Sansha (Three Killings) 三煞 Glossary

The three directional branches directly opposite a year's three-harmony trio — south in Shen-Zi-Chen years, west in Hai-Mao-Wei years, north in Yin-Wu-Xu years, east in Si-You-Chou years.

Sānshā · 三煞 (simplified and traditional identical)

Source credibility (S/A/B/C/X): S    Rule computability (A/B/C): A

What it is

Sansha （三煞） is a directional year-spirit in the date-selection and direction systems. Each of the four three-harmony groups （三合局） has an opposite triad of branches, and that opposite triad is the year's "killings" direction. The mapping is fixed: Shen-Zi-Chen years kill south （巳午未）; Hai-Mao-Wei years kill west （申酉戌）; Yin-Wu-Xu years kill north （亥子丑）; Si-You-Chou years kill east （寅卯辰）. Construction, digging or major disturbance in the killed direction is what the tradition warns against for that year.

The rule is old enough to sit in the imperially commissioned date-selection compendium Xieji Bianfang Shu 《協紀辨方書》, where the project's collation verified it against the original tables (volumes 28 and 31). It belongs to the same family of annual directional spirits as Tai Sui （歲破 the year's own branch direction） and the year-breaker opposite it.

School differences

The directions are undisputed; the application maxim is not. The Ming date-selection manual Xuanze Zongjing 《選擇宗鏡》 states "Tai Sui may be sat on but not faced; Sansha may be faced but not sat on" （太歲可坐不可向，三煞可向不可坐） — a working rule that other lineages weigh differently when approving a construction date or orientation. Different schools apply it differently; the disagreement is recorded rather than voted on — see the School Dispute Register for how the project handles such splits.

How this engine computes it

• The rule is A-grade and closed-form: take the year branch, look up its three-harmony group, output the opposite triad as the killed directions. It was verified against the original Xieji Bianfang Shu tables during collation.
• Sansha direction is one of the seven A-grade date-selection rule groups the engine ships, alongside the Twelve Day Officers and the annual purple-white stars.
• Like all directional-spirit output, it is presented as what the tradition asserts for that direction — with sources — not as a personalised prediction.

Related entries

San Yuan vs San He · 24 Mountains · Yun Period

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