Cast & Chart

Lunar mansion

Niú

Ox

An almanac describes traditional day-types. It cannot decide health, money, law, marriage or children. Burial, marriage and medical items on these pages are what a book states, never advice.

In the classical sources

牛近中宫故為牛之本象

牛 is next to the central seat, which makes the ox its own likeness.

協紀辨方書 卷一

About this entry

The Ox has the plainest match in the scheme, lying near the center of the 丑 palace, whose animal is the ox. 協紀辨方書 卷一 reports this and adds that the set of animals looks like a later invention. 卷三十六 also names it among the four metal mansions of the 暗金 hours, a method the editors set aside.

Metal, in 星厯考原 卷五, is the group it shares with 亢, 婁 and 鬼. Friday is where the modern bridge lands it. 斗 leads into it and 女 comes after, and, apart from the cutting-clothes list of 卷三十六, which the editors dismiss as foreign custom, the book offers no judgment on the day.

Where this text comes from

The Chinese follows the Wikisource typed text of the Siku copy, under its CC BY-SA terms. Statements about the calculator describe its own rules, and modern practice is labeled as modern.

The English here is our own plain wording. Lists keep the items of the source.