Nayin 纳音 · sound element #4 of 30
Earth that is worked and travelled: ground whose whole value is that things grow on it and pass over it.
| Term 纳音 | 路旁土 — Roadside Earth (lu pang tu) |
|---|---|
| Element of the image | 土 Earth |
| Pillars it covers | 庚午、辛未 — Gengwu and Xinwei (pair #4 of 30) |
庚午辛未，气当承形，物以路彰，有形可质，有物可彰，乃曰路傍土也
Why the name: Gengwu and Xinwei — the qi is taking on form, the thing is made evident by the road, there is form to give it substance and matter to make it visible; hence Roadside Earth.
路旁土者，大地连途，平田万顷，禾稼赖以资生，草木由之畅茂
Roadside Earth: great ground running the length of the route, level fields by the ten thousand acre; the standing grain depends on it to live, the grass and trees flourish by way of it.
Wu and Wei are midsummer — warm earth. San Ming Tong Hui's own gloss is that this is 火暖土温，长养万物之土 — earth warmed by fire, the kind that raises the ten thousand things.
Because the image is farmland rather than mountain, the text says it 须假水为先 — it needs water first of all, for irrigation. But it distinguishes sharply between kinds of water: streams and rain are welcome, while 长流、大海 (Ever-Flowing Water, Great Ocean Water) are called its worst case, on the plain reasoning that you cannot irrigate a field with an ocean.
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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Open the chart calculator →城头土 City-Wall Earth · 屋上土 Rooftop Earth · 壁上土 Wall Earth · 大驿土 Post-Road Earth · 沙中土 Earth in the Sand · all thirty →