The tables
Why the pair is rated this way
The Rat and the Tiger are two steps apart on the circle of twelve, both yang. They are not a harmony, a trine, a clash or a harm pair, so the classical tables call the pair neutral: nothing special pulls them together or apart.
The Rat is a water sign and the Tiger a wood sign. In the generating cycle water feeds wood, so the Rat is read as the one who supports and the Tiger as the one who grows from it.
The Rat rules the winter month that starts around Dec 7 and the hours from 11 pm to 1 am; the Tiger rules the spring month that starts around Feb 4 and the hours from 3 am to 5 am.
For comparison, the Rat's harmony partner is the Ox and its trine partners are the Monkey and the Dragon; the Tiger's harmony partner is the Pig and its trine partners are the Horse and the Dog.
Reading
In love, friendship and work
Traditionally the Rat is quick-witted, resourceful and careful with money, and the Tiger is brave, competitive and warm-hearted. The Rat tends to bring sharp planning and look for security; the Tiger tends to bring courage and look for respect.
In love, the zodiac neither helps nor blocks this pair, so the rest of each chart, and the two people, decide how it goes.
As friends or co-workers the support tends to run one way, so it helps when the one who gets it gives something back.
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).
Tiger years: 1950 (Metal Tiger), 1962 (Water Tiger), 1974 (Wood Tiger), 1986 (Fire Tiger), 1998 (Earth Tiger), 2010 (Metal Tiger), 2022 (Water Tiger).
9 of the idols with a Bias Match idol page were born in Rat years.
10 of the idols with a Bias Match idol page were born in Tiger 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 Tiger (寅), the compatibility calculator scores that check as zero, neither plus nor minus, 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.