Clashes and combinations in saju (합충): what the pairs mean, and what they don’t

Stem combinations — five pairs that lean toward an element

The ten heavenly stems pair off into five combinations (천간합). Each joins a yang stem with the yin stem five places along the sequence, and each pair leans toward one element when the two meet:

• 甲 Yang Wood + 己 Yin Earth → leans toward Earth
• 乙 Yin Wood + 庚 Yang Metal → Metal
• 丙 Yang Fire + 辛 Yin Metal → Water
• 丁 Yin Fire + 壬 Yang Water → Wood
• 戊 Yang Earth + 癸 Yin Water → Fire

Branch pairs — harmonies, clashes, breaks and harms

The twelve earthly branches have four kinds of pairing. The six harmonies (육합) bond two branches and lean toward an element: 子 Rat + 丑 Ox → Earth, 寅 Tiger + 亥 Pig → Wood, 卯 Rabbit + 戌 Dog → Fire, 辰 Dragon + 酉 Rooster → Metal, 巳 Snake + 申 Monkey → Water, 午 Horse + 未 Goat → Earth. The triple harmonies (삼합) are three branches forming a whole sphere of one element: Monkey–Rat–Dragon for Water, Pig–Rabbit–Goat for Wood, Tiger–Horse–Dog for Fire, Snake–Rooster–Ox for Metal.

The six clashes (충) join branches that sit directly opposite each other on the compass: Rat–Horse, Ox–Goat, Tiger–Monkey, Rabbit–Rooster, Dragon–Dog, Snake–Pig. Two quieter tables complete the set. The six breaks (파): Rat–Rooster, Horse–Rabbit, Monkey–Snake, Tiger–Pig, Dragon–Ox, Dog–Goat. The six harms (해): Rat–Goat, Ox–Horse, Tiger–Snake, Rabbit–Dragon, Monkey–Pig, Rooster–Dog.

Notice that Tiger–Pig appears twice — it is a harmony and a break. The tables come from different classical layers and were never reconciled, which is a useful reminder that these are descriptions of tendency, not laws of physics.

What each one means in plain words

This is the language our English readings use, and it is deliberately unexcited:

• Stem combination and six-harmony — a bond that leans the pair toward an element: pull, attachment, energy gathering in one direction
• Triple harmony — a whole sphere of one element, counted only when all three branches are present (we leave partial “half-harmonies” out rather than over-claim)
• Clash — shifts and momentum: movement, change of place or state, energy that does not stay put
• Break — break down, then rebuild: something taken apart and reassembled
• Harm — subtle friction: things that do not quite line up, an easily jangled nerve

How a reading uses them

In the natal chart, our engine scans all four pillars for every pair above and tags each hit with where it sits — year, month, day or hour. The position is the meaning: the year pillar is your roots and family of origin, the month pillar your career stage and daily work, the day pillar yourself and the spouse palace, the hour pillar later years, children and private hopes. A clash between the month and day branches is read as friction between work and self; the same clash between year and hour is a different sentence.

Against a moving year, the same tables run again. The year stem is checked against your four stems for a combination, and the year branch against your four branches for a six-harmony, a clash, a break or a harm — each tagged with the pillar it touches. That is what “this year clashes with your day pillar” actually means: one computed pair, in one named seat.

Compatibility readings reuse the identical tables across two charts, counting the pairs that form between one person’s characters and the other’s. It is one of four scored components, and each hit shows up in the reasons list so you can see what the number is made of.

Momentum, not disaster

One design decision matters more than any table: we detect these pairs, we do not score them. Whether a combination actually “transforms” into its element is the single most contested question in the classical literature, so no number in your natal chart moves because of a pair. They are passed to the interpretation as material, and the interpretation is held to plain language — a clash is written as shifts and momentum, never as a warning.

That is not softness; it is accuracy. A clash in the month pillar describes a life that keeps changing jobs or cities as readily as one that loses them, and which of those it becomes is not in the chart. Harmonies are not automatically good, either: a bond pulls energy in one direction, and whether that direction helps depends on what your chart already has too much of. Read them as the direction the wind blows, and decide for yourself how to set the sail.