The Six Clashes and What They Actually Do
子午, 丑未, 寅申, 卯酉, 辰戌, 巳亥 — the six opposition pairs, why they are not simply bad, and how to read them in a chart.
What are the six clashes in Chinese astrology?
Zi–Wu, Chou–Wei, Yin–Shen, Mao–You, Chen–Xu and Si–Hai. Each pair sits six positions apart in the twelve-branch cycle and therefore represents opposite seasons and elements.
The six clashes (六冲) are the six pairs of branches that sit directly opposite each other in the twelve-position cycle. They are the most feared relationship in popular Chinese astrology and the most misrepresented, because a clash is not a verdict — it is a description of movement.
Read properly, clash pairs are the most useful tool in the system for explaining why some periods of a life accelerate and others stall.
The six pairs
| Relation | Branches | How it reads |
|---|---|---|
| 六合 Six Combination | 子丑 · 寅亥 · 卯戌 · 辰酉 · 巳申 · 午未 | Pairs that bind. Read as attraction, and as a merge that can quietly soften a clash sitting next to it. The element each pair transforms into is standard except for 午未, where sources differ. |
| 六冲 Six Clash | 子午 · 丑未 · 寅申 · 卯酉 · 辰戌 · 巳亥 | Branches six apart, opposite on the dial. Read as opposition, movement and disruption — the most legible of the six relations. |
| 三合 Three Harmony | 申子辰 · 亥卯未 · 寅午戌 · 巳酉丑 | Three branches four apart forming one strong element: water, wood, fire, metal. The strongest grouping in the system when all three are present. |
| 三会 Three Meeting | 寅卯辰 · 巳午未 · 申酉戌 · 亥子丑 | The seasonal groupings — spring, summer, autumn, winter. Strongest when the season supports them, which is why they are read with the month branch. |
| 三刑 Punishment | 寅巳申 · 丑戌未 · 子卯 · 辰午酉亥 | Friction rather than opposition. Traditionally tied to legal, medical and relational stress. 辰午酉亥 are the self-punishments. |
| 六害 Six Harm | 子未 · 丑午 · 寅巳 · 卯辰 · 申亥 · 酉戌 | The quiet one. Read as erosion and resentment rather than open conflict, which is why it is easy to miss and easy to over-read. |
Zi and Wu clash — midnight against noon, midwinter against midsummer. Chou and Wei clash — the two earth storage branches of winter and summer. Yin and Shen clash — spring wood against autumn metal. Mao and You clash — the same opposition one position along. Chen and Xu clash — the spring and autumn earth vaults. Si and Hai clash — fire against water.
The pattern is structural: each pair is six positions apart in the twelve-cycle, which by construction puts opposite seasons and opposite elements against each other.
What a clash is not
A clash is not a curse, and it is not an event. Popular readings treat a clash between a person's sign and the current year as a warning of misfortune, but that reading uses one position out of eight and ignores the chart's own balance.
The more accurate description is friction: two forces pulling in genuinely different directions. Whether that friction produces movement or damage depends on whether the chart has somewhere for the energy to go.
Clashes between branches inside a chart
A clash between the day branch and the month branch describes a life where the private self and the working self are pulling apart. A clash between the year branch and the hour branch puts early context against late outcome — often read as someone whose adult direction contradicts everything they were raised towards.
The classical associations for the six pairs are specific: Zi-Wu with abrupt change and instability of direction, Yin-Shen with travel and relocation, Si-Hai with sudden change of plan, Chen-Xu with the opening of the storehouses, Chou-Wei with territorial disputes, and Mao-You with unresolved standards.
Why clashes can be useful
A clash moves something that was stuck. In a chart with an over-full element the clash is often the mechanism that releases it, and in a chart with a dormant storehouse the clash is what opens it. Several classical readings treat clash as necessary rather than harmful when the chart is congested.
This is why practitioners trained properly do not substitute one word for a whole reading. A clash between two branches is a fact; whether it is productive depends on the day master, the season and what the chart actually needs.
Common questions
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