Chinese zodiac
Ox
Ox — Chou, the 2nd of the twelve earthly branches. It comes round every twelve years, each time with the next of the five elements, so the same animal and element meet again every sixty years.
The character 牛 covers cattle, buffalo and yak alike, and the Vietnamese version of the cycle gives this place to the water buffalo (trâu), the working animal of the rice fields. In the race story the Ox is the one that crosses first and loses the finish to the Rat riding on its back.
The Ox's earthly branch
The branch, Chou (丑), is older than the Ox and names more than a year: it is also one of the twelve double hours of the traditional day, a month of the Chinese solar year and a point of the compass.
- Branch
- Chou 丑The 2nd of twelve. The animal is written 牛.
- Polarity
- YinPaired only with the yin stems, so every Ox year starts in an odd-numbered calendar year.
- Element of the branch
- EarthThe Ox's own, the same every year. The element in the table below belongs to the year.
- Double hour
- 01:00–03:00Read today off the local clock. Traditionally kept by the sun, so noon fell in the middle of the Horse's double hour.
- Solar month opens
- 5 January 2026At Xiaohan, Minor Cold, when the sun reaches 285°. Beijing time, that has been 5 or 6 January in every year from 1920 to 2026.
- Bearing
- 30°Between north and east, counting clockwise from the Rat at due north.
- Triad
- Ox, Snake, RoosterThe three branches four apart, which the tradition groups under Metal.
- Opposite
- GoatSix places on: the opposite hour, month and bearing.
The hours, bearings, triads and branch elements are the standard correspondences of the earthly branches. The month dates are worked out here from the sun's position, on the Beijing calendar, for every year from 1920 to 2026. What the solar terms are →
A January or early-February birthday can belong to the year before
The Year of the Ox does not begin on 1 January. In 2021 it began on 12 February. A baby born on 1 January 2021 — before that date — would be a Rat, not an Ox.
The new year falls between 21 January and 20 February, and until it arrives the previous animal is still in charge. Each year's own date is in the table below.
Every year of the Ox since 1920
| Year | Began on | Element |
|---|---|---|
| 1925 | 24 January | Wood Ox |
| 1937 | 11 February | Fire Ox |
| 1949 | 29 January | Earth Ox |
| 1961 | 15 February | Metal Ox |
| 1973 | 3 February | Water Ox |
| 1985 | 20 February | Wood Ox |
| 1997 | 7 February | Fire Ox |
| 2009 | 26 January | Earth Ox |
| 2021 | 12 February | Metal Ox |
The animal repeats every twelve years; the element repeats every ten, so the same pairing — such as Metal Ox — is sixty years apart.