Horoskopanalysen

The Ox in the Chinese zodiac

Chou is the name of the second earthly branch of the Chinese cycle; in English it goes by the Ox, and occasionally by the Buffalo. The years of birth that belong to it are 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009 and 2021. That list comes with a reservation, though: anyone whose birthday falls between New Year and the middle of February should have the assignment recalculated, because the boundary with the preceding animal lies in that window – and exactly where it lies is answered differently from school to school.

The Chou branch at a glance

In this order of things, earth belongs to the transitions between the seasons. The Ox stands at exactly such a seam: winter is not over, spring is not yet there. It is the time when nothing happens above ground and everything is already being prepared below it.

What this position says

The double hour says the same thing again. 1 to 3 in the morning: the deepest quiet, no audience, nothing to show. In this system the Ox is given the place of what carries without being seen – the ground under the field, the work before the result.

The pace follows from this as well. Slowness is not a weakness here, it is the way the matter itself is built. Whoever takes this place does not get ahead quickly, but holds a direction longer than any other branch. Conversely, anything that has to be changed at short notice comes at a high price.

Why the second in particular

A story goes with the order of the animals, one that every child in China knows: a race decides who is taken into the calendar, and in which place. The Ox runs right through the night, evenly and without a pause, and is in front shortly before the finish. The Rat has ridden the whole way on his back and jumps off at the last moment.

The story explains nothing about the system. But it catches exactly what is ascribed to this branch: anyone who works like that arrives reliably – and notices too late that the attention has landed somewhere else.

The Snake, the Rooster and the Sheep

A piece of advice from older books says that an Ox should look for a partner among Snakes and Roosters and give Sheep a wide berth. What stands behind it is not a recommendation about partners but the way the cycle is built. Any three branches that lie four places apart in the circle form a group of three and combine into one phase; Snake, Rooster and Ox together give metal.

Within such a group every branch has a different task. One brings the phase forth, one carries its peak, one closes it off and stores it away. The third place falls to the Ox: with him the metal is not setting out but laid up in store – one more image of the same theme.

Opposite stands the Sheep, and the remarkable thing about it is that both carry earth and still do not get along. The one earth lies moist and cold at the end of winter, the other dry and hot at the end of summer. Relations of this kind describe how forces support or block one another in a birth chart. Carried over to people, it means at most this: with one of them things go more easily, with the other there is friction. It was never meant as a rule about whom you should marry.

The image the tradition gives of the Ox

Stamina, reliability and a methodical way of proceeding are ascribed to him. He plans before he begins, and what he promises holds. He would rather take responsibility than hand it over; leading comes easier to him than following.

The reverse side is already in the saying about the stubborn ox. Insisting on being right, little patience with people who improvise or change their minds, and a tendency not to touch a decision once it has been made. Anyone who commits early and corrects late listens less well in the meantime. The tradition therefore advises the Ox to wait more often before answering.

What you can do with the year animal

Taken on its own, not much. The branch gathers a twelfth of all people together by year of birth, and everything that really carries weight in the interpretation lies elsewhere: with the stem that belongs to this branch, and with the details for month, day and hour. How the framework is built, and where it differs from Western interpretation, is set out by Chinese astrology.

As a way in it is worth something all the same, because it shows what language this system speaks. Not in lists of character traits, but in seasons, hours of the day, compass directions and relations between places in the circle. Anyone who wants to lay the two side by side will find the Western side under the zodiac signs.