Cast & Chart

Animal 7 of 12

Horse

馬 mǎ, branch 午

In the classical sources

午亦火也，其禽馬也

The branch 午, too, is fire; its creature is the horse.

論衡 · 物勢篇第十四 (Wikisource 論衡/14, traditional script)

About this sign

午 is the seventh branch, directly opposite 子 at the far side of the circle. It is a yang branch of fire. A theorist quoted in the Lunheng assigns it the Horse, then adds an odd detail to support the reasoning: fire is harmed by water, so the horse is said to bloat after eating rat droppings. Wang Chong quotes this in order to dispute it.

In popular zodiac books the Horse is lively, chatty, fond of independence and short on patience. Nothing in our classical passages says so. The source treats the animal only as an instance of a fire creature suffering from a water creature.

Fire groups 午 with 寅 and 戌 in a triad, and 未 is its Six Harmonies neighbor. 子 is the Clash, 丑 the Harm and 卯 the Breaking, and 午 is also listed under Self-Punishment. So the Horse's Clash is the Rat across the circle, and its Harmony is the very next branch along. You could use that spread to compare how you actually get on with someone from each of those two signs, and notice what the labels leave out.

Traits people associate with it

  • energetic
  • independent
  • talkative
  • impatient
  • freedom-loving

The personality traits on this page are modern popular tradition. They are not found in the classical sources, which name the animal alongside its earthly branch and say nothing of the kind about people born in its years.

The five element years

Pairings

Where this text comes from

Wang Chong's Lunheng, chapters 14 and 66, on Wikisource, is the source for the pairing of animals and branches. It is one work, so these are two chapters and not independent witnesses. The relations in the last paragraph follow 五行大義 volume 2 and 三命通會 volumes 2 and 3.

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