About Zodiac Origins

What this site is

Zodiac Origins is a small, fully static website about the Chinese zodiac. It offers encyclopedia-style profiles of the twelve signs, a twelve-question personality test, a compatibility guide, guides to the five elements, and a calculator that finds the zodiac sign for any birth date.

It is written for curious readers everywhere: people exploring their family’s traditions, students of Chinese culture, writers checking folklore details, and anyone who has been asked “what’s your sign?” around Lunar New Year and wanted a better answer than a shrug.

There are no accounts to create, nothing to install, and nothing to buy. Every interactive feature runs directly in your browser.

How the test works

The personality test asks twelve scenario questions — how you handle a deadline, a windfall, a quarrel, a quiet afternoon. Each answer carries a small weight toward the signs whose traditional temperament it most resembles. When you finish, the weights are totaled and the sign with the highest score is your result. The scoring matrix is exactly balanced, so every one of the twelve signs is equally reachable — the test plays no favorites.

Everything happens in your browser through JavaScript. Your answers are never sent to a server, never stored, and never seen by us. Close the page and they are gone.

The test is not a psychometric instrument. Think of it as a structured way to look at yourself through twelve very old archetypes.

How compatibility scores work

Our compatibility scores are derived mechanically from the traditional relations between the twelve Earthly Branches: the Six Harmonies, the trines, and the clashes, harms, and punishments of Chinese folk astrology. Favorable relations raise a pairing’s score, unfavorable ones lower it, and the result is expressed on a scale of one to five.

To be clear about what is old and what is ours: the relations come from tradition, while the way we convert them into numbers is our own editorial synthesis. Tradition names the harmonies and the clashes — it does not hand out scores.

On tradition and accuracy

The Chinese zodiac is living folk culture, from the Great Race legend to the Earthly Branches that tie the signs to the calendar. We aim to describe the tradition accurately, and where regional versions differ — and they often do — we try to say so rather than flatten them into a single official story.

We are equally honest about what this is not: it is folklore, not science. Nothing here predicts your future or measures your mind. The site exists for cultural education, self-reflection, and fun — not for medical, financial, legal, or psychological guidance.

Contact

Questions, corrections, or a version of the legend we have not heard? Write to [email protected]. We read everything, and corrections are especially welcome.