犯太岁 checker. Pick a zodiac or enter a birth year + a target year to see 值/冲/刑/破/害 Tai Sui status, with a folk 安太岁 note. Entertainment reference.
Tai Sui (犯太岁) Checker
How to use
Pick your zodiac
Choose your zodiac animal (Rat, Ox, Tiger… 12 total) from the dropdown. Not sure of your animal? Use the next step and enter your birth year instead.
Or enter your birth year
Enter your Gregorian birth year (1900-2100) and the tool derives your animal. Note: people born before the lunar new year (around early February) belong to the PREVIOUS lunar year’s animal — this tool approximates by Gregorian year, so double-check border months yourself.
Enter a target year
Enter the year you want to check (defaults to 2026, the Horse year). The tool works out that year’s Tai Sui animal.
Read the Tai Sui relationship
The result shows whether you form a 值/冲/刑/破/害 (zhi/clash/punishment/break/harm) tie with the year’s Tai Sui, with a short folk note and an 安太岁 ("settling Tai Sui") suggestion. No tie shows "No Tai Sui offence".
Offending Tai Sui: A Chinese Folk Belief
"Tai Sui" (太岁) is a concept that has circulated in Chinese folk belief for millennia. It began with ancient observation of the "Year Star" (Jupiter), which orbits the sky roughly every 12 years. To track the years more conveniently, astronomers imagined a mirror-image, invisible counterpart — the "Tai Sui star" — moving opposite to Jupiter, and treated it as the deity that "governs" each year. Over time Tai Sui was personified into the Tai Sui god, and a system of "Sixty Jiazi Tai Sui" emerged: each of the sixty stem-branch years is presided over by a different Tai Sui General, rotating in turn. To "offend Tai Sui" (犯太岁) means that a person's zodiac animal forms one of the inharmonious Earthly-Branch relationships — 值 (same), 冲 (clash), 刑 (punishment), 破 (break), or 害 (harm) — with the animal that governs a given year. This tool uses a fixed Earthly-Branch relationship table to look that up entirely in your browser, with no network call. It is purely a piece of folk-culture reference and predicts nothing.
The five Tai Sui relationships
Tradition splits "offending Tai Sui" into several kinds. 值太岁 (zhi / benming year) is your "year of birth animal" — your animal IS the year's animal (a Horse person in a Horse year). 冲太岁 (clash) is the directly-opposite animal, six positions apart (Rat versus Horse). 刑太岁 (punishment), 破太岁 (break), and 害太岁 (harm) follow the ancient fixed "punishment-clash-break-harm" branch pairings recorded in classical almanacs such as the 《渊海子平》. This tool encodes each pairing directly: in a 午 (Horse) year, for example, 子 (Rat) clashes, 丑 (Ox) harms, 卯 (Rabbit) breaks, and the Horse itself is both 值太岁 and a self-punishment. Local custom interprets each tie a little differently; the tool offers only the most widely-shared short note.
What "settling Tai Sui" (安太岁) means
When folk custom holds that someone has "offended Tai Sui", the traditional response is called 安太岁 ("settling Tai Sui"). Common gestures include visiting a temple in the first lunar month to offer incense and prayers to that year's Tai Sui General, lighting a Tai Sui lamp, carrying a Tai Sui charm, wearing red (a red cord, red underclothes, red socks) for the year to invite good fortune, and generally playing it safe — avoiding other people's weddings and funerals to dodge a "clash". It must be stressed that these are cultural customs and a source of psychological comfort, not a guarantee of any kind. Whether to "settle Tai Sui" is entirely personal; this tool neither encourages nor discourages it — it simply reports the traditional view.
Tai Sui culture across ASEAN Chinese communities
In the Chinese communities of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan, "settling Tai Sui" remains a common temple activity around the Lunar New Year. Many large temples (such as Shuang Lin Monastery in Singapore or the Thean Hou Temple in Kuala Lumpur) set up a Tai Sui hall every first lunar month for worshippers to honour both the year's and their own birth-year Tai Sui. This tool lets you check ahead whether you or a family member offends Tai Sui in a given year, and which kind, so you can decide whether to take part in these customs. But please remember: the output is only a branch-relationship lookup, and constitutes no metaphysical, health, legal, or financial advice. Major life decisions should rest on practical analysis and professional opinion — not on Tai Sui deities. We provide it to make this slice of Chinese cultural heritage easier to understand and approach, not to encourage superstition or create anxiety.
10 Facts about Tai Sui
The idea of Tai Sui comes from observing Jupiter, the "Year Star", which orbits the sky about every 12 years. Ancients imagined an invisible, counter-orbiting "Tai Sui star" to number the years.
In the "Sixty Jiazi Tai Sui" system, each of the 60 stem-branch years has a named Tai Sui General. The general presiding over 丙午 (2026), for instance, is traditionally named Wen Zhe.
Offending Tai Sui has five types: 值 (same), 冲 (clash), 刑 (punishment), 破 (break), 害 (harm). 值太岁 is your "benming" birth-year; 冲太岁 (clash) is usually considered the most pronounced.
A "clash" (冲) is always the animal six positions away: Rat↔Horse, Ox↔Goat, Tiger↔Monkey, Rabbit↔Rooster, Dragon↔Dog, Snake↔Pig — six fixed pairs in total.
Punishment (刑) includes "self-punishment": the branches 辰 Dragon, 午 Horse, 酉 Rooster, 亥 Pig punish themselves — so a Dragon in a Dragon year is both 值太岁 and a self-punishment.
Zodiac years switch at the lunar new year, not Jan 1. People born in January or early February (before the lunar new year) belong to the previous animal — the single most common error when checking Tai Sui.
Wearing red in your benming year (red cords, underclothes, socks) is hugely popular across Chinese communities — retailers release "benming red" product lines every Lunar New Year.
"Settling Tai Sui" is a common first-lunar-month temple activity across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, HK, and Taiwan. Large temples set up dedicated Tai Sui halls for the year’s and one’s birth-year generals.
The punishment/break/harm branch pairings are fully recorded in Ming-era almanacs such as 《渊海子平》 and 《三命通会》, as the fixed "six harms" and "branch breaks" systems.
Offending Tai Sui is folk belief, not science. It has never passed statistical scrutiny, and this tool predicts nothing — it just looks up the traditional branch relationship for you, for cultural reference and entertainment.
Frequently Asked Questions
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It means your zodiac forms one of five Earthly-Branch ties — 值/冲/刑/破/害 — with the animal governing that year. It is Chinese folk belief; this tool looks up the relationship from a fixed table and predicts nothing.
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2026 is the Horse year (丙午). Traditionally: Horse = 值太岁 (benming) plus self-punishment; Rat = clash; Ox = harm; Rabbit = break. Enter your zodiac in the tool to confirm instantly.
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Zodiac switches at the lunar new year. If you were born before the lunar new year (usually January to early February), you belong to the previous year’s animal. The tool approximates by Gregorian year — for these border months, check the lunar date and pick your animal manually.
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Folk opinion varies. Clash (冲) is generally seen as most pronounced, then 值 (benming), with punishment/break/harm milder. But these are traditional sayings, not settled fact, and practitioners disagree. The tool lists every tie you form and endorses no "severity" ranking.
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Entirely your choice. Settling Tai Sui is a cultural custom and source of comfort (temple incense, charms, wearing red). It is not an obligation and guarantees nothing. The tool neither encourages nor discourages it — it just presents the tradition.
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No, and it won’t try. The tool only looks up the branch relationship between your zodiac and Tai Sui — a folk-culture cross-reference. It forecasts no fortune, rates no luck, and replaces no professional advice. Treat it as cultural entertainment.
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Yes. The punishment/break/harm branch ties are fixed pairings recorded in classical almanacs (e.g. 《渊海子平》) and unchanged for centuries. The tool encodes each one directly, with no randomness — the same input always gives the same result.
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Yes. Enter any Gregorian year from 1900 to 2100 in "Target year" and the tool derives that year’s animal and compares it to yours. Handy for checking a parent’s year, or planning ahead for a future one.
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No. Everything is computed locally in your browser with zero server calls. RECATOOLS applies a zero-tracking, zero-storage policy to every tool input across the site.
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No. Tai Sui looks only at your zodiac (year branch) versus the year’s Tai Sui — a relatively simple folk check. Bazi combines all four pillars (year/month/day/hour), five elements, and ten gods — far more complex. For a bazi chart, see RT-CHN-001. Both are cultural reference only.
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