Chinese zodiac compatibility

Pick two signs and see which traditional earthly-branch relation they form. The full 12×12 table and the meaning of every relation are below, so you can read it straight off the grid instead of clicking through pairs.

What this tool can and cannot tell you

The zodiac sign is the year branch. So zodiac compatibility is just applying earthly-branch relations to two people's year branches — the coarsest layer of traditional marriage matching. A real BaZi compatibility reading compares the day branches (the spouse palace) of both full charts, whether the five elements complement each other, and whether the useful gods support one another, along with the major and annual cycles. The year branch is a small part of that. Use what follows to understand what the tradition says; do not treat it as a verdict on whether a relationship works, and certainly not as a reason to decide whether to be with someone.

What the seven relations mean

SixHSix Harmony (六合): A one-to-one pairing, the tightest relation among earthly branches. Traditionally it means closeness, bonding, and mutual accommodation. It is not automatically good: bound too tightly, the same relation becomes a constraint that leaves neither side room to move.
TriHThree Harmony (三合): Three Harmony is a formation of the growth, prosperity and storage branches, stressing the gathering of one element's momentum. When two signs belong to the same Three Harmony group it is called a 'half combination' — only two of the three branches are present, so it is weaker, and schools disagree on whether a half combination counts as a formation at all.
ClashSix Clash (六冲): The two branches directly oppose each other: change, friction, coming together and separating. A clash is not automatically bad — it can break a deadlock or drive out a malign influence. The popular claim that clashing signs 'cannot be together' is an oversimplification.
HarmSix Harm (六害): Also called 'piercing'. It means quiet erosion and mutual drag — the damage is not out in the open. Traditionally such pairings wear each other down in small ways rather than through open conflict.
PunPunishment (相刑): Punishment means entanglement, repetition and mutual torment. It divides into the Ungrateful (Yin-Si-Shen), the Bullying (Chou-Xu-Wei) and the Discourteous (Zi-Mao), plus 'self-punishment' for Chen, Wu, You and Hai — the same sign on a self-punishing branch points to inner conflict more than outer.
BreachSix Breach (六破): Breach means rupture and breaking apart, generally held to be milder than a clash. Its character is a crack appearing in something otherwise whole, and it often co-occurs with a harmony.
SameSame sign: The same zodiac sign twice. Sharing a year branch does not mean sharing a temperament — what actually structures character is the day master and the whole chart, not the year branch.
No special relation: There is no traditional harmony, clash, harm, punishment or breach between these two branches. This is a very common result: 30 of the 78 sign pairings fall here. No relation does not mean 'average' — it means there is nothing to say at this layer.

Yin-Hai and Si-Shen are simultaneously a Six Harmony and a Six Breach. That overlap exists in the tradition itself and schools resolve it differently; we flag it rather than quietly picking one.

Three Harmony requires all three branches. Two signs from the same group form only a 'half combination', and whether it counts is a matter of school convention.

The full 12-sign relation table

Both axes are zodiac signs. A cell can carry two relations at once (Yin and Hai are both a Six Harmony and a Six Breach) — that overlap is in the tradition itself, and we have not silently picked one for you. A blank cell means the two signs have no special relation.

	RatZi	OxChou	TigerYin	RabbitMao	DragonChen	SnakeSi	HorseWu	GoatWei	MonkeyShen	RoosterYou	DogXu	PigHai
RatZi	TriH·Same	SixH	—	Pun	TriH	—	Clash	Harm	TriH	Breach	—	—
OxChou	SixH	TriH·Same	—	—	Breach	TriH	Harm	Clash·Pun	—	TriH	Pun	—
TigerYin	—	—	TriH·Same	—	—	Harm·Pun	TriH	—	Clash·Pun	—	TriH	SixH·Breach
RabbitMao	Pun	—	—	TriH·Same	Harm	—	Breach	TriH	—	Clash	SixH	TriH
DragonChen	TriH	Breach	—	Harm	TriH·Pun·Same	—	—	—	TriH	SixH	Clash	—
SnakeSi	—	TriH	Harm·Pun	—	—	TriH·Same	—	—	SixH·Pun·Breach	TriH	—	Clash
HorseWu	Clash	Harm	TriH	Breach	—	—	TriH·Pun·Same	SixH	—	—	TriH	—
GoatWei	Harm	Clash·Pun	—	TriH	—	—	SixH	TriH·Same	—	—	Pun·Breach	TriH
MonkeyShen	TriH	—	Clash·Pun	—	TriH	SixH·Pun·Breach	—	—	TriH·Same	—	—	Harm
RoosterYou	Breach	TriH	—	Clash	SixH	TriH	—	—	—	TriH·Pun·Same	Harm	—
DogXu	—	Pun	TriH	SixH	Clash	—	TriH	Pun·Breach	—	Harm	TriH·Same	—
PigHai	—	—	SixH·Breach	TriH	—	Clash	—	TriH	Harm	—	—	TriH·Pun·Same

Want a fuller relationship reading

Relationship synastry casts both charts and compares day branches, five-element complementarity and useful gods — not just the zodiac sign.

Want a fuller relationship reading →

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