Character library › The twelve zodiac animals
The twelve zodiac animals — free printable worksheets
Twelve animals, twelve years, one repeating cycle — and the character for each one.
12 characters · 2 sheets · A4 and US Letter
Why these 12
Ask someone in China what year they were born and you may get an animal rather than a number. The twelve-year cycle runs rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig, and the story children are told is that the order was settled by a race across a river — the rat rode the ox and jumped off at the bank to win. The characters are worth learning on their own merit: most of them are ancient pictographs, and several are radicals that turn up inside hundreds of other characters.
All 12 characters
Questions people ask
It depends on the lunar new year date, not 1 January. Someone born in late January or February needs to check which side of that year's new year they fall on.
No. The Chinese 龙 commands rain and rivers and was the emperor's emblem — a benevolent water spirit rather than a hoarder of gold in a cave.