In Chinese astrology the day is split into twelve two-hour periods, each belonging to one of the zodiac animals, starting with the Rat from 11 pm to 1 am. The animal of the hour you were born in is popularly called your secret animal, and sometimes your inner animal. In BaZi, the Chinese system of reading a full chart, it's the hour pillar.
Your year animal is the one you share with everyone born in the same Chinese year. Your hour animal narrows things down: two people born on the same day in the same city can have different ones.
The twelve birth hours
| Birth time | Animal | Branch |
|---|---|---|
| 11 pm to 1 am | Rat | Zi 子 |
| 1 am to 3 am | Ox | Chou 丑 |
| 3 am to 5 am | Tiger | Yin 寅 |
| 5 am to 7 am | Rabbit | Mao 卯 |
| 7 am to 9 am | Dragon | Chen 辰 |
| 9 am to 11 am | Snake | Si 巳 |
| 11 am to 1 pm | Horse | Wu 午 |
| 1 pm to 3 pm | Goat | Wei 未 |
| 3 pm to 5 pm | Monkey | Shen 申 |
| 5 pm to 7 pm | Rooster | You 酉 |
| 7 pm to 9 pm | Dog | Xu 戌 |
| 9 pm to 11 pm | Pig | Hai 亥 |
Each period runs from the start of its first hour to the end of its second, so 2:59 am is the Ox and 3:00 am is the Tiger. The order is the same as the years, explained in the Chinese zodiac animals in order.
The traditional pairings come with images from daily life. The Rat hour is when rats forage, the Ox hour when oxen chew the cud, the Tiger hour when tigers hunt before dawn. The Horse takes the blazing middle of the day, the Dog the evening when dogs guard the house, and the Pig the late hours when pigs, and most sensible people, are asleep.
Secret, inner, true: what the names mean
These names come from popular Western books on Chinese astrology rather than from Chinese texts, and they aren't used consistently. The most common scheme gives you four animals:
- Year animal: how other people see you, your public face.
- Month animal: your inner animal, linked with your inner life and, in some books, with love.
- Day animal: your true animal, sometimes described as your core.
- Hour animal: your secret animal, the private self few people meet.
Plenty of websites, though, call the hour animal your inner animal, which is why both names turn up when you search for it. On this site we use secret animal for the hour, and note the other name so nobody feels misled. The month animals and their dates are listed in our guide to the Chinese zodiac vs Western zodiac.
Clock time isn't always solar time
The two-hour periods were designed around the Sun, with the Horse hour centered on midday. Your birth certificate records clock time, which can differ:
- Daylight saving time. If you were born while clocks were set forward, subtract an hour. A birth at 7:20 pm in summer time was 6:20 pm standard time, which moves it from the Dog hour to the Rooster.
- Your place in the time zone. Clock time is set for a single meridian, and local solar time shifts by four minutes for every degree of longitude away from it. China keeps one time zone across its whole width, so in Kashgar, in the far west, the Sun is highest at around 3 pm by the clock.
- The equation of time. Even at the zone's meridian, solar noon drifts through the year by up to about a quarter of an hour either side of clock noon.
Many BaZi practitioners convert a birth time to local solar time before choosing the hour. Others use clock time, adjusted only for daylight saving. If your birth time sits within half an hour of a boundary, it's worth asking which method a reader uses.
Born near midnight: the Rat hour puzzle
The Rat hour straddles midnight, and that causes a genuine disagreement among practitioners. Some schools start the new day at 11 pm, when the Rat hour begins, so a birth at 11:30 pm takes the next day's day pillar. Others keep the day change at midnight and split the hour into an early Rat and a late Rat. The hour animal is the Rat either way, but the day pillar, the most important one in BaZi, can change. If you were born between 11 pm and 1 am, expect two calculators to disagree.
What the hour animal is said to describe
In BaZi, the hour pillar is traditionally linked with your children, your later life and your inner self, while the year pillar stands for ancestry and early years. Popular readings say the hour animal shows the person you are at home with the door shut.
The fun comes when the year and hour animals pull in different directions. A Horse born in the Rat hour has the Horse's year face and the Rat's hour, two animals that clash across the wheel: bold in public, popular books would say, and careful in private. A Dragon born in the Monkey hour has two members of the same trine, which readings describe as a person whose private self matches the public one. Chinese zodiac compatibility explains which animals are said to clash or combine. These are sketches to think with, not descriptions of a real person.
If you don't know your birth time
Start with the paperwork and the family: some birth certificates record the time, as do hospital records, baby books and, often, a parent's memory of a very long night. Without a time, a BaZi reader can still work with three of the four pillars, year, month and day, though they'll tell you the picture is less complete.
Western astrology has the same problem: your rising sign also depends on the minute you were born. If you find a time, it serves both systems, and our rising sign calculator and the explainer on sun, moon and rising signs show what it adds on the Western side. For the Chinese side, see what BaZi is.
Questions readers ask
What is my Chinese zodiac hour animal if I was born at midnight?
The Rat, which covers 11 pm to 1 am. Schools disagree about whether a birth between 11 pm and midnight belongs to the next day's pillar, but the hour animal is the Rat either way.
Is the hour animal more important than the year animal?
In BaZi, the most important single character is the day stem, called the Day Master. The year and hour pillars both matter, and neither outranks the other in a simple way. In popular zodiac books, the year animal leads and the hour animal adds a private layer.
Does daylight saving time change my birth hour animal?
It can. Subtract an hour from a summer-time birth before you look up the table. A birth near a boundary, such as 1:30 pm in summer time, can move to the previous animal.
What time is the Dragon hour?
From 7 am to 9 am. The Snake follows from 9 am to 11 am, and the Horse holds midday, from 11 am to 1 pm.
