Year of the Rat
The Rat is the first animal of the twelve, the one that won the race by riding on the Ox and jumping off at the line. The popular tradition reads it as quick, resourceful and sociable.
What the postcard says
The popular reading of a Rat year birth is intelligence that works fast and close to the ground: a talent for finding the way in, a good memory for people and for favours, and a charm that opens doors. Rats are read as thrifty, adaptable and curious, the first to notice an opportunity and the first to act on it.
The honest shadow in the same tradition is the Rat's reputation for calculation: a self-interest that can slide into scheming, a restlessness that hoards options, and an anxiety under the quickness. A postcard that only prints the virtues is not the tradition.
The years, the hours and the month
Every twelfth year is a Rat year, but not the same Rat: the year's stem changes each time, so the Rat years are 1948 (Yang Earth), 1960 (Yang Metal), 1972 (Yang Water), 1984 (Yang Wood), 1996 (Yang Fire), 2008 (Yang Earth), 2020 (Yang Metal) and 2032 (Yang Water). 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, 23:00 to 01:00, and one month of every year.
Inside a Four Pillars chart the Rat is the branch Zi, the first of the twelve, whose element is Water and whose hidden stem is Yin Water. It rules the hour round midnight and the month of the winter solstice. In a chart it reads as Water wherever it sits, which supports a Wood day master, drains a Metal one, and is controlled by Earth; 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 2008 and 2020 are both Rats, 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 Rats twelve years apart share a branch and differ in their year's element, Yang Earth against Yang Metal, 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 Rat?
1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020 and 2032, each beginning at Li Chun, around 4 February, and each with a different element: 1984 (Yang Wood), 1996 (Yang Fire), 2008 (Yang Earth), 2020 (Yang Metal) and 2032 (Yang Water). The calculator works the year out from the date rather than from the year number, so a January birth is placed correctly.
Is the Rat compatible with the Dragon and the Monkey?
The popular tradition groups the Rat with the Dragon and the Monkey, 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.