The tables
Why the pair is rated this way
The Rat and the Dragon sit four steps apart and belong to the same trine (三合), the water trio they share with the Monkey. Two members of a trine are read as a half harmony: they pull toward the same element even without the third.
The Dragon is an earth sign and the Rat a water sign. In the controlling cycle earth dams water, so the Dragon is read as the one who sets limits and the Rat as the one who pushes against them.
The Rat rules the winter month that starts around Dec 7 and the hours from 11 pm to 1 am; the Dragon rules the spring month that starts around Apr 5 and the hours from 7 am to 9 am.
For comparison, the Rat's harmony partner is the Ox and its trine partners are the Monkey and the Dragon; the Dragon's harmony partner is the Rooster and its trine partners are the Monkey and the Rat.
Reading
In love, friendship and work
Traditionally the Rat is quick-witted, resourceful and careful with money, and the Dragon is confident, ambitious and magnetic. The Rat tends to bring sharp planning and look for security; the Dragon tends to bring big ideas and look for admiration.
In love, trine partners tend to want the same things from life, so they tend to forgive each other's different styles more easily.
As friends or co-workers they tend to keep each other in check, which can sharpen the work as long as neither tries to run the other.
Years
Which years are these animals?
Rat years: 1948 (Earth Rat), 1960 (Metal Rat), 1972 (Water Rat), 1984 (Wood Rat), 1996 (Fire Rat), 2008 (Earth Rat), 2020 (Metal Rat).
Dragon years: 1952 (Water Dragon), 1964 (Wood Dragon), 1976 (Fire Dragon), 1988 (Earth Dragon), 2000 (Metal Dragon), 2012 (Water Dragon), 2024 (Wood Dragon).
9 of the idols with a Bias Match idol page were born in Rat years.
21 of the idols with a Bias Match idol page were born in Dragon years.
Your pair
Check two birth years
A zodiac year starts in late January or February, not on January 1: Chinese New Year calendars switch at Lunar New Year, and saju switches at Lichun, around February 4. If you were born in January or early February, you may belong to the year before.
Beyond the birth year
On Bias Match the animal that counts most is not the birth year but the day branch, the animal in each person's day pillar. If two people's day branches are Rat (子) and Dragon (辰), the compatibility calculator scores that check as half a plus, next to five other checks.
The text is fixed sentence templates filled in with the classical relation tables built into the Bias Match engine; no AI model generates or rewrites it. For entertainment only: the zodiac describes old patterns, not what will happen between two people.