Monkey in the Chinese Zodiac
A sourced guide to Monkey’s ninth zodiac place, its 申 branch, visual puns in art, and the separate literary history of Sun Wukong.
Reviewed
- Cycle position
- 9 of 12
- Earthly branch
- 申 Shēn
- Sequence
- Ninth of twelve · after Goat, before Rooster
Monkey is ninth in the zodiac, but monkey imagery also belongs to visual wordplay, natural observation, and literature. The zodiac animal, painted gibbons, and Sun Wukong—the Monkey King—are culturally connected without being interchangeable.
Historical context
Animals that could also form visual puns
Chinese artists represented several primates, including macaques and gibbons. Species and setting matter: a carefully observed gibbon painting does not perform the same work as a ceramic zodiac figure or a rebus assembled from animals and plants.
Sound made some images into visual puns. The gibbon name yuán could evoke another word associated with first place in the civil-service examinations, while hóu, monkey, could echo a title of rank translated as marquis. These rebuses depend on language and composition rather than on a universal monkey symbol.
Traditional interpretation
Ninth in the race, not the Monkey King
The British Council’s adapted race story describes Monkey cooperating with Goat and Rooster and receiving ninth place. A joint effort, rather than a solitary victory, makes this part of the sequence memorable. Monkey is paired in the calendar with the earthly branch 申 (Shēn).
Sun Wukong is the famous Monkey King of Journey to the West, a major literary character shaped by centuries of storytelling. He is not the origin of the ninth zodiac place. Reading him alongside the zodiac can be illuminating, but merging the two erases their different narrative histories.
Modern practice
A figure moving among media
Monkey images continue through animation, opera, games, public art, museum exhibitions, and New Year design. Some works quote Journey to the West; others revive auspicious wordplay or simply depict the animal.
The key question is not “What does Monkey always mean?” but which monkey is shown, what words or companions surround it, and who made the work for which audience.
A cultural reference, not a personality profile
The ninth zodiac animal, real primates, rebus images, and Sun Wukong occupy overlapping but distinct traditions. None supplies a dependable personality test for a Monkey-year birth.
Sources & further reading
- Monkey Business: Celebrating the Year of the MonkeyThe Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads — MonkeyHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution
- The great race: story transcript, adapted by Sue ClarkeBritish Council · LearnEnglish KidsAccessed Find an archived copy
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