Stage 3 · Term 26 of 34
Six Combinations 六合
Liù Hé
Six branch pairs that attract and bind: 子丑, 寅亥, 卯戌, 辰酉, 巳申, 午未. A combination can merge two branches' agendas and, in the right conditions, transform them toward a new element. Whether a pair fully transforms depends on the whole chart — serious schools differ on defaults.
In the classics
The six pairs and their nominal transformations (子丑→earth, 寅亥→wood, 卯戌→fire, 辰酉→metal, 巳申→water, 午未→fire/earth by school) are recorded from 《渊海子平》 onward. Whether a combination fully transforms is condition-dependent, and serious schools genuinely differ on defaults — this page keeps the classical hedge deliberately.
In a chart
A combination binds two branches' agendas: the pair turns toward each other, which can protect (a combined branch resists being clashed), distract (a spouse-palace branch combined away toward another pillar is a classical relationship signal), or transform (the pair functioning as a new element, when the chart's conditions genuinely support it). Combination is the social interaction — attraction, alliance, merger — where the clash is the kinetic one. Note the fine print: 寅亥 and 巳申 also appear in the break/punishment tables — the tradition is comfortable with relationships that bind and chafe at once.
Worked example
A chart with 子 in the day branch and 丑 in the hour branch holds a 子丑 combination: the two adjacent branches bind, and whether they merely hold hands or genuinely transform toward earth depends on the month's command and what the stems declare.
Where beginners misread it
Treating every combination as "harmony" and every transformation as automatic. Binding is certain; transforming is conditional — and a bound-but-untransformed pair behaves differently from either.
How this plays out in your chart depends on the whole structure — the chart-specific judgment taught in Yixin Academy's structured courses.
learnwithyixin.com/courses →What does Six Combinations mean in BaZi?
Six branch pairs that attract and bind: 子丑, 寅亥, 卯戌, 辰酉, 巳申, 午未. A combination can merge two branches' agendas and, in the right conditions, transform them toward a new element. Whether a pair fully transforms depends on the whole chart — serious schools differ on defaults.