Cast & Chart

Ox and Pig

These are traditional rules about the twelve signs. No chart decides a relationship.

The traditional relations

  • 無 No listed relation

    None of the classical relations apply to this pair.

What tradition says

These two flank the Rat in the north, 亥 on one side and 丑 on the other, and our tables give them no relation. An objector in 論衡 notes that earth beats water and asks why the ox and the goat do not kill the pig. The fixed elements do point that way, with earth damming water, and both branches are yin.

In popular zodiac the Pig is generous and easy and the Ox is careful and steady, a combination those books often call restful. Popular writers add that the Ox tends to carry more of the load.

The question from 論衡 is a good one to borrow: if the rule says one side wins, why does nothing of the kind happen? Think about where you expected one of you to give way and the other did not. Then ask who has been doing the carrying lately.

Earth over water sorts the branches 丑 and 亥, and an old objector was already asking why real animals ignore it, so real people may as well.

Where this text comes from

The relation tables follow 五行大義 volume 2 and 三命通會 volumes 2 and 3 on Wikisource. The popular readings are modern and come from neither.

The English here is our own plain wording, not a translation of a single source.