2010 Year of the Tiger (Metal): Dates & Li Chun

2010 is a Metal Tiger year (Geng-Yin, 庚寅) in the Chinese zodiac calendar. The name comes from the year’s stem-branch pair: the Heavenly Stem Geng supplies the metal element, and the Yin Earthly Branch supplies the Tiger. The same pair returns once every 60 years.

Metal adds decisiveness, structure, and a cutting edge. A Metal Tiger year tends to be bold, strategic, and authority-challenging. For people born in this year, the metal modifier shapes how the Tiger’s traditional traits (bold, protective, and independent) express themselves.

In a Bazi chart, Geng-Yin (庚寅)would be only the year pillar, one of four. The day pillar’s stem (the Day Master) is the reference point of the reading, so two people born in 2010 can have very different charts.

Read the Tiger zodiac page for the base Tiger personality, or use the Bazi calculator to see how this year pillar interacts with your full chart.

The 2010 Year of the Tiger (Metal Tiger, Geng-Yin 庚寅) runs from February 14, 2010 to February 2, 2011, while Li Chun, the year-pillar boundary used by many Bazi schools, falls on February 4, 2010.

If your birthday falls before February 14, 2010, the popular zodiac places you in the previous sign, the Ox. Many Bazi schools use Li Chun (February 4, 2010, 06:47 China Standard Time) as the year-pillar boundary instead, so a birth between Li Chun and Lunar New Year can have a Tiger year pillar in a Li Chun-based chart but is usually listed as an Ox in popular zodiac charts. Check which boundary a calculator uses before comparing results. The Lunar New Year date can fall one day earlier in the Americas because of time zones.

The Tiger repeats every 12 years in the zodiac cycle. Each occurrence carries a different Heavenly Stem that modifies the year energy. Recent Tiger years include 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010, 2022. The full sexagenary cycle produces five Tiger types — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.

In Five Element theory, the metal element generates Water, controls Wood, and is controlled by Fire. In a Bazi reading, whether more metal helps or strains a chart depends on the balance of the other seven characters, which the year label alone does not show.

By branch, Tiger combines with Pig, shares a Fire triad with Horse and Dog, and clashes with Monkey. Those patterns are the same in every Tiger year; the metal stem does not change them.

For a complete compatibility check, use the zodiac compatibility tool or generate a full Bazi chart.