Lucky numbers
1 4
Most recent year
2021
Branch position
2
The ox in the cycle
The Year of the Ox is any year ruled by 丑 (chǒu), the second earthly branch. Recent Ox years are 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009 and 2021, with 2033 next in line. Its fixed element is Earth and its polarity is yin, the quieter of the two. Because the zodiac year opens at the lunar new year, the boundary is not 1 January. The 1985 Ox year began on 20 February, so someone born that 10 February was still counted a Rat.
丑 covers the double hour from 1am to 3am and the compass slice between north and north-east. In the Great Race the Ox was leading, plodding across the river at a steady pace with the Rat riding unnoticed on its back, and lost first place in the last stride when the Rat jumped ashore ahead of it. The Ox accepted second without argument. That reaction, rather than the loss, is what the tradition attaches to the sign.
A second element rides on top of the fixed one, cycling every ten years by the last digit of the year. Years ending 4 or 5 are Wood, 6 or 7 Fire, 8 or 9 Earth, 0 or 1 Metal, 2 or 3 Water. So 2021 was a Metal Ox, 2009 an Earth Ox and 1985 a Wood Ox. Earth landing on an Earth sign, as it did in 2009 and 1949, is read as doubling the sign's own qualities rather than producing something new.
- 牛 · niú
- 2 of 12
- Earth
- Yin
- 1, 4
- 5, 6
- White, Yellow, Green
- Tulip, Peach blossom
- North, South
- Capricorn — unrelated systems, see below
Ox years, and the date each one starts
1925
from 24 Jan
1937
from 11 Feb
1949
from 29 Jan
1961
from 15 Feb
1973
from 3 Feb
1985
from 20 Feb
1997
from 7 Feb
2009
from 26 Jan
2021
from 12 Feb
2033
from 31 Jan
Each ox year runs from the date shown until the day before the next lunar new year. Born on 10 January 2021? You are not a ox; that year had not started yet. The full year table covers 1924 to 2044 if you need to check a different year.
What the tradition says about ox people
Chinese astrology describes Ox-year people as diligent and dependable, the ones still working on a thing after everyone else has moved on. The tradition credits them with patience, endurance of both the physical and the mental kind, and a preference for a plan they made themselves over advice offered late. Honesty appears in nearly every description, alongside a low tolerance for showing off. Ox readings praise the result and stay quiet about the method, because the method is usually just persistence applied for longer than seemed reasonable.
The same reading supplies the flip side. The tradition calls Ox-year people stubborn past the point of hearing anyone, poor at reading a room, and slow to say what they feel, which sources link to long lonely stretches in their relationships. They are described as unwilling to change course once committed, even after the evidence has changed underneath them. Some accounts add a temper that arrives late and badly. This is the tradition's portrait of a sign, not a diagnosis of anyone born in 1997.
Why 1, 4
Published Ox lists usually give 1 and 4, plus compounds like 14 and 41. Number 4 is the interesting one. In ordinary Chinese usage 四 (sì) is the most avoided number of all, because it sounds close to 死 (sǐ), death, which is why plenty of buildings skip a fourth floor. The zodiac lists put it in the Ox's lucky column regardless, and none of them explains the reversal. Number 1, 一 (yī), carries the general senses of first and whole, nothing specific to the 丑 branch.
The unlucky pair given for the Ox is 5 and 6. 五 (wǔ) has a documented negative echo, sounding like 无 (wú), meaning nothing or without. 六 (liù) is the puzzle. In general use it is auspicious, close to 溜 (liū), smooth or frictionless, and 六六大顺 (liù liù dà shùn), may everything go smoothly, is a standard good wish. No source we checked says why the Ox inverts it. Publishers disagree here as well: some lists hand the Ox 2 and 7 instead.
Lucky
1 4
Chinese number luck runs largely on homophones. 八 bā (8) sits close to 發 fā, to prosper; 四 sì (4) sits close to 死 sǐ, death. The Chinese numbers page works through the whole set.
Ox compatibility
Ox at work and in love
Ox — work and money
The tradition reads the Ox as a worker rather than a networker. Descriptions stress meticulous attention, a tolerance for repetition that most signs are not credited with, and a habit of building slowly instead of chasing a fast result. Ox readings then turn to money and get noticeably blunt. Sources describe Ox-year people as careful earners with weak judgement about a speculative offer, and one of the standard lines is that an Ox should stay out of a casino entirely.
Career lists for the Ox run hands-on and long-horizon. Agriculture and manufacturing head most of them, followed by engineering, mechanics, drafting, carpentry and quarry work. Pharmacy shows up for a related reason, procedure followed exactly the same way every time. The lists also carry real estate and interior design, and several add politics, on the argument that the Ox outlasts opponents rather than out-talking them.
Ox — love and family
Chinese astrology reads Ox-year people as slow to start and hard to shift once settled. The descriptions have them uncomfortable with romantic display, more likely to fix the car than say the sentence, and sources treat that reticence as the sign's central problem rather than its charm. The tradition also reads them as loyal well past the point of sense, staying in something out of commitment long after it stopped working for either person.
The Ox's trine is Ox, Snake and Rooster, known as the metal trine (巳酉丑). Its members sit four branches apart on the twelve-branch wheel, and the tradition groups them for a shared method: quiet accumulation, long planning, little noise. The clash animal is the Goat at 未, which sits directly opposite 丑, the arrangement called 六冲 (liù chōng), six clashes. Chinese astrology reads that pairing as a mismatch of pace, the Goat improvising where the Ox has already decided, and presents it as tension rather than a prohibition.
The Capricorn question
Charts that pair the ox with Capricorn are matching the ox's earthly branch to the solar month it governs in the traditional calendar. That is a real correspondence inside Chinese timekeeping. It is not a claim that the two astrologies agree, because they were built in different places for different purposes and neither borrowed from the other. Treat it as a curiosity rather than a second opinion on your western sign.
Year of the Ox — frequently asked
1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009 and 2021. The next one is 2033.
Yes. The year element follows the last digit, and years ending in 1 take Metal, so 2021 ran as a Metal Ox from 12 February 2021. The Ox sign's own fixed element is Earth, and the tradition reads the two together rather than picking one.
The most widely printed pair is 1 and 4, with 5 and 6 listed as unlucky. Other publishers give 2 and 7 instead. None of them derives the numbers from a stated rule, so the honest answer is that these are one tradition's list rather than a settled fact. They will not move a lottery draw.
No. The pairing comes from lining the twelve earthly branches up against the twelve solar months, and 丑 happens to land where Capricorn does. The two systems grew up separately and were never built to map onto each other, so the correspondence is an artefact of two calendars, not a shared meaning.
The Goat. 丑 and 未 sit directly opposite on the twelve-branch wheel, the arrangement called 六冲 (liù chōng), six clashes. The tradition reads it as friction of temperament, not as a rule against the pairing.