What is my Chinese element?
Find the year’s Heavenly Stem and its Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, or Water phase. See the result first, then check the method below.
Find your Chinese year element
A simple year lookup, not a full Bazi chart. No email needed.
January, February, or no month: treat the birth-year result as provisional. See the method and calendar sources below.
Updated September 7, 2026
How this calculator works
Wu Xing (五行), often called the Five Elements, describes five phases of change. This tool looks up the phase associated with a year’s Heavenly Stem (天干).
The lookup repeats every ten years. For the year you enter, its last digit selects one of ten stems, with two stems for each phase. The optional month adds a calendar warning; it does not change the calculation.
| Year ends in | Heavenly Stem | Phase |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Geng / 庚 | Metal / 金 |
| 1 | Xin / 辛 | Metal / 金 |
| 2 | Ren / 壬 | Water / 水 |
| 3 | Gui / 癸 | Water / 水 |
| 4 | Jia / 甲 | Wood / 木 |
| 5 | Yi / 乙 | Wood / 木 |
| 6 | Bing / 丙 | Fire / 火 |
| 7 | Ding / 丁 | Fire / 火 |
| 8 | Wu / 戊 | Earth / 土 |
| 9 | Ji / 己 | Earth / 土 |
Worked example: July 1990. The year ends in 0, so the lookup returns Geng (庚), associated with Metal (金). July is after the Lunar New Year boundary. Someone born in January 1990 needs an exact calendar check before treating this as their birth-year result.
When the result is provisional
This tool does not convert a full birth date. If you were born in January or February, or leave the month blank, it cannot confirm which Chinese year contains your birthday. Check your full date against a calendar before assigning a birth-year element. This is a simplified Lunar New Year convention, not a full Bazi calculation.
Check the calendar sources
The Hong Kong Observatory explains the ten Heavenly Stems and stem–branch cycle. Its Gregorian–lunar conversion tables (1901–2100) let you check the calendar boundary. These sources document calendar structure and dates; they do not validate personal traits or AETERA’s reflection prompts.
Common Questions
What is my Chinese element?
A simple answer uses the element associated with your Chinese birth year stem: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, or Water. A full Bazi reading also considers month, day, hour, and seasonal context.
How do I calculate my Chinese element?
This tool uses the last digit of the entered year to look up its Heavenly Stem and phase. It does not convert your full birth date. January, February, and unknown-month results need a calendar check.
Is this the same as a full Bazi chart?
No. This calculator gives a year-element starting point. A full Bazi chart uses four pillars and needs a more precise calendar calculation.
Is this a Chinese zodiac element calculator?
It is related to Chinese zodiac year logic, but the focus is the year element: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, or Water. It should not be treated as a complete personality or fate reading.
What if I was born in January or February?
The Chinese year begins around Lunar New Year. January and February birthdays may belong to the previous Chinese year, so a precise result requires the full birth date.
Five Elements
Understand Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water as phases of change.
Bazi
Learn why a full Four Pillars reading uses more than the birth year.
Stems and Branches
See the calendar grammar behind Chinese year elements.
Your year element is only the doorway.
For a practical next step, the free Reflection Map uses three choices you make about your current situation to suggest a Five Phases reflection lens and three actions. It uses your self-selected answers, not your birth year or calculator result.
Open Reflection Map