Nayin 纳音 · sound element #25 of 30
Wood grown for what it feeds rather than for itself: the one image in the sixty defined by its use to another creature.
| Term 纳音 | 桑柘木 — Mulberry Wood (sang zhe mu) |
|---|---|
| Element of the image | 木 Wood |
| Pillars it covers | 壬子、癸丑 — Renzi and Guichou (pair #25 of 30) |
壬子癸丑何以取象桑柘木？盖气居盘屈，形状未伸，居于水地，蚕衰之月，桑柘受气，取其时之生也
Why the name: what image do Renzi and Guichou take? The qi dwells coiled, the form not yet stretched out, seated in the ground of water, in the month when the silkworm wanes the mulberry receives its qi; it takes the birth of its season, hence Mulberry Wood.
绮罗根本，士民飘飘之袂，圣贤楚楚之衣，此木供蚕为弧，其用甚大
The root of gauze and silk, the flowing sleeve of the common people and the neat robe of the sage; this wood supplies the silkworm, and its usefulness is very great.
Zi and Chou are deep winter — 气居盘屈，形状未伸, the qi coiled and the form not yet stretched. The mulberry is bare in the month the derivation names. The value is entirely in what happens next.
此木供蚕为弧，其用甚大 — this wood supplies the silkworm, and its use is very great. Nothing in the passage praises the tree's own form. San Ming Tong Hui says it 最爱砂土，以为根基, most loves sandy earth for a foundation, and treats Chen and Si as 蚕食之地, the ground where the silkworm feeds.
One transparency note: the sentence in our local edition opens 桑柘木者，缯彩⁇基, with two characters lost in the scan. We quote from the clean text after the damage rather than guess at 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.
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.
Open the chart calculator →大林木 Great Forest Wood · 杨柳木 Willow Wood · 松柏木 Pine and Cypress Wood · 平地木 Level-Ground Wood · 石榴木 Pomegranate Wood · all thirty →