Monkey in the Chinese zodiac: years, character and affinities

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The Monkey in brief

The Monkey is the ninth animal of the cycle. Its branch, 申 (shēn), corresponds to the hour from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and to the beginning of autumn. In the Chinese imagination, the monkey is a mischievous and inventive character, often the hero of tales, admired for its quickness and treated with a little caution because of its tricks.

Its Chinese name is 猴, pronounced hóu. It corresponds to the earthly branch 申 (shēn), which has yang polarity and which, in the theory of the five phases, carries the Metal element. Be careful not to confuse this element, which belongs to the animal, with the element of your year of birth, which varies: see below. In the traditional division of the day, the branch 申 designates the hour from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. It is linked to the season of “autumn” and to the west-south-west direction on the traditional compass.

The years of the Monkey (1936 to 2032)

Here are the years under the sign of the Monkey, with the element of each and the exact dates (Chinese New Year, according to the tables of the Hong Kong Observatory). A person born in January or early February, before the date indicated, generally belongs to the previous sign.

Year	Sign and element	Polarity	Period (from Chinese New Year to the eve of the next one)
1944	Wood Monkey	yang	from 25 January 1944 to 12 February 1945
1956	Fire Monkey	yang	from 12 February 1956 to 30 January 1957
1968	Earth Monkey	yang	from 30 January 1968 to 16 February 1969
1980	Metal Monkey	yang	from 16 February 1980 to 4 February 1981
1992	Water Monkey	yang	from 4 February 1992 to 22 January 1993
2004	Wood Monkey	yang	from 22 January 2004 to 8 February 2005
2016	Fire Monkey	yang	from 8 February 2016 to 27 January 2017
2028	Earth Monkey	yang	from 26 January 2028 to 12 February 2029

To understand this calculation, see the page on how to calculate your Chinese zodiac sign.

Symbolic portrait of the Monkey

Tradition describes the Monkey as lively, curious and ingenious. It is associated with a spirit of adaptation, humour, a love of play, practical intelligence, sociability and the ability to find unexpected solutions. The Monkey likes to understand how things work, and to take them apart to see.

The symbolic reverse side: scattered attention, impatience, a habit of dodging or joking to avoid serious subjects, and a tendency to think itself cleverer than others. Popular portraits also suggest a need for constant stimulation. These are traditional images; they do not describe a real person.

In the zodiac, the Monkey is a yang sign of Metal. Metal evokes clarity and precision, which tempers the monkey’s restlessness with a certain rigour of mind.

The Monkey in Chinese culture

Sun Wukong. The Monkey King is the hero of the novel Journey to the West (Xiyou ji), attributed to Wu Cheng’en and published in the Ming period, in the sixteenth century. Born from a stone, master of seventy-two transformations, armed with a magic staff, he proclaims himself “Great Sage, Equal of Heaven”, throws the celestial palace into disorder, and then becomes the companion of the monk Xuanzang. The novel draws on the historical journey of this monk to India in the seventh century, but the monkey is a pure literary creation. He now appears in operas, films, comics and video games.

A pun of good omen. The word hóu (monkey, 猴) is pronounced like hóu (marquis, 侯), a noble title. A classic image therefore shows a monkey on horseback: 马上封侯 (mǎshàng fēnghóu), “soon to be made a marquis”. Two monkeys, one above the other, express the wish for a success handed down from generation to generation.

Real monkeys. China is home to macaques and gibbons, whose calls poetry and painting have celebrated in the mountains, and to the golden snub-nosed monkey, a rare and protected species of the mountains of central and south-western China. The living animal needs forests, which deforestation is reducing.

The five Monkeys by element

In the sixty-year cycle, each animal successively receives each of the five elements. The portraits below are traditional symbolic nuances: they do not designate real personalities and are not universal.

Variant	Years (1924 to 2043)	Symbolic nuance
Wood Monkey	1944, 2004	Curious, creative, communicative; may flit from one project to another.
Fire Monkey	1956, 2016	Brilliant, energetic, charming; its liveliness can turn into nervousness.
Earth Monkey	1968, 2028	More thoughtful and practical; keeps a taste for play but chooses its battles better.
Metal Monkey	1980, 2040	Very logical, precise and ambitious; can be demanding of others.
Water Monkey	1932, 1992	Intuitive, flexible and observant; sometimes hesitates between several paths.

Take the example of a Wood Monkey year: the element of the year is Wood, while the animal’s own element is Metal. Some schools look at how the two respond to each other (production, control, harmony). These are frameworks for reading, not verdicts.

Traditional affinities of the Monkey

Tradition compares the animals of two people by looking at their place on the circle of the twelve branches. For the Monkey, here are the classic relationships.

Traditional relationship	Animals concerned	Image
Affinity trio (sanhe)	Monkey, Rat and Dragon	Three animals four positions apart, often presented as sharing the same momentum
Union (liuhe, “six harmonies”)	Monkey and Snake	A pair of animals associated by tradition, seen as complementary
Opposition (liuchong)	Monkey and Tiger	Two animals six positions apart, facing each other on the circle: contrast, friction
Harm (liuhai)	Monkey and Pig	A link said to be “troublesome”: possible misunderstandings, according to tradition

These rules come from the theory of the branches and do not measure the value of a relationship: two people with “opposed” animals can get along very well, and two “united” animals can quarrel. Some sources add other relationships (“punishments”, “destructions”), which shows that these grids vary from school to school. Keep them as a set of mirrors, never as a verdict on a couple, a friendship or a hiring decision.

Going further: questions for reflection

If you were born under this sign, or simply want to understand the image it carries, here are some questions to ask yourself, without expecting a right answer.

• What is the last thing I learned purely out of curiosity?
• When does my humour bring people closer, and when does it protect me?
• Which project could I finish before starting another?
• Who makes me want to settle down, and why?

Like all Chinese astrology, the portrait of the Monkey is a symbolic tradition: without scientific proof, it predicts neither your character nor your future. For an overview, read the introduction to Chinese astrology.

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The meanings mentioned belong to tradition and symbolism. They are neither promises of results nor medical advice. Back to Chinese astrology.