Snake

巳 stands sixth, directly across the circle from 亥, and it is a fire branch with yin polarity. A theorist quoted in the Lunheng names the snake as its creature and uses the pairing to argue that water beats fire. The example is the pig, a water animal, which eats the snake. Wang Chong quotes this in order to dispute it.

Popular zodiac books lean toward a quiet, watchful, secretive Snake with good instincts. Readers should know that the portrait is modern. In the Han text the snake mostly gets eaten or stings.

One relation deserves a second look here. 申 is 巳's Six Harmonies partner, and the same 申 appears with 巳 in the Punishment circuit of 寅, 巳 and 申, so the tables pull that pair both ways. 寅 is both Harm and Punishment for 巳, 亥 is the Clash, the point directly opposite, and 酉 and 丑 complete a metal triad. A Snake who reads these can treat the contradiction as the useful part and ask why anyone would expect a table of positions to give one clean verdict.