What does 鸡 mean?
鸡 (jī) means chicken — both the bird and, in food contexts, the meat, exactly as English “chicken” works. Sex and age are marked with a prefix: 公鸡 (gōngjī) is a rooster or cockerel, 母鸡 (mǔjī) is a hen, 小鸡 (xiǎojī) is a chick, 雏鸡 (chújī) is a day-old chick and 鸡蛋 (jīdàn) is a chicken egg. Other compounds include 鸡肉 (jīròu, chicken meat), 鸡翅 (jīchì, chicken wings) and 鸡毛 (jīmáo, chicken feathers). The traditional form is 雞, also written 鷄, and 鸡 sits under the 196th Kangxi radical 鸟 (niǎo, bird).
鸡 stands alone, but 鸡 is not 公鸡
鸡 is a free word like 牛, 蛇 and 羊: 一只鸡 (yì zhī jī, “a chicken”) is ordinary speech. The zodiac sign, however, is normally translated as Rooster rather than Chicken, and Chinese distinguishes the two with a modifier. If you want the bird on a farm sign to be specifically a rooster, write 公鸡. 鸡年 (the Year of the Rooster) uses the plain form because the sign covers the animal, not one sex of it.
鸡 and 雞: the simplified and traditional forms
鸡 is the mainland simplified form and 雞 is the traditional form used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and many overseas communities. Unlike 龙／龍 the two forms are not wildly far apart — both keep the 鸟 bird element — but they are distinct characters, and a design should choose one and stay consistent. The same pattern applies to many bird characters: 鸟／鳥, 鸭／鴨, 鹅／鵝.
鸡 in the Chinese zodiac
鸡 is the tenth sign in the twelve-animal cycle, after 猴 Monkey and before 狗 Dog. It corresponds to the earthly branch 酉 (yǒu). Recent and coming Rooster years are 2041, 2029, 2017, 2005, 1993, 1981, 1969 and 1957, continuing back in steps of twelve. The zodiac year follows the lunar calendar and usually begins in late January or February, so a January or early-February birthday needs the exact date checked rather than assumed.
What the tradition says about the Rooster sign
Popular sign descriptions present the Rooster as hard-working, observant, punctual, confident and outspoken, with a tendency to be blunt or to worry about appearances. Those descriptions come from a storytelling tradition and from modern popular writing. They are not measurements, and sources differ in how they rank and phrase them.
Popular trait lists for the Rooster differ noticeably between sources — some foreground industriousness, others talkativeness, others vanity — which is what one expects from commentary rather than measurement. What is stable is the calendar: the branch, the years and the position in the cycle. The adjectives are editorial.
Compatibility in the traditional system
Traditional pairing uses the 六合 “secret friend” pairs and the 三合 three-harmony groups. In that system the Rooster is paired with the Dragon, grouped with the Snake and the Ox, and set opposite the Rabbit as the clashing sign.
Pairing is a relation between branches. 酉 joins 辰 in the 六合 pairs, so the Rooster’s partner is the Dragon — the pairing most often quoted in wedding material. The 三合 trio is 巳酉丑, Snake, Rooster and Ox. The Rooster stands opposite 卯, the Rabbit, which is the 冲. These relations are identical in every almanac. The claim that they predict how two people get on is a modern addition and is not testable.
Lucky numbers, colours and flowers
The Rooster is given lucky numbers and colours by many popular sites, and they do not agree with one another. The only fixed facts are the branch 酉 and the years. Since 鸡 already carries a genuine auspicious wordplay through 吉, a design does not need a number from a list to make the rooster read as good fortune — the sound does that work on its own.
鸡 in idioms and everyday phrases
闻鸡起舞 (wén jī qǐ wǔ, “hearing the rooster and rising to practise”) comes from a story about a general who trained at cockcrow, and it now means getting up early and working at something seriously. 鹤立鸡群 (hè lì jī qún, “a crane standing among chickens”) describes someone who stands out from the crowd. 鸡毛蒜皮 (jī máo suàn pí, “chicken feathers and garlic skins”) describes trivial matters. 鸡犬不宁 (jī quǎn bù níng, “not even the chickens and dogs are at peace”) describes total household turmoil. 鸡飞蛋打 (jī fēi dàn dǎ, “the chicken flies off and the eggs break”) describes losing everything at once. 呆若木鸡 (dāi ruò mù jī, “dumb as a wooden chicken”) comes from the Zhuangzi and describes being utterly stunned.
鸡 and 吉: the sound that carries the greeting
鸡 (jī) and 吉 (jí, auspicious) are near-homophones, which is why 鸡 turns up as a visual pun in New Year and wedding decoration, in the same way that 鱼 (yú) stands in for 余 (“surplus”) and 羊 stands in for 阳. 大吉大利 (dàjí dàlì, “great fortune and great profit”) is the usual phrase behind the punning pictures of a rooster.
Two cautions follow. First, the pun works on sound, not meaning: a picture of a chicken does not mean auspicious unless the viewer supplies the wordplay. Second, 鸡 appears in some crude slang registers, and the character on its own is ordinary while certain compounds are not. Neither fact is a reason to avoid 鸡 — the rooster is a standard zodiac and New Year image — but a design that puts 鸡 on a product for Chinese-speaking customers should be reviewed by a native speaker before it ships.
The rooster in classical writing
Classical Chinese writing lists the rooster among the 五德 “five virtues” animals, on the grounds that its crest stands for 文 (culture), its spurs for 武 (martial spirit), its willingness to fight for 勇 (courage), its habit of sharing food for 仁 (benevolence) and its crowing on time for 信 (trustworthiness). That list is a literary trope rather than a religious rule, but it is a clean, citable cultural reference for a design that wants the rooster to stand for diligence and reliability rather than for poultry.