Branch 2 of 12
Year of the Ox (牛)
1997 · 2009 · 2021 · 2033
Fixed element Earth · yin · rules the hour 01:00–03:00
The Ox at a Glance
- Position
- Branch 2 of 12
- Chinese
- 牛 (niú)
- Fixed element
- Earth, yin
- Double hour
- 01:00–03:00 — the Ox hour
- Recent years
- 1997, 2009, 2021
- Next year
- 2033, a Water Ox
- Trine (san he)
- Snake and Rooster
- Harmony (liu he)
- Rat
- Opposite (liu chong)
- Goat
Character of the Ox
Diligent, dependable, strong, and determined. The Ox is a powerhouse of perseverance and integrity. They approach everything with methodical precision and unwavering dedication. Patient and tireless, Oxen build lasting success through sheer hard work. They value tradition and are deeply loyal to family and friends.
Every Ox Year from 1900 to 2100
17 of them, twelve years apart. Because ten heavenly stems cannot divide evenly among twelve branches, the Ox only ever meets five of the ten — so the Earth Ox returns every sixty years, not every twelve. That sixty-year round is the sexagenary cycle, which is why a sixtieth birthday counts as a completion rather than just another decade.
1901
Metal
1913
Water
1925
Wood
1937
Fire
1949
Earth
1961
Metal
1973
Water
1985
Wood
1997
Fire
2009
Earth
2021
Metal
2033
Water
2045
Wood
2057
Fire
2069
Earth
2081
Metal
2093
Water
Every Ox year is yin, without exception. The stem's polarity and the branch's are both set by the parity of the year, so they can never disagree — there is no such thing as a yang Ox, of any element. Counted across all twelve animals that rules out sixty of the hundred and twenty animal-element-polarity names in circulation, which the sexagenary cycle page sets out in full.
The Five Oxen
The Ox carries Earth as its own fixed element, whatever year it falls in. The year's stem then lays a second element over that, and the five phases relate to each other in fixed ways: Earth is generated by Fire and overcome by Wood, while it in turn generates Metal and overcomes Water. That is what separates one Ox from another.
Each of the five has its own page, carrying the pair of characters that actually names the year, its position in the sixty-year round and why its polarity cannot be otherwise. The one for the Earth Ox is the doubled case; the full set is linked from the headings below.
Wood Ox乙丑
1925, 1985, 2045
Wood overcomes Earth, making this the variant tradition treats as the tested one — the year works against the sign's own element.
Fire Ox丁丑
1937, 1997, 2057
Fire generates Earth, so this variant is read as supported: the year feeds what the Ox already is.
Earth Ox己丑
1949, 2009, 2069
Earth doubled — the year's stem matches the Ox's own element, which is why this variant is the one singled out in almanacs.
Metal Ox辛丑
1901, 1961, 2021, 2081
Earth generates Metal, so the Ox gives to this year rather than drawing from it — productive, and depleting if unchecked.
Water Ox癸丑
1913, 1973, 2033, 2093
Earth overcomes Water, so here the sign has the upper hand over its own year.
Who the Ox Matches
Chinese zodiac compatibility is geometry on a circle of twelve, not a list to be memorised. Once you know where the Ox sits — branch 2 — every claim below can be checked by counting.
San he · the trine · four places apart
Snake and Rooster sit four and eight places from the Ox, so the three of them form an equilateral triangle in the cycle — and their double hours land eight hours apart, dividing the day evenly between them. Branches spaced this evenly are held to share an outlook, which is why this is the strongest of the affinities, and why the four trines are the same four groups in every school.
This trine is the deliberate one. Its animals are described as working from a plan rather than an impulse, holding to a standard, and being unimpressed by charm — qualities that make them steady and, in the same breath, hard to argue with. Where the first trine improvises, this one prepares, and the traditional criticism of all three is a certain inflexibility once the position is taken.
Liu he · the six harmonies · the fixed partner
Rat. The twelve branches pair off into six couples, and the Ox's partner is fixed — it has exactly one. Where the trine is a shared temperament, liu he is described as a secret or complementary alliance: the two cover each other's gaps rather than agreeing.
Liu chong · the clash · directly opposite
Goat stands six places away, half the cycle, so the two branches face each other across the circle. That opposition is read as friction rather than catastrophe — an axis, and axes are where movement happens. Dragon and Dog are three places off and are named as awkward in most lists, though the schools agree far less about these than about the clash.
None of this is a verdict on a relationship — it reads one factor, the birth year. A Vedic assessment weighs both Moons, the seventh house and the Mars positions: Kundli Milan works from the birth details rather than the year.
Lucky for the Ox
- Numbers:
- 1, 4
- Colours:
- White, Yellow, Green
- Flowers:
- Tulip, Peach Blossom
Recorded by tradition, not calculated — unlike the years and the compatibility rules above, there is no arithmetic behind these to check.
Work that Suits the Ox
Drawn from the temperament above. A birth year is thin ground for a career decision; in a Vedic chart the tenth house and its lord carry that question.
Well-known Oxen
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769)
- Vincent van Gogh (1853)
- Walt Disney (1901)
- Margaret Thatcher (1925)
- Barack Obama (1961)
The birth years are given so the arithmetic can be checked: subtract 4 and divide by 12, and a remainder of 1 is an Ox. Everyone listed was born after 20 February, the latest the lunar new year can fall, so no boundary question arises.
Ben Ming Nian: the Ox's Own Year
Every twelfth year the cycle returns to the branch you were born under, and that year — ben ming nian — is traditionally the wary one rather than the lucky one, which surprises most people. For the Ox that means 2021 and next 2033. The customary response is to wear red: a cord, a thread, something given by someone else rather than bought for yourself. The reasoning is that a year of your own sign brings you into unusually direct contact with your own fate, and direct contact is exposure.
There is no Vedic equivalent, because a Vimshottari dasha runs six to twenty years depending on the planet holding it — so the wary stretches of a life fall in an order unique to the chart, not on a twelve-year drumbeat.
The Ox Is Not a Rashi
Both systems use twelve signs, and that coincidence does most of the damage. A rashi is a thirty-degree arc of the zodiac and changes every few weeks; the Ox is an earthly branch and depends only on the year, so everyone born in an Ox year shares it regardless of month, day or place. The nearer Vedic parallel is the sixty-year Samvatsara cycle, which likewise names years in a repeating round. For the sign that actually drives a Vedic reading — the Moon's — use the moon sign calculator or the full kundli.
Ox FAQs
Which years are Ox years?
Between 1900 and 2100: 1901, 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009, 2021, 2033, 2045, 2057, 2069, 2081, 2093. The Ox returns every twelve years, so if one of those is your birth year you are an Ox — with the caveat that the Chinese year begins at the lunar new year in late January or February, not on 1 January. The most recent Ox year was 2021 and the next is 2033.
Which signs is the Ox most compatible with?
Snake and Rooster and Rat, and the reason is structural rather than a matter of temperament. Snake and Rooster sit four places from the Ox in the cycle of twelve, forming the triangle called san he — the three branches share an affinity because they are evenly spaced around the circle. Rat is the Ox's partner in liu he, the six harmonies, which pair each branch with exactly one other. Those four are the matches every school agrees on.
Which sign clashes with the Ox?
Goat, which sits directly opposite — six places away, so the two branches are half a cycle apart. This is liu chong, the six clashes. In practice it describes a pairing that has to work at understanding each other rather than one that is doomed; Dragon and Dog are the other two commonly named as awkward, being three places away, though popular lists disagree more about those.
What is an Earth Ox?
The strongest form of the sign, on the traditional reading. Every animal carries a fixed element of its own — the Ox's is Earth — and separately, each year carries one of the five elements as its heavenly stem. When the two coincide the quality is doubled, and for the Ox that happens in 1949, 2009 and 2069. Fire years (1937, 1997 and 2057) are held to support it, since Fire generates Earth. Wood years (1925, 1985 and 2045) are the tense ones, since Wood overcomes Earth. Written out, an Earth Ox year is 己丑 — position 26 of the sixty-year cycle, and every one of them is yin, never the reverse.
If you were born in January of an Ox year, are you an Ox?
Usually not. The Chinese year turns at the lunar new year, which falls between 21 January and 20 February, so a birthday before it belongs to the previous year — making you a Rat rather than an Ox. Anyone born after 20 February is unambiguously an Ox, since that is the latest the new year can fall. If your birthday is in that window, the year's lunar new year date settles it.
What is the Ox hour?
01:00–03:00. The twelve branches divide the day into double hours as well as the years into a cycle, and the Ox governs that stretch. It is the closest Chinese parallel to the Vedic hora, which likewise assigns each hour of the day to a ruler — though the hora runs on the seven planets and a sunrise-to-sunrise day, so the two do not line up.