Nayin 纳音 · sound element #2 of 30
Fire with a structure around it — heat that is contained, and therefore able to transform other things.
| Term 纳音 | 炉中火 — Fire in the Furnace (lu zhong huo) |
|---|---|
| Element of the image | 火 Fire |
| Pillars it covers | 丙寅、丁卯 — Bingyin and Dingmao (pair #2 of 30) |
丙寅丁卯，气渐发辉，因薪而显，阴阳为治，天地为炉，乃曰炉中火也
Why the name: Bingyin and Dingmao — the qi is beginning to blaze, it shows itself by way of fuel, yin and yang do the governing, heaven and earth are the furnace; hence Fire in the Furnace.
炉中火者，天地为炉，阴阳为炭，腾光辉于宇宙，成陶冶于乾坤
Fire in the Furnace: heaven and earth are its furnace, yin and yang its charcoal; it lifts its brilliance through the cosmos and completes the smelting of creation.
Yin and Mao are spring wood — the season that feeds fire. So this is fire at the moment it first has something to burn, and the image gives it walls: a furnace, not a bonfire.
The point of the image is containment. Fire in the open scatters; fire in a furnace does work. San Ming Tong Hui accordingly says this fire 喜得木生 — it welcomes wood to feed it — where several of the other fires in the sixty are said to fear more fuel.
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.
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