Day pillar type
Blue Ox (Yi Chou): Personality and Matches
Hongsimdang Editorial Team · Last updated
Blue Ox (Yi Chou) is the day pillar where flowers and vines that bend with the wind (乙) rests on earth at the end of winter (丑). In short, it steers a situation by hand and goes after practical results.
What decides the Blue Ox: day stem and day branch
Your day pillar is the stem and branch of the day you were born: the upper character is the day stem and the lower one is the day branch. For Blue Ox (Yi Chou), the day stem is 乙 (Yin Wood) and the day branch is 丑 (Ox). The “Blue” in the name is the color of the day stem’s element, and “Ox” is the zodiac animal of the day branch. Both are Hongsimdang’s own labels.
The day stem 乙 is likened to flowers and vines that bend with the wind. You adjust to your surroundings so smoothly that by the time anyone notices, your roots are already deep. The day branch 丑 is earth at the end of winter. The Ox is popularly pictured as steady, tough and quietly persistent, but that is the folk image of the zodiac. The actual reading comes from the element relationship and life stage that follow.
Read as elements, your stem and branch form a wealth pair, in which the stem steers the branch. Your stem presses on the branch and steers it, so you tend to arrange your surroundings and resources by your own hand and go after practical results. The branch 丑 also holds the hidden stems 癸, 辛, 己, which lay another side beneath the one that shows.
Seen from your day stem 乙, the day branch 丑 sits at the Decline (Shuai) stage of the twelve life stages. It is the mellow stage just past the peak, which gives a composure that does not hurry and a sense of weight.
How the Blue Ox shows up at work
You arrange the environment yourself and move numbers, people and procedures to get results. With such a strong results focus, running ahead of other people’s pace draws pushback, so think through the order in which you bring people in.
Nothing flashy, but the longer the campaign runs, the better you look, and not quitting is itself a form of credibility. You fit in so easily that your own standards slide to the bottom of the list, and you rarely say so when you are worn out.
Under load you keep going without showing it, and when you hit your limit you can stall all at once.
It helps to turn what you have kept up into numbers or records, so you can see your own progress and give yourself credit for it.
How the Blue Ox shows up in relationships and love
You tend to push a relationship forward in practical ways and can be a dependable lead. If you treat your partner as something to be advanced, it feels cramped to them, so leave a gap to hear what they want before you decide.
You show sincerity through actions rather than words. You warm up slowly, but the friendships tend to last.
A partner who does not rush you and who notices your steady effort is likely to suit you best.
How the Blue Ox handles money
You have a keen feel for spotting openings and acting on them, and a high ability to handle money. Spread too wide and you outrun your ability to manage it, so decide in advance how far you will go.
Money grows best for you through connections and small openings picked up one at a time, not through a single all-in bet.
You are good at quietly building savings and better at keeping than spending, but skimping on necessary costs can come back later as a bigger bill.
Day branches that harmonize with the Blue Ox and ones that clash
The day branch of Blue Ox (Yi Chou) is 丑 (Ox). Which day branch the other person has decides the relation between your two branches, as shown below. A day branch that is not listed has no direct harmony or clash with yours.
| Their day branch | Relation between branches | How it reads |
|---|---|---|
| Rat (子) | Six Harmony | pulls together and fills in |
| Ox (丑) | Same day branch | like with like |
| Snake (巳) | Triple Harmony partner | moves in the same direction, and the group is complete once a third branch joins |
| Rooster (酉) | Triple Harmony partner | moves in the same direction, and the group is complete once a third branch joins |
| Dragon (辰) | Break | cracks are likely |
| Horse (午) | Harm, Resentment / Ghost Gate | small misunderstandings pile up; attracts yet irritates |
| Goat (未) | Clash, Punishment | head-on opposition; rubs, so friction is likely |
| Dog (戌) | Punishment | rubs, so friction is likely |
Harmony, Clash, Punishment, Harm, Break and Resentment are relations fixed mechanically by the pair of branches. They say nothing about anyone’s character being better or worse.
2027 (Ding Wei year) and the Blue Ox
2027 is a Ding Wei year. The year’s stem and branch change over at the start of spring, around February 4, 2027. The Ding of 2027 is energy that flows out of your day stem naturally, so giving shape step by step to what you like, or letting your expression and making spread gently, is likely this year. The year branch Wei clashes with your day branch, so the foundations of daily life, such as home, workplace and routines, tend to prompt a rethink. Wei also enters a Punishment relation with your day branch, so stubborn standoffs with people close by are more likely, and rounding the edges of how you say things helps.
What the day pillar alone cannot tell you
The day pillar is one of the four pillars of a chart. The year, month and hour pillars, the ten-year luck cycles, and Zi Wei Dou Shu and Western astrology readings are not included on this page. Two people with the same Blue Ox can show it differently depending on their other pillars, and your day pillar alone does not settle personality or fate.
To see all four pillars, use the free BaZi calculator. To read a specific question through to timing, a personal reading is the next step.
See the whole chart with the free BaZi calculator →Personal readings →Day Pillar Types →
Frequently asked questions
How do I find out whether I am a Blue Ox?
The day of Blue Ox (Yi Chou) comes around once every 60 days, and people born on a 乙丑 day belong to this type. Enter your birth date on the day pillar type index to check.
Why am I a Blue Ox if my birth-year animal is not the Ox?
The birth-year animal comes from the year branch, while the Ox in Blue Ox comes from the day branch 丑. They are two separate calculations. Even if your birth year belongs to another animal, a day branch of 丑 makes your day pillar a Ox.
Which types match the Blue Ox?
Looking only at day branches, the Six Harmony partner of 丑 is the Rat (子), and the clash comes from the Goat (未). That is one narrow view. How well two people fit depends on all four pillars and on how they treat each other.
See other types
Same color
- Blue Rat (Jia Zi)
- Blue Dog (Jia Xu)
- Blue Pig (Yi Hai)
- Blue Monkey (Jia Shen)
- Blue Rooster (Yi You)
- Blue Horse (Jia Wu)
- Blue Goat (Yi Wei)
- Blue Dragon (Jia Chen)
- Blue Snake (Yi Si)
- Blue Tiger (Jia Yin)
- Blue Rabbit (Yi Mao)
Same animal