Combinations and Clashes: What Happens When Characters Meet
When characters meet, they pull together (combinations), collide head-on (clashes) or scrape and misalign (punishments, breaks, harms and Yuanjin). Inside your birth chart these are part of your built-in structure; arriving with your luck, they become the events of that period.
Stem combinations and clashes
A stem combination pairs two stems of opposite polarity. When they combine, they are said to give rise to a new element (合化). A stem clash is a head-on collision between stems of the same polarity.
| Relation | Characters | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Stem combination | 甲己 (Earth) · 乙庚 (Metal) · 丙辛 (Water) · 丁壬 (Wood) · 戊癸 (Fire) | Attraction, promises, being bound |
| Stem clash | 甲庚 · 乙辛 · 丙壬 · 丁癸 | Clashing ideas and directions |
Earth (戊 and 己) sits in the centre, so it is left out of the stem clashes.
Branch combinations: Six Harmonies, Three Harmonies and seasonal groups
| Relation | Characters | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Six Harmonies | 子丑 (Earth) · 寅亥 (Wood) · 卯戌 (Fire) · 辰酉 (Metal) · 巳申 (Water) · 午未 (Fire) | Two branches that mesh naturally |
| Three Harmonies | 申子辰 (Water) · 亥卯未 (Wood) · 寅午戌 (Fire) · 巳酉丑 (Metal) | Three branches join forces into the great power of one element |
| Half harmony | Two of a Three Harmony, including its middle branch (子, 卯, 午 or 酉) | About half the power of the Three Harmony gathers |
| Seasonal group | 寅卯辰 (Wood) · 巳午未 (Fire) · 申酉戌 (Metal) · 亥子丑 (Water) | The branches of one season gather and grow in strength |
Branch clashes
Set the twelve branches around a clock face, and the branches directly opposite each other clash: 子午, 丑未, 寅申, 卯酉, 辰戌 and 巳亥.
A clash means movement and change. Unsettling events — moving house, changing jobs, breakups — come more easily, but a clash also breaks through what was stuck, so it is never read as simply bad.
Punishments, breaks, harms and Yuanjin
| Relation | Characters | Traditional meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Punishment 刑 | 寅巳申 · 丑戌未 · 子卯 | Friction; trouble with rules, papers or the law; injuries or treatments |
| Self-punishment 自刑 | 辰辰 · 午午 · 酉酉 · 亥亥 (the same branch twice) | Driving yourself too hard |
| Break 破 | 子酉 · 丑辰 · 寅亥 · 卯午 · 巳申 · 未戌 | Plans that crack and go off course bit by bit |
| Harm 害 | 子未 · 丑午 · 寅巳 · 卯辰 · 申亥 · 酉戌 | Interference and small misunderstandings |
| Yuanjin 怨嗔 | 子未 · 丑午 · 寅酉 · 卯申 · 辰亥 · 巳午 | Hurt feelings without a clear reason; love mixed with resentment |
寅亥 is both a Six Harmony and a break, and 巳申 is a Six Harmony, a punishment and a break at once. When one pair carries several relations, good and difficult sides show up together.
Where it happens matters
The same clash shakes a different part of life depending on which position moves. Stems are read as thoughts and visible affairs; branches as your real surroundings and relationships.
| Position | Meaning | When luck clashes or punishes it |
|---|---|---|
| Year branch | Family, ancestors, childhood, elders | Changes in family matters or your outer environment |
| Month branch | Parents and siblings, work and social environment, young adulthood | Job changes or transfers, changes in home life |
| Day branch | Yourself and your partner, your body and home | Changes in close relationships or where you live; look after your health |
| Hour branch | Children and juniors, later life, long-term plans | Children's affairs or adjustments to long-term plans |
Reading them well
- Combinations are not simply good, nor clashes simply bad. A combination can tie things up so they cannot move; a clash can break up what has stagnated and let you start again.
- What collides matters. A clash on your useful element is uncomfortable, but a clash on your least favourable element can actually lift a burden.
- A combination can dissolve a clash. When a character about to clash combines with another, it is said to forget the clash (貪合忘沖, "greedy for the combination, it forgets the clash").
How this site calculates them
Within your birth chart, every pair of pillars is checked for stem combinations and clashes and for branch Six Harmonies, clashes, punishments, self-punishments, breaks, harms and Yuanjin; Three Harmonies, half harmonies, seasonal groups and three-way punishments are found across all the branches. Results are shown with their positions under the five-elements card of your complete reading.
For luck, each incoming character is compared with the four positions of your chart. For stems we look at clashes with the day and month stems and combinations with every position; for branches, every relation. We also catch the case where your chart holds two branches of a Three Harmony and the luck supplies the third. The "Next five years: when to take care" section of the complete reading translates where these relations fall using the table above.
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