Clashes and directions in the almanac

Branch clashes and the animal named in the field

Chong (冲), translated here as “clash,” pairs opposite positions in the twelve-branch cycle. Each branch’s counterpart is six positions away. The relationship is reciprocal: Zi clashes with Wu, and Wu clashes with Zi. These are the six complete pairs.

A day’s clash field names the opposite branch or its animal, not the day’s own animal. On a Zi day, the day branch is Rat but the clash animal is Horse. On a You day, the day branch is Rooster but the clash animal is Rabbit. This explains why the animal in the clash field can differ from one shown beside the day’s Ganzhi, its stem-and-branch name.

Some entries include a stem as well. The full day-clash description combines a stem selected from a clash table, the opposite branch and that branch’s animal. The stem assignment is a separate lookup. It cannot be reconstructed merely by moving six places through the branch cycle.

On a Wu-Zi (戊子) day, Zi selects the opposing Wu 午 branch, Horse. The Atlas’s stem table maps the day stem Wu 戊 to Ren 壬, producing the combined notation Ren-Wu (壬午), Horse. The two characters pronounced Wu are different: 戊 is a heavenly stem and 午 an earthly branch.

This field is calculated from the date. It does not incorporate a particular person’s birth details and is not, by itself, a personal compatibility assessment.

Sha and the deity directions

The four Sha directions

Sha (煞) identifies a traditionally unfavourable influence or direction. In this daily field, it is assigned by the day’s branch group. Each group of three branches receives one cardinal direction.

A Zi day therefore has Horse as its clash animal and south as its Sha direction. These answers come from different assignments. Almanac literature also uses Sha in other classifications, so this four-direction table does not define every use of the word.

Joy, Wealth and Fortune

The Joy, Wealth and Fortune directions depend on the day stem, rather than the branch group used for Sha. Each column gives the compass direction assigned to that deity for the day. The following table contains all ten stem assignments used by the Atlas.

Several directions can appear beside one day because each deity has its own assignment. On a Wu 戊 day, Joy is southeast, Wealth north and Fortune northeast.

Fortune directions occur in more than one pattern. In the pattern used by the Atlas, Wu 戊 and Gui 癸 days both place Fortune northeast. An alternative table places Fortune north on Wu days and west on Gui days. These are different assignments for the same Fortune deity. Two almanacs can therefore agree on the day stem while giving different Fortune directions. Choosing between these Fortune tables leaves the rules for Joy, Wealth, Sha and clash unchanged.

Yang Noble and Yin Noble are further, separately named direction assignments. They are not alternative English names for Joy or Fortune.

Daily and hourly scope

An hourly clash is calculated from the hour branch. Hourly deity directions use the hour stem. Daily values are not automatically copied into every time period.

For example, Chen, Dragon time, runs from 07:00 up to 09:00 on the Atlas’s UTC+8 clock. Its opposing branch is Xu, Dog. On a Zi day, the daily clash animal remains Horse while the hourly clash animal is Dog. The fields differ because their inputs differ.

The hour stem also depends on the day-boundary convention. In the Atlas’s hour calculation, the following day’s stem is used from 23:00, at the beginning of late Rat time, even though the civil date has not yet changed.

A deity direction and the day’s presiding deity are different fields. Joy, Wealth and Fortune are assigned compass positions. The presiding-deity field selects one name from a twelve-member sequence and supplies its Yellow-path or Black-path classification.