Six Clashes (Liu Chong)

As a concept, every hexagram in which line 1 clashes line 4 is called a Six Clashes hexagram (a clash by branch).

Like Void, combination and clash have been a subject of argument for a thousand years, because they have no fixed character the way the other notions do but change with each question.

An example, and the Six Clashes hexagrams

Example:

The Clinging (Li) Fire (Li) Palace · Fire

Siblings	Si Fire	Self
Offspring	Wei Earth
Wealth	You Metal
Officer line	Hai Water	Resp.
Offspring	Chou Earth
Parents	Mao Wood

We can see that the pairs of lines 1 and 4, 2 and 5, 3 and 6 all clash each other by branch.

The Six Clashes hexagrams are:

• The CreativeQian
• The JoyousDui
• The ClingingLi
• The ArousingZhen
• The GentleXun
• The AbysmalKan
• Keeping StillGen
• The ReceptiveKun
• InnocenceWu Wang
• Great PowerDa Zhuang

Six Clashes and Six Harmonies by the matter asked about

Six Harmonies and Six Clashes have these basic cases: Six Harmonies changing into Six Harmonies, Six Harmonies changing into Six Clashes, Six Clashes changing into Six Harmonies, Six Clashes changing into Six Clashes, a Six Clashes hexagram, a hexagram changing into Six Clashes, a Six Harmonies hexagram, and a hexagram changing into Six Harmonies.

Usually one judges the clash according to the case. Asking about a business, Six Clashes means the matter won't last long, while Six Harmonies means one has an aptitude for that matter — which is to say that Six Clashes and Six Harmonies are not necessarily opposites.

Asking about work, a Six Clashes hexagram is the image of something that won't hold, and Six Harmonies is likewise the image of fitting together; but what has to be noted is that the way of reading lines 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 can't be used, because with Six Clashes the Self line is nearly always at line 6, while with Six Harmonies it is nearly always at line 1. Fixing who is the boss and who is the employee has no meaning there.

In the case of illness, a clash means the end of it if the illness is near, and death if the illness is distant; besides that, a clash also means death with a grave illness such as cancer..... What counts as distant and what as near? As said above, time in the Yi divides into four frames of reference, namely Hour, Day, Month and Year, so distant is counted by Year and Month and near by Day and Hour. If the illness is counted in months or years, it counts as a distant illness and takes on the properties of a distant illness with Six Clashes, which is to say death; and likewise for a near illness.

Six Clashes only reinforces information

With a Six Clashes hexagram, apart from settling the result immediately in special cases, the hexagrams of information only reinforce the information in the hexagram and do not decide the nature of a line. With a Six Clashes hexagram we still read it as we would an ordinary hexagram.

What is distinctive about a Six Clashes hexagram is that we can't intervene directly by physical means in the matter asked about, but are obliged to intervene indirectly in order to change the future result.

Six Clashes in personal relations

In personal relations, Six Clashes reports the turning of face of the two sides, and this is quite different from the state of Void. With Void, it reports that the other side isn't honest, which leads to the relation between the two people going wrong; but with Six Clashes, the two sides are on equal footing. That is, wherever the fault lies, at the Self line or at the Target line, that side is the one that turns its face. If both are Prosperous the relation cuts itself off; if both are spoilt, both turn their faces. The Target line and the Self line then tell us the cause. For example: the Self line on the Vermilion Bird and Fire and Weak means one can't control one's own words when angry, and is hasty besides, and so it is spoilt. Or Month Break means one is worn down and weary, no longer on an equal footing within the relation. Note that romance is the exception. Romance meeting Six Clashes reports only rough weather and nothing more; everything else, the other party's family circumstances included, is read exactly as in an ordinary hexagram.

So Six Clashes has value only as information, useful for weighing up a decision within relationships, business relationships included. There, we need only end this relationship to avoid harm in the long run.

See also

• Six Harmonies — including Six Clashes changing into Six Harmonies, Six Clashes changing into Six Clashes…
• Combination and clash of lines
• Void, Month Break
• Reading space — the position of the lines at work