2020 Year of the Rat (Metal): Dates & Li Chun

2020 is a Metal Rat year (Geng-Zi, 庚子) in the Chinese zodiac calendar. The name comes from the year’s stem-branch pair: the Heavenly Stem Geng supplies the metal element, and the Zi Earthly Branch supplies the Rat. The same pair returns once every 60 years.

Metal adds precision, resilience, and structural thinking. A Metal Rat year tends to be sharp, determined, and efficiency-focused. For people born in this year, the metal modifier shapes how the Rat’s traditional traits (quick-minded, adaptable, and resourceful) express themselves.

In a Bazi chart, Geng-Zi (庚子)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 2020 can have very different charts.

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

The 2020 Year of the Rat (Metal Rat, Geng-Zi 庚子) runs from January 25, 2020 to February 11, 2021, while Li Chun, the year-pillar boundary used by many Bazi schools, falls on February 4, 2020.

If your birthday falls before January 25, 2020, the popular zodiac places you in the previous sign, the Pig. Many Bazi schools use Li Chun (February 4, 2020, 17:03 China Standard Time) as the year-pillar boundary instead, so a birth between Li Chun and Lunar New Year can have a Rat year pillar in a Li Chun-based chart but is usually listed as a Pig 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 Rat repeats every 12 years in the zodiac cycle. Each occurrence carries a different Heavenly Stem that modifies the year energy. Recent Rat years include 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020. The full sexagenary cycle produces five Rat types — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.

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

By branch, Rat combines with Ox, shares a Water triad with Monkey and Dragon, and clashes with Horse. Those patterns are the same in every Rat year; the metal stem does not change them.

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