Combinations, Clashes, Punishments and Harms: How Characters Relate

Combinations and clashes of the heavenly stems

When two heavenly stems meet and bind, it is called a stem combination (천간합), and the bound pair is thought to head toward a different force. A pair that collides head-on is called a stem clash (천간충).

Relations among the earthly branches

A combination is not always good, and a clash is not always bad. A combination can bind your feet as well, and a clash can break through what was blocked and make a new start. The meaning changes with which positions' characters meet and with whether the favourable element is bound or released.

Which positions meet?

In traditional reading, the year pillar is compared to ancestors and childhood, the month pillar to parents and the social environment, the day pillar to you and your spouse's place, and the hour pillar to children and later life. These correspondences differ somewhat from school to school, so they are used as clues for reading, not as grounds for a firm conclusion. Halmeoni pairs the four pillars two at a time and looks at all six pairs. Upper characters are compared with upper characters, and lower characters with lower characters. Some schools also look at a hidden combination (암합) between the upper character of one pillar and the lower character of another, but Halmeoni does not calculate this. Pillars that touch and pillars that are apart are searched by the same rule, and if the hour of birth is unknown, the hour pillar is missing and only three pairs are examined.

The meaning of a relation is read overlaid on the meaning of the two positions. If the day pillar is involved, it concerns you and your spouse's place and is used in the romance and spouse part, and if the year or month pillar is involved, it is also used in the family part. A pair with a clash or punishment is given slightly more weight than the others, so it is more likely to be taken up first in the reading.

When one pair has several relations

Two characters do not have only one relation between them. 巳 (sa) and 申 (sin) are a six harmony and also a punishment, and 寅 (in) and 申 are a clash and also a punishment. 子 (ja) and 未 (mi) are a harm and also resentment. Halmeoni records every relation it finds in a pair and does not keep just one of them.

Triple combinations are also looked at two characters at a time. Any two of 申·子·辰 that meet are recorded as a half combination, and if all three are present there are three half combinations. Some schools count only pairs that include the middle character (子·午·卯·酉) as half combinations, but Halmeoni also counts pairs without the middle character, such as 申·辰. The directional combination (방합) of three branches of the same season (寅卯辰 and so on), and the break (破), seen as a relation of twisting and breaking, are not part of Halmeoni's calculation.

Can a combination be released by a clash?

When a combination and a clash are in the same chart, which comes first differs from school to school. Some hold that the clash breaks the combination and what was bound is released, and others hold that the heart is so drawn to the combination that it forgets the clash (탐합망충). The conditions for judging whether two combined characters have really changed into another force (합화) also differ from book to book.

Halmeoni does not calculate which of these wins. It records the combinations and clashes it finds each as a fact, and for a combination adds only which force it heads toward. A combination does not change the count of the five elements, and the Day Master's strength is not recalculated. Instead, when two or more characters try to join hands with one character by stem combination or six harmony, it is pointed out separately as a contested combination (쟁합). It means that with two contending for one, the combination can hardly be said to have been formed cleanly. And when the Seven Killings (편관) that presses on the Day Master combines with another stem, it is pointed out as the Seven Killings bound by combination (합살), read as the pressure being bound and softened.

When time arrives

The pillars of the Luck Cycle (대운), the year and the day are looked at by the same rules. One incoming pillar is compared with the four birth pillars one by one, and Halmeoni records which position it combines with and which it collides with. When a reading says something like "it clashes with the month branch," which names a position, the checker confirms that such a relation with that position really exists and has the text rewritten if it is wrong.

An example

Take the chart from "What Is Saju?", someone born in Seoul on 25 August 2001 at 00:50, with 辛巳 (year pillar), 丙申 (month pillar), 庚申 (day pillar) and 丙子 (hour pillar). When Halmeoni calculates it, relations appear in five of the six pairs.

• Year and month pillars: 辛·丙 stem combination (Water force), 巳·申 six harmony (Water force) and punishment
• Year and day pillars: 巳·申 six harmony (Water force) and punishment
• Year and hour pillars: 辛·丙 stem combination (Water force)
• Month and hour pillars: 申·子 half combination (Water force)
• Day and hour pillars: 申·子 half combination (Water force)

There is no relation between the month and day pillars. 申 and 申 are the same character, but the only characters Halmeoni treats as punishing themselves (자형) are 辰·午·酉·亥. What stands out is the contest around the year pillar. Two 丙 in the month and hour stems try to combine with the single year stem 辛, and two 申 in the month and day branches try to form a six harmony with the single year branch 巳. So a contested combination appears both in the stems and in the branches. For this chart's Day Master 庚, 丙 is the Seven Killings and 辛 is a Rob Wealth, so the Seven Killings bound by combination, in which a Rob Wealth combines with the Seven Killings, also appears twice.

Since 巳·申 is both a combination and a punishment, Halmeoni records this pair as a relation in which binding and friction exist together, and does not settle it to one side. Meeting with time works the same way. The 丙 of the year 2026, 丙午 (byeong-o), forms a stem combination with the year stem 辛, and 午 clashes with the hour branch 子. The year's characters join hands on one side and collide on the other, so the reading speaks of both together.

Overlaying the meaning of the positions, it can be put like this. The year and month pillars combine in both upper and lower characters (and the lower characters also have a punishment), so the family roots and the environment you grew up in are bound in one direction, and the half combination of the day and hour pillars is a shape in which your place and the place of children and later life gather into the same Water force. This is only putting into words the positions where the relations lie, not a verdict that family relations are good or bad. In a real reading, these facts are read together with the Day Master's strength and the favourable element.