2023 Year of the Rabbit (Water): Dates & Li Chun

2023 is a Water Rabbit year (Gui-Mao, 癸卯) in the Chinese zodiac calendar. The name comes from the year’s stem-branch pair: the Heavenly Stem Gui supplies the water element, and the Mao Earthly Branch supplies the Rabbit. The same pair returns once every 60 years.

Water adds depth, diplomacy, and strategic sensitivity. A Water Rabbit year tends to be perceptive, harmonious, and psychologically nuanced. For people born in this year, the water modifier shapes how the Rabbit’s traditional traits (graceful, diplomatic, and observant) express themselves.

In a Bazi chart, Gui-Mao (癸卯)would be only the year pillar, one of four. The day pillar’s stem (the Day Master) is the reference point of the reading, so two people born in 2023 can have very different charts.

Read the Rabbit zodiac page for the base Rabbit personality, or use the Bazi calculator to see how this year pillar interacts with your full chart.

The 2023 Year of the Rabbit (Water Rabbit, Gui-Mao 癸卯) runs from January 22, 2023 to February 9, 2024, while Li Chun, the year-pillar boundary used by many Bazi schools, falls on February 4, 2023.

If your birthday falls before January 22, 2023, the popular zodiac places you in the previous sign, the Tiger. Many Bazi schools use Li Chun (February 4, 2023, 10:42 China Standard Time) as the year-pillar boundary instead, so a birth between Li Chun and Lunar New Year can have a Rabbit year pillar in a Li Chun-based chart but is usually listed as a Tiger in popular zodiac charts. Check which boundary a calculator uses before comparing results. The Lunar New Year date can fall one day earlier in the Americas because of time zones.

The Rabbit repeats every 12 years in the zodiac cycle. Each occurrence carries a different Heavenly Stem that modifies the year energy. Recent Rabbit years include 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011, 2023. The full sexagenary cycle produces five Rabbit types — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.

In Five Element theory, the water element generates Wood, controls Fire, and is controlled by Earth. In a Bazi reading, whether more water helps or strains a chart depends on the balance of the other seven characters, which the year label alone does not show.

By branch, Rabbit combines with Dog, shares a Wood triad with Pig and Goat, and clashes with Rooster. Those patterns are the same in every Rabbit year; the water stem does not change them.

For a complete compatibility check, use the zodiac compatibility tool or generate a full Bazi chart.