Ox is 丑, the branch of late winter. Its image is frozen ground holding the remains of a season. The reading centres on endurance, preparation and care for what has already been entrusted to you.
At work
Maintenance, careful handovers and consistent follow-through fit the Ox theme. When this describes your work, make its purpose visible: what you maintain, who relies on it and what needs support.
With people
Reliability is one way of showing care. If practical help is your preferred language, it can be useful to ask whether the other person also needs affection expressed in words.
Ox compatibility
Snake and Rooster share the Metal triad with Ox, linking concentration, precision and endurance. Rat is the six-harmony partner; the symbolic contrast is between finding options and carrying a choice through.
Where the strength turns over
Persistence deserves review when the reasons for continuing have changed. Time already spent on a commitment does not settle whether it remains worthwhile.
How Korean saju reads this branch
Ox is 丑, a storehouse branch containing Water, Metal and Earth. The image is late-winter ground retaining what the season leaves behind. It corresponds to the final solar month before ipchun, roughly January into early February, the north-northeast, and the hours from one to three in the morning. These associations describe a position before spring begins; they do not establish a person’s temperament. An Ox-year birth in the Ox hour repeats the branch in two chart positions, which must still be read with the rest of the chart.
Are you actually this sign?
For a January or early-February birth, check ipchun (立春), around February 4. In this Korean saju calculation, a birth before that boundary in an Ox calendar year belongs to the preceding Rat year. The Ox month and Ox year are different chart positions.
Ox years
- 1949 Earth Ox
- 1961 Metal Ox
- 1973 Water Ox
- 1985 Wood Ox
- 1997 Fire Ox
- 2009 Earth Ox
- 2021 Metal Ox
- 2033 Water Ox
The animal comes back every twelve years and the element in front of it every sixty. That pairing is what people mean by a Water Ox or a Fire Ox — same branch, a different stem sitting over it. Each of these years starts at ipchun in early February, not at Lunar New Year.
When taking on a long commitment, agree on when and how it will be reviewed.