Metal Na Yin: Sea Metal, Sword-Edge and the Six Metal Names

一 What it is

Na Yin is a sixty-entry sound-name system that assigns one three-character label to each complete sexagenary pillar pair, so 庚辰 and 辛巳 share the name 白蜡金, White-Wax Metal. Think of it like a library call number printed on a book spine: it identifies the pair as a unit, while the book's actual contents are still the visible stem and branch. The Metal group is distinctive because its six names describe where metal sits or what shape it takes: 海中金 Sea Metal, 剑锋金 Sword-Edge Metal, 白蜡金 White-Wax Metal, 沙中金 Sand Metal, 金箔金 Gold-Leaf Metal and 钗钏金 Hairpin Metal. These are location and form images, not grades of purity or value. Sea and Sand place the image in loose or buried settings; Sword-Edge and Hairpin suggest a finished edge or ornament; White-Wax and Gold-Leaf suggest a thin surface or coating. None of that changes the pillar's stem, branch, hidden stems or Ten Gods. The label is a separate reference layer, which is why two charts can both total two Metal yet carry different Metal names. Reading what Na Yin labels first keeps the name in its proper place as a lookup tag rather than a hidden force.

二 Where to find it in your chart

Open the calculator and read the Four Pillars grid, which shows Year, Month, Day and Hour columns. Each column has a top stem, a bottom branch and small hidden stem characters beneath the branch. There is no dedicated Na Yin row and no growth phase row in the main interface, and the grid does not print every hidden Ten God label, so work from the visible characters. Choose one position, copy its complete two-character pair exactly as shown, for example 庚辰 or 壬申, then find that pair in the six-row lookup below. If the pair does not appear there, it belongs to another element group, so consult the complete table instead of forcing a match. The Day Master is the Day stem alone, here 甲 Jia Yang Wood. If the birth hour is unknown, the Hour column is unconfirmed and should not be used for a lookup. When you are ready, calculate your chart.

三 How to read the six names

The six Metal names divide naturally into three loose contrasts. Sea Metal 海中金 and Sand Metal 沙中金 both picture metal in a dispersed setting, one under water and one mixed through grit; the pair 甲子 and 乙丑 carries the first, while 甲午 and 乙未 carries the second. Sword-Edge Metal 剑锋金 and Hairpin Metal 钗钏金 both picture shaped metal, one as a blade and one as a personal ornament; 壬申 and 癸酉 form the first pair, 庚戌 and 辛亥 the second. White-Wax Metal 白蜡金 and Gold-Leaf Metal 金箔金 both picture a thin applied surface, 庚辰 and 辛巳 for the first, 壬寅 and 癸卯 for the second. These are teaching metaphors for location and form only. They do not state that one name needs another element to function, and they do not predict temperament, wealth or aggression.

Keep the canonical Chinese labels beside the English glosses shown here. 海中金, 剑锋金, 白蜡金, 沙中金, 金箔金 and 钗钏金 are the fixed names; the English renderings are editorial aids rather than universal standards, so another source may word them differently while the Chinese pair stays the same. What never varies is the pairing rule: each name covers exactly two consecutive pillars, and the two cycle indexes listed with each row identify that slot in the sixty-entry sequence. Indexes are identifiers, not ranks or literal ages.

To look a pillar up, copy the full pair from the grid, not just the stem or just the branch. 庚 alone is not a Na Yin; 庚辰 is. Match the pair against the six rows below, confirm the element column says Metal, then note the name. If your pair is absent, it belongs to Fire, Earth, Wood or Water, and the complete thirty-name Na Yin table will place it. This exact-pair habit prevents the common error of matching a stem to a name it never carries.

Finally, treat the name as a label attached to the pair, not as an extra ingredient. It adds no hidden stems, changes no Ten Gods and contributes nothing to weighted element totals. The fixed 1, 0.5 and 0.3 weights used here are the calculator's bookkeeping conventions, not seasonal strength ratings, and branch polarity never overwrites hidden stem polarity. Growth phases such as 长生 Birth or 帝旺 Emperor are a separate stem-and-branch reference lookup and are never derived from a Na Yin name.

四 When the reading changes

Same Metal element, different name

Two pillars can both sit in the Metal Na Yin group and still carry different names, because the name follows the pair rather than the element alone. 庚辰 is White-Wax Metal while 壬申 is Sword-Edge Metal, yet both rows list Metal in the element column. If you only record "Metal Na Yin," you lose the distinction the lookup is meant to preserve. Record the Chinese name and the pair together, then compare charts by name rather than by element group alone. This is also why a chart can show one Metal Na Yin pillar in the Month and another reader's chart can show one in the Hour without either being more or less "metal" in any ranked sense.

Visible Metal versus hidden Metal

Check the target column's own characters before drawing conclusions about the counted element. In Chart A the Month column 庚辰 has a visible 庚 Metal stem plus hidden 戊, 乙 and 癸, none of them Metal. In Chart B the Hour column 壬申 has a visible 壬 Water stem, while its hidden stems include 庚 Metal. So one target column shows Metal on the surface, the other shows it underneath, and neither fact is announced by the Na Yin name. Only claim a column lacks a particular element when its stem and hidden stems actually show that.

Same Day Master, different labels

Both teaching charts use 甲 Jia Yang Wood as the Day Master, so the Ten God mapping stays constant across them: 庚 is Seven Killings, 辛 is Direct Officer, 壬 is Indirect Resource and 癸 is Direct Resource. What changes is which pillars carry which Na Yin name and where. A shared Day Master does not make two charts equivalent, and a shared Na Yin element does not either. Compare the whole pillar, position by position, rather than assuming the label travels with the Day Master.

Actual stem and hidden totals versus labels

Count the counted element from stems and hidden stems, then read the Na Yin name separately. Both teaching charts total two Metal, even though Chart A's Metal name sits in the Month and Chart B's sits in the Hour, and even though Chart A shows a visible 庚 while Chart B hides 庚 under 申. The label never adds to that total. Use the exact-pair Na Yin lookup method to confirm each name, and keep the count and the name in two separate columns of your notes.

五 Worked chart examples

Calendar-screened teaching charts, not client biographies. Both use a Jia Yang Wood Day Master. Each has exactly one Metal Na Yin label, at the position identified in the explanation; actual element stems are counted separately.

Chart A runs 乙亥 in the Year, 庚辰 in the Month, 甲戌 in the Day and 己巳 in the Hour, with 甲 Jia Yang Wood as the Day Master. The target Metal Na Yin pillar is the Month column 庚辰, which the lookup identifies as 白蜡金, White-Wax Metal, indexes 17 and 18. Its visible stem is 庚 Geng Metal, which for Jia is Seven Killings, and its branch is 辰 Chen Earth. The hidden stems are 戊 Wu Indirect Wealth, 乙 Yi Rob Wealth and 癸 Gui Direct Resource; none of the three is Metal. So this target column shows Metal at the stem level and no Metal among its hidden stems, a distinction the name White-Wax does not encode.

The chart's Metal element total is two, and that figure stays as shown. Two decisive checks follow from the column data. First, confirm the pair: 庚辰 must be matched whole, and it appears in the White-Wax row rather than in the Sword-Edge row, which holds 壬申 and 癸酉. Second, confirm the Ten God: 庚 is Seven Killings for Jia, while 辛 would be Direct Officer, so the visible stem's category depends on which Metal character is present. Note also that 庚 reappears as a hidden stem in the Hour branch 巳, which is why the chart's Metal total is not confined to the Month column. The Na Yin name adds nothing to that count and changes no Ten God assignment.

Check that 庚辰 sits in the Month, not the Hour, and that its hidden 戊, 乙 and 癸 carry no Metal, while 庚 recurs hidden in 巳.

Chart B runs 壬午 in the Year, 乙巳 in the Month, 甲戌 in the Day and 壬申 in the Hour, again with 甲 Jia Yang Wood as the Day Master. The target Metal Na Yin pillar is the Hour column 壬申, identified by the lookup as 剑锋金, Sword-Edge Metal, indexes 9 and 10. Its visible stem is 壬 Ren Water, which for Jia is Indirect Resource, and its branch is 申 Shen Metal. The hidden stems are 庚 Geng Seven Killings, 壬 Ren Indirect Resource and 戊 Wu Indirect Wealth, so Metal appears here underneath rather than on the surface. The chart's Metal total is two, the same figure as Chart A.

Check that 壬申 sits in the Hour with 壬 visible and 庚 hidden, and that 甲戌 in the Day is identical to Chart A's.

Comparing the two charts, the Day pillar 甲戌 is unchanged, and the target element's Na Yin stays at its actual position in each case, Month for A and Hour for B. What differs is the whole pillar at the target position and the surrounding columns: A's Month is 庚辰 against B's Hour 壬申, and the Year, Month and Hour pillars otherwise diverge as listed. This is a comparison of supplied placements, not a controlled experiment and not a life narrative. One practical check for a reader: locate your own Metal Na Yin pillar, copy its complete pair, confirm the name in the six-row lookup, then read the visible and hidden stems separately before consulting the Ten Gods reference for their categories under your Day Master.

六 What the counts mean

This Metal group contains six Na Yin names covering twelve of the sixty sexagenary-cycle entries. Each name belongs to two adjacent cycle entries. These are lookup-table counts, not a population distribution or a probability of any life outcome. They do not describe how much Metal is present in a chart’s weighted element totals.

Calculation reference: the calendar library’s Na Yin mapping. Chinese labels follow the verified table; English names are editorial glosses. No Na Yin element is added to the calculator’s stem-based totals.