Year of the Rooster
The Rooster is the tenth animal, the one that found the raft. The popular tradition reads it as observant, hard-working and outspoken.
What the postcard says
The popular reading of a Rooster year birth is precision and pride: an eye for detail, a strong sense of how things should be done, courage in saying so, and a flair for appearance. Roosters are read as punctual, honest and confident, the ones who are up first and have opinions about everyone else's lateness.
The honest shadow in the same tradition is the Rooster's vanity: a criticism that is quick and public, a boastfulness, and a rigidity about the right way. The tradition does not pretend the crowing is modest.
The years, the hours and the month
Every twelfth year is a Rooster year, but not the same Rooster: the year's stem changes each time, so the Rooster years are 1945 (Yin Wood), 1957 (Yin Fire), 1969 (Yin Earth), 1981 (Yin Metal), 1993 (Yin Water), 2005 (Yin Wood), 2017 (Yin Fire) and 2029 (Yin Earth). 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, 17:00 to 19:00, and one month of every year.
Inside a Four Pillars chart the Rooster is the branch You, whose element is Metal and whose single hidden stem is Yin Metal. It rules the two hours after five in the afternoon and the middle month of autumn. In a chart it reads as pure Yin Metal, the jewel rather than the blade; 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 2005 and 2017 are both Roosters, 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 Roosters twelve years apart share a branch and differ in their year's element, Yin Wood against Yin Fire, 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 Rooster?
1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017 and 2029, each beginning at Li Chun, around 4 February, and each with a different element: 1981 (Yin Metal), 1993 (Yin Water), 2005 (Yin Wood), 2017 (Yin Fire) and 2029 (Yin Earth). The calculator works the year out from the date rather than from the year number, so a January birth is placed correctly.
Is the Rooster compatible with the Ox and the Snake?
The popular tradition groups the Rooster with the Ox and the Snake, 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.