility rules above, there is no arithmetic behind these to check.
Work that Suits the Monkey
Drawn from the temperament above. A birth year is thin ground for a career decision; in a Vedic chart the tenth house and its lord carry that question.
Well-known Monkeys
- Leonardo da Vinci (1452)
- Tom Hanks (1956)
- Will Smith (1968)
- Jennifer Aniston — born early in 1969, before that year's lunar new year, so the Chinese year is 1968 and the sign is Monkey rather than Rooster.
- Justin Timberlake — born early in 1981, before that year's lunar new year, so the Chinese year is 1980 and the sign is Monkey rather than Rooster.
The birth years are given so the arithmetic can be checked: subtract 4 and divide by 12, and a remainder of 8 is a Monkey. The entries marked above are exactly why that is not the whole rule.
Ben Ming Nian: the Monkey's Own Year
Every twelfth year the cycle returns to the branch you were born under, and that year — ben ming nian — is traditionally the wary one rather than the lucky one, which surprises most people. For the Monkey that means 2016 and next 2028. The customary response is to wear red: a cord, a thread, something given by someone else rather than bought for yourself. The reasoning is that a year of your own sign brings you into unusually direct contact with your own fate, and direct contact is exposure.
There is no Vedic equivalent, because a Vimshottari dasha runs six to twenty years depending on the planet holding it — so the wary stretches of a life fall in an order unique to the chart, not on a twelve-year drumbeat.
The Monkey Is Not a Rashi
Both systems use twelve signs, and that coincidence does most of the damage. A rashi is a thirty-degree arc of the zodiac and changes every few weeks; the Monkey is an earthly branch and depends only on the year, so everyone born in a Monkey year shares it regardless of month, day or place. The nearer Vedic parallel is the sixty-year Samvatsara cycle, which likewise names years in a repeating round. For the sign that actually drives a Vedic reading — the Moon's — use the moon sign calculator or the full kundli.
Monkey FAQs
Which years are Monkey years?
Between 1900 and 2100: 1908, 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016, 2028, 2040, 2052, 2064, 2076, 2088, 2100. The Monkey returns every twelve years, so if one of those is your birth year you are a Monkey — with the caveat that the Chinese year begins at the lunar new year in late January or February, not on 1 January. The most recent Monkey year was 2016 and the next is 2028.
Which signs is the Monkey most compatible with?
Rat and Dragon and Snake, and the reason is structural rather than a matter of temperament. Rat and Dragon sit four places from the Monkey in the cycle of twelve, forming the triangle called san he — the three branches share an affinity because they are evenly spaced around the circle. Snake is the Monkey's partner in liu he, the six harmonies, which pair each branch with exactly one other. Those four are the matches every school agrees on.
Which sign clashes with the Monkey?
Tiger, which sits directly opposite — six places away, so the two branches are half a cycle apart. This is liu chong, the six clashes. In practice it describes a pairing that has to work at understanding each other rather than one that is doomed; Pig and Snake are the other two commonly named as awkward, being three places away, though popular lists disagree more about those.
What is a Metal Monkey?
The strongest form of the sign, on the traditional reading. Every animal carries a fixed element of its own — the Monkey's is Metal — and separately, each year carries one of the five elements as its heavenly stem. When the two coincide the quality is doubled, and for the Monkey that happens in 1920, 1980, 2040 and 2100. Earth years (1908, 1968, 2028 and 2088) are held to support it, since Earth generates Metal. Fire years (1956, 2016 and 2076) are the tense ones, since Fire overcomes Metal. Written out, a Metal Monkey year is 庚申 — position 57 of the sixty-year cycle, and every one of them is yang, never the reverse.
If you were born in January of a Monkey year, are you a Monkey?
Usually not. The Chinese year turns at the lunar new year, which falls between 21 January and 20 February, so a birthday before it belongs to the previous year — making you a Goat rather than a Monkey. Anyone born after 20 February is unambiguously a Monkey, since that is the latest the new year can fall. If your birthday is in that window, the year's lunar new year date settles it.
What is the Monkey hour?
15:00–17:00. The twelve branches divide the day into double hours as well as the years into a cycle, and the Monkey governs that stretch. It is the closest Chinese parallel to the Vedic hora, which likewise assigns each hour of the day to a ruler — though the hora runs on the seven planets and a sunrise-to-sunrise day, so the two do not line up.