Chinese Astrology

This section describes what is Chinese astrology.

Chinese astrology is very closely linked to the Chinese calendar, which is a lunisolar calendar based on both the Sun's movement and the Moon's movement.

In Chinese astrology each individual personality is determined by his or her birth year, month, day, and hour in Chinese calendar. In this calendar, year, month, day and hour are counted with cycles of ten heavenly stems and twelve earthly branches. This gives each person eight words, called Ba Zi (八字) in Chinese. For example, if someone was born at 23:30 on February 1, 2000, his or her eight words are: 庚辰, 戊寅, 己丑, 甲寅.

In Chinese astrology, 12 earthly branches are also mapped to 12 zodiac animals:

A much simplified version is using just the zodiac animal corresponding to the earthly branch of a person's birth year to determine his or her personality and future. This is called a person's animal sign, 生肖 shengxiao. For example, if you were born in 1983, your animal sign is Pig.

The picture below shows a circle of Chinese Zodiac animals: http://www.seasonsindia.com

Chinese Zodiac Animals
Chinese Zodiac Animals

Table of Contents

 About This Book

Quick Introduction to Astrology

 What Is Astrology

 Western Astrology

 Jyotisha - Indian or Hindu Astrology

Chinese Astrology

 Basics of Astrology and Astronomy

 Stars

 Constellations

 Introduction to Western Zodiac Signs

 Horoscope and Horoscopic Astrology

 Horoscope and Planets

 Chinese Astrology and Horoscope

 Chinese Zodiac Animal Signs

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB