Nayin 纳音 · sound element #7 of 30
Water taking the low road: a flow that gets where it is going by staying under everything else.
| Term 纳音 | 涧下水 — Water in the Ravine (jian xia shui) |
|---|---|
| Element of the image | 水 Water |
| Pillars it covers | 丙子、丁丑 — Bingzi and Dingchou (pair #7 of 30) |
盖气未通济，高段非水流之所，卑湿乃水就之乡，由地中行，故曰涧下水
Why the name: what image do Bingzi and Dingchou take? The qi has not yet come through, high ground is no place for water to run, low and damp is the country water goes to, and it travels within the ground; hence Water in the Ravine.
涧下水者，山环细浪，雪涌飞端，相连南北之流，对峙坎离之脉
Water in the Ravine: fine waves ringing the hills, snow surging at the running edge; a current linking north and south, a vein set between Kan and Li.
Zi and Chou are deep winter — water in its own season, but at the bottom of the year rather than the height of it. The derivation is unusually plain about the mechanism: this water does not rise, it goes 由地中行, through the ground.
San Ming Tong Hui says 此水清澄，喜见金养 — this water is clear and welcomes metal to nourish it, naming Sand and Sword-Edge as the two best. The logic is the ordinary generating cycle (metal produces water), but the image adds a condition: what is welcome is metal that sits above a channel, not metal that dams it.
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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