On Dissolving Punishments and Clashes by Meeting and Combination (Xing Chong Hui He Jie Fa)

Punishment, Clash, Meeting, Combination

Four relations among the branches, and one practical question: which of them cancels which. Shen defines the terms first, and frankly leaves the rationale of the three punishments in doubt. Then he works through the turns of the argument — a meeting or combination that dissolves a clash or punishment; a dissolution that produces a fresh one; a meeting that fails because the dissolving branch is claimed elsewhere first; and finally the useful move of letting a punishment or clash in a lesser palace draw the strike away from the month command.