Cast & Chart

Monkey and Rooster

These are traditional rules about the twelve signs. No chart decides a relationship.

The traditional relations

  • 無 No listed relation

    None of the classical relations apply to this pair.

What tradition says

The seventh and eighth months sit together here, 申 and 酉, both of them metal. The tables list no relation. Only polarity tells them apart, 申 yang and 酉 yin. In the triads they part ways, 申 with water and 酉 with metal, where the Wuxing Dayi gives 酉 the peak of that element.

Picture, as popular zodiac books do, a Monkey who improvises next to a Rooster who audits, with sparks over whose way is better. Popular charts do not agree on the outcome, which is honest given that no classical rule applies.

Both signs are said to be sharp, in different senses. Which of you notices the flaw and which notices the shortcut? Try handing the next problem to the other person's habit first.

Shared metal is a branch fact for the signs 申 and 酉 and tells you nothing reliable about a Monkey and a Rooster in the same kitchen.

Where this text comes from

The relation tables follow 五行大義 volume 2 and 三命通會 volumes 2 and 3 on Wikisource. The popular readings are modern and come from neither.

The English here is our own plain wording, not a translation of a single source.