The Year of the Rooster is the tenth sign and the refined Metal of deep autumn. The Rooster is the Earthly Branch 酉 yǒu, yin Metal, the polished blade rather than the raw ore. If you were born in a Rooster year you carry the sign classical writers associate with precision, candour, and an exacting eye for the detail everyone else overlooks.
Which years are Rooster years?
These are the Rooster years across the modern span, each beginning at that year’s exact Li Chun (立春 lìchūn), around 4 February. Not 1 January, and not Chinese New Year:
The recurring rule applies here too: a birthday in late January or the first days of February may belong to the previous animal, the Monkey, because Li Chun had not yet turned the year. A Rooster’s own preference for accuracy makes this exactly the kind of detail worth getting right. Confirm yours with the Chinese zodiac finder, and consult the zodiac years chart for the exact start date of every year from 1930 to 2035.
The Rooster personality
The classical Rooster is precise, candid, and quietly proud of its standards. It notices flaws others miss, states its view plainly, and holds itself and everyone around it to a clear bar. As yin Metal it is refined and discerning, which reads as competence and, at the extreme, as bluntness or fussiness. Roosters are hard-working, well-presented, and reliable; they say what they mean and expect to be believed.
Keep it in proportion. We read charts here, not fortunes, and the Rooster is only your year branch, one of eight characters in a full Ba Zi (八字 bāzì) chart. A warmer Day Master can soften the Rooster’s edge into tact; the candour is a leaning, not a life sentence. To see where the animal sits within the whole chart, start at the Ba Zi hub; to see where it sits on the wheel, the 12 zodiac animals hub.
The Rooster is the sign of standards, and its whole character is contained in the bird that crows precisely at dawn, on time, every day, whether or not anyone is listening. Its yin Metal 酉 is the finished, refined kind, jewellery rather than ore, which is why the sign prizes polish, order, and getting the details exactly right. In a working reading the Rooster’s strength is diligence and honesty: it does thorough work and tells you the truth even when the truth is unwelcome. The blind spot is criticism. A Rooster’s exacting eye, turned on others without warmth, reads as fault-finding, and turned on itself becomes a quiet perfectionism that never feels the work is done. Its growth is in tempering accuracy with grace, and in letting good enough sometimes be enough.
酉, the purest Metal in the system
Fittingly for the sign of precision, the branch itself is immaculate. 酉 hides exactly one stem, Xīn 辛 (Yin Metal), and nothing else: no stored agendas, no side elements, just refined Metal all the way through. Pure branches like this root their element with unusual force wherever they appear in a chart. Structurally, 酉 is the centre of the Three Harmony (三合 sānhé) trio 巳酉丑, the Metal frame it forms with the Snake and the Ox, and its Six Combination (六合 liùhé) partner is the Dragon, 辰+酉 producing Metal. Both structures reinforce what the Rooster already is, which is rare on the wheel; most branches are pulled toward something else by their allies, while the Rooster’s allies sharpen it. Any 巳, 丑, or 辰 in your own pillars is already participating in that Metal story.
The five kinds of Rooster
Over a sixty-year cycle the Rooster takes each element once, and the year stem colours its precision:
- Water Rooster (1933 and every 60 years): more flexible and diplomatic, standards softened by tact.
- Wood Rooster (1945 and every 60 years): principled and constructive, precision with purpose.
- Fire Rooster (1957 and every 60 years): expressive and confident, the Rooster that performs.
- Earth Rooster (1969 and every 60 years): grounded and methodical, the most patient of the Roosters.
- Metal Rooster (1981 and every 60 years): the sharpest and most exacting, double Metal, uncompromising.
The Rooster in 2026
2026 is a Fire Horse year, and for the Rooster the year branch forms no major structural aspect, no clash, no harm, no combination. A neutral zodiac year is an open one rather than a difficult one: without the annual branch steering, the Rooster’s 2026 will be written mostly by its own luck pillar and monthly pillars. It is a year that rewards the Rooster’s own diligence rather than handing it either a gift or an obstacle. For the shared context every sign shares, see the 2026 Bing Wu Fire Horse overview.
Beyond the animal: the Rooster hour and month
The branch 酉 is also a double-hour and a solar month. The Rooster hour runs 17:00 to 18:59, sunset, the day’s close, and anyone born then carries 酉 in their hour pillar whatever their birth year; see the You hour in Ba Zi. The Rooster month is the 8th solar month, beginning at Bai Lu (白露 báilù) around 7 September, when the first cold dew appears, covered in born in the You month. For how the Rooster pairs with other signs, begin at the Rooster compatibility hub.
Precision questions, precisely answered
Born 1 February 1993 — Rooster or Monkey?
Monkey. Li Chun 1993 fell in early February, after your date, so the year had not yet turned; you belong to the Water Monkey year of 1992. The finder tool gives the exact boundary hour for any year you care to test.
Which element Rooster am I?
Count sixty-year steps from the anchors: 1993 is a Water Rooster year (1933 + 60), 2005 a Wood Rooster year (1945 + 60), 2017 a Fire Rooster year (1957 + 60), and 2029 will be an Earth Rooster year (1969 + 60).
Do Rooster years clash with anything in 2026?
Not with the year branch. The Rooster’s own clash partner is the Rabbit, 卯, which is not active in 2026, so the year is structurally quiet for this sign. What 2026’s Fire does to your chart depends on your Day Master, not your animal.
If your birthday sits near the early-February line, confirm your true sign first with the Chinese zodiac finder, then look past the animal and plot your full four pillars free with the Ba Zi calculator.