Rat
The Rat is the first sign of the twelve-year cycle. Years: 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008, 2020, 2032. If you were born in January or early February, check your year with the calculator: the Chinese year starts later.
Personality
In Chinese tradition the Rat's main quality is quick wit combined with thrift. It is the sign that is first to spot an opportunity and also first to see the catch. The Rat doesn't act at random: it gathers information, weighs the options and keeps something in reserve for a rainy day.
The flip side is anxiety. The Rat calculates dangers that may not even exist and gets restless over them. Its second weak spot is a tendency to micromanage things that have long been under control.
The legend of how the twelve animals were chosen gives the Rat first place precisely for its cunning: it reached the Buddha riding on the Ox's back and jumped off just before the finish. Tradition views this approvingly, as cleverness rather than deceit.
The Gemini man and woman
The Rat man is practical, charming and good at negotiating; in a group he is rarely the center of attention, but he is usually the one who knows who is connected to whom and how things get done.
The Rat woman is thrifty and perceptive, with a good memory for details and for slights. She is underestimated right up until something goes off plan.
Both have a hard time with a partner who wastes money; this is perhaps the main source of conflict.
Career and money
Good fits are occupations that call for calculation, flexibility and quickly sizing up a situation: trade, finance, brokering, analytics, a small business of one's own. A salaried job with rigid rules wears the Rat out.
The Rat is careful with money: it tends to save and dislikes spending on status. The risk is cutting costs where it hurts the business.
Compatibility
Best partners: the Dragon and the Monkey, from the same compatibility trine. It also gets along well with the Ox.
The most difficult combination is the Horse: the signs stand opposite each other. All pairs are covered in Chinese zodiac compatibility.