Yu Xia Ji · Twelve Chinese hours
Eye Twitching Meaning by Hour
Pick the eye that is twitching and the hour it started. Each line comes from an old Chinese almanac, with its meaning in plain English.
Chinese eye twitching chart
The table copies all twelve lines of the eye twitching section in the Yu Xia Ji. Each hour has one line for the left eye and one for the right, with the English meaning under the Chinese.
| Hour | Left eye | Right eye |
|---|---|---|
| Rat11 pm to 1 am | 左有貴人You will meet a benefactor, someone able to help you. | 右有酒食A chance to eat and drink. |
| Ox1 am to 3 am | 左有憂疑Worry and suspicion on your mind. | 右有人悲Someone close to you is grieving. |
| Tiger3 am to 5 am | 左遠人來Someone arrives from far away. | 右喜慶事A happy occasion. |
| Rabbit5 am to 7 am | 左貴人來A benefactor arrives. | 右平和吉Things stay calm and go well. |
| Dragon7 am to 9 am | 左客人來A guest comes to visit. | 右損害事Something comes to harm. |
| Snake9 am to 11 am | 左主酒食Something to eat and drink. | 右主凶事Something bad. |
| Horse11 am to 1 pm | 左主飲食Something to eat and drink. | 右主凶事Something bad. |
| Goat1 pm to 3 pm | 左主吉昌Things go well and prosper. | 右主小喜A small happiness. |
| Monkey3 pm to 5 pm | 左有財利A gain in money. | 右有女思A woman is thinking of you. |
| Rooster5 pm to 7 pm | 左有客至A guest arrives. | 右主親來A relative comes to see you. |
| Dog7 pm to 9 pm | 左主酒食Something to eat and drink. | 右主聚財Money comes together. |
| Pig9 pm to 11 pm | 左主有客A guest arrives. | 右主官事A matter involving officials or the authorities. |
Left eye twitching meaning
Most of the left-eye lines are about someone arriving or a meal. A benefactor turns up at the Rat and Rabbit hours, and guests come at the Dragon, Rooster and Pig hours, while the Tiger hour brings someone from far away. The Snake, Horse and Dog hours are about food and drink. The Monkey hour is the only one that mentions money, and the Goat hour says things go well.
One left-eye line is a worry. At the Ox hour, 1 am to 3 am, the almanac records worry and suspicion.
Right eye twitching meaning
The right eye's lines run both ways. The Snake and Horse hours, 9 am to 1 pm, record something bad. The Dragon hour records harm, and the Ox hour says someone close to you is grieving.
The other eight hours record food and drink, a happy occasion, calm, a small happiness, a woman thinking of you, a visiting relative, money coming together, and at the Pig hour a matter with officials. The chart above gives the meaning for each one.
Which Chinese hour is it?
Each Chinese hour covers two clock hours. The Rat hour runs from 11 pm to 1 am and the Ox hour from 1 am to 3 am, and so on round the clock to the Pig hour, 9 pm to 11 pm. On the exact hour the next one begins, so 1:00 am already belongs to the Ox.
The tool starts from the time on your device. If the twitch came earlier, or while you were somewhere else, pick the hour by the local time where it happened.
If your eye keeps twitching
If your eyelid keeps twitching, or other symptoms come with it, see a doctor.
The almanac gives one line for each hour and says nothing about how long or how often the eye twitches.
Questions people ask
Is left eye twitching good luck in Chinese culture?
A common Chinese saying, 左眼跳財，右眼跳災, ties the left eye to money and the right to trouble. The Yu Xia Ji reads the twitch by the hour. Its left-eye lines mention money only at the Monkey hour. Its right-eye lines record something bad at the Snake and Horse hours, and money coming together at the Dog hour.
Is the meaning different for women?
The Yu Xia Ji section does not mention men or women. Charts that change the meaning by gender come from other sources.
Why does another chart say something different?
This page copies one source, the Yu Xia Ji. Its base text is the Wikisource transcription, which we checked line by line against a scanned print, correcting five characters. Charts built from other sources word their lines differently.
Who wrote the English meanings?
Our editors translated each line word for word. Nothing is added about what to do, and no line is made better or worse than the original.
Where the text comes from
Checked on 13 October 2026. The base text is the Wikisource transcription of the Yu Xia Ji, compared line by line with a scan of the 繪圖增廣玉匣記 on archive.org. Five characters were corrected where the scan was clear. Where the scan words a line differently and the base text still makes sense, this page keeps the base text.