Chinese zodiac · Year of the Snake
The Wood Snake: 1965, 2025, 2085
乙巳 · Yi sì · Yin Wood stem on the Fire branch
A Wood Snake year pairs the Heavenly Stem 乙 (Yi, yin Wood) with the Earthly Branch 巳 (sì, the Snake). The pair recurs every sixty years, so in the range AsterNym covers the Wood Snake years are 1965, 2025, 2085. The animal is the same each time; the stem is what makes a Wood Snake different from a Fire Snake or a Earth Snake. The popular zodiac begins each of these years at Lunar New Year and BaZi begins it at Li Chun, so both boundaries are given below for every year.
What a Wood Snake is like
Popular Chinese zodiac tradition. For reflection, not prediction.
The Wood Snake is the most sociable and generous, still private, but warmer with the people it lets in.
2025 is the Wood Snake, the sociable and generous one, and the tradition reads Wood on the Fire branch as a Snake warmer with the people it lets in.
In BaZi terms the Wood stem feeds the Fire branch: Wood produces Fire in the generating cycle. Practitioners read the year as the stem spending itself on the branch, so the Snake's qualities are well supported from above while the stem itself is drained. A generous year for the animal, at some cost to the element on top.
The rest of the Snake’s character, in love, at work and the growing edge, is on the Year of the Snake page.
Wood Snake years and when each begins
The popular zodiac year begins at Lunar New Year; BaZi begins it at Li Chun, the start of spring. Both dates are given so a birth between them can be placed in either system.
| Year | Lunar New Year (popular zodiac) | Ends | Li Chun (BaZi) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1965 | 2 February 1965 | 20 January 1966 | 4 February 1965 |
| 2025 | 29 January 2025 | 16 February 2026 | 3 February 2025 |
| 2085 | outside the table | … | 3 February 2085 |
The next Wood Snake year is 2085. Check any birthday against the boundary with the finder.
Famous Wood Snakes
Public birth records, assigned by the Lunar New Year boundary.
Common questions
- When does the Year of the Wood Snake start?
- The 1965 Wood Snake year began at Lunar New Year on 2 February 1965 and ran to 20 January 1966. The 2025 Wood Snake year began at Lunar New Year on 29 January 2025 and ran to 16 February 2026. 2085 is outside AsterNym's Lunar New Year table. BaZi turns the year at Li Chun instead (1965: 4 February 1965; 2025: 3 February 2025; 2085: 3 February 2085), so a birth between the two dates carries different year animals in the two systems.
- What is a Wood Snake personality?
- The Wood Snake is the most sociable and generous, still private, but warmer with the people it lets in. In BaZi terms the Wood stem feeds the Fire branch: Wood produces Fire in the generating cycle. Practitioners read the year as the stem spending itself on the branch, so the Snake's qualities are well supported from above while the stem itself is drained. A generous year for the animal, at some cost to the element on top.
- When is the next Wood Snake year?
- 2085. The pair of stem 乙 and branch 巳 recurs every sixty years.