巳午未三会

成方之义

The term 成方 refers to the formation of a directional side or region. Among the twelve Earthly Branches, there are four such regional groupings: 寅卯辰 in the east, 巳午未 in the south, 申酉戌 in the west, and 亥子丑 in the north. Each group consists of three consecutive branches, and each corresponds to one of the four cardinal directions. 巳午未三会火局 is the southern grouping, associated with the season of summer. Within this group, 午 is the branch of midsummer. Because the three branches are adjacent in the fixed order of the twelve branches, their meeting is described as 成方, meaning the completion of a directional formation. In the case of 巳午未, the direction is south and the element is fire.

The logic of 三会 is spatial and sequential. The twelve branches are arranged around the compass, and each group of three occupies one continuous arc. 巳，午, and 未 stand together in the south. When all three appear in a chart, their combined fire energy is regarded as concentrated and reinforced by their shared location and order. This distinguishes 三会 from other forms of branch combination, because the emphasis is on regional unity rather than on the interaction of separated positions.

与三合之别

三会 and 三合 are often compared because both involve three branches and both produce a single elemental result. However, their internal structures differ. 三会 takes three adjacent branches from the same side. 三合 takes three branches from different sides of the branch circle, linked by the positions of growth, peak, and storage for a given element.

The classical comparison is that 三会取三方，犹如朋友同道, while 三合取对位，犹如夫妇相依. In other words, a 三会 formation is like friends traveling the same road, drawn together by shared direction and proximity. A 三合 formation is like spouses depending on one another, bound across distance by a structural affinity. This distinction matters when assessing how strongly the branches combine. A 三会 group is already contiguous, so its members reinforce one another through location. A 三合 group must bridge gaps in the branch sequence, and its cohesion depends on the three positions of the element concerned.

For the fire element, the 三合 group is 寅午戌. The 三会 group is 巳午未. Both are fire-related, but they are not interchangeable. The former draws on 寅 as the growth position of fire and 戌 as the storage position of fire. The latter draws on 午 as the peak position and on two southern branches whose roles are defined partly by the 三合 system, as explained below.

四正与四墓

Within 巳午未三会火局，午 holds the position of 四正. The four 四正 branches are 子，午，卯, and 酉, each standing at the exact midpoint of one cardinal direction. 午 is due south and is the peak, or 帝旺, of fire. As the central branch of the southern group, 午 supplies the core fire energy of the formation.

未 is one of the four 墓 branches, or 四墓. The other three are 辰，戌, and 丑. The term 墓 refers to storage or entombment, and in the 三合 system each 墓 branch stores the energy of a particular element at the end of its cycle. The four 墓 branches are assigned as follows: 申子辰水局 takes 辰 as the water store, 亥卯未木局 takes 未 as the wood store, 寅午戌火局 takes 戌 as the fire store, and 巳酉丑金局 takes 丑 as the metal store.

A critical point is that the element stored in a 墓 branch is not necessarily the element of the 三会 group in which that branch appears. In the case of 巳午未，未 is not the fire store. According to the 三合 system, 未 is the wood store, because it is the 墓 of the 亥卯未 wood group. This means that, within 巳午未三会火局，未 contributes to fire not by storing fire, but by storing wood. Since wood generates fire in the cycle of the five elements, the stored wood energy of 未 is regarded as nourishing the fire of the southern formation. Thus the relationship is indirect but supportive: 未为木库，所藏之气生助本方之火.

命例

In actual chart reading, 三会 is assessed by the four branches of the year, month, day, and hour pillars. The formation is complete only when all three required branches appear among those four positions. If only two of the three branches are present, the condition is called a half meeting, or 半会, and its force is considered lighter than that of the full formation.

When the three branches do appear together, their combined energy is said to gather into that direction. The original elemental functions of the individual branches are considered significantly weakened, because the branches no longer act mainly on their own but instead merge their force into the regional element. The strength of the combination is also affected by the physical arrangement of the branches in the four-pillar layout. If the three branches are close together, such as occupying the month, day, and hour pillars, the meeting is regarded as tighter and more effective. If one branch is separated by another pillar, the force is more diffuse.

The following engine-computed chart is used here as the sole illustrative example. The four pillars are 壬寅，乙巳，戊午, and 己未. The pattern is 偏印格. In this chart, the 巳午未三会火局 relation falls on the month, day, and hour pillars, meaning that the three branches occupy consecutive pillar positions and form a compact southern fire configuration.

Worked example (solar 1962-05-20 13:00, female, computed by this site's engine):

Pattern: 偏印格 · Strength: 极旺 (engine verdicts)

常见误区

One common error is to treat 未 in 巳午未三会火局 as the fire store. In the 三合 system, the fire store is 戌, not 未. 未 is the wood store. Although 未 belongs to the southern 三会 group, its stored element is wood, and its contribution to the fire formation comes through the generative relationship of wood to fire rather than through direct fire storage.

Another misunderstanding is to regard any two of the three branches as a full 三会. Only the presence of all three branches completes the formation. Two branches may be called a half meeting at most, and their combined force is weaker. The distinction matters because a full 三会 is treated as a strong concentration of elemental energy, whereas a half meeting is only a partial tendency.

A further point of confusion arises from comparing 三会 with 三合 too loosely. Both may produce fire, as in 巳午未 and 寅午戌, but their structures and implications are not identical. 巳午未 is based on contiguity and direction, while 寅午戌 is based on the growth, peak, and storage positions of fire. Charts may contain one, both, or neither, and each must be read according to its own logic.