Chinese is somewhat similar to western astrology as you can see. You find your animal sign by the year you were born. There are twelve animals that begin with the rat and ends with the boar. Story has it that the Jade Emperor, the ruler of the heaven, decided which animals to choose and the order of importance in which they should be placed. However there are different stories so the origin is unclear. The Emperor found twelve of the most interesting animals to select which position they should be in. He looked at the different animals and finally placed them in the places that he felt worthy.

The T'ung Shu, a Chinese almanac was then produced each year with the astrological and astronomical data for each day of the Chinese year. It dates back to more that 4,000 years with the purpose to help farmers with planting and sow. It wasn't till 2,000 years passed before it was used for astrology. Then it gradually decided the fortunes of emperors soon enough people started to use the fortunes themselves. It became very popular around the T'ang dynasty (A.D. 618-907) and an encyclopedia had been constructed around the art of fortune telling. Since then it had been a part of everyday life for the Chinese and others who follow it.

The twelve animals are a basic part of Chinese astrology. The signs are based on the person's year of birth. The 12 animals will always appear in the same order. They are in order rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and boar.

The twelve animals are just one aspect of the Chinese system along with it is the sixty day cycle. The cycle is formed by the interaction of the features such as Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches. The elements are based on the five planets that were visible to the Chinese astronomers. The elements are water (Mercury), metal (Venus), fire (Mars), wood (Jupiter), and earth (Saturn).

There is also the Three Lives horoscope written by the Buddhist and Taoist monks. The three lives horoscope was used to reveal ones fortune at birth. It dates back to 1500 A.D. and is suppose to predict the present, past and future lives.

Like western astrology there are more parts to the horoscope then the twelve animals. You can use the sixty-year cycle with the Heavenly Steams and Earthly Branches. Also you can find out more about your fortune with hour, day and month of your birth. And then there are different parts to the Three Lives horoscope. All these parts can help you find the fortune of your life!

In each of the sectors of the disk, next to the animals are the Chinese characters for them; in the beige-brown circle are names of the earth branches, and in the blue center are the names of the heaven stems. The characters in the blue center trail away -- because this area is too small to present the whole circle which it takes 60 combination.