十二生肖，又叫属相，是中国与十二地支相配以人出生年份的十二种动物，包括鼠、牛、虎、兔、龙、蛇、马、羊、猴、鸡、狗、猪。
十二生肖的起源与动物崇拜有关。据湖北云梦睡虎地和甘肃天水放马滩出土的秦简可知，先秦时期即有比较完整的生肖系统存在。最早记载与现代相同的十二生肖的传世文献是东汉王充的《论衡》。

The Chinese zodiac, also known as the animal sign, is a group of 12 animals corresponding to the year of human birth in China, including rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.

The origin of the Chinese zodiac is related to animal worship. According to the qin slips unearthed in yunmeng shuihudi, hubei province and fangmatan, tianshui, gansu province, a relatively complete zodiac system existed in the pre-qin period. The earliest recorded and modern the same 12 zodiac handed down the literature is the eastern han dynasty wang chong "on balance".