Compatible Chinese Zodiac Signs
How the four trines and six secret-friend pairs group the Chinese zodiac animals, what each grouping traditionally means, and why neither predicts a real relationship.
These are common traditional groupings for the twelve year animals. They are cultural conventions — context for reading the tradition, not a verdict about any real relationship.
Check any two signs against these groupings
The groupings above combine two different traditional ideas, which is worth separating because they are often blurred together.
The four trines (三合, sān hé) group animals that sit four places apart on the twelve-position cycle, forming a triangle: Rat, Dragon and Monkey; Ox, Snake and Rooster; Tiger, Horse and Dog; Rabbit, Goat and Pig. Tradition reads each trine as a set of temperaments that push in the same direction — the members are said to want similar things, so they are held to cooperate with little friction.
The six harmonies (六合, liù hé) are fixed pairs instead: Rat and Ox, Tiger and Pig, Rabbit and Dog, Dragon and Rooster, Snake and Monkey, Horse and Goat. This is the “secret friend” pairing, read as complement rather than similarity — each animal is said to supply what the other lacks. Every animal therefore has one secret friend and two trine partners, which is why three names appear beside each entry above.
Both are symbolic groupings within the cycle, not findings about people. Two signs with no traditional link are not thereby a poor match, and a shared trine has never predicted anything about a real relationship.