Day Pillar #3 · 丙寅
| Position in the cycle | #3 of 60 |
|---|---|
| Heavenly stem 天干 | 丙 — 火 Fire |
| Earthly branch 地支 | 寅 — 木 Wood |
| Nayin 纳音 | 炉中火 — Fire in the Furnace (Fire) |
| Hidden stems 藏干 | 甲、丙、戊 — 甲 (Wood), 丙 (Fire), 戊 (Earth) |
| Twelve-stage placement 十二长生 | 长生 — Growth (of the stem in its own branch) |
Bingyin (丙寅) is yang fire sitting on its own 长生 — the growth stage. Fire on the branch that generates it. San Ming Tong Hui names it directly:
丙寅，赫曦之火。无水制之则有燔灼炎热之患，水不可过，独爱甲寅之水，就位济之。
Bingyin, the blazing fire. Without water to check it there is the trouble of scorching heat — yet the water must not be excessive. It favours the water of Jiayin alone, which relieves it from its own position.
This is worth reading slowly, because it is three claims, not one. The fire is genuinely fierce. It needs water. And the water it needs is specific — not "more water," which the text explicitly rules out (水不可过), but one particular pillar that supplies it without drowning it.
That specificity is the habit of the good sources. They rarely say an element is good or bad for you; they say which kind, and how much.
The same entry adds a note on temperament and season:
丙寅火含灵明冲粹之气，四时生生之德。
Bingyin fire holds a bright, clear, unmixed energy, and the generative virtue of all four seasons.
Its nayin is 炉中火, Furnace Fire, which the text glosses on the largest possible scale — and then, characteristically, immediately attaches a requirement:
炉中火者，天地为炉，阴阳为炭，腾光辉于宇宙，成陶冶于乾坤。此火炎上，喜得木生。
Furnace fire: heaven and earth are the furnace, yin and yang the charcoal; it lifts its brilliance through the cosmos and works its forging across creation. This fire blazes upward, and is glad to be fed by wood.
Sources: 《三命通会》 (San Ming Tong Hui, Ming, 万民英) and 《滴天髓》 (Di Tian Sui) — both quoted from local plain-text editions and verified character by character. Translations are ours. Corrections are welcome.
Enter a birth date and time to get the four pillars, the hidden stems, the nayin and the twelve-stage placements for a real chart — the same tables this page is built on.
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