Punishments (Xing) 刑

Xing describes branches that punish one another. Yin, Si and Shen form the "punishment of ingratitude"; Chou, Xu and Wei the "punishment of power"; Zi and Mao the "punishment of discourtesy". Four branches — Chen, Wu, You and Hai — punish themselves, which means the relationship only triggers when the same branch appears twice in one chart.

Punishment is the subtlest of the negative relationships and the one most specific in content. Where a clash is described as external movement, Xing is described as friction inside a relationship that already exists: contracts, guarantees, obligations, promises made on someone else's behalf. The classical advice attached to it is procedural — read documents twice, avoid standing surety — rather than fatalistic.

Punishment relationships feed the Tai Sui page, the month ratings on each yearly forecast, and the negative weights in the compatibility score. Because the three-branch groups only need two of their members to be present for the relationship to register, punishment shows up in more pairs than a reader expects — and the self-punishing branches are the reason a chart can be in punishment with nothing but itself.

• Signs in punishment with the 2027 Tai Sui
• Where punishment shows up in a pair score