Snake and Monkey Compatibility | Six Harmonies, Explained

Checked against seven systems — three name this exact pair

In traditional Chinese calendrical systems, each zodiac animal also corresponds to one of twelve Earthly Branches — a set of twelve symbolic signs used in the traditional calendar and in BaZi, a Chinese birth-chart system built from a person’s year, month, day, and hour of birth. Snake corresponds to 巳 (sì), and Monkey to 申 (shēn). Here, words such as “harmony,” “punishment,” and “break” are technical names for branch relationships, not literal predictions that a couple will be harmonious, punished, or destined to break up. Chinese zodiac tradition sorts the twelve animal signs into several overlapping systems of pairs and trios built on these branches. This page checks Snake and Monkey against seven of these Earthly Branch relationship schemes. Three of those schemes name Snake and Monkey directly.

Snake’s side: perception that needs room to stay hidden

Snake is the sixth sign in the twelve-year cycle, and this site’s own Snake profile builds its reading around insight, patience, privacy, and timing — a sign that watches before it moves and reads what’s underneath before reacting to what’s on the surface. Rooster and Ox are its Three Harmonies partners; Monkey is its Six Harmonies match; Pig is the sign it clashes with in Six Conflicts. Monkey is that named Six Harmonies partner — the sections below cover what that bond actually rests on, and what else the same two branches carry.

Monkey’s side: agility that needs room to test the road

Three positions later sits Monkey, and its profile leans on a different cluster: wit, adaptability, curiosity, and quick response — a sign that tests routes and changes tactics rather than committing to one plan and holding still. Rat and Dragon are its Three Harmonies partners; Snake is its Six Harmonies match; Tiger is the sign it clashes with in Six Conflicts — and, as the next sections cover, the third sign whose arrival completes a larger three-branch punishment configuration that Snake and Monkey are already part of on their own.

The bond: 巳申, a Six Harmonies pair

The Six Harmonies (六合) system pairs twelve branches into six two-branch combinations. The Ming-dynasty Sanming Tonghui (三命通会) opens its chapter on this system with a general principle: 夫合者，和也，乃阴阳相和，其气自合 — combination is harmony, the mutual harmony of yin and yang whose energies naturally join — and works through each of the six pairings with a numerical count specific to that pair. For 巳申, the text gives: 巳为六阳，申为三阴，六三成九数. The six and three here are values the chapter assigns within its own internal yin-yang counting scheme, reaching a combined nine — they are not Snake’s and Monkey’s positions in the twelve-sign cycle (Snake is sixth there, Monkey is ninth, under that separate and unrelated count).

The same chapter then quotes an older source, the Tianyuan Bianhua Shu (天元变化书), for a line specific to this pair: 巳合申福慢，申合巳官气盛 — read one direction, the combination brings slow-building fortune; read the other, it brings strong official-career energy. That asymmetry is worth noting on its own: even within a single “harmony” pairing, the classical reading isn’t a flat, one-note positive — it depends on which sign is treated as leading the combination.

Separately, later practitioner explanations describe why 巳 and 申 specifically pair this way: each is the starting point — the “birth” stage in the twelve-stage life cycle — for a different trio’s element. 申 is where the Water trio (申子辰) begins, as covered on this site’s Rat-Dragon page; 巳 is where the Metal trio (巳酉丑) begins. Two branches that each anchor the start of a different element’s cycle are, in this reading, called a “combination of shared beginnings” (长生之合). Later BaZi convention assigns Water as this combination’s transformation direction — 巳申合化水. That assignment is not automatic, though: practitioner literature ties an actual transformation to additional chart-specific conditions — for example, the season and whether Water is otherwise supported elsewhere in the birth chart; without those conditions met, the same two branches are more often read as 合而不化 — combined, but not transformed. Either way, the transformation direction is separate from either sign’s own branch element — Snake’s own branch element is Fire, Monkey’s is Metal — and, by the standard Five Element overcoming cycle, Fire directly overcomes Metal (火克金) between the two signs’ own elements, independent of what the combination itself may or may not transform into.

Also named in a punishment: 巳刑申 within 寅巳申

The same two branches appear again in a different system: Mutual Punishments (相刑). The Sanming Tonghui states this relation directly as a two-branch fact, in a passage that derives punishment pairs from overlapping Three Harmonies and Three Meetings trios: 巳酉丑加申酉戌，则巳刑申 — overlay Snake’s Three Harmonies trio (巳酉丑) with Monkey’s Three Meetings trio (申酉戌), and the text names 巳刑申 as one of the resulting pairs. Tiger is not a precondition for that statement.

The same chapter also explains the wider three-branch structure — 寅巳申, called 无恩之刑 (“Punishment of Ingratitude”) in the Sanming Tonghui passage used here — through a separate numerical logic, counting from one branch to the next until the count reaches ten: 寅逆至巳，巳逆至申，极十数而为无恩之刑. Classical BaZi theory treats each of the twelve branches as also carrying one or more “hidden” Heavenly Stems — internal element markers traditionally assigned to each branch and used in BaZi to describe what that branch contains beneath its surface label. The same chapter explains the 寅巳申 name at that hidden level, describing a cycle in which each branch’s hidden stem punishes the next branch’s: 寅中有甲木刑巳中戊土 (Tiger’s hidden Wood punishes Snake’s hidden Earth), 巳中之丙刑申中之庚 (Snake’s hidden Fire punishes Monkey’s hidden Metal), 申中之庚刑寅中之甲 (Monkey’s hidden Metal punishes Tiger’s hidden Wood). The Snake-Monkey leg of that cycle — 巳中之丙刑申中之庚 — holds on its own, independent of whether Tiger is present in a given chart.

Read together, the layering is: 巳刑申 is a direct, named two-branch punishment relation between Snake and Monkey in its own right. Tiger’s arrival does not create that relation — it completes the larger three-branch configuration, 寅巳申, which the same classical text names and explains separately, including the family metaphor about a debt of gratitude forgotten (the earth Tiger’s wood punishes is, through a chain of combinations, cast as that wood’s own father-figure — punishing one’s own father is the “ingratitude” the name refers to).

Also named on the Mutual Breaks list — but not a plain negative

Snake and Monkey are also one of the six traditional Mutual Break (相破) pairs: 子酉, 卯午, 巳申, 辰丑, 寅亥, 未戌. This system is discussed less in the major classical compendiums than Three Harmonies or Six Harmonies, and is more associated with later folk and practitioner traditions than with a single named source passage the way the pairings above are. Its general reading treats a “break” as disruption or friction between the two branches’ energies.

One later source, the Qing-dynasty Liuren Daquan (六壬大全), specifically singles out this pair — alongside Tiger-Pig (寅亥), the other Mutual Break pair that is simultaneously a Six Harmonies pair — with the description: 申破巳，破中有合，败而复成 — a break that carries a combination within it, undone and then re-formed. That is one later text’s reading of this specific overlap, not a claim from the same Ming-dynasty compendium cited for Six Harmonies and Mutual Punishments above — but it is the most specific sourced explanation available for why this pair is treated differently from the other four Mutual Break pairs.

What that leaves for the actual pairing

Hold four facts apart rather than averaging them into one score. First: Snake and Monkey form a real, named Six Harmonies pair (巳申), and, in one classical source, an asymmetric fortune reading rather than a flat positive. Second: later BaZi convention assigns their combination a Water transformation direction, but treats an actual transformation as conditional rather than automatic; their own individual branch elements — Fire and Metal — remain in a direct Five Element overcoming relationship regardless. Third: Snake and Monkey already carry a direct Mutual Punishment relation of their own, 巳刑申, named in the same classical source that names Six Harmonies — Tiger is not required for it. What Tiger’s arrival adds is completion of the larger three-branch configuration, 寅巳申, that the same text names separately. Fourth: the same pair also sits on a later Mutual Breaks list, where one source describes this specific pair as a softened case rather than a plain break, because it overlaps with the Six Harmonies bond.

What carries over between the two signs on their own is each one’s individual profile. Snake’s page describes a pace built on watching first and moving with precision; Monkey’s describes a pace built on testing multiple routes quickly. Snake can give Monkey’s fast movement a sense of when to actually commit; Monkey can pull Snake out of over-watching and into action. The friction point tracks the punishment and break readings above: Snake may read Monkey’s constant testing as a lack of follow-through, and Monkey may read Snake’s caution as evasiveness. Whether the bond or the friction dominates in practice depends on the two people involved, not on any single label from the systems above.

Common mistakes

• Treating “Six Harmonies” as an uncomplicated, always-positive label. The classical source itself gives an asymmetric reading for this pair — slow-building fortune read one direction, strong career energy read the other — not a flat, single-note positive.
• Treating the 合化水 transformation as automatic. Later BaZi convention assigns Water as the combination’s transformation direction, but practitioner sources tie an actual transformation to additional chart-specific conditions; without them, the pair is more often read as combined but not transformed (合而不化). Either way, Snake’s own branch element is Fire and Monkey’s is Metal — neither becomes Water individually.
• Assuming the Mutual Punishment needs Tiger to exist at all. 巳刑申 is named directly, on its own, in the classical source. Tiger’s arrival completes the larger three-branch 寅巳申 configuration — it doesn’t create the underlying Snake-Monkey punishment relation.
• Assuming the Mutual Break cancels out the Six Harmonies bond. The source cited for Mutual Breaks describes this specific pair as a break that carries a combination within it — not the same as the four other, uncomplicated break pairs on that list.
• Treating a percentage match score as calculated from any of this. None of the branch-relationship schemes above produce a number like “72% compatible” — that presentation format is a modern convention layered on top, not an output of the classical systems themselves.
• Reading this page as a verdict on two specific people. It explains the general classical pattern for the sign pairing, not two actual birth charts.

Read it for two real charts

Everything above is the general pattern for the sign pairing. If you want it for two specific people — not a generic reading — these go a step further:

Where to go next

Editorial note

The Three Harmonies, Six Harmonies, and Six Conflicts groupings referenced here follow this site’s own Three Harmonies, Six Harmonies, and Six Conflicts reference pages; this site does not yet publish dedicated reference pages for Three Meetings, Six Harms, Mutual Punishments, or Mutual Breaks, so those are summarized here from general classical and practitioner sources rather than linked to an in-depth page. The Six Harmonies material — the opening yin-yang principle, the 巳申 numerical count, and the quoted line on asymmetric fortune (attributed within the text to the earlier Tianyuan Bianhua Shu 天元变化书, not original to the Sanming Tonghui’s own voice) — is drawn from the Ming-dynasty Sanming Tonghui (三命通会), 卷二·论支元六合, compiled by Wan Min-ying. The Mutual Punishment material is drawn from the same text’s chapter 论三刑, which gives two-branch punishment pairs (including 巳刑申) by overlaying Three Harmonies and Three Meetings trios, and separately explains the complete 寅巳申 configuration — named 无恩之刑 (“Punishment of Ingratitude”) in this passage — through a ten-count numerical logic and a hidden-stem cycle. That naming is specific to the Sanming Tonghui passage used here: other traditional texts, including the Sanche Yilan (三车一览) cited within the Sanming Tonghui’s own later discussion, reverse the labels (寅巳申 as 恃势之刑, 丑戌未 as 无恩之刑), and the Sanming Tonghui itself notes both namings are workable (其说亦通). The 合化水 elemental transformation direction and the “combination of shared beginnings” (长生之合) explanation for why 巳 and 申 pair reflect general Five Element and BaZi practitioner conventions rather than a single quoted passage; those same practitioner sources treat an actual transformation as conditional on chart-specific factors rather than automatic. The Mutual Breaks (相破) material, including the six paired branches, is drawn from the later Qing-dynasty Liuren Daquan (六壬大全), which specifically describes this pair (申破巳) as “breaking with a combination inside it” — a different tier of source than the Ming-dynasty Sanming Tonghui cited above for Six Harmonies and Mutual Punishments. This page explains a cultural and classical lens for the Snake-and-Monkey pairing for interest and education. It is not a prediction, and not medical, financial, or relationship advice.