The Monkey is the animal of quick wit: curiosity, humor, and a talent for inventive solutions.
The animal that learns by playing: its mental agility is an asset, provided it knows how to see things through.
A rare mental agility: the Monkey understands fast, adapts, finds the unexpected solution, and brings cheer everywhere.
Scattering lies in wait: it starts a lot, has fun with everything, and may dodge serious subjects.
By Thomas Guilhot · updated
| Year | Starts | Element | Polarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1968戊申 | January 30, 1968 | Earth | Yang |
| 1980庚申 | February 16, 1980 | Metal | Yang |
| 1992壬申 | February 4, 1992 | Water | Yang |
| 2004甲申 | January 22, 2004 | Wood | Yang |
| 2016丙申 | February 8, 2016 | Fire | Yang |
| 2028戊申 | January 26, 2028 | Earth | Yang |
| 2040庚申 | February 12, 2040 | Metal | Yang |
The Monkey is curious about everything.
It learns fast, mimics well, bounces back from obstacles, and wields humor with ease. Sociable, it easily finds a place in groups. Its downside: impatience with whatever demands slowness, a tendency toward trickery when candor would do, and a mind so mobile that it sometimes leaves projects half done. A real challenge, one that engages its intelligence, holds it better than obligations that bore it. It has a sense of play, even in serious situations: it defuses tension with a joke, invents a trick, turns a constraint into a challenge. Its memory is sharp, its desire to learn inexhaustible. It is interested in people as much as in machines, and can imitate an accent as well as a method. It is sometimes called sly; it is above all curious and quick. Its weak point is endurance: when a project loses its novelty, it drops out, changes subject, promises several people at the same time. Setting itself a visible goal, with playful steps, lets it keep its whimsy while honoring its commitments.
The Monkey charms through conversation, humor, and the unexpected.
It loves the game of meeting someone, small shared challenges, surprises. Over time, it needs stimulation so as not to wither. A partner who laughs with it, but can also ask it for more depth, helps it take root without dampening its whimsy. It charms with laughter and surprise, but attaches to people who can follow it onto the terrain of ideas.
It shines in roles that call for adaptation: innovation, sales, teaching, technology, creation.
It quickly grasps the logic of a system and makes use of it. Its creativity does well to be channeled by clear deadlines, and complemented by someone who handles follow-through, where it tires. It spots the shortcuts and flaws of a system, a precious talent whenever a process needs improving.
The Monkey keeps a thousand activities going in parallel: reading, tinkering, conversations, last-minute getaways.
Its day needs variety to stay alive. It does well to pick one main project for the week, rather than tackling everything at once, and to finish it before moving to the next. Games, tinkering, exchanges of ideas: its free time revolves around whatever lets it learn.
The element changes from one twelve-year cycle to the next: the same animal year comes back with a different element, and the same pairing returns every sixty years.
1944, 2004, 2064
The Wood Monkey is said to be more open and more generous: it likes to pass things on, gets excited about ideas, and readily rallies people.
The Wood element →1956, 2016, 2076
The Fire Monkey is said to be bolder and chattier: a dazzling quickness, but also an impatience that skips steps.
The Fire element →1908, 1968, 2028, 2088
The Earth Monkey is said to be steadier and more dependable: its mischief comes with a solid practical sense, which reassures those around it.
The Earth element →1932, 1992, 2052
The Water Monkey is said to be more intuitive and more empathetic: it reads situations with finesse and slips between difficulties.
The Water element →Triangle, opposition, secret friend, harm: relationships handed down by tradition, described without a score.
Four years apart: the same affinities, according to tradition.
Six years apart: face to face on the circle.
A pair known as “secret friends” (liuhe).
A pair known as “harm” (liuhai), one that needs adjusting.
In Chinese culture, the monkey embodies the sly and mischievous spirit.
The famous Monkey King of the classic novel “Journey to the West” is its best-known illustration. In the animal race, the Monkey is said to have played with the Rooster and the Goat to cross the river and arrive ninth. These stories belong to literature and folklore, not history. In Chinese tradition, the monkey is tied to intelligence, but also to creative disorder. The novel Journey to the West, written in the Ming era, makes it an impertinent character, gifted with magical powers, who learns humility along the way. This figure has remained very popular in tales and theater.
Each year of the Monkey begins at Chinese New Year, between January 21 and February 20: a birth in January or early February often belongs to the previous animal.
Before the year’s Chinese New Year, the animal is still that of the previous year: the Goat. Example: January 25, 2028, the eve of the 2028 New Year, still belongs to the Goat.
Check with my date →All the years in the table: 1908, 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016, 2028, 2040, 2052, 2064, 2076, 2088, 2100.
Ninth in the cycle, the Monkey comes around every twelve years. The page calculates these years with each one’s New Year; that is the day the animal changes, not at the passage from December 31 to January 1.
If the Chinese year had not yet begun at your birth, the animal of the previous year remains yours. The Monkey is therefore not always the animal of the calendar year. Entering your date in the tool clarifies the situation and warns you when the date is close to the day of the changeover.
It is credited with quickness, inventiveness, humor, and sociability; it is faulted for scattering and sometimes trickery. This is a symbolic archetype, which everyone can test against their own experience to keep whatever sheds light.
The trine of affinity brings together the Monkey, the Rat, and the Dragon; a secret harmony links it to the Snake. It stands in opposition to the Tiger and in harm with the Pig. These are traditional reference points, which confine no relationship: the compatibility page develops them.