2010 Chinese Zodiac: Year of the Metal Tiger (庚寅)

2010 was a 庚寅 (Geng Yin) year — the 27th of the sixty stem-and-branch combinations, and in everyday English a Metal Tiger year. The element in that name comes from the heavenly stem 庚 (Yang Metal); the branch 寅, the Tiger itself, carries Wood whatever the stem above it says. Its na yin, the older sixty-part scheme, reads 松柏木 — a Wood na yin.

The 2010 zodiac year did not start on 1 January. It started at Lichun (立春), 4 Feb 2010, 06:47 (Beijing time, UTC+8), and ran until the instant before Lichun 2011, 4 Feb 2011, 12:32 (Beijing time, UTC+8). Chinese New Year 2010 fell on 14 February 2010, a separate boundary that festivals use; between the two dates the popular and the classical conventions disagree. Anyone born in January or early February 2010 should check the table below before claiming a sign.

2010 is one of 9 Tiger years between 1924 and 2027, and one of 2 Metal Tiger years in that span (1950 and 2010), because stem and branch only line up again after sixty years: the same 庚寅 pillar last stood in 1950 and returns in 2070.

Born on 1 January 2010? That is a Ox, not a Tiger: the Earth Ox year 己丑 ran on until 4 February 2010 at 06:47 Beijing time.

Lichun is an astronomical instant, not a date: in 2010 it fell at 06:47 Beijing time (UTC+8). The instant itself starts the Tiger year, so a birth at 06:47 on that day is already a Tiger. Convert your own birth moment to Beijing time first — a birth in the Americas on the previous evening can already be past Lichun in Beijing. Check an exact birth date and time.

Ten stems and twelve branches only return to the same pairing after sixty years, so 庚寅 belongs to 1950, 2010 and 2070 and to no year in between. That is why a sixtieth birthday is traditionally marked: it is the year the whole pillar comes back.

Metal Tiger (Geng Yin) sets Metal over Wood, the controlling relationship, so the stem cuts the branch. Tradition reads it as discipline imposed on impulse — the Tiger of soldiers, surgeons and deadlines — and as the hardest of the five on itself. The classical note is that the pressure is internal, and that this variant is advised to choose its own constraints rather than wait to be given them.

At Lichun 2027 someone born in 2010 is 16 if their birthday has not yet come round and 17 if it has. The nominal age (虚岁), counted as one at birth and raised at each Chinese New Year, is 18 once New Year 2027 has passed.

The full reading — the month-by-month table, the five-element relationship with the year stem and the traditional remedies — is on Tiger in 2027. For the part of the sign that does not move with the year, see the Tiger profile.