Chinese zodiac - patterns and compatibility

(This was written by Ron, but posted by Andrea)

While I was growing up, a magazine (Time, I think) ran an article on the 12 year chinese zodiac. At the time, I was disappointed to discover that I belonged to the year of the snake. Since then, I've gotten over it. At the homeschool-along, entries are interesting items about China or chinese culture. Today, I spent a bit of time at wikipedia, reading up on chinese zodiac. One of the things I learned was that the chinese zodiac in the magazine article was a simplified westernized version.

One of the things I vaguely remembered from my reading long ago was that the chinese zodiac included a short general description of the character and compatability suggestions. A google search landed me on a chinese zodiac page. This had the applicable years for each animal in the zodiac, the general descriptions and the compatabilies listed.

Since I'm a bit of a geek for patterns, combinations, etc., I decided to make a compatibility chart. I grabbed a piece of paper and made a matrix (table) that I could check off. I noticed a pattern in the checks. Does the following show off the patterns?



Here I've added the remaining compatiblity lines:



Now, don't run off and get a divorce if there isn't a line between your animal and your spouse's animal. It only says most compatible. If it's any comfort, there isn't a line between Andrea and I.