Pig

The twelfth and last branch is 亥, a water branch with yin polarity. The Lunheng writes its creature with the old character 豕, the word for a pig or swine. It serves as evidence for a theorist the book quotes and disputes: water beats fire, so the pig eats the snake.

Warmth, generosity and a fondness for food are the popular zodiac books' picture of the Pig. None of it appears in our classical passages. Its appearance in our oldest witness is a practical one, as an animal that eats snakes and that the passage asks about when it wonders why ox and goat do not kill it.

亥 closes the circle beside 子, its Six Harmonies partner is 寅, 卯 and 未 complete a wood triad with it, 巳 is its Clash and 申 its Harm. It also has Self-Punishment and the handbook we follow on Mutual Breaking names 亥 only to leave it out. The Lunheng has the pig eating the snake, and the later tables list 亥 and 巳 as a Clash. If you were born in a Pig year, you might ask whether an old argument about what animals eat has any bearing on how you get along with someone born in a Snake year.