Self-Transform to Combine or Clash

After classifying a moving/transformed pair, compare its two Earthly Branches.

A self-combination means the moving branch and its own transformed branch form one of the fixed Six Combination pairs. A self-clash means they form one of the fixed Six Clash pairs. “Self” refers to one positional pair, not to the reader’s personality.

Calculation

1. Keep the moving and transformed rows at the same bottom-up position.
2. Copy both branch names.
3. Check the Six Combination table.
4. Check the Six Clash table.
5. Record self-combine, self-clash, or neither.
6. Leave event meaning blank until target relevance and source context are established.

Relation	Fixed branch pairs
Combine	Zi–Chou, Yin–Hai, Mao–Xu, Chen–You, Si–Shen, Wu–Wei
Clash	Zi–Wu, Chou–Wei, Yin–Shen, Mao–You, Chen–Xu, Si–Hai

Three exercises

Example type: learner exercises; no outcomes.

Pair	Result	Other fact kept separate
Zi → Chou	Self-combine	Their elements must still be compared independently
Zi → Wu	Self-clash	A branch clash is not the same as Five-Phase control
Yin → Mao	Neither	It is a named advancing pair, as in Case 00035

The same pair may carry more than one kind of fact. Zi→Chou can combine while its elements also have a generation/control relation. Do not collapse the records into one slogan.

Interpretation boundary

This course treats self-combination as a possible binding condition and self-clash as a possible destabilizing condition only after the pair is relevant to the selected target and the lineage rule is named. Neither label establishes delay, agreement, conflict, or release by itself.

This course does not assign a separate transformation label to self-combination or self-clash. Check the primary and transformed branches against the fixed pair tables, then keep any interpretive weight conditional and source-bound.

Trap and stopping condition

Do not write “the matter will bind” from a self-combination or “the matter will break” from a self-clash. First ask whether the moving line enters the target system and whether another source rule changes the reading.

Stop if the primary and transformed rows are not confidently paired. A correct branch table applied to the wrong position still produces a wrong artifact.

Mechanics source: the fixed Six Combination and Six Clash branch tables taught earlier in the course. The “binding/destabilizing” gloss is lineage-bound and deliberately conditional here. Case 00035 supplies only the documented Yin→Mao contrast.

Next, decide which active lines belong in the target analysis: Multiple Moving Lines.