The Rabbit is the animal of gentleness: delicacy, tact, caution, and a sense of harmony.
The animal that would rather defuse than win: its strength is nuance, its trap is evasion.
An art of soothing: the Rabbit senses tensions before they erupt and finds the words that bring people closer.
Avoiding conflict can delay real conversations: what goes unsaid piles up in silence.
By Thomas Guilhot · updated
| Year | Starts | Element | Polarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1963癸卯 | January 25, 1963 | Water | Yin |
| 1975乙卯 | February 11, 1975 | Wood | Yin |
| 1987丁卯 | January 29, 1987 | Fire | Yin |
| 1999己卯 | February 16, 1999 | Earth | Yin |
| 2011辛卯 | February 3, 2011 | Metal | Yin |
| 2023癸卯 | January 22, 2023 | Water | Yin |
| 2035乙卯 | February 8, 2035 | Wood | Yin |
The Rabbit seeks peace, to the point of making it an art.
Courteous, attentive to details and to atmosphere, it likes well-kept interiors, hushed conversations, and simple, refined pleasures. It observes a great deal, commits with care, and prefers gentle cunning to confrontation. This wisdom has a price: a tendency to flee what disturbs, to say yes so as not to ruffle anyone, and to put off uncomfortable decisions, until the unease grows quietly. It knows how to host a gathering, spare people’s feelings, listen at length without interrupting, and it reads silences as much as words. It is credited with sure taste, talents as a host, a discreet humor, and great loyalty to those who have welcomed it. It prefers reconciliations to victories. Its need for security makes it careful in its life choices: it wants to see the terrain before stepping forward. When pressure rises, it may withdraw, steer the conversation elsewhere, or fade into the background. The lesson is to set its limits, gently but clearly: its diplomacy will only be more credible for it.
The Rabbit is tender, discreet, and attentive.
It creates a home where people can breathe, remembers the other’s tastes, and likes delicate attentions. It dreads raised voices and may keep quiet about a disagreement for months. A relationship works for it when its partner invites it to say what bothers it without rushing it, and gives it time to find its words. Its tenderness shows through listening, thoughtfulness, and the small comforts of shared daily life.
Diplomatic, careful, and gifted for mediation, it excels in roles of relationship, advice, creation, or conciliation.
It quickly finds consensus. Faced with a decision that will upset someone, it may drag its feet. Setting a deadline in advance, with someone waiting on it, helps it decide without feeling pushed. It calms tense meetings and can bring together viewpoints that seemed opposed.
At home, everything is a matter of softness: dim light, chosen objects, music, a reading nook.
It needs a refuge to recover after overly full days. Noisy outings tire it quickly. It finds them worthwhile when they stay rare and chosen, with people whose presence it enjoys. It likes peaceful rituals: a cup of tea, a book, a quiet walk at dusk.
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.
1915, 1975, 2035, 2095
The Wood Rabbit is said to double its element: very generous and sensitive to others, it easily forgets itself in service to those around it.
The Wood element →1927, 1987, 2047
The Fire Rabbit is said to be more expressive and more enthusiastic: it dares more to say what it feels, with a contagious warmth.
The Fire element →1939, 1999, 2059
The Earth Rabbit is said to be more pragmatic and more dependable: it anchors itself in safe habits and protects its home with constancy.
The Earth element →1903, 1963, 2023, 2083
The Water Rabbit is said to be the most intuitive and most receptive: it picks up others’ emotions and may be overwhelmed by them.
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 some regions, notably Vietnam, the Rabbit is replaced by the Cat in the zodiac.
A legend has it that the Cat missed the race, tricked by the Rat. In China, the rabbit is associated with the Moon, where people believe they glimpse a hare preparing an elixir. These stories are popular and variable; they feed the image of a gentle, lively, slightly dreamy animal. In Chinese culture, the rabbit or hare is a lunar animal: it is said to pound, in the hollow of the Moon, the elixir of immortality. This image gives the animal an aura of gentleness, symbolic longevity, and good fortune. It appears at the Mid-Autumn Festival, where the Moon is celebrated. Accounts differ by place and era.
Each year of the Rabbit 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 Tiger. Example: February 7, 2035, the eve of the 2035 New Year, still belongs to the Tiger.
Check with my date →All the years in the table: 1903, 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011, 2023, 2035, 2047, 2059, 2071, 2083, 2095.
The Rabbit holds fourth place and comes around every twelve years. The list of years is calculated by the tool on the page, along with the exact day each Chinese year begins; that marker, more than the calendar year, determines the animal.
Possibly not. If your birth falls before the New Year of the Chinese year, you are assigned to the outgoing animal. The Rabbit is therefore not found by simply reading the calendar year: the tool checks your date against the lunar calendar and gives you an answer.
It is credited with tact, caution, and a taste for beauty and calm. Its supposed flaws: avoiding conflict and a certain indecision. These traits form a symbolic portrait, to be read with distance: a person may recognize themselves in it in part, or not at all.
The Rabbit shares a trine of affinity with the Goat and the Pig, and a secret harmony with the Dog. Against the Rooster, tradition speaks of opposition; against the Dragon, of harm. None of this decides how two people get along: the compatibility page explains these terms and their nuances.