Cast & Chart

Tiger and Snake

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

The traditional relations

  • 六害 Six Harms

    One of six pairs of branches the old tables list as harming each other. The name is a label, not a forecast.

  • 三刑 Three Punishments

    Two branches from a punishment group in the old tables. The name is a label, not a forecast.

What tradition says

This pair carries two labels, and 三命通會 notices the overlap and remarks that punishment lies inside this harm. As one of 六害, the Six Harms, 寅 and 巳 are described as each presuming on rank and pushing forward, and the text also notes that 寅 fears the clash of 申 while 巳 joins 申 in harmony. In 三刑, the Three Punishments, the arrow runs from 寅 to 巳, on a loop that continues to 申 and back.

Popular zodiac books describe a suspicious pairing of the open Tiger and the secretive Snake. Popular charts often rate it among the harder ones. The elements pull the other way, since 寅 is wood, 巳 is fire, and wood feeds fire.

Both labels involve a third branch, 申, so ask who tends to get drawn in when the two of you disagree. The idea of pushing forward on rank may also apply: whose experience usually settles an argument? You could try settling one by some other means.

Harm and punishment are technical terms in a table of 寅 and 巳, so read them as words about two signs and keep the Tiger and the Snake you know out of the charge.

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.