The branch that sits directly opposite the Grand Duke — and what it breaks open in your Four Pillars.
Sui Po (歲破, “Year Breaker”) is the Earthly Branch in direct 180-degree opposition to the year’s Tai Sui (Grand Duke). In 2026 the year branch is Horse (午), so the Sui Po is Rat (子) — the North direction. In 2027 the year branch is Goat (未), so the Sui Po is Ox (丑) — the NNE direction. If either branch appears in your BaZi Day, Month, Year, or Hour pillar, that pillar is under direct annual clash pressure for the corresponding year.
The term 歲破 combines 歲 (suì, year / annual cycle) and 破 (pò, to break or shatter). It designates the specific Earthly Branch standing diametrically opposite the Tai Sui (太歲, Grand Duke Jupiter) — the branch that governs the current year’s prevailing energy.
The six clash pairs arise from the circular arrangement of the 12 Earthly Branches on the luo pan (Feng Shui compass). Branches six positions apart — at 180 degrees — oppose each other in both direction and elemental polarity (for example, Rat/Water opposes Horse/Fire; Tiger/Wood opposes Monkey/Metal). This direct opposition creates what classical texts call a chong (冲), a clash so forceful it is likened to two express trains on the same track.
Sui Po is therefore not calculated: it is read directly off the Liu Chong table. Once you know the year branch, its pair partner is automatically the Sui Po.
| Year | Stem-Branch | Element | Tai Sui Branch | Sui Po Branch | Disrupted Direction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 丙午 Bing Wu | Yang Fire Horse | Horse 午 (South) | Rat 子 | North (0°) |
| 2027 | 丁未 Ding Wei | Yin Fire Goat | Goat 未 (SSW) | Ox 丑 | NNE (22.5–52.5°) |
Who is directly exposed in 2026? Anyone with Rat (子) in their Day, Month, Year, or Hour branch. In 2027? Anyone with Ox (丑) in any pillar position.
Each of the four pillar positions has a distinct domain. When the Sui Po branch matches a position in your natal chart, the disruption targets that domain most directly:
| Pillar | Branch Label | Domain Governed | Priority if Sui Po Matches |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day | 日支 Rìzhī | Self in relationships, spouse palace, physical body | Highest — most personal |
| Month | 月支 Yuèzhī | Career, parents, prime working years | High — professional disruption |
| Year | 年支 Niánzhī | Social reputation, ancestral roots, early childhood | Medium — external or reputational |
| Hour | 時支 Shízhī | Children, subordinates, later life, subconscious | Medium — descendants or late-life |
A Sui Po striking the Day Branch is the configuration practitioners watch most carefully. Because the Day Branch is the “spouse palace,” a clash there in a given year correlates classically with volatility in marriages, partnerships, and close friendships — as well as with health disturbances in the physical body the Day Branch element governs.
Each Earthly Branch contains one to three Hidden Stems (藏干 Zàng Gān). A Sui Po clash does not merely disturb the branch label — it agitates the hidden stems inside. For example, clashing the Rat (子) branch also disrupts its hidden Ren (壬 Yang Water) stem; clashing the Ox (丑) disturbs hidden Ji (己 Yin Earth), Gui (癸 Yin Water), and Xin (辛 Yin Metal). Whether those hidden stems represent favorable or unfavorable gods in your chart determines how the clash ultimately resolves.
The San Ming Tong Hui (三命通會, Ming-dynasty Four Pillars compendium) and the Di Tian Sui (滴天髓, “Drops from the Celestial Springs”) both hold the same principle: a clash removes whatever the branch holds. The quality of that removal depends entirely on context.
| What the clashed branch holds | Likely effect of the Sui Po clash |
|---|---|
| A Useful God (用神) or favorable resource | Disruptive, costly — removes a protective element |
| An unfavorable god (忌神): excess 7 Killings, Rob Wealth overload, locked penalty | Liberating — removes a blockage, opens new paths |
| A San He (三合) or Liu He (六合) combination partner | Breaks the combination — can dissolve either a protective structure or an unfavorable locked configuration |
| A branch already in punishment (刑) or harm (害) in the natal chart | Compounds existing stress; requires careful Ze Ri date selection |
This is why generic statements like “Rat people have a bad 2026” are inadequate. Two people born in the same Rat year will experience the same Sui Po entirely differently depending on their Day Master type, chart strength, and current 10-year Luck Pillar.
Tong Shu (通書) almanacs — the traditional Chinese almanacs used to select auspicious dates for construction, burial, and major life events — have recorded Sui Po compass restrictions for over a thousand years. The principle is that the Sui Po direction holds “broken qi” (破氣) for the year, making ground disturbance there inauspicious regardless of your personal chart.
Minor repairs (repainting, replacing fixtures) are generally considered acceptable. The restriction targets work that breaks the ground or significantly alters the structure of a wall or floor in that direction.
When people say they are “clashing Tai Sui” this year, they typically mean their birth-year animal sign matches the Sui Po branch. That is technically the Chong Tai Sui (冲太歲) configuration — the most direct form of Fan Tai Sui (犯太歲, offending the Grand Duke).
The four Fan Tai Sui configurations in order of confrontational intensity:
Sui Po (Chong) stands apart because it alone also defines a disrupted Feng Shui compass direction. The other three Fan Tai Sui configurations are purely personal chart interactions; they carry no directional restriction in the classical almanac tradition.
If 2026 or 2027 is a Sui Po year for any of your pillars, the following steps reflect standard classical guidance — not superstition, but risk management applied to timing:
Analysis covers all four pillar branches, hidden stems, and the current annual and monthly pillars.
歲 (suì) means “year” or the annual cycle, and 破 (pò) means “to break, shatter, or pierce.” The compound 歲破 appears in Tong Shu almanac literature at least as far back as the Tang dynasty, where it designated both the clash branch in a person’s chart and the compass direction that the annual qi “shatters.” The same term is used in Korean Saju (사주 / 四柱) as 세파 (歲破) with identical meaning.
Not automatically. Your birth-year branch (Rat) means you carry that branch in your Year Pillar — and 2026’s Sui Po strikes the Rat. But the Year Pillar governs social reputation and ancestral matters, not your most personal sphere. If your Day Branch is not Rat, the clash is less personally acute. More importantly, if your natal chart structure benefits from having the Rat branch disrupted — for instance if Rat carries an unfavorable Water element that weakens your Day Master — 2026 could actually improve your life circumstances. The year sign alone is too narrow a lens.
The Day Branch (日支) is consistently treated as most significant in classical Four Pillars literature because it represents both the self in close relationships and the “spouse palace.” A Sui Po clash there tends to manifest as disruption in marriage or partnerships, changes in living situation, and sometimes physical health issues related to the branch’s element. The Month Branch is second in importance for career and parental matters. Year and Hour branches are real but typically carry less immediacy for day-to-day life experience.
Yes, significantly. The 10-year Luck Pillar (大運 Dàyùn) is the most powerful modifier of any annual influence. If your current Luck Pillar branch forms a San He (三合) combination that absorbs the clashing energy, or if the Luck Pillar stem provides the chart with additional resource strength, the Sui Po’s disruptive effect is substantially buffered. Conversely, if the Luck Pillar already stresses the same branch or element, the Sui Po compounds that existing pressure. This interaction is precisely why two people with the same birth year can experience the same Sui Po so differently.
Step 1: Write down the four Earthly Branches of your chart — Year, Month, Day, Hour — from your BaZi chart (the bottom row of the four pillars). Step 2: Check whether any of those branches is Rat (子) for 2026 or Ox (丑) for 2027. If you do not know your four pillar branches, you need your exact birth date, time, and location to calculate them correctly. Birth time matters most for the Hour Branch; the Day Branch is sensitive to the Li Chun cutoff for those born in late January or early February.
The Sui Po compass restriction in classical Feng Shui applies to ground disturbance and structural work at your primary residence or property — not to the direction of travel. You are not prohibited from traveling north. The concern is activating “broken qi” by physically breaking the ground or demolishing structures in that sector of your home or land. Moving earth at a construction site you own, renovating the north-facing wall of your house, or planting large trees in the north garden are the scenarios the restriction targets.
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