Dog in Love

The folk reading gives the dog constancy in relationships, and pairs it with the tiger, horse and rabbit. 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 dog constancy in relationships, and pairs it with the tiger, horse and rabbit. 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 affinity group containing the dog is the same one containing the tiger and horse, which is why the trio recurs.

The tiger, horse and dog form one of the four three-fold affinity groups; the rabbit pairing is a six-harmony one. It is grouped under Earth (土) in the five-element system.