The Dog in 2026: in harmony with the year (San He, 三合)

2026 is the Fire Horse year (Bing Wu, 丙午). Its Tai Sui (太岁) — the star said to rule the year — sits with the Horse. The Dog and the Horse: they are in the same trine, a group of three (Tiger, Horse, Dog: 寅午戌). Folk lists count the signs in harmony with the year among its lucky ones.

Counted by sign, every Dog gets the same answer for the year — one person in twelve. Below they are split twice: by birth year, counting the element of the year as well as its animal, and then by the day pillar — the element and animal of the day you were born — which is what the classics actually read.

First, check your sign — and your day pillar

If you were born in January or February, check: some count the sign from Chinese New Year and some from the Start of Spring (Li Chun, 立春, around 4 February), and anyone born between the two gets a different sign from each. Settle it to the minute with your birth time and place

All twelve signs against 2026’s Tai Sui (太岁)

Red: on the folk lists of signs that “offend” the year, Fan Tai Sui (犯太岁) — the same sign, or a clash, punishment, harm or break. Green: in harmony with the year — a pair (six harmony, Liu He, 六合) or one of a group of three (trine, San He, 三合) — which folk lists count as lucky. Grey: neither. These are fixed relations between the animals, not ratings.

The Dog with each sign, from the classics: Rat · Ox · Tiger · Rabbit · Dragon · Snake · Horse · Goat · Monkey · Rooster · Dog · Pig

The Dog, birth year by birth year

The animal is the same in every row: the Dog against the Horse — trine (三合). What differs is the element: each birth year’s stem stands differently to 2026’s Yang Fire (丙), and the Stems column says how. The nayin is the birth year’s traditional image. Age is the age turned during 2026.

Born Pillar Nayin Age Stems Named
1934 甲戌Wood Dog 山头火Fire on the Mountain 92 Wood produces Fire
1946 丙戌Fire Dog 屋上土Earth on the Roof 80 the same stem
1958 戊戌Earth Dog 平地木Wood of the Plain 68 Fire produces Earth
1970 庚戌Metal Dog 钗钏金Hairpin Metal 56 Fire controls Metal
1982 壬戌Water Dog 大海水Water of the Great Sea 44 Water controls Fire
1994 甲戌Wood Dog 山头火Fire on the Mountain 32 Wood produces Fire
2006 丙戌Fire Dog 屋上土Earth on the Roof 20 the same stem
2018 戊戌Earth Dog 平地木Wood of the Plain 8 Fire produces Earth

Double clash (Tian Ke Di Chong, 天克地冲): the stems control each other and the animals clash. Double bond (Tian He Di He, 天合地合): the stems bind and the animals pair. Same pillar: the year’s pillar is the birth year’s, sixty years on. These three are the combinations folk readings mention most; they are marked here, not judged.

What the classics read: the day pillar, not the sign

The Song-dynasty manual Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平) judges Tai Sui by the day pillar — the element and animal of the day you were born — against the year’s, in three ways: offending the year’s lord (Fan Sui Jun, 犯岁君), war (Zheng, 征), gloom (Hui, 晦). In 2026, 25 of the sixty day pillars are marked. Of the days in Dog years from 1934 to 2018, about 42% fall on one of them — much the same as for every other sign. By the classical rule, your sign does not decide it.

The same work says to “look only at whether the chart holds help” (但看八字有无救助), so whether it matters is the whole chart’s question. Check your day pillar with the form above, or see the full list of marked day pillars for 2026.

The twelve months of 2026 against the Dog’s branch, Xu (戌)

How each month’s animal stands to the Dog (戌). Months run from one solar term (Jie, 节) to the next, UTC+8, not from new moon to new moon.

Month pillar Begins With the Dog
庚寅Metal Tiger 2026-02-04 trine
辛卯Metal Rabbit 2026-03-05 six harmony
壬辰Water Dragon 2026-04-05 clash
癸巳Water Snake 2026-05-05 —
甲午Wood Horse 2026-06-05 trine
乙未Wood Goat 2026-07-07 punishment, break
丙申Fire Monkey 2026-08-07 —
丁酉Fire Rooster 2026-09-07 harm
戊戌Earth Dog 2026-10-08 same branch
己亥Earth Pig 2026-11-07 —
庚子Metal Rat 2026-12-07 —
辛丑Metal Ox 2027-01-05 punishment

Famous Dogs

Zhou Enlai (1898), Yang Chen-Ning (1922), Lee Teng-hui (1923), Donald Trump (1946), Wong Kar-wai (1958), Chloé Zhao (1982), Lang Lang (1982), Lee Chong Wei (1982)

One sign, and a different day pillar each. Every page has that person’s pillars.

Does 2026 help you or not?

A sign is one character of the year pillar; a day pillar is two of the eight. What 2026 is to you means setting the Fire Horse (丙午) against all four pillars, which needs your birth time and place.

About this page

Same sign, clash, punishment, harm, break, six harmony and trine are fixed relations between branches; the year pillars, nayin, month pillars and solar-term moments are calendar arithmetic; the Tai Sui (太岁) section follows the Yuan Hai Zi Ping (淵海子平). There are no ratings here for money, love or career — a sign cannot give them.