The Ox in the Chinese Zodiac
The clay ox that sees off winter
- Earliest record
- the 210s BCEThe daybook (rishu) from Shuihudi tomb 11, Yunmeng, deposited about 217 BCE, pairs the branch with the animal in its 'Robbers' section; the Fangmatan Qin daybooks, dated by their readers to the late Warring States or Qin, carry the same pair.
Cai Yong (132 to 192) tied the clay ox of the winter rite to the zodiac sign. At dusk this month the Dipper's handle points to chou, he wrote, and chou is the ox. So its image is set out as the cold peaks.
Cai Yong, Yueling zhangju, as quoted in a note to the treatise on rites (Liyi zhi, middle part) printed with the History of the Later Han.
The ox, second of the twelve animals paired with the earthly branches; it stands for the branch chou.
More context
The ox belongs to chou, the second earthly branch. The Qin daybook from Shuihudi, buried about 217 BCE, says "chou is the ox". Its thief of a chou day has a big nose and a long neck and hides in the ox stall. Chou also named the twelfth month, the depth of winter. The Monthly Ordinances order clay oxen brought out in that month "to send off the cold". The Han treatise on rites sets six clay oxen outside every city wall, on the chou side. Vietnam keeps the buffalo in the ox's place. Recent ox years began in 1997 (dingchou), 2009 (jichou) and 2021 (xinchou), each counted from the lunar New Year.
Light
Han cities set clay oxen outside their walls in the twelfth month to see off the great cold: the ox's sign carried the year through its hardest stretch.
Shadow
The Qin almanac's ox-day thief is big-nosed, long-necked and stooping, hidden in the ox stall: the sign once served to sketch a suspect.