Lucky numbers
1 3 4
Most recent year
2022
Branch position
3
The tiger in the cycle
A Tiger year is any year under 寅 (yín), the third earthly branch. The recent ones are 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010 and 2022, and 2034 comes next. The Tiger's fixed element is Wood and its polarity is yang. The zodiac year turns at the lunar new year rather than on 1 January, and 2022 makes the point neatly. That Tiger year began on 1 February, so a child born on 20 January 2022 was born under the Ox, not the Tiger.
寅 runs from 3am to 5am, the last dark hour before light, and holds the compass slice between north-east and east. The Great Race put the Tiger third, and the legend gives it a grievance to go with the placing. The Tiger was the strongest swimmer in the field, but the current kept shoving it downstream, and it reached the far bank behind the Rat and the Ox. Strength lost to a shortcut and to patience.
Each year also carries its own element, on a ten-year rotation set by the last digit: 2 or 3 gives Water, 4 or 5 Wood, 6 or 7 Fire, 8 or 9 Earth, 0 or 1 Metal. So 2022 was a Water Tiger, 2010 a Metal Tiger and 1986 a Fire Tiger. In five-element theory water feeds wood, which is why the 2022 pairing is read as supportive, while metal cuts wood, which gives the 2010 Tiger a harsher reading.
- 虎 · hǔ
- 3 of 12
- Wood
- Yang
- 1, 3, 4
- 6, 7, 8
- Blue, Grey, Orange
- Yellow lily, Cineraria
- East, North, South
- Aquarius — unrelated systems, see below
Tiger years, and the date each one starts
1926
from 13 Feb
1938
from 31 Jan
1950
from 17 Feb
1962
from 5 Feb
1974
from 23 Jan
1986
from 9 Feb
1998
from 28 Jan
2010
from 14 Feb
2022
from 1 Feb
2034
from 19 Feb
Each tiger year runs from the date shown until the day before the next lunar new year. Born on 10 January 2022? You are not a tiger; that year had not started yet. The full year table covers 1924 to 2044 if you need to check a different year.
What the tradition says about tiger people
Chinese astrology describes Tiger-year people as brave and competitive, willing to take the front position when nobody else wants it. The tradition credits them with confidence that needs no backing, an appetite for a challenge they picked themselves, and a strong sense of justice. That last one runs deep in folk belief, where the tiger is a guardian figure: children were given 虎头鞋 (hǔtóuxié), tiger-head shoes, embroidered with a tiger face to keep harm away. Generosity toward people the Tiger has decided to back belongs to the same reading.
The downside in the tradition is impulse. Tiger readings describe unpredictability, a short fuse, and a habit of acting before the situation has finished explaining itself. Sources call Tiger-year people poor at taking orders and worse at conceding a mistake, restless in any position that has stopped being interesting. Several accounts add that the confidence is partly a front, and that it cracks quietly when a plan fails rather than loudly. This is a portrait of a sign. It says nothing about a real person born in 1998.
Why 1, 3, 4
The Tiger's published set is 1, 3 and 4, plus compounds like 13 and 43. Number 3 has the clearest basis of the three: 三 (sān) sits close in sound to 生 (shēng), to be born or to grow, which sits comfortably with a Wood sign. Number 1, 一 (yī), carries the ordinary senses of first and whole. Number 4 is the outlier, because 四 (sì) is the number Chinese buildings routinely skip for sounding like 死 (sǐ), death. The lists offer no reason for the reversal.
The unlucky trio, 6, 7 and 8, is stranger still, since two of those rank among the most auspicious numbers in everyday Chinese use. 六 (liù) echoes 溜 (liū), smooth or frictionless. 八 (bā) echoes 發 (fā), to prosper, which is why an 8 drives up the price of a number plate or a phone number. Only 七 (qī) is genuinely two-sided, read positively against 起 (qǐ), to rise, and negatively for the seventh lunar month, the Ghost Month. Rival lists give the Tiger 2 and 7 as lucky instead.
Lucky
1 3 4
Chinese number luck runs largely on homophones. 八 bā (8) sits close to 發 fā, to prosper; 四 sì (4) sits close to 死 sǐ, death. The Chinese numbers page works through the whole set.
Tiger compatibility
Tiger at work and in love
Tiger — work and money
Work descriptions for the Tiger centre on visibility and independence. The tradition reads Tiger-year people as natural leads who do badly under close supervision, quick to commit to a project and quick to lose interest once the hard part has been solved. Sources make the same warning twice in different words: strong starts, thin follow-through. Tiger readings also credit a persuasive streak, which is why the career lists tilt toward roles where you have to convince a room in one go.
The lists themselves are unusually front-facing. Advertising, acting, music and stand-up all appear, along with writing and art. A second cluster is about movement rather than performance: pilot, flight attendant, travel agent, driver. Office manager sits oddly among them until you read the argument behind it, which is that the Tiger is trusted to make a call fast and take the consequences in public instead of passing them down.
Tiger — love and family
Chinese astrology reads Tiger-year people as intense and direct in love, pursuing hard and cooling quickly if the other person turns out to be easy to win. The tradition describes them as protective and jealous in roughly equal measure, and warns that they need room to move inside a relationship rather than after it has ended. Sources also note a reluctance to apologise, which they treat as the sign's most expensive habit.
The Tiger's trine is Tiger, Horse and Dog, the fire trine (寅午戌), three branches spaced four apart on the twelve-branch wheel and grouped for shared drive and loyalty. The clash is the Monkey at 申, sitting directly opposite 寅, which is what 六冲 (liù chōng), six clashes, describes. The tradition reads that pairing as a contest neither side concedes, since both signs want to be the cleverest in the room and each wins by a different method. It describes friction, not a prohibition.
The Aquarius question
Charts that pair the tiger with Aquarius are matching the tiger's earthly branch to the solar month it governs in the traditional calendar. That is a real correspondence inside Chinese timekeeping. It is not a claim that the two astrologies agree, because they were built in different places for different purposes and neither borrowed from the other. Treat it as a curiosity rather than a second opinion on your western sign.
Year of the Tiger — frequently asked
1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010 and 2022. The next Tiger year is 2034.
Nobody publishing the list explains it. In general usage 四 (sì) is avoided for sounding like 死 (sǐ), death, and buildings skip a fourth floor over it. The zodiac number lists are a separate tradition from the homophone superstition, and on this point the two flatly contradict each other. That contradiction is worth knowing rather than smoothing over.
The tradition says no. 寅 and 申 sit directly opposite on the twelve-branch wheel, the six-clash arrangement, and Chinese astrology reads that pairing as a competition neither side gives up. The Tiger's trine partners are the Horse and the Dog instead.
It is the Tiger year that comes round in your own sign, once every twelve years, written 本命年. The tradition counts it as an exposed year rather than a fortunate one, and the customary protection is to wear red given to you by someone else, usually a red belt or red underclothes. 2022 was the most recent. 2034 is next.
Yes, from 1 February 2022. Years ending in 2 or 3 take Water as the year element, and in five-element theory water feeds wood, so the tradition treats that combination as a helpful one for a Wood sign.