The 1945 Chinese zodiac is the Wood Rooster — Yin Wood on the Rooster branch, written 乙酉 (Yǐ Yǒu). Its Na Yin (纳音 nàyīn), the sound-element attached to the pillar, is 泉中水, Spring Water. That is the year pillar for most of 1945, but which pillar is truly yours turns on the solar term Li Chun, not New Year’s Day.
The 1945 pillar at a glance
The fixed facts for the year, before the boundary that trips up most tables:
- Year sign: Yin Wood Rooster — heavenly stem 乙 (Yǐ) over the Rooster branch 酉.
- Na Yin element: 泉中水, Spring Water.
- Year begins: Li Chun on 4 February 1945 at 12:19, China Standard Time (UTC+8, the Singapore clock).
- Born before that moment: the previous Wood Monkey pillar (甲申).
- Age in 2026: turns 81 this Fire Horse year.
- Relation to 2026: no major clash or combination — read by elements.
Born in January or early February 1945? You may be a Wood Monkey
The Rooster year began at the solar term Li Chun (立春 lìchūn), the astronomical start of the Ba Zi year — distinct from 1 January and from the lunar New Year. In 1945 it was timed to 4 February 1945 at 12:19 China Standard Time (UTC+8, the same as the Singapore clock). Born before that midday moment, your year pillar is the departing Wood Monkey (甲申). January births — and any on 4 February before 12:19 — should read the Wood Monkey year. Standard zodiac tables misfile these births because they cut the year at New Year; verify the exact time with the chart calculator.
The Wood Rooster temperament, in brief
The Rooster is meticulous, forthright and hard-working, and Yin Wood softens the sharpness into a communicative, growth-minded diligence — keen to improve things and to be understood. It is orderly without being cold. The full portrait is on our Wood Rooster profile.
The pillar behind the animal
The year pillar joins a heavenly stem to an earthly branch. Here the stem is 乙, Yin Wood — the supple grass or flowering plant rather than the tree — while the branch 酉, the Rooster, is pure Metal, and Metal in the cycle cuts Wood, so branch presses on stem within the single pillar. Inside the branch sit hidden stems, the concealed influences explained in our guide to the stems and branches — and 酉 is the purest Metal branch of all, hiding only Xīn 辛 (Yin Metal). With no secondary stems to moderate it, the Rooster’s pressure on the 乙 stem is constant and clean, which is why practitioners read 乙酉 as a pillar of refinement under discipline: the shears and the vine. As a year pillar it points to inherited circumstances and the shape of the early years, not the whole person.
Rooster years in sequence
The Rooster branch returns in 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017 and 2029 — nine visits in a century, each under a different heavenly stem. The Water Rooster of 1933 and the Fire Rooster of 1957 flank 1945’s Wood Rooster as cousins, not copies. The identical 乙酉 pillar recurs only in 2005, one full sixty-year cycle later. For the five elemental Roosters compared, see the year of the Rooster hub.
Comparing cousin pillars makes the stem’s role vivid. The 1957 Rooster is 丁酉 — Yin Fire over the same pure Metal branch — and where 1945’s Yin Wood is pressed by its Rooster, 1957’s Yin Fire presses back, controlling the Metal beneath it. Same animal, opposite internal politics. This is why practitioners hesitate at advice addressed to Roosters as a class: the branch is only half the pillar, and the half that changes every twelve years changes the story.
The Wood Rooster in 2026
A 1945 Wood Rooster turns 81 in 2026. The Rooster branch has no major clash or combination with the 2026 Horse, so the year is read by its elements — the pillar’s Yin Wood and the Rooster’s Metal set against a Fire year. The Fire-Metal tension is the thread to follow, its effect turning on whether the chart needs Metal tempered or protected. The 2026 Fire Horse page gives the broader picture.
Questions from 1945 births
Born just before lunch on 4 February 1945 — Monkey or Rooster?
The boundary is 12:19, so an 11:45 birth is a Wood Monkey and a 13:00 birth is a Wood Rooster. Midday boundaries split a working day in half; if your record says simply “afternoon”, you are a Rooster, but “morning” puts you with the Monkey, and “around noon” calls for both charts to be tested.
Are January 1945 births really Monkeys, not Roosters?
In Ba Zi (八字 bāzì), yes. The Rooster year did not exist until 12:19 on 4 February 1945; before that moment the Wood Monkey pillar 甲申 was still in force. Festival calendars that say otherwise are answering a festival question, not a chart question — the difference is unpacked in what is my Chinese zodiac.
Metal cuts Wood — should a Wood Rooster worry?
No. Tension inside a pillar is texture, not misfortune. In many charts the Rooster’s Metal is exactly the discipline the Wood needs; in others it wants softening from elsewhere. Which of those is true for you depends on the Day Master and the season of birth — single-pillar readings cannot say.
Beyond the animal
Your birth-year animal is one branch of eight in a Ba Zi (八字 bāzì) chart — one-eighth of the reading. Two people born the same year read very differently once the full chart is drawn, so the animal alone decides nothing. See how to read your Ba Zi chart for the method. Then plot your full eight characters free with the Butcher Boy calculator.