丑 · Ox

chǒu · 牛 · the second earthly branch

丑 chǒu is the second of the twelve earthly branches in BaZi: the Ox, Yin Earth. The earthly branches are the lower half of each pillar in a chart, and the branch of the year pillar is your Chinese zodiac animal. 丑 also names the hours from 1 to 3am and the twelfth month of the solar year, and it clashes with 未, the Goat.

Frozen earth at the end of winter, holding water and metal in store. 丑 is the branch of patient keeping: what is buried here is waiting for spring rather than lost.

The facts

Element

土 Earth, Yin

Hours

1 to 3am

Month

The twelfth month of the solar year

Hidden stems

己 Yin Earth癸 Yin Water辛 Yin Metal

Clashes

未 Goat · 丑未冲

Six combination

子 → 土 Earth

Three harmony

巳酉丑 → 金 Metal

Seasonal group

亥子丑 → 水 Water

Harm 害

午 Horse

Punishment 刑

未 Goat戌 Dog

Destruction 破

辰 Dragon

These are the branch relations the engine computes. A clash in a chart is a watch-out, not a verdict, and a combination is not automatically good.

Where you meet it

• As the branch of a pillar. In the year pillar it is the animal people usually mean by "I am a Ox".
• As the hour 丑时, 1 to 3am, which is why the almanac's hours are named by branch.
• On a clash day: a 未 day clashes anyone whose day or year branch is 丑.

Careful with the animal. Your BaZi year branch turns at Li Chun, not at Chinese New Year, so a birthday in late January or early February may not be the animal on the red envelope.