Nayin 纳音 · sound element #1 of 30
Metal still inside the shell: value that exists but has not yet taken a form anyone can use.
| Term 纳音 | 海中金 — Gold in the Sea (hai zhong jin) |
|---|---|
| Element of the image | 金 Metal |
| Pillars it covers | 甲子、乙丑 — Jiazi and Yichou (pair #1 of 30) |
甲子乙丑何以取象为海中之金？盖气在包藏，有名无形，犹人之在母腹也
Why the name: Jiazi and Yichou — what image do they take? The qi is still wrapped up, it has a name but no form, like a person still in the mother's womb.
海中金者，宝藏龙宫，珠孕蛟宝，出现虽假于空冲，成器无借乎火力，故东方朔以蛤蚌名之
Gold in the Sea: treasure stored in the dragon palace, pearls conceived in the oyster; it comes to light only through emptiness and clash, and needs no borrowed fire to be made into a vessel.
Zi and Chou are the first two branches, the point in the cycle where yang has only just been conceived. San Ming Tong Hui reads the pair the way it reads a life: the metal is real, but it is still enclosed. Nothing about it can be worked yet.
This is the one metal the text says does not need fire. Every other metal in the sixty is refined — smelted, hammered, polished. Gold in the Sea is brought out instead by 空亡 (void) and 冲 (clash): by something breaking open, not by something being applied. That is the whole distinction the image is carrying.
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.
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