The five elements of the Chinese zodiac: how to find yours from the last digit of the year

Each element lasts two consecutive years: the first is yang (even digit) and the second yin (odd digit).

The rule applies to the Chinese year, not the calendar year. If you were born before Chinese New Year, your year is the previous one, and with it the sign and the element change too.

Example: February 5, 1986 was still the year 1985 in the Chinese calendar, which began on February 20, 1985 and ended on February 8, 1986. That person is a Wood Ox (yin), not a Fire Tiger.

The twelve signs and the five elements (each in its yang and yin version, ten in total) advance together, and the same combination takes 60 years to repeat. That's why the Fire Horse of 2026 is the same as that of 1966, and the next one will be in 2086.

In the tradition, turning 60 means completing the cycle and returning to the year you were born in.

The theory of the five elements (Wu Xing) describes two cycles. In the generating cycle, each element feeds the next: Wood feeds Fire, Fire leaves Earth, Earth produces Metal, Metal collects Water and Water nourishes Wood. In the controlling cycle, each one restrains another: Wood restrains Earth, Earth restrains Water, Water restrains Fire, Fire restrains Metal and Metal restrains Wood.

Your element appears in My Map, next to your sign, as part of the full name of your year. It doesn't enter into the affinities: there Molino compares sign against sign and nothing else, so that the reading is clear and can be checked by hand.

Nor should it be confused with the element of a triad of friends (for example, the Fire triad of Tiger, Horse and Dog). They're two different classifications that share names.