Open data
Chinese zodiac year boundaries, 1901 to 2100
Two dates decide which animal a birth year carries: Li Chun, the solar term that opens spring and starts the year pillar in the branch record, and the first day of the first lunar month. Both are here for all 200 years, so any year can be looked up directly.
Coverage
- Years
- 1901-2100
- Rows
- 200
- Last rebuilt
- 2026-10-21
- Source
- Hong Kong Observatory
Read from the Hong Kong Observatory's Gregorian-Lunar Calendar Conversion Table, text edition, one file per year. The Observatory publishes 1901 to 2100; this dataset covers the same span with no gaps.
What the 200 years show
| Years with no gap at all | 1905, 1924, 1943, 1992, 2038, 2087 |
|---|---|
| Widest window | 1985, 2053 (+16) |
| Narrowest window | 1966 (-14) |
Download
The same rows in two shapes. The JSON carries the source block and the field definitions; the CSV is flat, for spreadsheets.
How the dates were checked
Every year passed three independent tests before it entered the file. A year that failed one was dropped rather than guessed at.
- The Li Chun date and the lunar new year date were parsed from the English table and from the Chinese table separately, then required to match exactly. A year where the two tables disagree is dropped rather than guessed.
- The stem-branch pair printed in each table header was re-derived with (year - 1984) mod 60 and required to agree with the header.
- The result was regressed against the 1940-2030 version this file replaces: 91 overlapping years, zero field differences.
Fields
The JSON rows carry the nine fields below. The CSV has the same nine columns, with the stem-branch pair as one string and the animal pair joined by a pipe: 庚辰, Rabbit|Dragon.
One limit worth stating: this table has day resolution only. Li Chun is an instant — 04:02 on 4 February 2026, 23:15 on 3 February 1987 — so a birth earlier on the Li Chun date still belongs to the previous year pillar. The table records which day the boundary falls on, not which side of it a birth sits.
year | Gregorian year the row belongs to. |
|---|---|
li_chun | Li Chun (立春), the solar term that opens spring. ISO date, as published. |
lunar_new_year | First day of the first lunar month (正月初一). ISO date, as published. |
gap_days | Lunar new year minus Li Chun, in days. Positive means Li Chun came first. |
first_line | Which boundary comes first: li_chun, lunar_new_year, or same_day. |
ganzhi | The year's stem-branch pair (干支), as printed in the table header. |
animal | The animal on the Li Chun line — the year's animal in the branch record. |
animal_previous | The animal one year earlier. |
animals_between | The two animals a birthday between the boundaries can carry. |
Sample rows
Seven years chosen to show both orderings and the same-day case.
| Year | Li Chun | Lunar new year | Gap (days) | Animals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1901 | 1901-02-04 | 1901-02-19 | +15 | Rat / Ox |
| 1912 | 1912-02-05 | 1912-02-18 | +13 | Pig / Rat |
| 1943 | 1943-02-05 | 1943-02-05 | 0 | Horse / Goat |
| 1984 | 1984-02-04 | 1984-02-02 | -2 | Pig / Rat |
| 1992 | 1992-02-04 | 1992-02-04 | 0 | Goat / Monkey |
| 2026 | 2026-02-04 | 2026-02-17 | +13 | Snake / Horse |
| 2100 | 2100-02-04 | 2100-02-09 | +5 | Goat / Monkey |
Citing this dataset
No permission needed. Use this shape, or link the JSON directly.
GPTbazi, Chinese zodiac year boundaries 1901-2100, derived from the Hong Kong Observatory Gregorian-Lunar Calendar Conversion Table. https://gptbazi.com/zodiac-dates
The JSON carries its own source block, field definitions and coverage note, so a script can attribute it without reading this page.
The article this dataset was built forLook up your sign by birth year and monthSources