The exact dates of the 1958 lunar year
The Earth Dog year ran from February 18, 1958 to February 7, 1959. Twelve lunar months came to 355 days in 1958, eleven or twelve short of the solar year, and that shortfall is what pulls the following new year back towards January.
The 1958 new year fell 18 days later in the Gregorian year than the 1957 one, February 18, 1958 against January 31, 1957. Why the 1958 boundary sits where it does, rather than on any fixed date, is worked through in how the Chinese calendar works.
What the Earth Dog pairing is taken to mean
The stem for 1958 is Wu and the branch is the Dog, which the tradition reads as one unit rather than two. In 1958 that branch is taken to mean someone loyal and principled, with a low tolerance for anything that looks unfair. Earth, the element attached to 1958, adds steadiness, patience and an attachment to what is already built.
1958 is a yang year, the outward half of the Earth pair: 1959 carries the same element in its yin form, and the two are read as the same material handled differently. Taken together, 1958 is described as the dog temperament working through steadiness.
Born in January or early February 1958
From 1 January 1958 to February 17, 1958 the animal in force was still the Rooster, not the Dog — 48 days of 1958 that most zodiac tables hand to the wrong animal. Someone born on 15 January 1958 is a Rooster.
The first Dog of 1958 is anyone born on February 18, 1958 or later, and the last one anyone born on February 7, 1959. Against the 21 January to 20 February window the new year can occupy, February 18, 1958 is at the later end.
Where 1958 sits in the sixty-year cycle
1958 is position 35 of sixty in the sexagenary cycle, the Wu stem against the Dog branch. Ten stems and twelve branches only realign after sixty years, so the previous Earth Dog year was 1898 and the next is 2018.
Someone born in 1898 therefore returned to their own pillar in 1958, at sixty, which the tradition marks as a full turn rather than a birthday. A child born in 1958 meets the pairing again in 2018.
Compatibility, and what it rests on
The Dog of 1958 is grouped with the Tiger and the Horse, four years either side: in this stretch of the calendar that is 1954 and 1962. Its opposition is the Dragon, six years on from 1958 in 1964.
Those distances are arithmetic, not observation. Nothing about people born in 1958 was measured to produce them; 1958 stands four years from 1954 and six from 1964, and a twelve-part circle makes those the trine and the opposition just as it does in the western zodiac.
The western comparison for 1958
Because the 1958 lunar year opened on February 18, 1958, its first day falls under Aquarius in the western zodiac, and its last, February 7, 1959, under Aquarius — while the animal for the whole of 1958 stays the Dog.
Handbooks equate the Dog of 1958 with Libra, a pairing that lines up two twelve-part divisions rather than two claims about people. A western sign covers about thirty days, so 1958 holds twelve of them under one animal, and reading the 1958 Earth Dog as a year-long version of Libra flattens both systems.
Questions people ask about this
When did the 1958 Chinese new year start?
February 18, 1958, and the year ran on to February 7, 1959 — 355 days.
What animal is 1958?
The Dog, in its Earth form, from February 18, 1958 onward; a birth earlier in 1958 is a Rooster.
Was 1958 a leap year in the Chinese calendar?
No. 1958 ran twelve months and 355 days, so no month was doubled.
I was born in January 1958 — which animal am I?
The Rooster, unless you were born on February 18, 1958 or later, which is when the 1958 year began.