Branches That Push Apart

六冲六害相刑 · Friction on the Wheel

If combines are branches pulling together, these are the patterns where they pull apart. Traditional readers group the negative branch relationships into Clashes (六冲), Harms (六害), Punishments (相刑) and Self-Punishment (自刑). They sound theatrical, and the names are part of the charm — but the mechanics are just geography, and the meaning is always negotiable.

The Clashes: opposites, face to face (六冲)

Six pairs of branches sit directly opposite each other on the wheel:

子-Zi clashes 午-Wu
丑-Chou clashes 未-Wei
寅-Yin clashes 申-Shen
卯-Mao clashes 酉-You
辰-Chen clashes 戌-Xu
巳-Si clashes 亥-Hai

A clash is the control cycle arm-wrestling in public. Where a combine merges two energies, a clash keeps them in a loud, unresolved conversation. In everyday readings, a clash touches the themes tied to the branches involved — the spouse palace clashing, for instance, speaks to partnership dynamics, and a Da Yun or year that clashes the natal chart is flagged as a period to watch, not a period to fear.

The Harms: the quiet wedges (六害)

子-Zi with 未-Wei
丑-Chou with 午-Wu
寅-Yin with 巳-Si
卯-Mao with 辰-Chen
申-Shen with 亥-Hai
酉-You with 戌-Xu

Harms read subtler than clashes: a slow leak rather than a blow. The classic image is two characters that quietly disadvantage each other — friction that erodes rather than erupts. Tradition attaches some of its most colorful pairings here (子未 is a classic "harm"), but the honest short version is: harms are background static between two rooms, worth noticing, rarely worth obsession.

The Punishments: three-way friction (相刑)

The punishments are three-sided patterns — rows on the branch wheel where three branches sit together and, in the traditional reading, grind:

寅-Yin punishes 巳-Si punishes 申-Shen (a rotating triangle)
丑-Chou punishes 戌-Xu punishes 未-Wei
子-Zi punishes 卯-Mao, and 卯-Mao punishes 子-Zi

With two of the trio present, readers speak of a "half-punishment". The pattern's meaning leans institutional: discipline, lawsuits, friction with authority — climate, again, not event.

Self-Punishment (自刑)

Three branches — 辰-Chen, 午-Wu, 酉-You and 亥-Hai — are said to punish themselves when doubled: 辰 with 辰, 午 with 午, and so on. Traditional reading frames it as over-thinking, self-generated friction, often with a touch of the wheel's dark humor. If your chart doubles one of these branches, you have met the most quietly famous inside joke in BaZi.

Keep the theater, drop the doom

Every negative pattern has a positive face. A clash with the spouse palace is a marriage that argues loudly and grows strong; a punishment trio is a personality forged under discipline. Readers across schools agree on the tables — they disagree, often sharply, on the weights. Treat friction entries as notes, list them once, and move to what the chart supports. Nothing in the tables is a curse; the table is a map, and maps show roads, not fate.

Scan your chart for friction — clashes, harms and punishments between your branches are listed automatically.