Your hour animal
The recorded local clock time identifies the familiar branch animal. This is often called the secret animal in popular Chinese-zodiac guides.
Find the animal assigned to your birth shíchén, the traditional two-hour period behind the BaZi Hour Pillar. See the quick local-time answer and the accuracy boundary clearly.
Chinese timekeeping divides the day into twelve shíchén. Each two-hour period carries one Earthly Branch and zodiac animal, beginning with Rat Hour at 11 PM.
The recorded local clock time identifies the familiar branch animal. This is often called the secret animal in popular Chinese-zodiac guides.
A full Hour Pillar adds a Heavenly Stem based on the Day Stem and checks location, time-zone history, daylight saving, and solar-time correction near boundaries.
Year, month, day, and hour each contribute a stem-branch pair. Add your birth date and city to place this hour animal beside the other three branches, your Day Master, and the Five Elements balance.
Enter your recorded local birth time. The calculator maps it to one of the twelve traditional shíchén, two-hour periods named for the same Earthly Branch animals used by the Chinese zodiac.
Rat begins at 11 PM, followed every two hours by Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. Pig Hour ends at 10:59 PM.
No. It is sometimes compared with a Western rising sign or called a secret animal, but technically it is the Earthly Branch of your birth shíchén. A Western ascendant uses a different astronomical system.
No. The animal is only the Earthly Branch. The complete Hour Pillar pairs that branch with a Heavenly Stem calculated from the Day Stem, so it also requires your full birth date.
It can near a two-hour boundary. A complete BaZi calculation may adjust the recorded clock time for time zone, daylight saving, longitude, and local solar time before fixing the Hour Pillar.
Choose the closest two-hour period if family records give an approximate time. Keep the Hour Pillar tentative if the estimate is near a boundary or the birth time is unknown.
Yes. The hour-animal result is free and requires no account or email. The linked Four Pillars calculator also shows the chart and introductory reading for free; five deeper chapters are an optional one-time $4.99 unlock.