三刑

Branch punishments (三刑) are the branch configurations held to be in a relation of punishment: two three-branch sets, 寅巳申 and 丑戌未, and one two-branch set, 子卯. The engine derives the two-branch case separately from the three-branch ones, and reports each configuration a chart actually contains.

The notable thing about this relation is what its source declines to do. Ziping Zhenquan's chapter on resolving punishment, clash, trinity and harmony (《子平真诠·论刑冲会合解法》) lists punishment first among the four branch relations and gives its configurations, and then says of the reasoning behind them that it will leave the question open — that it does not know why they work, and that this does no harm to the practice. Confident derivations of the punishments circulate widely; the text these pages descend from is not their source, and this entry does not supply one either.

The same chapter does give practical handling. A punishment can be resolved the way a clash can, by a harmony or a trinity drawing one branch away: a 子 punishing a 卯 is resolved by a 丑 harmonising the 子, or by 亥 and 未 drawing the 卯 into their set. The chapter adds a second and less obvious move — accepting a punishment or clash in a secondary position in order to keep the month branch intact.

One configuration worth noting: 巳 and 申 stand in a harmony relation and fall inside the 寅巳申 punishment. The engine reports both, and one relation does not cancel the other.

Worked example. The example chart below carries 寅, 巳 and 申 across year, day and hour — the full 寅巳申 punishment — while its 巳 and 申 also stand in a harmony, and the engine reports both.

Worked example (solar 1975-01-11 16:00, male, computed by this site's engine):

Pattern: 食神格 · Strength: 中和 (engine verdicts)