Chinese zodiac
Tiger
Tiger — Yin, the 3rd of the twelve earthly branches. It comes round every twelve years, each time with the next of the five elements, so the same animal and element meet again every sixty years.
The Tiger's month is the first of the Chinese solar year, opening at Lichun, the start of spring. That is why the four pillars method of Chinese fortune-telling (bazi) changes the year at Lichun rather than at the lunar new year, so a birth between the two, whichever comes first that year, can be given one animal by the calendar and its neighbour by a fortune-teller. This site follows the calendar and changes the animal at the lunar new year.
The Tiger's earthly branch
The branch, Yin (寅), is older than the Tiger and names more than a year: it is also one of the twelve double hours of the traditional day, a month of the Chinese solar year and a point of the compass.
- Branch
- Yin 寅The 3rd of twelve. The animal is written 虎. Yin here is 寅, a different word from the yin of yin and yang.
- Polarity
- YangPaired only with the yang stems, so every Tiger year starts in an even-numbered calendar year.
- Element of the branch
- WoodThe Tiger's own, the same every year. The element in the table below belongs to the year.
- Double hour
- 03:00–05:00Read today off the local clock. Traditionally kept by the sun, so noon fell in the middle of the Horse's double hour.
- Solar month opens
- 4 February 2026At Lichun, Start of Spring, when the sun reaches 315°. Beijing time, that has been 3, 4 or 5 February in every year from 1920 to 2026.
- Bearing
- 60°Between north and east, counting clockwise from the Rat at due north.
- Triad
- Tiger, Horse, DogThe three branches four apart, which the tradition groups under Fire.
- Opposite
- MonkeySix places on: the opposite hour, month and bearing.
The hours, bearings, triads and branch elements are the standard correspondences of the earthly branches. The month dates are worked out here from the sun's position, on the Beijing calendar, for every year from 1920 to 2026. What the solar terms are →
A January or early-February birthday can belong to the year before
The Year of the Tiger does not begin on 1 January. In 2022 it began on 1 February. A baby born on 1 January 2022 — before that date — would be an Ox, not a Tiger.
The new year falls between 21 January and 20 February, and until it arrives the previous animal is still in charge. Each year's own date is in the table below.
Every year of the Tiger since 1920
| Year | Began on | Element |
|---|---|---|
| 1926 | 13 February | Fire Tiger |
| 1938 | 31 January | Earth Tiger |
| 1950 | 17 February | Metal Tiger |
| 1962 | 5 February | Water Tiger |
| 1974 | 23 January | Wood Tiger |
| 1986 | 9 February | Fire Tiger |
| 1998 | 28 January | Earth Tiger |
| 2010 | 14 February | Metal Tiger |
| 2022 | 1 February | Water Tiger |
The animal repeats every twelve years; the element repeats every ten, so the same pairing — such as Water Tiger — is sixty years apart.