The Monkey dodges, the Pig gives in: cunning facing trust, with misunderstandings to avoid.
Cunning and candor cross paths: the understanding depends on what one does with the other’s trust.
If respect prevails, the Pig learns from the Monkey how to protect itself and the Monkey learns from the Pig how to relax.
The Monkey’s mischief can take advantage of the Pig’s generosity, which the Pig notices late and keeps resentment over.
By Thomas Guilhot · updated
Harm: tradition places the Monkey and the Pig among the pairs that get in each other’s way without fuss, through small repeated clumsiness.
The elements, for their part, argue for exchange, since the Monkey, through its Metal, feeds the Pig’s Water, like condensation on cold stone. The Monkey is yang and the Pig yin: the mobile mind and the welcoming heart, two polarities often happy together in social life.
| Key fact | Monkey | Pig |
|---|---|---|
| Branch | 申 | 亥 |
| Fixed element | Metal | Water |
| Polarity | Yang | Yin |
| Triangle | Rat, Dragon | Rabbit, Goat |
| Latest years | 2004, 2016 | 2007, 2019 |
Love, friendship, work, or family: the same pair is not lived the same way depending on the relationship.
The meeting is warm: the Monkey amuses, the Pig welcomes.
Then the values part ways: the Monkey likes trickery and improvisation, the Pig frankness and simplicity. A forgotten promise or a trick played without thinking hurts more than expected. Sincerity about small things, and care never to play with trust, are the keys. Together, they can cultivate a food-loving and laughing complicity, if each respects the other’s temperament.
As friends, they have good times: meals, parties, getaways.
The Pig is generous, the Monkey inventive. Watch out for jokes that cross the line, favors asked without return, commitments made too fast. Saying simply what does not suit, with a smile, keeps unease from settling in. Dinners among friends that turn into board games, vacations shared in a group, neighborhood parties: their friendship is lived around a big table.
The Monkey brings ingenuity and agility, the Pig good faith and a sense of the collective.
They work well if the rules of the game are clear. The Pig must be wary of promises that are too good, the Monkey make sure not to take advantage of the trust granted. Writing down agreements, even simple ones, protects the relationship. In restaurants, events, or local shops, the Monkey constantly renews the offer and the Pig builds loyalty through the warmth of the welcome.
Where a Monkey and a Pig live, the home is joyful, food-loving, lively.
Young people laugh a lot there, but may lack landmarks about sincerity. Explaining why keeping your word matters, and setting the example, makes the atmosphere healthy and trusting. In a Monkey and Pig household, the kitchen becomes a laboratory and a place of celebration: recipes are tested, guests are invited without warning.
From the Monkey to the Pig, Metal generates Water: dew on cold rock.
The image is rather favorable, and nuances the classical harm: exchange is possible, provided the Monkey nourishes without taking.
Here, the two animals’ fixed elements. The element of the birth year (wood, fire, earth, metal, or water) adds to it: it changes every two years.The Metal element →The Water element →
The Monkey and the Pig complete the list of the six harms, or liuhai, that tradition records.
They describe frictions of character, not hostility. Commentaries often add the advice of frankness. These views are astrologers’ customs, with no authority in a particular case. Ninth and twelfth in the cycle, three ranks separate the Monkey from the Pig. The pair counts among the six harms, which commentators read as frictions of style.
Monkey (no. 9) and Pig (no. 12): 3 years apart in the cycle, harm
The twelve animals follow one another in a cycle: the shortest gap between the two gives the relationship. Four or eight years apart, a triangle; six, an opposition; the secret friend and harm pairs are fixed pairs in the tradition.
Yes, despite the word harm. It suggests clumsiness more than incompatibility. With sincerity and respect for the other’s trust, they can get along joyfully.
That these two animals rub each other unintentionally, through differences in style: cunning against candor. Tradition sees in it a point of vigilance, not a prohibition. Clear communication quickly softens its effects.
Good humor and a zest for living. Together, they liven up meals, parties, and projects. Their complicity, when honest, is contagious.
Yes: the Metal that nourishes the Water is more or less generous depending on birth. An Earth Monkey provides it without counting, a Fire Monkey melts it in vain; a Wood Pig absorbs it, an Earth Pig holds it back.