Traditional clash

Pig and Snake

Traditional clash

45%

Directly opposite on the wheel. Traditionally the most difficult pairing, because the qualities each of you values are the ones the other neglects.

Water · Yin

Pig

Brings. Genuinely kind and hard to provoke. Gives without keeping a ledger.

Struggles with. Trusts too readily and indulges too easily.

Fire · Yin

Snake

Brings. Reads situations accurately and says nothing until saying something helps.

Struggles with. Keeps its own counsel to the point where nobody knows where they stand.

Distance on the wheel6 of 12
RelationTraditional clash
Same fixed elementNo

How Chinese compatibility works

The rule is positional. Animals four apart form an affinity triangle and are read as natural allies — they share instincts and pace. Animals six apart sit directly opposite and are the traditional clash: each values what the other neglects.

This differs from Western astrology, which uses angles on a 360-degree circle. Here the wheel has twelve positions and the relationships are counted in steps, not degrees.

Traditional pairings sometimes override the geometry — a few combinations are named explicitly as friends or enemies in the old texts, and those take precedence.

The full 144-pair grid →

Computed from 110 years of real lunar new year dates

The arithmetic behind this pairing

Chinese years run 354 or 384 days, so each animal collects a different number of days across the century — the shares below are not 8.33% each.

Positions apart on the cycle 6 — the classical clash
Pairings at this distance 6 of 78
Days assigned to Pig 3,306 · 8.3%
Days assigned to Snake 3,277 · 8.23%
Share of all pairings 1.366%

6 positions apart · 6 of 78 pairings share that distance · 1.366% of all pairings. The clash — one pairing in thirteen.

Possible age gaps — fixed by the cycle

Because the animals sit at fixed positions, two people with these signs can only differ in age by certain numbers of years. Not approximately — exactly these:

6 years apart
18 years apart
30 years apart
42 years apart

Recent birth-year combinations

Metal Pig 2031 & Wood Snake 2025 6 years apart
Earth Pig 2019 & Water Snake 2013 6 years apart
Earth Pig 2019 & Wood Snake 2025 6 years apart
Fire Pig 2007 & Metal Snake 2001 6 years apart
Fire Pig 2007 & Water Snake 2013 6 years apart
Wood Pig 1995 & Earth Snake 1989 6 years apart
Wood Pig 1995 & Metal Snake 2001 6 years apart
Water Pig 1983 & Fire Snake 1977 6 years apart

The five versions of each animal

The animal repeats every 12 years but the element every 60, so each partner comes in five variants — and the combination you actually have is one of 25.

Wood Pig 1995
Fire Pig 2007
Earth Pig 2019
Metal Pig 2031
Water Pig 1983
Earth Snake 1989
Metal Snake 2001
Water Snake 2013
Wood Snake 2025
Fire Snake 1977

Birth years for this pairing

⚠️ Each year starts at the lunar new year, not 1 January — if either of you was born in January or early February, check the exact date before trusting the animal.

Pig

1971 · 1983 · 1995 · 2007 · 2019 · 2031

Snake

1965 · 1977 · 1989 · 2001 · 2013 · 2025