The bazi six combinations are the chart’s pull toward union. Where a clash pushes two branches apart, a combination (六合 liùhé, “six unions”) draws two Earthly Branches (地支 dìzhī) together — they cooperate, bind, and under the right conditions transform into a new element. This is the complete list, set out exactly, with a working explanation of what each pair does. A combination is an attraction, not a guarantee; reading it well means knowing when it merely binds and when it genuinely transforms.
In practice the six combinations are one of the first things a practitioner marks after the clashes, because a strong union can quietly rewrite the balance of a chart.
The six combinations in a Ba Zi chart
These six pairs are fixed, and each names the element the union leans toward. Copy them as they stand.
| Combination | Animals | Transforms toward |
|---|---|---|
| 子 + 丑 | Rat and Ox | Earth |
| 寅 + 亥 | Tiger and Pig | Wood |
| 卯 + 戌 | Rabbit and Dog | Fire |
| 辰 + 酉 | Dragon and Rooster | Metal |
| 巳 + 申 | Snake and Monkey | Water |
| 午 + 未 | Horse and Goat | Fire/Earth |
Two of these deserve a note. The Horse–Goat union (午 + 未) is read as Fire or Earth depending on which the rest of the chart supports; it is the most context-dependent of the set. And Snake–Monkey (巳 + 申) is the pair schools argue over most, because those same two branches also clash — so whether it binds or fights depends entirely on the surrounding chart.
Binding versus transforming
This is the distinction that separates a careful reading from a careless one. Two branches in combination first of all bind. A bound branch is occupied — it turns toward its partner and stops doing its other jobs. A branch that was clashing something, or holding up a favourable element, can go quiet once a combination locks it in place. That alone changes a chart.
Transformation is the stronger claim, and it has conditions. For a combination to actually become its new element, that element must be supported — rooted in the branches, present in the stems, ideally backed by the season. Absent that support, the pair binds but does not transform; you read attraction and occupation, not a new element flooding the chart. The classic mistake is to declare a transformation the moment two branches touch and then misjudge the whole balance.
Binding has a hidden-stem dimension too. Every branch carries buried stems, and a bound branch’s cargo — laid out on the hidden stems table — is effectively committed along with it. If your chart leans on the Xin Metal inside a You branch, a combination that occupies You is occupying that resource as well. This is why the same union can be a relief in one chart and a quiet theft in another.
Where a combination shows and what it colours
Position tells you what the union touches. A combination reaching the day branch binds the self and the spouse palace (夫妻宫 fūqīgōng) — often read as a strong pull in relationships, someone or something that holds you close. In the month, the career and family gate, it can bind opportunity or family closer. Across year and hour it colours the wider environment and late-life or children matters respectively.
A useful habit: check whether a combination is helping or trapping. Binding a troublesome clash is welcome. Binding a branch you were relying on to act is not. The union itself is neutral; its value depends on what it occupies.
Timing sharpens this. A combination can be dormant in the natal chart and then activated when the missing partner arrives from a luck pillar or the annual branch. When that happens the binding switches on for as long as the visitor stays, which is why the same two branches can feel inert for years and then suddenly pull hard. Reading combinations well means holding both the fixed chart and the moving cycles in view at once — the mechanics of those ten-year cycles are covered under luck pillars.
A worked example: Dragon binding Rooster
Take a chart with You (酉, the Rooster) in the day branch. A Dragon year arrives, bringing Chen (辰) via the annual pillar (流年 liúnián), and the 辰 + 酉 combination toward Metal switches on against the spouse palace. First reading: binding. Something — often a person, sometimes a commitment — holds the relationship sphere close that year; day-branch combinations are a classic signature for engagements and deepened partnerships. Second reading: transformation, only if Metal is genuinely supported in the chart and season. If it is, the year adds real Metal to the balance, for better or worse depending on what the Day Master needs. If not, read the pull without the flood. Two checks, in that order, every time.
What a combination is not
A combination is not automatically good news, and the word “harmony” oversells it. It does not guarantee marriage, wealth, or agreement; it guarantees only attraction and occupation. It is not a compatibility rule between people born in those animal years — the year animal is one character of eight, and partnership is read mainly from the day branch. And an unformed transformation is not a failure; a bound pair that never transforms is still doing real work in the chart, holding branches in place.
Reading combinations against the rest
Combinations never sit alone. They interrupt and are interrupted by the other branch relationships, so read them alongside their neighbours. A combination that resolves a collision is doing you a favour; one that a third branch keeps spoiling is the root of a harm — the full mechanism is traced on the six harms page.
Set this list beside the six clashes and what each one means to see the push against the pull, and against the three-harmony frames, where three branches lock a whole element into place. For the branches and their hidden stems in full, the heavenly stems and earthly branches guide is the reference to keep open.
To find which of the bazi six combinations actually live in your own chart — and whether they bind or transform — plot your four pillars free with the Butcher Boy calculator and read the unions against the branches you already have.