Chinese Zodiac Rat
According to Chinese zodiac signs, 2020 is the year of Rat (鼠), to be more specifical, a Metal Rat year. Lunar new year starts from January 25, 2020, and ends on February 11, 2021.
Chinese Zodiac Rat is the first of the 12 zodiac animals, before ox, tiger and Rabbit. There are three main reasons why the Rat ranks first on the list of Chinese zodiac signs. First, it is in line with the arrangement of Chinese zodiac signs in folklore. Second, ancient Chinese scholars explained the relationship between the Earth Branch and zodiac animals from the perspective of the ancient day and night. Third, according to the Chinese belief in Yin and Yang. The twelve zodiac animals are divided into Yin and Yang, and the Yin and Yang of animals are arranged according to the odd and uneven toes of animals. The number of animal front and back toes are generally the same, and the rat alone has four toes for the forefoot, and five toes for the rearfoot. It is different from the other animals and so rare, so of course Rat is in the first place.
People born in the year of Rat are usually out-going, alert, intuitive, smart, curious, agile and flexible. Rats are optimistic about life and career. However, they lack courage, authority, and command ability, hence insufficient to assume the leadership in an organization or a group.
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Chinese Zodiac Rat Years – Am I a Rat?
Chinese Zodiac years are synchronized with Chinese Lunar Year that is different from the Gregorian calendar year. A zodiac Rat year begins with Chinese New Year, usually starting from late January, and ends in middle February of the next year.
Therefore, to see what your Chinese zodiac animal is, or to confirm whether you are a Rat, you have to change your Gregorian calendar birthday to Lunar Calendar of the year you were born. For example, if you were born on February 1, 1984 (a year of Rat), one day before Lunar New Year, which was so very close to Rat year, but you are a Pig.
In addition to 1984 and 2020, do you know any other Chinese zodiac years of Rat? The years of the Rat increase regularly, with 12 years between each Rat year. With a zodiac calculator, you can calculate the rat years yourself. Any year with a remainder of 4 divided by 12 is the year of the Rat. For example, 2032÷12= quotient, and the remainder is 4, so 2032 is the zodiac year of the Rat. Recent Chinese zodiac Rat years include 1900, 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020, 2032, etc.
When the Rat people have many in common and may share similar personality. But are they exactly the same? Obviously, no. Besides, they may have very different horoscope. Chinese zodiac signs give the reason that there are five elements: gold (Metal), Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth that influence every Rat’s zodiac signs. Each element comes in a 60-year cycle. 2020 is a Metal Rat year, and next Metal Rat year will be 2080. For the question, “am I a Rat? If you were born in 1960 or 1984 (or other zodiac years of Rat), you are most likely a Rat, but there is also chance you are a Pig. With the table of the exact start date and end date of recent Rat zodiac years, you can have a clear idea whether you are a Rat.
Recent Chinese Zodiac Rat Years
Rat Year | Start Date | End Date | Element |
---|---|---|---|
1924 | February 5 ,1924 | January 23, 1925 | Wood Rat |
1936 | January 24, 1936 | February 10, 1937 | Fire Rat |
1948 | February 10, 1948 | January 28, 1949 | Earth Rat |
1960 | January 28, 1960 | February 14, 1961 | Metal Rat |
1972 | February 15, 1972 | February 2, 1973 | Water Rat |
1984 | February 17, 1988 | February 5, 1989 | Wood Rat |
1996 | February 19, 1996 | February 6, 1997 | Fire Rat |
2008 | February 6, 2008 | January 25, 2009 | Earth Rat |
2020 | January 25, 2020 | February 11, 2021 | Metal Rat |
2032 | February 11, 2032 | January 30, 2033 | Water Rat |
Chinese Zodiac Calculator
Chinese Zodiac Rat in Chinese Culture
Rat have appeared in human life since ancient times, and can be seen everywhere in the human cultural and artistic works. However, in Chinese culture, the image of the rat is hardly positive. In most Chinese idioms, proverbs, allusions in Chinese history, Chinese folklores, and novels, rats are always short-sighted, bad-looking, cowardly, stingy, and hard to succeed. In short, rats are notorious. However, there are still rats hero, ritual rats, righteous rats, intelligent rats and spirit rats.
Symbol of Spirituality
Rat’s spirituality consists of two aspects: cleverness and psychic performance. Rat has a keen sense of smell and flexible body. It is timid suspicious and very alert. The Chinese often use the phrase "cleverer than a mouse" to describe someone that is shrewd. Folk also believes that the rat is naturally psychic, and can predict good luck and disaster. This may be because rats are born and grow in nature and respond quickly to the unexpected events such as earthquakes, floods, droughts and locust plagues. Somehow rats became psychic objects in the minds of Chinese people.
Symbol of Strong Vitality
The second symbolic meaning of the rat is its strong vitality, mainly because it has super strong fertility and high survival rate. For example, a mother rat in the natural state of each fetus can give birth to 5-10 baby rats, and up to 24. And the gestation period is only 21 days. Beyond that, the mother rat can be pregnant again on the day of delivery, the baby rats mature after only 30-40 days, among which the female join the ranks of reproduction. Over and over again, female rats can give birth to around 5,000 children a year, and the number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren is too many to count. According to a study, a unique chemical in the mother's womb stimulates male and make them always submit to their spouses, which may be one of the reasons for the crazy breeding of rat.
Therefore, in Chinese folklore, a mother who is good at giving birth to her children is called "rat fetus" or "rat belly", which refers to her strong fertility.
Besides that, the survival rate of rats is high and the life span is long. If it is not for the attack of cats or large-scale extermination of human beings, most of them can enjoy their old age in peace, die of old age, and have a full family of offspring, which is unattainable for other animals.
>> Keep reading top 10 Legends about Chinese New Year to know Rat's story in Chinese culture
Lucky and Unlucky Things for People Born in the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Rat
Things to Bring Rat Good luck
Things to Bring Rat Bad Luck
Chinese Zodiac Rat Traits: Smart, Talkative, Easy-going, Curious and intuitive...
Here comes the zodiac Rat personality. Rat is one of the most active Chinese zodiac animals.
They usually have a magic personality that make them as popular as Mickey Mouse. However, their friendly manners sometimes seem to be a bit restrained.
According to Chinese zodiac signs, Rats are open, honest, hard-working, happy, and easy to get along with. Once in a while, you may run into a few critical, whiny, and critical Rat-people. But, in general, they are gregarious and like group activities. You can always find them among close friends or associates. They like to get involved and be friendly.
Rats are often frugal, thrifty, and will not give money to anyone unless they are very fond of them.
Strengths of Rat:
Weakness of Rat:
Male Rat Personalities
Careful and quiet, Rat men are conscientious workers who take their jobs very seriously. The rat man is a good communicator. He will always find a way to get the information he wants and make changes to it.
Rat men are emotionally rich, fantasizing and wanting a quality life, but on the other hand, they prefer to enjoy it with people only close to them. If you ask them what they want to do for a career, they probably will say something out of the popular professions. They prefer to be puppeteers, lifeguards or charity workers.
In a relationship, male Rats may choose to observe the object of their affection in silence at first, but after being together, they become suspicious, often insecure, and worry that their partners do not love them enough. Such feelings are also related to their deep sense of inferiority. After marriage, they love their family very much and are patient with their wife and kids.
Female Male Personalities
In Chinese zodiac signs, women born in the year of the Rat are thrifty, resourceful, clever, and hard-working. They are good at hiding themselves, have a positive attitude towards work and life, have a strong memory, and are good at finding problems. They are always curious, and interested in new people and things around them. Female Rats are always ready to help others, and very popular with friends.
Except doting children and being overly concerned with her husband, a Rat mother is a very good housewife. She will help her husband with his career, and drive kids to piano practice, ballet and violin. She is also able to undertake heavy and frequent social work.
As for their downsides, female Rats are timid, suspicious and conservative. They are shortsighted and lack cognitive ability in some problems. They seem very nosy, keeping their eyes on people and things with curiosity. especially the affairs of their relatives and friends. And, they would worry about and take care of even trivial matters.
Chinese Zodiac Rat Five Elements for Five Characteristics
Elements | Personalities | Recent Years |
---|---|---|
Fire Rat | Suave, active, full of energy, straight-forward | 1936, 1996, 2056 |
Earth Rat | Very intelligent with unique thinking ability, high self-esteem, warm and kind, adventurous | 1948, 2008, 2068 |
Metal Rat | Eloquent, positive, insistent, good at money, an idealist | 1900, 1960, 2020 |
Water Rat | Very compassionate, always have original ideas on things, make every penny count | 1912, 1972, 2032 |
Wood Rat | Aggressive, good at analyzing and understanding, a little grumpy, difficult to accept other people's advice | 1924, 1984, 2044 |
Chinese Zodiac Rat Love Compatibility – Your Most Compatible Zodiacs
“I m a Rat, and I wonder whether a Rabbit is a good partner for me”.
If you have a similar question and want to work on a relationship using the Chinese zodiac signs for reference, here we go.
Rats are positive, easy going, and smart. When a Rat is always popular among friends, how they behave in a relationship? What are the best and worst match for Rat?
Best Matches: OX, Dragon, Money
People born in the zodiac sign year of Ox are calm and peaceful. They are very loyal to a relationship and will not betray their lovers easily. What's more, they are steady and responsible. When a rat starts a relationship with an Ox, the Rat will be happy and feel secure. Rat and Ox are truly a perfect match.
Rats are mild and sincere. They respect and care for others, while the Dragons are a bit haughty, usually have many ideas and fantasies, and are desire to be always concerned in a relationship – Rats can satisfy Dragon in every way. Therefore they can take very good use of the advantages of each other, and realize their shared dreams.
Rats and Monkeys share common topics and goals, and admire and trust each other. Rats can tolerate each other's many shortcomings, and take good care of their partners, while Monkeys are smart and intelligent, and generally can make a difference in the workplace. They cooperate very well in life and relationship.
Least Matches: Sheep, Horse, Rabbit
When Rat people meet Sheep people, there will be hatred and no sympathy for each other. They have nothing in common and can't get along well with each other.
When Rat people meet Horse people, there will be displeasure and personality conflict. The competition between Rat and Horse is very fierce. There is likely a strong conflict in their work, business, or a love relationship between Rat and Horse.
Rats and Rabbits tend to have less friendly relationship with each other, not reaching a friendship and having strong conflicts of consciousness.
Rat’s Love Compatibility with 12 Chinese Zodiac Animals
Rat | Ox | Tiger | Rabbit | Dragon | Snake |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Good | Perfect | Average | Bad | Perfect | Average |
Horse | Goat | Monkey | Rooster | Dog | Pig |
Best | Average | Worst | Average | Best | Best |
Guide for Rats’ Career & Jobs
From the perspective of Chinese zodiac signs, Rats are motivated and independent, they are better suited to unrestricted work than being employees of large corporations. Good jobs for Rat people include academics, musicians, doctors, critics, researchers, entertainers, running a personalized shop, running a coffee shop, and accounting.
With their keen powers of observation, Rats are well perfect for media jobs, old things improvement or creative work. Rat people have a profound and full understanding of life. They have their own way of painting facts and dreams.
In addition, some fine crafts and jobs requiring careful attention are also suitable for Rats people, such as those work about handling general affairs, commodity management and acceptance, decoration, beautification, gardening, handicrafts, photography, etc. When being engaged in these kind of jobs, Rats can give full play to their strengths, and easy to obtain the highest sense of achievement.
Rat people work smoothly and successfully when working alone. However, it is likely for them to become uncreative when working with others, unless they learn to cooperate and coordinate with these people.
However, although the Rats are widely thought as a public figure, they are not suitable to be engaged in political or social jobs, specifically, political officials or police officers.
Zodiac Rat Famous People
Politicians:
Artists:
Ben Affleck: born on August 15 (the 7th day of the seventh lunar month), 1972, Fire Rat
Athletes:
Zodiac Rat’s Horoscope in 2025 - the Year of Snake
According to the Chinese horoscope for the year of the Snake 2025, the overall fortune of Rat people will be improved. Your fortune in all aspects will be relatively stable under the positive influences of lucky stars “Ziwei”, "Longde" and "Luxun". Profits in your career and business will increase.
However, blessings and misfortunes depend on each other. This is true for people born in the Year of the Rat. Although there will be help from many auspicious stars in the coming year, you should not be too careless. The emergence of "Baobai" star will also have a certain negative impact on wealth. While working hard to make money, you are suggested to be cautious when spending your money.
Read the details of Zodiac Rat’s horoscope in 2025 and follow the advice.
Career
When coming to work and career, those who belong to the Chinese zodiac sign Rats will have smooth sailing in your career. Favored by the two auspicious stars "Ziwei" and "Longde", people born in the Year of the Rat can make certain achievements by using their talents, even in unfamiliar fields.
You will not only be appreciated for your talents and contribution, but also get an increase for position. So you’d better work hard in the year of the Dragon and seize the opportunity to express yourself.
Love & Relationship
Entering the Year of the Snake, people born in the Year of the Rat will spend most of your time and energy on striving for career and making money. Therefore, the fortune in the relationship aspect will be relatively flat. The zodiac Rats’ love horoscope are not ideal for both singles and those in a relationship.
In 2025, it is unlikely that single Rats will have many opportunities to find love. As for married Rats or whose in romantic relationship, there will be quarrels, but fortunately you will resolve conflict soon. Spend more quality time with a loved one, communicate often, and consider planning a romantic holiday.
Wealth
The Chinese horoscope for the year of the Snake 2025 reveals Rat people will experience wealth growth, compared with the previous year. After entering the Year of the Snake, the auspicious star "Lu Xun" will bring about an improvement in wealth. If you change to a new job, your salary and benefits will also increase.
People born in the Year of the Rat are hard-working by nature. In your spare time, you can also make extra money by doing side hustles. Doing multiple jobs at the same time may become very common in the future, and the income will naturally increase exponentially.
Health
Entering 2025, there may be increase in job opportunities. Don’t forget to eat right and get enough rest. If you don’t take care of your health, it will be easy to get sick, such as infections, throat pain, frequent colds, and gastrointestinal inflammation.
If you have time on weekends, hang out with a few friends or climb mountains with your family. It can enhance relationships and relax your body and mind, which is good for your physical and mental health.
Chinese Zodiac Rat Vocabulary & Idioms
Chinese | Pinyin | English |
---|---|---|
生肖 | shēng xiāo | Chinese Zodiac |
农历生日 | nóng lì shēng rì | Lunar Birthday |
你属什么 | nǐ shǔ shén me | What is your Chinese zodiac animal? |
我属鼠 | Wǒ shǔ shǔ | I am a Rat in the Chinese zodiac signs |
胆小如鼠 | dǎn xiǎo rú shǔ | Cannot say boh to a goose |
投鼠忌器 | tóu shǔ jì qì | Hold back from taking action against sb. for fear of injuring others |
罗雀掘鼠 | luó què jué shǔ | Spread a net for sparrows and dig for rats (in times of starvation) |
相鼠有皮 | xiàng shǔ yǒu pí | Look at there is still skin on the rat. It used to mean that one should have a sense of shame and honor |