Zodiac compatibility is the most popular and the coarsest form of Chinese match-making. It compares one character — the branch of your birth year — against someone else's. This page collects the actual rules rather than the usual list of scores.
Six harmonies (Liu He)
Six pairs of branches are said to combine. In traditional practice these are considered the most favourable matches:
| Pair | Animals |
|---|---|
| Zi–Chou | Rat and Ox |
| Yin–Hai | Tiger and Pig |
| Mao–Xu | Rabbit and Dog |
| Chen–You | Dragon and Rooster |
| Si–Shen | Snake and Monkey |
| Wu–Wei | Horse and Goat |
Three harmonies (San He)
Four triangles of three branches each, named for the season they belong to:
| Group | Animals | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Shen–Zi–Chen | Monkey, Rat, Dragon | Water / winter |
| Hai–Mao–Wei | Pig, Rabbit, Goat | Wood / spring |
| Yin–Wu–Xu | Tiger, Horse, Dog | Fire / summer |
| Si–You–Chou | Snake, Rooster, Ox | Metal / autumn |
Six conflicts (Liu Chong)
Six pairs sit opposite each other on the earthly branch circle and are said to clash:
- Zi–Wu — Rat and Horse
- Chou–Wei — Ox and Goat
- Yin–Shen — Tiger and Monkey
- Mao–You — Rabbit and Rooster
- Chen–Xu — Dragon and Dog
- Si–Hai — Snake and Pig
Six harms (Liu Hai)
A quieter relation than clash, more attrition than collision: Zi–Wei, Chou–Wu, Yin–Si, Mao–Chen, Shen–Hai, You–Xu.
What the rules are actually built on
Each of the twelve branches carries an element, and the harmony and conflict relations follow from the five-element cycles. The three-harmony groups correspond to the four seasons — each triangle gathers the branch of a season's peak with the branches that begin and store it. The six conflicts are the branches sitting six apart, directly opposite on the circle.
This is worth knowing because it means the rules are not arbitrary. They are a consistent application of the element system, which is the same system BaZi and Liu Yao run on.
How to read your result
- Check the harmony rules first — these carry the most weight.
- Then check the conflict and harm rules.
- If both appear, treat it as a specific area of friction rather than a verdict.
- Remember this uses one character out of eight in each chart.
What the chart leaves out
The year branch is one character out of eight in each chart. It says nothing about the Month pillar, the Day Master, or the Hour pillar — which is to say, nothing about career capacity, the self, or later life.
Used as a first pass, it is a reasonable filter. Used as a verdict, it discards seven eighths of the available information.