How to Read Combinations and Clashes: Stem Combinations, Six and Triple Combinations, Directional Meetings, Six Clashes and Three Punishments

01The five stem combinations: keep combination and transformation apart

The five stem combinations pair jia with ji, yi with geng, bing with xin, ding with ren, and wu with gui. A combination first of all means that the two hold each other in check and stick together, so each one's original effect is weakened or redirected.

Whether they go further and transform (化) into a different element depends on conditions that differ by school: usually the month command has to support it, a transforming element has to lead the change, and there must be no obvious disruptive factor. Combining without transforming is the norm; treating every combination as though the element had already changed is the most common misreading.

02Six combinations, triple combinations and directional meetings are three different things

The six combinations pair branches two by two — zi with chou, yin with hai, mao with xu, chen with you, si with shen, wu with wei — and their effect leans toward binding and holding in check. A triple combination forms a structure from the growth, prosperity and tomb branches of one element, stressing the gathering of that element's momentum. A directional meeting brings together the qi of one direction, as with yin, mao and chen: the three branches belong to the same direction and concentrate their force.

The three have different thresholds. A directional meeting requires all three branches, a triple combination usually does too, and a six combination needs only two. Whether half-combinations and half-meetings count at all, and how much force they are given, is not agreed between schools; it is a convention that has to be declared in advance.

03What the six clashes do structurally

The six clashes oppose zi and wu, chou and wei, yin and shen, mao and you, chen and xu, si and hai. Their basic effect is to set in motion what had been at rest: a clash may break open a tomb store, strike away a root, or activate a force that was being held down.

The force of a clash depends on position. Two adjacent pillars clashing act most directly, a separated position less so, and a distant clash is markedly weaker. Whether the clashed party is held in check by a combination, and whether it has the support of the month command, also change the actual result.

04Punishments, harms and destructions: the most disputed category

The traditional punishments cover yin–si–shen, chou–xu–wei and zi–mao, plus self-punishment in some systems; the harms are six pairings, and the destructions are another set of pairs. They describe friction, drain and disharmony rather than direct damage.

These three categories are used the most differently. Some systems give them real weight in judgement, some treat them only as background reference, and some leave them out of the main reading altogether. So when two analyses draw different conclusions from the same punishment or harm, it is usually a difference in what each one chooses to count, not someone calculating wrongly.

05How to order things when combinations and clashes appear together

When combinations, clashes, punishments and harms all appear in one chart, the re-checkable approach is to ask first whether these relationships genuinely change the distribution of elemental force, then where they act and whether they are adjacent, and only then what they mean for the structural theme.

Combinations and clashes also interfere with each other: a combination can hold a clash in check, and a clash can break a combination apart. Whether combinations are read before clashes, and whether a combination can dissolve a clash, is not settled between schools. What matters is stating which order you use, not treating one arrangement as the only correct answer.

06Why a clash is not automatically bad

What a clash does depends on what is being clashed. If it strikes an element that is currently the chart's problem or an unfavourable god, breaking it open can clear the way; if it strikes the useful god or the Day Master's root — something carrying a key function — the structure is damaged. The same clash can mean opposite things in different charts.

Another common misreading is to translate a clash directly into separation, change or an accident. That is a second-order inference jumping from a structural relationship to a specific event, and it goes beyond what this framework can support; nor should major real-world decisions rest on it.

07Checklist

• Combining and transforming were kept apart; a combination was not assumed to have transformed
• The conditions for six combinations, triple combinations and directional meetings were checked, along with the convention in use
• When weighing a clash, pillar distance and whether a combination was holding it in check were both considered
• The weight given to punishments, harms and destructions in this reading was stated, not assumed to be equal
• The role of the clashed party was read first; a clash was not equated directly with something unfavourable