Wood Na Yin: The Six Wood Names and What They Actually Label

一 What it is

Na Yin is a sixty-entry reference system that assigns a three-character name to each complete sexagenary pair, and the Wood group contains exactly six such names: Great Forest Wood, Willow Wood, Pine and Cypress Wood, Flatland Wood, Mulberry Wood, and Pomegranate Wood. A useful everyday analogy is a library shelf label: the sticker names the shelf, not the ingredients of every book sitting on it. The Wood Na Yin group is distinctive because its six labels all borrow plant imagery, yet the pairs they tag are not required to contain any Wood stem or Wood branch at all. That is the central teaching point. The label describes the pair as a unit, while the visible stem, branch, and hidden stems remain separate data. This article treats the six names as literal name imagery and as lookup identifiers, not as fixed personalities, cultivation advice, or claims that one element must supply another. For a broader orientation to the system itself, see what Na Yin labels.

Check the target pillar's own stem and hidden stems before trusting any Wood name, because the label never guarantees a Wood character sits there.

二 Where to find it in your chart

Open the calculator and read the Four Pillars grid. It shows four columns labeled Year, Month, Day, and Hour. Each column displays a top stem, a bottom branch, and small hidden stem characters beneath the branch. The main interface has no dedicated Na Yin row and no growth phase row, and it does not print every hidden Ten God label. To use this guide, copy one complete valid pair from the position you want, meaning the full two-character stem-branch combination, then match that pair in the six-row lookup below. If the pair is not listed in these six rows, consult the complete thirty-name table instead of forcing a match. The Day Master is the Day stem alone, not the Day pillar as a whole. If the birth hour is unknown, the hour column is unconfirmed and should not be matched. When you are ready, calculate your chart.

三 How to read the six names

The six Wood names are best distinguished by their literal images rather than by implied fortunes. Great Forest Wood (大林木) suggests a broad canopy, scale, and collective mass. Willow Wood (杨柳木) suggests pliancy, riverside growth, and seasonal bending. Pine and Cypress Wood (松柏木) suggests evergreen endurance and cold resistance. Flatland Wood (平地木) suggests low, open, cultivated ground rather than height. Mulberry Wood (桑柘木) suggests leaf harvest and practical use. Pomegranate Wood (石榴木) suggests a fruiting shrub with dense seeds. These are teaching metaphors. They are not rules that one element needs another, and they are not personality predictions.

Each name covers two complete pairs, identified by two cycle indexes. Great Forest Wood covers 戊辰 and 己巳 at indexes 5 and 6. Willow Wood covers 壬午 and 癸未 at indexes 19 and 20. Pine and Cypress Wood covers 庚寅 and 辛卯 at indexes 27 and 28. Flatland Wood covers 戊戌 and 己亥 at indexes 35 and 36. Mulberry Wood covers 壬子 and 癸丑 at indexes 49 and 50. Pomegranate Wood covers 庚申 and 辛酉 at indexes 57 and 58. The indexes identify pairs; they are not ranks or literal ages.

To look up a pillar, copy the complete pair exactly as shown, then find it in the six-row table. The table supplies the canonical Chinese label, the supplied English gloss, the element group, the two cycle indexes, and the two complete pairs for each name. Chinese labels anchor the lookup; the English glosses are translations rather than universal standards. If your pair is absent, use the complete thirty-name Na Yin table rather than stretching a Wood match.

Keep the label separate from element counting. A Na Yin name never adds hidden stems, never changes Ten Gods, and never adds to weighted element totals. The fixed 1, 0.5, and 0.3 weights are this calculator's bookkeeping, not seasonal strengths. Branch polarity does not overwrite hidden stem polarity. Growth phases are a separate stem-branch reference lookup and are never derived from Na Yin. The six-row table follows.

For each Wood name, verify the exact pair and its two cycle indexes, then read the target column's visible stem and hidden stems separately, since the name describes the pair as a unit and not its contents.

四 When the reading changes

Same Na Yin element, different name

All six entries above carry the Wood element label, yet they are six distinct names with six distinct image sets. Two pillars can both return a Wood Na Yin and still be labeled differently, for example Mulberry Wood versus Great Forest Wood. The shared element tag tells you they belong to the same Na Yin element group; the name tells you which of the six labels applies. Do not collapse the six names into one meaning, and do not treat the element tag as a substitute for the name.

Target column with or without literal element stems

A Wood Na Yin can sit on a column whose visible stem and hidden stems contain no Wood at all. Check the target column directly: read its top stem, then its hidden stem characters. If neither shows Jia or Yi, the column lacks a literal Wood stem even though its Na Yin name is Wood. This is a column-level observation only. It does not describe other columns, and it does not describe the chart as a whole.

Same Day Master versus different labels

Both teaching charts use Jia Yang Wood as the Day Master, so the Day Master is unchanged across them. What differs is the Na Yin label attached to the target position: one chart's target column returns Mulberry Wood and the other returns Great Forest Wood. Same Day Master does not force the same Na Yin, because Na Yin is assigned to the complete valid pair independently of the Day stem. Use the exact-pair Na Yin lookup method to confirm which pair you are holding before comparing labels.

Actual stem and hidden element totals versus labels

Weighted element totals come from visible stems and hidden stems, not from Na Yin names. A chart can show a Wood Na Yin while its counted Wood total is small, because the count reflects actual stems and hidden stems under the fixed 1, 0.5, and 0.3 bookkeeping. Conversely, a visible Jia or Yi stem contributes to the Wood total regardless of which Na Yin name sits on that pillar. Keep the two ledgers apart: one records labels, the other records counted stems.

五 Worked chart examples

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

Chart A runs 壬申 in the Year, 壬子 in the Month, 甲子 in the Day, and 乙丑 in the Hour, with Jia Yang Wood as the Day Master. The target position is the Month, and its complete pair is 壬子, which belongs to the Mulberry Wood (桑柘木) row spanning indexes 49 and 50. The Month stem is Ren Water, an Indirect Resource for Jia, and the Month branch is Zi Water. The only hidden stem in Zi is Gui Water, a Direct Resource for Jia, at weight 1. So the target column contains no Wood stem: no Jia and no Yi appear as its visible stem or among its hidden stems. Water is a resource element for Jia, not a same-element Water root for Jia, and a visible peer elsewhere is not a hidden root here. The actual Wood element total for Chart A is 2, supplied by the visible Jia Day stem and the visible Yi Hour stem. The Mulberry Wood label does not add hidden stems, does not change Ten Gods, and does not raise that total. Two decisive checks: confirm the Month pair is exactly 壬子, and confirm the Month column's stem and hidden stems show Water only.

In Chart A, the Month pair 壬子 carries Mulberry Wood while the Day pair 甲子 and Hour pair 乙丑 both carry Sea Metal, so the same chart holds a Wood name and a Metal name on different pillars. The visible Jia and Yi stems sit on the Day and Hour, not on the Month, so the Wood characters and the Wood label occupy separate columns. Compare the Month column against the Day column to see this split.

In Chart B, the Hour pair 己巳 carries Great Forest Wood while the Day pair 甲戌 carries Mountain-Top Fire, so the Wood label and the visible Jia stem again sit on different pillars. The Hour column shows Earth, Fire, and Metal only, while the Day column holds the sole Wood stem.

Chart B runs 辛巳 in the Year, 辛丑 in the Month, 甲戌 in the Day, and 己巳 in the Hour, again with Jia Yang Wood as the Day Master. The target position is the Hour, and its complete pair is 己巳, which belongs to the Great Forest Wood (大林木) row spanning indexes 5 and 6. The Hour stem is Ji Earth, a Direct Wealth for Jia, and the Hour branch is Si Fire, whose hidden stems are Bing Fire (Eating God, weight 1), Geng Metal (Seven Killings, weight 0.5), and Wu Earth (Indirect Wealth, weight 0.3). The target column therefore contains no Wood stem. The actual Wood element total for Chart B is 1, supplied by the visible Jia Day stem alone. Compared with Chart A, all four complete pillars differ. Only the Day stem remains 甲; the Day branches differ, 子 in A and 戌 in B. This is a comparison of two teaching charts, not a controlled experiment or a life story. The Great Forest Wood label stays at the Hour position and does not alter the count. A practical reader check: verify the Hour pair is exactly 己巳, then confirm the Hour column's stem and hidden stems show Earth, Fire, and Metal only. For counting method, see the five-element counting guide.

六 What the counts mean

This Wood 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 Wood 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.