Jǐ 己, yin Earth: the low, moist field that stores things away

Meaning

The 滴天髓 gives each stem a verse of eight short lines. For 己 it reads, in the 輯要 text:

己土卑濕，中正蓄藏，不愁木盛，不畏水旺，火少火晦，金多金明，若要物昌，宜助宜幫。

In our translation: Jǐ earth is low and moist, central and upright, storing things away. It is not troubled by abundant wood, nor afraid of strong water. With little fire, the fire is dimmed; with much metal, the metal shines. If it is to make things flourish, it wants help and support.

The older commentary, the 原注, explains the paradoxes: soft soil grows wood rather than being overcome by it, deep soil takes water in rather than being washed away, a fire without roots cannot warm it, and moist earth polishes metal until it shines.

The 三命通會 names 己 the original qi of heaven and the true earth of the earth, the matchmaker between yin and yang that heaven, earth and humankind all need. It is glad of 丁 fire and parched by yang fire, born in 酉, and in 寅 baked by wood and fire into brick. Its sky image is the cloud. The 窮通寶鑑 sees the 己 of the first month as a garden still frozen, which prizes the sun (丙) and fears the flood of 壬.

Our chart calls 己 fertile soil: nurturing, practical, accommodating and loyal, with worry and indecision as its cost. That is EsoTerrier's modern image, labelled as ours. The sample chart on the BaZi page has a 己 day master.

In a chart

A 己 day master has roots wherever 己 is hidden in a branch: 丑 Chǒu (main qi), 午 Wǔ (middle qi), 未 Wèi (main qi). Its 祿, the branch where its qi comes into office (臨官), is 午. In the Ziping rule only the yang stems have a blade. It is born (長生) in 酉 and, as a yin stem, runs the twelve stages backward from there, the rule every tool prints and the classics dispute; the stages are phases of its qi.

It combines with 甲 Jiǎ (天干五合), a pair the 三命通會 calls 中正之合 (the match of the central and upright), leaning to Earth; as an Earth stem it has no clash among the stems. Its own phase is strongest in the last month of each season.

To a 己 day master the ten stems are: 甲 Direct Officer (正官); 乙 Seven Killings (七殺); 丙 Direct Resource (正印); 丁 Indirect Resource (偏印); 戊 Rob Wealth (劫財); 己 Friend (比肩); 庚 Hurting Officer (傷官); 辛 Eating God (食神); 壬 Direct Wealth (正財); 癸 Indirect Wealth (偏財). A second 己 elsewhere in the chart is a Friend; the day stem itself is the Day Master and is not one of the Ten Gods.

What this page leaves out

The classical chapters on 己 also say, in the idiom of their age, what such a chart means for rank, kin, marriage and fortune. We record that they do and repeat none of it. Nor do we say whether a 己 day master is strong or weak, or which useful god it needs: the tradition weighs both, and EsoTerrier computes neither.

Correspondences

Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.

Opening of the 滴天髓 verse

「己土卑濕」 sourced

Sky image, 三命通會

Cloud (雲) sourced

In heaven and on earth, 三命通會

The true earth, the matchmaker between yin and yang, present in every element and every season (天地人三才皆不可缺此土) sourced

The first month, 窮通寶鑑

In the first month 己 is the garden still frozen; it prizes 丙 and fears the flood of 壬 (正月己土) sourced

Combination, 三命通會

With 甲: 中正之合 (the match of the central and upright) sourced

Nobleman star (天乙貴人)

子 and 申; a symbolic star we do not chart yet sourced

Academic star (文昌)

酉; a symbolic star we do not chart yet sourced

Our image, traits and challenge

Fertile soil: nurturing, practical, accommodating and loyal; its challenge: worry, and indecision our construction

Fertile soil as the classical meaning

A modern image; the classics give the ones above disputed

First meaning of the character

Uncertain; the stems are first attested as day names of the Shang week disputed

How the schools read it

滴天髓, the verse

Low, moist earth that stores things away, untroubled by wood or water, wanting help to make things flourish. Attributed to 京圖 of the Song or to Liu Bowen; one edition study dates the text mid-Ming or later.

任鐵樵, 滴天髓闡微 (after 1820)

Reads 不畏水狂, 金多金光 and 若要物旺 where the 輯要 has 水旺, 金明 and 物昌, with the same sense.

三命通會 (Ming)

The true earth and the cloud; the matchmaker between yin and yang.

窮通寶鑑 (Qing)

A frozen garden in the first month, prizing the sun and fearing the flood.

Modern English teaching

The one-word image, fertile soil, a simplification of the classical images.

EsoTerrier

Shows fertile soil as its own image, labelled, beside the texts.

Claims about it

• "Fertile soil" is the traditional meaning of 己.

  disputed

  What the record shows: It is a modern teaching image, and ours on the chart. The 滴天髓 has low, moist earth that stores; the 三命通會 has the true earth and the cloud.

• The day stem is itself a Ten God, the Friend (比肩).

  false

  What the record shows: A 己 in another pillar is a Friend to a 己 day master; the day stem itself is the reference point, labelled Day Master (日主) by every tool we surveyed.

• 己 runs the twelve stages backward, born (長生) in 酉.

  disputed

  What the record shows: The 三命通會 says so and every tool prints it. The 滴天髓's older commentary already questions it, and 任鐵樵 rejects separate yin stages. We print the backward rule and label it.

• A 己 day master can be scored strong or weak, and its useful god computed.

  disputed

  What the record shows: The classics ground the useful god in at least four different ways. EsoTerrier computes neither the strength nor the useful god.

• The classical chapters on 己 tell a person's rank, marriage and length of life.

  told as lore

  What the record shows: The texts do make such pronouncements, in the idiom of their age. We take only their images and the logic of the phases.

Elsewhere on EsoTerrier

• Wù 戊, yang Earth the other Earth stem; to a 己 day master, Rob Wealth
• Jiǎ 甲, yang Wood combines with 己; to a 己 day master, Direct Officer
• Yǐ 乙, yin Wood the Wood that overcomes 己; to a 己 day master, Seven Killings
• Friend 比肩 what a second 己 in the chart is to a 己 day master
• Direct Officer 正官 what 甲, its partner in combination, is to a 己 day master