Water · Yang
Rat
Brings. Spots an opening before anyone else and moves on it. Rarely caught unprepared.
Struggles with. Hoards — money, information, contacts — and can be quietly opportunistic about people.
Sextile — easy
Rat and Tiger
Sextile — easy
78%
Two apart. Comfortable and cooperative without being identical.
Wood · Yang
Tiger
Brings. Acts when others hesitate, and inspires people to follow without asking them to.
Struggles with. Burns hot and short. Authority provokes rather than restrains it.
Distance on the wheel2 of 12
RelationSextile — easy
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.