Three Killings

Meaning

The Three Killings, 三煞 sān shà, the three sha, fall each year on the three mountains of one cardinal direction: the direction opposite the year’s trine, the three branches that share the year’s phase. A Monkey, Rat or Dragon year, of the Water trine, places them in the south; a Tiger, Horse or Dog year, of Fire, in the north; a Snake, Rooster or Ox year, of Metal, in the east; a Pig, Rabbit or Goat year, of Wood, in the west.

The classics’ counsel has a rule of its own, 可向不可坐, kě xiàng bù kě zuò: they may be faced but not sat with. So the suggestion is to face them rather than to have them at one’s back, for a desk or a long task, and to keep works on that side for another year. The English name of the books, Three Killings, renders sha, a sharp force, more fiercely than the classics read it; the French says Trois Sha, and Ulune reads both as timing.

In 2026, a Horse year, they cover the north, Ren, Zi and Gui, while the Grand Duke sits in the south: both counsels point the same way, since a desk facing south would face the Grand Duke and put the Three Killings at one’s back, and one facing north does neither. In 2027 they move to the west.

In practice

• In the Home lens the Three Killings’ direction is named in the list of what to leave quiet this year, its three mountains with it.
• In the Cycles lens, when they fall in one of your directions, the counsel is to face them rather than sit with your back to them, and to keep works on that side for another year; the direction across from them is never the one suggested for a desk or a long task, since facing it would put them at your back.
• The year’s other notes: in 2026 the Year Breaker, Zi, stands inside the Three Killings’ north, so that side asks for quiet twice; the other directions carry the year’s works.
• A year, then gone: they cycle round the four cardinal directions in four years, south, east, north, west, and come back to each every fourth year.

Across traditions

• The trines: the zodiac and BaZi join the branches four apart into four trines, 三合, a harmony of three; the Three Killings fall across from the direction of the year’s trine, as if the year’s gathered strength looked straight at that side.
• Western astrology has its trines too, three signs a third of the circle apart; the Chinese trine joins three branches the same distance apart, 120°, and gives them one phase.
• The almanac carries the Three Sha among the year’s spirits on its opening chart, with the directions where works wait.

Origin and history

The Three Sha are among the oldest of the year’s spirits the almanacs place on the compass, joined to the branches’ trines, which the Huainanzi already describes with their phases. Feng Shui practice kept their counsel in the form of its maxim, may be faced but not sat with, and set them in its yearly list with the 5 Yellow, the Grand Duke and the Year Breaker.

How Ulune calculates it

Ulune takes the year’s branch from the solar year, which turns at Lichun, finds its trine, Water for the Monkey, Rat and Dragon, Fire for the Tiger, Horse and Dog, Metal for the Snake, Rooster and Ox, Wood for the Pig, Rabbit and Goat, and sets the Three Killings on the three mountains of the cardinal direction opposite the trine’s own: south, north, east and west in turn.

Correspondences