Nayin 纳音 · sound element #5 of 30
Metal at its functional peak: already refined, already shaped to one purpose, and not adaptable to another.
| Term 纳音 | 剑锋金 — Sword-Edge Metal (jian feng jin) |
|---|---|
| Element of the image | 金 Metal |
| Pillars it covers | 壬申、癸酉 — Renshen and Guiyou (pair #5 of 30) |
壬申癸酉气盛物极，当施收敛之功，颖脱锋锐之刃。盖申酉金之正位，干值壬癸，金水淬砺，故取象剑锋而金之功用极矣
Why the name: Renshen and Guiyou, the qi flourishing and the thing at its extreme, is when the work of gathering-in should be applied and the sharp blade slips free of its sheath. Shen and You are metal's own seat; with Ren and Gui above, metal is quenched and whetted by water — hence the image of the sword-edge, and metal's usefulness reaches its limit here.
剑锋金者，白帝司权，刚由百炼，红光射于斗牛，白刃凝于霜雪
Sword-Edge Metal: the White Emperor holds the office, hardness comes of a hundred temperings; red light shoots at the Dipper and the Ox, a white blade congeals out of frost and snow.
Shen and You are due-west autumn metal — metal in its own season, with water stems above it. This is the only nayin the derivation chapter describes as the endpoint of a progression: 金之功用极矣, metal's usefulness has reached its limit.
San Ming Tong Hui pairs that with a hard limitation: 此剑不能通变 — this sword cannot adapt. A finished edge is a finished edge. The text's practical readings follow from that one sentence: it wants water (which whets), and a fire that would melt it back down is read as loss rather than refinement.
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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