Tradition

Chinese Zodiac Compatibility Chart

The 12 x 12 animal chart with every cell marked same trine, secret friends, clash, same animal or neutral, and the 78-pair table with a one-word verdict each.

Tradition: Chinese zodiac. A tradition, not a forecast. Astrologers read it this way; the evidence does not.

By Suraj Giri · Reviewer for this method: not yet appointed (see our editorial policy)

The 12 x 12 animal chart

  • trine: one of the four trine groups, which the tradition reads as the easiest match
  • secret friend: one of the six harmony pairs
  • same animal: two of the same animal
  • clash: one of the six clash pairs
  • neutral: no named relation
Chinese zodiac compatibility, every animal against every animal, the tradition's verdict in each cell
AnimalRatOxTigerRabbitDragonSnakeHorseGoatMonkeyRoosterDogPig
Ratsame animalsecret friendneutralneutraltrineneutralclashneutraltrineneutralneutralneutral
Oxsecret friendsame animalneutralneutralneutraltrineneutralclashneutraltrineneutralneutral
Tigerneutralneutralsame animalneutralneutralneutraltrineneutralclashneutraltrinesecret friend
Rabbitneutralneutralneutralsame animalneutralneutralneutraltrineneutralclashsecret friendtrine
Dragontrineneutralneutralneutralsame animalneutralneutralneutraltrinesecret friendclashneutral
Snakeneutraltrineneutralneutralneutralsame animalneutralneutralsecret friendtrineneutralclash
Horseclashneutraltrineneutralneutralneutralsame animalsecret friendneutralneutraltrineneutral
Goatneutralclashneutraltrineneutralneutralsecret friendsame animalneutralneutralneutraltrine
Monkeytrineneutralclashneutraltrinesecret friendneutralneutralsame animalneutralneutralneutral
Roosterneutraltrineneutralclashsecret friendtrineneutralneutralneutralsame animalneutralneutral
Dogneutralneutraltrinesecret friendclashneutraltrineneutralneutralneutralsame animalneutral
Pigneutralneutralsecret friendtrineneutralclashneutraltrineneutralneutralneutralsame animal

Each cell reads the same in either order.

What is the Chinese zodiac compatibility chart?

The Chinese zodiac compatibility chart is a table of all twelve animals against all twelve, with one word in each cell saying what relation the tradition gives that pairing. The word comes from three lists the tradition keeps, which the Chinese zodiac compatibility hub explains in full. What the chart does not give is a score, because this system produces no number, which is what separates it from the sun-sign chart on this site. The same grid is searched for as a Chinese zodiac compatibility table, a Chinese zodiac sign compatibility chart and a Chinese zodiac love compatibility chart, and this page answers all of them.

How do you read the Chinese zodiac compatibility chart?

To read the Chinese zodiac compatibility chart, find the cell where your animal and your person's animal meet. It takes four steps:

  1. Find your animal in the column down the left.
  2. Follow that row across to your person's animal along the top.
  3. Read the word in the cell where the two meet. It is one of five.
  4. If the row header or the cell is a link, it opens the page that reads that animal or that pairing in full.

The chart is symmetric: Rat with Ox gives the same word as Ox with Rat, so which of you is which never changes the verdict.

What do the marks on the Chinese zodiac compatibility chart mean?

Five words cover every cell:

  • trine: the two animals are in the same group of three, four years apart, which the tradition reads as its easiest match.
  • secret friend: they are one of the six harmony pairs, which the tradition reads as a quiet, steady match. This is a separate list from the trines, not a weaker version of one.
  • same animal: two of the same animal, which the tradition reads as compatible in most cases.
  • clash: they sit opposite each other on the twelve-year cycle, six years apart, which the tradition reads as the hardest of the named relations.
  • neutral: the pairing appears in none of those lists.

One specialist reference reads a doubled Dragon, Horse, Rooster or Pig as a clash rather than a match, and that is the only reference we have found for it. The chart therefore keeps every same-animal pairing in its own mark and flags those four rather than moving them. The tradition also has two further negative relations, harms and punishments, that this chart does not use. A neutral cell is neutral by the three lists above and by nothing wider. The lists themselves were checked against two public references in September 2026; the reading of them is ours, and it is open to review.

What is the verdict for each Chinese zodiac animal pair?

Every pairing already has its verdict in the chart above, because the grid holds one word for each of the 144 cells and those cells resolve to 78 unique pairings. To find any one of them, read the row for one animal and the column for the other, in either order.

To put two animals or two birth dates in and get the verdict in words, use the selector on the Chinese zodiac compatibility hub. The breadcrumb and the strip at the top of this page both lead there.

How many Chinese zodiac animal pairs are there?

78. Twelve animals against twelve makes 144 cells, and because the grid is symmetric every pairing appears twice, so the 144 cells resolve to 66 pairings of two different animals plus the 12 same-animal pairings. Six of those pairings have a page of their own on this site, and the rest are read from the chart and from the animal pages.

Questions the hub answers

Three questions arrive on this chart that are about the system rather than about one cell, and the hub answers all three in full.

What Chinese zodiacs go well together?

The four trines are the tradition's easiest matches, and every trine cell above marks one of them.

Which Chinese zodiac signs are incompatible with each other?

The six clash pairs, which are the animals directly opposite each other on the twelve-year cycle, six years apart.

What Chinese zodiac signs are soulmates?

The tradition names no soulmate pair, and the closest ideas are the four trines and the six secret friend pairs.

Sources

Questions people ask

Does the Chinese zodiac compatibility chart include the five elements?
No, this chart is animals only. Chinese astrology also gives each year an element, wood, fire, earth, metal or water, and some practitioners read the two together. This chart does not, and nor does the selector on the hub.
Is the Chinese zodiac compatibility chart the same as the zodiac compatibility chart?
No, they are two separate systems. This one runs on the animal of your birth year and gives a word; the Western one runs on the sign of your birth date and gives a score out of 8. Nothing on this site mixes them.