Ox and Tiger compatibility

What the book says

Ox and Tiger have none of the relations: no harmony, clash, punishment, harm or break. The book has nothing to say about this pair in particular.

Their elements

The Ox is Earth and the Tiger is Wood: Wood controls Earth.

San Ming Tong Hui’s section on the zodiac animals happens to name these two. It gives the element reasoning, and then asks why the real animals do not behave that way:

The Tiger branch is Wood, and its creature the tiger; the Dog branch is Earth, and its creature the dog; the Ox and Goat branches are Earth too, with the ox and the goat. Wood overcomes Earth, so the dog, the ox and the goat are mastered by the tiger.

寅，木也，其禽虎，戌，土也，其禽犬，丑、未亦土也，丑禽牛，未禽羊，木胜土，故犬与牛羊为虎所服

Matched by how their elements overcome each other, the creatures of the twelve branches do not correspond at all. Wherever blooded creatures master one another, even to eating one another, it comes down to sharp or blunt teeth and strong or weak sinews.

十二辰之禽以气性相克则尤不相应。大凡含血之虫相服，至于相啖食者，以齿牙钝利、筋力优劣自相胜服也。

San Ming Tong Hui, volume 2: On the animals of the branches (论地支属相) · source text

How much it counts

A sign is one character of the eight in a BaZi chart, the year’s branch. The book reads these relations between the pillars of one chart, and tells the reader to look at the whole chart’s elements first:

Clash and break, three harmony and six harmony: where a chart has them, ask next how its five elements get on. Misfortune may give rise to blessing, and blessing to misfortune.

相冲相破，三合六合，命中有之，即求五行相得何如。或祸中生福，福中生祸

San Ming Tong Hui, volume 3: On the symbolic stars as a whole (总论诸神煞) · source text

Birth years, and 2027

• Ox: 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009, 2021. In 2027, the Year of the Fire Goat (Ding Wei, 丁未), the Ox clashes with the year (Chong Tai Sui, 冲太岁) and is punished by the year (Xing Tai Sui, 刑太岁).
• Tiger: 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010, 2022. In 2027, the Year of the Fire Goat (Ding Wei, 丁未), the Tiger has no clash with the year.

A sign’s year is usually counted from Chinese New Year, between late January and mid-February; BaZi counts it from the Start of Spring, about 4 February. Born in January or early February? You may be the sign before: the sign pages check your date.