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Sanming Tonghui · A Comprehensive Account of the Three Destinies
General Discussion of Nayin
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I have examined the Brush Talks discussion of the Nayin of the sixty stem-branch pairs. Its method is rooted in the sixty pitch pipes, which rotate to serve as the fundamental gong tone. Nayin follows the same method as assigning stems in the Changes: Qian receives Jia and Kun receives Gui, beginning with Qian and ending with Kun. Nayin begins with Metal, which is Qian, and ends with Earth, which is Kun. Among the five phases, only Metal, cast into an instrument, makes sound manifest; therefore Nayin places Metal first. Its method takes a wife of the same kind and generates a child eight positions apart: the mutual generation of the yang and yin pitch pipes. Jiazi is Metal's middle member. It takes Yichou as wife in the matching station and, eight apart, generates downward to Renshen. Renshen, Metal's first member, takes Guiyou as wife in the matching station and, eight apart, generates upward to Gengchen. Gengchen, Metal's last member, takes Xinsi as wife in the matching station and, eight apart, generates downward to Wuzi. Wuzi, Fire's middle member, takes Jichou and generates Bingshen. Bingshen, Fire's first member, takes Dingyou and generates Jiachen. Jiachen, Fire's last member, takes Yisi and generates Renzi. Wood's middle member proceeds leftward in this manner, reaching Dingsi, the gong tone of Zhonglü. Once the five tones complete a cycle, one begins again from Jiawu, Metal's middle member, takes Yiwei as wife, and generates Renyin eight apart, exactly following Jiazi's method and ending at Guihai. From Zi to Si is yang, so from Huangzhong to Zhonglü all generation is downward. From Wu to Hai is yin, so from Linzhong to Yingzhong all generation is upward. Upward and downward generation mean precisely heavenly energy descending and earthly energy rising: where numbers combine and transformations emerge. Qian is heaven and Kun earth; Qian and Kun combine to form Tai. De is the father and Hong the mother; De and Hong combine to form Dong. Stems are rulers and branches ministers; stems and branches combine and Nayin is born. Thus Jia and Yi are rulers, Zi and Chou ministers, and Zi, Chou, Jia, and Yi combine as Metal. Throughout the world, the five phases each have an energetic disposition and a material position. They may support or conquer one another; an instrument may be finished or unfinished; within Flourishing it may receive Extinction, and within Extinction it may receive energy. The distinctions arise only from how they are paired and selected. This is why Metal's numbers are difficult to make identical and why there is Metal in the Sea as well as Metal in Sand.
Translator's note: Nayin means the assigned tonal classification of stem-branch pairs. The supplied generation directions, eight-position rule, and pair sequence are preserved. De plus Hong yielding Dong is the source's phonetic analogy, alongside Qian and Kun yielding the hexagram Tai; it is not an additional elemental calculation.
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