The ninth sign of the Eastern zodiac is the character 
and is pronounced “Shen.” The symbolic animal of this ninth earthly stem is the monkey and is represented by the character 
. It is a yang symbol of the first trine, and its fixed element is metal. Its assigned realm on the heavenly ecliptic consists of the portion that lies between the 240th and the 270th degrees, and it is the lord of the seventh lunar month, which lasts from August 7 to September 7. The hours for the monkey are from three to five in the afternoon.
The ninth sign of the Western zodiac is the symbol 
that is commonly known as Sagittarius. It is usually thought of as being a centaur holding a bow and arrow. Like its Eastern counterpart, this symbol is a positive yang symbol of the active diurnal masculine. Its elemental designation is fire and its quality is mutable. It possesses the same coordinates of the ecliptic as does the Eastern sign of the monkey, however, its yearly domain of influence is from November 23 to December 21 in the tropical system and from December 16 to January 14 in the sidereal system.
