9 of 12 · branch Shen (申) · element Metal · last Monkey year 2016
申时 is late afternoon, the hour when the forest noisiest — and, in folk belief, the hour when monkeys are most restless. The Monkey owes much of its character to the Journey to the West hero Sun Wukong, so cleverness, irreverence and a talent for getting out of trouble all attach to it.
The branch repeats every twelve years, but the stem in front of it moves by two each time, so the element cycles through all five. That is why two Monkey years can feel quite different.
The table above treats a whole Gregorian year as one animal, which is true for most of it. January and early February are the exception: the zodiac turns at the Start of Spring (around 4 February, exact to the minute) in divination, and at the lunar new year in festival usage. Between those two dates the animal is still the previous one.
Pick the exact date in the zodiac lookup, or open this year’s New Year date to see where the line falls.