Branch 10 of 12
Year of the Rooster (鸡)
1993 · 2005 · 2017 · 2029
Fixed element Metal · yin · rules the hour 17:00–19:00
The Rooster at a Glance
- Position
- Branch 10 of 12
- Chinese
- 鸡 (jī)
- Fixed element
- Metal, yin
- Double hour
- 17:00–19:00 — the Rooster hour
- Recent years
- 1993, 2005, 2017
- Next year
- 2029, an Earth Rooster
- Trine (san he)
- Ox and Snake
- Harmony (liu he)
- Dragon
- Opposite (liu chong)
- Rabbit
Character of the Rooster
Observant, hardworking, courageous, and confident. Roosters are meticulous perfectionists with an eye for detail that misses nothing. They are straightforward and honest, sometimes to a fault. Their diligence and organizational skills bring order to chaos. Roosters take pride in their appearance and accomplishments, setting high standards for all.
Every Rooster Year from 1900 to 2100
16 of them, twelve years apart. Because ten heavenly stems cannot divide evenly among twelve branches, the Rooster only ever meets five of the ten — so the Metal Rooster 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.
1909
Earth
1921
Metal
1933
Water
1945
Wood
1957
Fire
1969
Earth
1981
Metal
1993
Water
2005
Wood
2017
Fire
2029
Earth
2041
Metal
2053
Water
2065
Wood
2077
Fire
2089
Earth
Every Rooster year is yin, 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 yang Rooster, 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 Roosters
The Rooster 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 Rooster 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 Rooster is the doubled case; the full set is linked from the headings below.
1945, 2005, 2065
Metal overcomes Wood, so here the sign has the upper hand over its own year.
1957, 2017, 2077
Fire overcomes Metal, making this the variant tradition treats as the tested one — the year works against the sign's own element.
1909, 1969, 2029, 2089
Earth generates Metal, so this variant is read as supported: the year feeds what the Rooster already is.
1921, 1981, 2041
Metal doubled — the year's stem matches the Rooster's own element, which is why this variant is the one singled out in almanacs.
1933, 1993, 2053
Metal generates Water, so the Rooster gives to this year rather than drawing from it — productive, and depleting if unchecked.
Who the Rooster Matches
Chinese zodiac compatibility is geometry on a circle of twelve, not a list to be memorised. Once you know where the Rooster sits — branch 10 — every claim below can be checked by counting.
San he · the trine · four places apart
Ox and Snake sit four and eight places from the Rooster, 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.
This trine is the deliberate one. Its animals are described as working from a plan rather than an impulse, holding to a standard, and being unimpressed by charm — qualities that make them steady and, in the same breath, hard to argue with. Where the first trine improvises, this one prepares, and the traditional criticism of all three is a certain inflexibility once the position is taken.
Liu he · the six harmonies · the fixed partner
Dragon. The twelve branches pair off into six couples, and the Rooster'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
Rabbit 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. Rat and Horse 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 Rooster
- Numbers:
- 5, 7, 8
- Colours:
- Gold, Brown, Yellow
- Flowers:
- Gladiolus, Cockscomb
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 Rooster
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 Roosters
- Yoko Ono (1933)
- Eric Clapton (1945)
- Beyoncé (1981)
- Serena Williams (1981)
- Roger Federer (1981)
The birth years are given so the arithmetic can be checked: subtract 4 and divide by 12, and a remainder of 9 is a Rooster. Everyone listed was born after 20 February, the latest the lunar new year can fall, so no boundary question arises.
Ben Ming Nian: the Rooster'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 Rooster that means 2017 and next 2029. 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 Rooster 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 Rooster is an earthly branch and depends only on the year, so everyone born in a Rooster 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.
Rooster FAQs
Which years are Rooster years?
Between 1900 and 2100: 1909, 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017, 2029, 2041, 2053, 2065, 2077, 2089. The Rooster returns every twelve years, so if one of those is your birth year you are a Rooster — 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 Rooster year was 2017 and the next is 2029.
Which signs is the Rooster most compatible with?
Ox and Snake and Dragon, and the reason is structural rather than a matter of temperament. Ox and Snake sit four places from the Rooster 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. Dragon is the Rooster'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 Rooster?
Rabbit, 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; Rat and Horse are the other two commonly named as awkward, being three places away, though popular lists disagree more about those.
What is a Metal Rooster?
The strongest form of the sign, on the traditional reading. Every animal carries a fixed element of its own — the Rooster'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 Rooster that happens in 1921, 1981 and 2041. Earth years (1909, 1969, 2029 and 2089) are held to support it, since Earth generates Metal. Fire years (1957, 2017 and 2077) are the tense ones, since Fire overcomes Metal. Written out, a Metal Rooster year is 辛酉 — position 58 of the sixty-year cycle, and every one of them is yin, never the reverse.
If you were born in January of a Rooster year, are you a Rooster?
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 Monkey rather than a Rooster. Anyone born after 20 February is unambiguously a Rooster, 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 Rooster hour?
17:00–19:00. The twelve branches divide the day into double hours as well as the years into a cycle, and the Rooster 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.