BAZI KNOWLEDGE BASE
Disaster Sha and Six Adversities: lookup table, differences and examples
Disaster Sha (Zai Sha, 灾煞) and Six Adversities (Liu E, 六厄) are traditional markers derived from a branch’s Three Harmony group. Disaster Sha takes the position opposite General Star; Six Adversities takes the group element’s Death-stage position. The names can sound alarming, but the lookup identifies a branch, not an event waiting to happen.
The complete table: choose a reference, then find its target
First locate the reference branch used by the reading. Older Lu-Ming contexts commonly begin with the birth Year Branch (the lower symbol in the birth-year column); later BaZi tables also use the Day Branch (the lower symbol in the birth-day column). State which layer is being checked. Both references use the group table below, but remain separate lookups.
Only one branch in the first column is needed to select a row. Zi belongs to Shen–Zi–Chen even when Shen and Chen are absent. After deriving a target, check whether it actually occurs among the known chart branches and record its pillar.
| Reference group | General | Disaster Sha | Horse | Six Adversities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shen–Zi–Chen (Water) | Zi | Wu 午 | Yin | Mao |
| Yin–Wu–Xu (Fire) | Wu 午 | Zi | Shen | You |
| Si–You–Chou (Metal) | You | Mao | Hai | Zi |
| Hai–Mao–Wei (Wood) | Mao | You | Si | Wu 午 |
How does a Death-stage target differ from an opposition target?
For the Water group, General Star is Zi and its opposite is Wu 午, giving Disaster Sha. Water’s forward Twelve Life Stages (a symbolic cycle describing an element through twelve positions, not a person’s age) place Death at Mao, giving Six Adversities. The labels describe different positional relations, not mild and severe versions of one star.
Six Adversities can also be checked by moving one branch forward from Travel Horse: Yin to Mao for Water, Shen to You for Fire, Hai to Zi for Metal, and Si to Wu 午 for Wood. Death here names an elemental stage, not a person’s state of health or life.
How would Year Branch Zi and Day Branch Wu be checked?
Use an invented branch fragment: Year Zi, Month Mao, Day Wu 午, with the Hour Branch (the lower symbol in the birth-hour column) unknown. From Year Zi, the Disaster target Wu appears at the day and the Six Adversities target Mao at the month. From Day Wu, the Disaster target Zi appears at the year, while the Six Adversities target You is absent from the three known branches.
This does not mean two Disaster markers double a risk. The same Zi–Wu relation has been checked in both directions. An unknown hour also means You has not been ruled out everywhere; it is absent only from the known positions. Without the full stems and seasonal information, the fragment cannot explain anyone’s life.
What does knowing the positions help you read?
It turns a vague label into a reference, a target and a location. You can then examine that branch’s hidden stems (the additional element symbols traditionally assigned inside each lower chart symbol), their Ten-God relation to the Day Master (the birth-day element used as the chart’s reference), and combinations or clashes actually present. If a reading concerns a year, record its incoming branch separately instead of inserting it into the birth chart.
Sanming Tonghui also discusses strength and support alongside these markers. Its event judgments are not modern accident or illness statistics. Clarify’s current chart calculation does not emit Disaster Sha or Six Adversities; this reference explains the vocabulary without adding a risk score.