Monkey in Love

The folk reading gives the monkey playfulness in relationships, and pairs it with the rat, dragon and snake. The pairings come from the branch scheme; the characterisation follows the animal's attributed temperament.

It is one factor among several in the traditional system. The folk reading gives the monkey playfulness in relationships, and pairs it with the rat, dragon and snake. The year animal is the coarsest of the four pillars — the month, day and hour carry equal weight, and the classical sources never read the year alone. The tradition's affinity group is the reason the rat-dragon-monkey trio appears together so consistently.

The rat, dragon and monkey form one of the four three-fold affinity groups; the snake pairing is a six-harmony one. It is grouped under Metal (金) in the five-element system.