Nayin 纳音 · sound element #21 of 30
A made light for the dark hours: small, deliberate, and easily put out.
| Term 纳音 | 覆灯火 — Lamp Flame (fu deng huo) |
|---|---|
| Element of the image | 火 Fire |
| Pillars it covers | 甲辰、乙巳 — Jiachen and Yisi (pair #21 of 30) |
甲辰乙巳，气形盛地，势定高冈，传明继晦，子母相承，乃曰覆灯火也
Why the name: Jiachen and Yisi — the qi and form are in the ground of abundance, the momentum settles on the high ridge, passing on brightness and carrying on the dusk, mother and child taking over from one another; hence Lamp Flame.
覆灯火者，金盏光，玉台吐艳，照日月不照之处，明天地未明之时
Lamp Flame: the light of a metal lamp-dish, the glow given off by a jade stand; it lights the places the sun and moon do not light, and brightens the hour before heaven and earth grow bright.
照日月不照之处，明天地未明之时 — it lights what the sun and moon do not, and brightens the hour before dawn. That single couplet is the whole argument for why a small fire deserves a place among thirty images: it is not competing with the sun, it is covering the shift the sun does not work.
San Ming Tong Hui reads it accordingly: 以木为心，以水为油 — wood for its wick, water for its oil — and 遇阴则吉，遇阳则不利, favourable meeting yin and unfavourable meeting yang. It also warns that clashes at Chen and Si risk 风吹灯灭, the wind blowing the lamp out.
Sources: 《三命通会》 (San Ming Tong Hui, Ming dynasty, 万民英) — chapters 论纳音取象 and 释六十甲子性质吉凶. Both passages above are quoted from a local plain-text edition and checked character by character by a test before this page can ship. Translations are ours.
Enter a birth date, time and longitude — the calculator returns the four pillars, the hidden stems, the nayin and the ten gods, with true solar time applied.
Open the chart calculator →炉中火 Fire in the Furnace · 山头火 Hilltop Fire · 霹雳火 Thunderbolt Fire · 山下火 Fire at the Foot of the Hill · 天上火 Fire in the Sky · all thirty →