The Wood Element in the Chinese Zodiac

Every Wood year with its exact lunar new year date, and what the tradition says about the element.

Wood is one of the five elements of the Chinese tradition, and it rules the years ending in 4 and 5. Recent and coming Wood years are 2024, 2025, 2034, 2035. In this tradition Wood stands for growth, expansion and renewal, the way a seed pushes upward in spring. This page lists every Wood year with its exact start date and sets out what the element is traditionally taken to mean.

The idea of Wood here is symbolic, and it cannot tell anyone what they are like or what will happen. To learn whether your own birth year is a Wood year, use the Chinese zodiac calculator.

What Wood stands for

The five elements, or five phases (wu xing), are not materials so much as kinds of change, and each carries a set of associations. Those for Wood are:

  • Direction: east
  • Season: spring
  • Colour: green
  • Planet: Jupiter, which Chinese astronomy calls the Wood star
  • Heavenly stems: Jia (Yang) and Yi (Yin), the two stems that carry Wood in the sixty-year cycle
  • Animals whose fixed element it is: Tiger and Rabbit

Wood is the element of new beginnings, so it is often described as restless in the best sense: always reaching toward the next stage. The general scheme is explained on the Chinese zodiac hub.

Character in the tradition

People born in a Wood year are traditionally described as cooperative, idealistic and keen to develop, with an eye for what could grow. The tradition links Wood with generosity, flexibility and a wish to improve things for other people.

  • Vision. Seeing how a small start could become something larger.
  • Cooperation. Working with others toward a shared aim.
  • Flexibility. Bending without breaking when plans change.
  • Generosity. Giving time and attention to help others grow.

Growth edges

The shadow side described is overextension: taking on too much, growing in too many directions, and then feeling stretched thin or frustrated when things stall. The suggested practice is to prune, choosing one or two projects to feed and letting others rest.

Wood in the cycles

In the cycle of generation Water nourishes Wood and Wood feeds Fire, the way a plant is watered and then burns as fuel. In the cycle of control Metal checks Wood, as an axe cuts a tree, and Wood checks Earth, as roots hold soil. Writers use these relations to describe how Wood and its neighbours support or steady each other, and the compatibility overview shows how the year elements of two people are read together. Treat them as images to think with, and not as rules.

Every Wood year from 1948 to 2047

A Wood year is Yang when its stem is Jia and Yin when it is Yi. Yang Wood pairs with the Yang animals (Rat, Tiger, Dragon, Horse, Monkey, Dog), and Yin Wood with the Yin animals (Ox, Rabbit, Snake, Goat, Rooster, Pig). Dates are from the Hong Kong Observatory’s table, and each Wood year ends the day before the next year begins. A birth before a start date belongs to the previous Chinese year.

Chinese yearYear ofBeginsEndsStem and branch
1954Yang Wood Horse3 February 195423 January 1955Jia-wu
1955Yin Wood Goat24 January 195511 February 1956Yi-wei
1964Yang Wood Dragon13 February 19641 February 1965Jia-chen
1965Yin Wood Snake2 February 196520 January 1966Yi-si
1974Yang Wood Tiger23 January 197410 February 1975Jia-yin
1975Yin Wood Rabbit11 February 197530 January 1976Yi-mao
1984Yang Wood Rat2 February 198419 February 1985Jia-zi
1985Yin Wood Ox20 February 19858 February 1986Yi-chou
1994Yang Wood Dog10 February 199430 January 1995Jia-xu
1995Yin Wood Pig31 January 199518 February 1996Yi-hai
2004Yang Wood Monkey22 January 20048 February 2005Jia-shen
2005Yin Wood Rooster9 February 200528 January 2006Yi-you
2014Yang Wood Horse31 January 201418 February 2015Jia-wu
2015Yin Wood Goat19 February 20157 February 2016Yi-wei
2024Yang Wood Dragon10 February 202428 January 2025Jia-chen
2025Yin Wood Snake29 January 202516 February 2026Yi-si
2034Yang Wood Tiger19 February 20347 February 2035Jia-yin
2035Yin Wood Rabbit8 February 203527 January 2036Yi-mao
2044Yang Wood Rat30 January 204416 February 2045Jia-zi
2045Yin Wood Ox17 February 20455 February 2046Yi-chou

Wood with each animal

Each animal takes Wood either once or twice in these hundred years, always with the matching Yang or Yin polarity. The years fall as follows.

Frequently asked questions

↳ Which years are Wood years?

Any year whose last digit is 4 or 5 is a Wood year. The next one is 2034, a Yang Wood Tiger year, beginning on 19 February 2034. The Wood year starts at the lunar new year and not on 1 January.

↳ Is the Wood element the same as the animal's element?

Not always. Each animal has a fixed element of its own in the older tradition, and Wood is the fixed element of Tiger and Rabbit. Each year also carries a year element, and for this page it is Wood. A Wood Tiger year therefore blends the two readings.

↳ What does the Wood element mean for me?

If you were born in a Wood year, the tradition describes you as cooperative, idealistic and growth-minded. That Wood description is cultural, for reflection, and it does not predict character or events. Treat it as a talking point.

↳ How is Wood linked to Jupiter?

In the Chinese tradition each of the five visible planets is named for an element, and Jupiter is the Wood star. That Wood link is a naming convention, separate from Western or Vedic astrology.

Return to the Chinese zodiac hub, or read about the other elements: Fire, Earth, Metal, Water.