Definition: branch groupings are conditional structures

Bazi (Eight Characters; also BaZi or Four Pillars) reads di zhi (Earthly Branches) through season, hidden contents, position, and relationships rather than through the animal year alone. This article adopts liu he (Six Combinations), san he (Three Harmonies), and san hui (Three Meetings) for three different kinds of branch grouping. A grouping can draw phases together, redirect qi (seasonal and relational conditions), expose a route, or remain incomplete. It is not automatically a transformation, a favorable sign, or a statement about a person’s relationships.

The distinction matters because the three structures do not have the same geometry or the same conditions. Six Combinations are pairings. Three Harmonies are triads associated with a seasonal or directional phase route. Three Meetings are adjacent seasonal groupings that gather a phase across a quarter of the branch cycle. Some schools assign them different strength, proximity, or transformation rules. The safe starting point is to map what is literally present, then ask what the selected method permits that grouping to do.

Textual and historical context

Earthly Branch relationships developed across calendrical practice, Yin-Yang and Five Phases theory, and later Bazi compendia. The six pairs, triads, and their phase associations should not be presented as a single table invented by one author. Di Tian Sui (The Marrow of Heaven; title renderings vary) and its later commentaries use compact language about structure, combination, and transformation, but the received text has layered authorship and commentary questions. The method in this article is therefore a modern teaching synthesis that compares transmitted rules rather than claiming one uncontested original algorithm.

Zi Ping Zhen Quan (The True Principles of Zi Ping; title renderings vary) is commonly associated with Shen Xiaozhan in received bibliographies and gives Month Command, Pattern formation, and conditions of success or rescue a particular role. San Ming Tong Hui (Comprehensive Collection of the Three Fates; title renderings vary) is associated with Wan Minying in the Ming period and is a broad compilation rather than a short rulebook. Qiong Tong Bao Jian (a seasonal Bazi manual; title renderings vary) makes month and climate especially important when deciding whether a phase route is usable. Yuan Hai Zi Ping and Shen Feng Tong Kao add further transmitted material. Later commentators and modern schools do not always rank the same relation in the same way.

The Chinese Text Project is useful source infrastructure because it identifies itself as an open digital library and separates textual database entries, library scans, and Wiki material. Its search tools are a reminder to verify the actual text and edition rather than cite a search label as proof. This article uses no long classical quotation: the branch tables are reported as transmitted technical conventions, while disputed transformation claims are labeled as school-specific or editorial synthesis.

Prerequisites and a repeatable reading method

Read bazi-heavenly-stem-combinations first. Then review stem-branch-relations, bazi-stem-branch-configuration, bazi-emptiness-fullness-truth-falsity-response, bazi-roots-and-rooted-qi, bazi-stem-exposure, bazi-seasonal-command, bazi-climate-regulation, and hidden-stems-guide. Use bazi-reading-order to check the chart before applying a relation. Follow these steps:

  • 1. Confirm birth data, time zone, solar-term boundary, the four pillars, and the chosen branch-content convention.
  • 2. Name each branch in the chart and preserve its pillar position. Do not reduce the chart to the animal associated with one branch.
  • 3. Mark liu he pairs, san he triads, and san hui triads separately. A branch can participate in more than one proposed relation, so record overlaps instead of selecting the most dramatic one.
  • 4. Expand relevant branches into Hidden Heavenly Stems and note principal, middle, and residual qi when the chosen school uses those layers.
  • 5. Identify the proposed phase: Water, Wood, Fire, or Metal for the standard triads, and the traditional pairing tendency for each Six Combination. Treat the phase as a question to test.
  • 6. Check Month Command, season, roots, exposed stems, proximity, gaps, clashes, punishments, harms, breaks, and competing combinations.
  • 7. Decide whether the relation is complete, partial, seasonal, latent, contested, or merely a formal match. Do not call it transformed unless the stated school’s conditions are met.
  • 8. Name the object: a Day Master route, Pattern, Climate Regulation, source and flow question, or timing layer. The same grouping may function differently for different objects.
  • 9. Record what a different school would change and what evidence in a luck or annual layer could activate, interrupt, or redirect the relation.

The transmitted groupings

  • Liu he (Six Combinations): zi-chou, yin-hai, mao-xu, chen-you, si-shen, and wu-wei.
  • San he (Three Harmonies): shen-zi-chen associated with Water, hai-mao-wei with Wood, yin-wu-xu with Fire, and si-you-chou with Metal.
  • San hui (Three Meetings): hai-zi-chou associated with Water, yin-mao-chen with Wood, si-wu-wei with Fire, and shen-you-xu with Metal.

These lists are a working table, not a complete interpretation. A Six Combination does not mean that both branches disappear into a new phase. A Three Harmony may be discussed as a complete triad, a partial harmony, or a route that still needs season and support. A Three Meeting is often treated as a stronger seasonal or directional gathering by some schools because its branches are adjacent in the cycle, while other readers still require the Month Command and supporting evidence. Even when a phase association is accepted, the original branches and their hidden contents remain part of the chart.

Fictional teaching example

This is a fictional teaching example, not a real person or a prediction. Suppose a chart contains shen in the Year Branch, zi in the Month Branch, and chen in the Day Branch. A first inventory records a complete san he (Three Harmonies) Water grouping. It then records the Month position, the hidden stems in all three branches, any visible Water or Metal, the season, and possible clashes or restraints. It does not immediately announce that the entire chart has become Water.

A school that gives Month Command strong priority may call the Water route substantial if the season and branch contents support it. Another school may treat the triad as formally present but incomplete because the relevant phase lacks exposure or because Earth, Fire, or a competing relation interrupts it. A timing layer might complete the triad for a limited question without making the natal structure permanently different. The responsible conclusion is conditional: a Water-oriented Three Harmony is present in the teaching chart, with its functional strength and transformation status still requiring a declared rule.

Commentator and school differences

Readers differ about whether Six Combinations are primarily binding relations, phase-producing relations, or contextual interactions. They also differ about the relative force of Three Harmonies and Three Meetings. Some rank Three Meetings as more seasonal because the branches are consecutive; others give a complete Three Harmony greater directional coherence; still others refuse to rank them before checking the question, Month Command, roots, and the rest of the network.

Partial groupings are another dispute. Two branches from a Three Harmony may be called ban he (Half-Harmony), a partial route, or simply two branches that share a conventional association. A missing third branch may be supplied by a luck or annual pillar for timing purposes in one school but not in another. Transformation may require the relevant phase to be seasonally dominant, rooted, visible, and free from strong interruption; a different school may accept a weaker conditional expression. These are interpretive rules, not scientifically validated measurements.

Branch relations can overlap. A pair inside a triad may also be involved in a clash, harm, punishment, or break with another branch. Do not erase the competing relation because a harmony looks attractive. The hierarchy and conditions of those conflicts are the next curriculum topic, so this article records them as evidence and sends detailed ranking to that later study.

Common errors

  • Using the animal year as a substitute for the full Earthly Branch structure.
  • Treating every Six Combination as marriage, agreement, or guaranteed support.
  • Calling two branches a complete Three Harmony or Three Meeting without identifying the missing branch, season, and school rule.
  • Assuming a phase association automatically transforms every branch and cancels its hidden stems.
  • Ignoring Month Command, proximity, roots, exposure, and competing clashes or harms.
  • Counting one branch in several groupings and choosing only the grouping that supports a preferred result.
  • Using a branch combination to infer illness, death, marriage, wealth, crime, disaster, personality, or a third party’s intentions.
  • Letting a luck or annual pillar permanently rewrite natal structure instead of describing a time-limited activation or contest.

Terminology translation note

This article adopts Six Combinations for liu he, Three Harmonies for san he, and Three Meetings for san hui. Principal English variants include Six Harmonies, Six Pairings, Three Combinations, Three Harmony Groups, Three Meetings, and seasonal assemblies. I retain the pinyin terms because no single English set is stable across schools. Ban he is rendered Half-Harmony for a partial Three Harmony, but the term can carry different thresholds in different traditions. Combination and transformation remain separate: a he (Combination) describes a relation, while he hua (Combination Transformation) is a stronger, conditional claim. Month Command is the site’s established rendering for yue ling, Pattern for ge ju, Rootedness for tong gen, and Climate Regulation for tiao hou.

Bazi is presented as a traditional interpretive system, not scientifically validated prediction. Earthly Branch groupings can organize a comparative reading, but they cannot diagnose illness, decide medical, legal, financial, or mental-health matters, determine marriage or wealth, predict death or disaster, identify crime, read a third party’s mind, or replace professional advice. Read bazi-heavenly-stem-combinations as the preceding curriculum article. The following curriculum topic is Hierarchy and Conditions of Clash, Punishment, Harm, and Break, planned under bazi-clash-punishment-harm-break-hierarchy. Existing related material includes stem-branch-relations, bazi-stem-branch-configuration, bazi-emptiness-fullness-truth-falsity-response, bazi-upper-and-lower-support, bazi-structure-and-function, bazi-roots-and-rooted-qi, bazi-stem-exposure, bazi-seasonal-command, bazi-climate-regulation, bazi-source-and-flow, bazi-flow-and-obstruction, hidden-stems-guide, glossary-canggan, bazi-reading-order, reading-ditiansui, reading-ziping-zhenquan, reading-qiongtong-baojian, and books-east-west-esotericism-history.