Year of the Rabbit
The Rabbit is the fourth animal, the one that crossed on stepping stones and a floating log. The popular tradition reads it as gentle, tactful and quick-witted.
What the postcard says
The popular reading of a Rabbit year birth is grace under pressure: a diplomacy that avoids the fight it would not win, a refined taste, and a kindness that makes people comfortable. Rabbits are read as cautious, well-mannered and observant, the ones who noticed the mood of the room before anyone spoke.
The honest shadow in the same tradition is the Rabbit's avoidance: a timidity that lets problems grow, a detachment that keeps feeling at a distance, and a habit of leaving when it gets hard. The tradition says the soft coat covers a fast heartbeat.
The years, the hours and the month
Every twelfth year is a Rabbit year, but not the same Rabbit: the year's stem changes each time, so the Rabbit years are 1951 (Yin Metal), 1963 (Yin Water), 1975 (Yin Wood), 1987 (Yin Fire), 1999 (Yin Earth), 2011 (Yin Metal), 2023 (Yin Water) and 2035 (Yin Wood). The year turns at Li Chun, around 4 February, not on 1 January and not at the new moon festival, so a January birth belongs to the year before. The branch also rules two hours of every day, 05:00 to 07:00, and one month of every year.
Inside a Four Pillars chart the Rabbit is the branch Mao, whose element is Wood and whose single hidden stem is Yin Wood. It rules the two hours after five in the morning and the middle month of spring. In a chart it reads as pure Yin Wood, the vine rather than the tree; the animal name says none of that, and the element does.
The year animal is the postcard; your day master is the reading
Two people born in 2011 and 2023 are both Rabbits, and the tradition reads them differently before it reads them alike.
The animal is the branch of the year pillar, one of eight characters in a Four Pillars chart, and the tradition reads it last. It reads the day master first: the stem of the day of birth, which is the self the rest of the chart is weighed against, and which the year animal says nothing about. Two Rabbits twelve years apart share a branch and differ in their year's element, Yin Metal against Yin Water, and differ in every other pillar; the postcard is true, and it is the smallest true thing on the card.
We calculate the whole chart, so the animal is the first thing you see and the day master is the second, and the reading is built on the second. The ten day masters have their own pages in this library, and the calculator says which one is yours.
About 60 seconds · the pillars need your date, time and place · the year animal is the first thing you will see
Questions people ask
Which years are the Rabbit?
1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011, 2023 and 2035, each beginning at Li Chun, around 4 February, and each with a different element: 1987 (Yin Fire), 1999 (Yin Earth), 2011 (Yin Metal), 2023 (Yin Water) and 2035 (Yin Wood). The calculator works the year out from the date rather than from the year number, so a January birth is placed correctly.
Is the Rabbit compatible with the Goat and the Pig?
The popular tradition groups the Rabbit with the Goat and the Pig, the three branches four apart, and calls the grouping harmonious. That is the postcard's compatibility, two characters out of the sixteen a real pair comparison reads, and it says nothing about the day masters the tradition actually compares. The two-person report reads both charts in full.
I was born in January or February. Which animal am I?
The year turns at Li Chun, around 4 February, so a birth before it belongs to the year before, whatever the calendar says. In some years the festival falls before Li Chun and in some after, which is why two sources can disagree; the pillars follow the solar term, and so does the calculator.
We read charts for pattern and coherence, not prediction. Nothing here tells you what will happen, and nothing here tells you who you are; it shows a structure and leaves the judgement with you.