Meaning
The 滴天髓 gives each stem a verse of eight short lines. For 乙 it reads, in the 輯要 text:
乙木雖柔，刲羊解牛，懷丁抱丙，跨雞乘猴，虛濕之地，騎馬亦憂，籐蘿繫甲，可春可秋。
In our translation: Yǐ wood, soft as it is, can cut the goat and carve the ox. Holding 丁 and embracing 丙, it rides the rooster and mounts the monkey. On empty, damp ground even riding the horse is a worry. A vine tied to 甲, it does well in spring and in autumn.
The goat and the ox are the yin earth branches 未 and 丑, which it can master; the rooster and the monkey are the metal branches 酉 and 申, which it need not fear with fire beside it; the horse is 午, whose fire cannot help it on wet ground. Its best place is twined on the yang wood 甲, in any season.
The 三命通會 reads 乙 as wind in heaven and trees on earth: "living wood" (活木), soft wood that fears yang metal and the fall of autumn, and wants moist soil for its roots and living water for its leaves. Its sky image is the wind. The 窮通寶鑑 makes the 乙 of spring the orchid, the iris and the grass, unable to do without the sun (丙) or the rain (癸).
Our chart calls 乙 vine and grass: adaptable, creative, persistent and diplomatic, with leaning on others, and going round rather than through, as its cost. That is EsoTerrier's modern image, not the classical meaning; the texts' images stand beside it, each labelled.
In a chart
A 乙 day master has roots wherever 乙 is hidden in a branch: 卯 Mǎo (main qi), 辰 Chén (residual qi), 未 Wèi (middle qi). Its 祿, the branch where its qi comes into office (臨官), is 卯. In the Ziping rule only the yang stems have a blade, though the 三命通會 reports an older rule that gave 乙 one in 辰. It is born (長生) in 午 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 庚 Gēng (天干五合), a pair the 三命通會 calls 仁義之合 (the match of benevolence and righteousness), leaning to Metal; it clashes with 辛 Xīn. Its own phase is strongest in spring.
To a 乙 day master the ten stems are: 甲 Rob Wealth (劫財); 乙 Friend (比肩); 丙 Hurting Officer (傷官); 丁 Eating God (食神); 戊 Direct Wealth (正財); 己 Indirect Wealth (偏財); 庚 Direct Officer (正官); 辛 Seven Killings (七殺); 壬 Direct Resource (正印); 癸 Indirect Resource (偏印). A second 乙 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 乙 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 乙 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
- 「乙木雖柔」 sourced
- Sky image, 三命通會
- Wind (風) sourced
- In heaven and on earth, 三命通會
- In heaven wind, on earth trees (在天為風，在地為樹) sourced
- The first month, 窮通寶鑑
- In spring 乙 is orchid, iris and grass; 丙 and 癸 are indispensable to it (三春乙木) sourced
- Combination, 三命通會
- With 庚: 仁義之合 (the match of benevolence and righteousness) sourced
- Nobleman star (天乙貴人)
- 子 and 申; a symbolic star we do not chart yet sourced
- Academic star (文昌)
- 午; a symbolic star we do not chart yet sourced
- Blade under an older rule
- 辰, a rule the 三命通會 reports and the Ziping method drops disputed
- Our image, traits and challenge
- Vine and grass: adaptable, creative, persistent and diplomatic; its challenge: leaning on others, and going round rather than through our construction
- Vine and grass 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
- Soft wood with a hidden strength, safe among metal when fire is near, at its best twined on 甲. 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 跨鳳乘猴, the phoenix for the rooster; both stand for the branch 酉.
- 三命通會 (Ming)
- Wind in heaven and trees on earth; living wood that wants moist soil and living water.
- 窮通寶鑑 (Qing)
- Orchid, iris and grass in spring, needing both sun and rain.
- Modern English teaching
- The one-word image, vine and grass, a simplification of the classical images.
- EsoTerrier
- Shows vine and grass as its own image, labelled, beside the texts.
Claims about it
-
"Vine and grass" is the traditional meaning of 乙.
disputedWhat the record shows: It is a modern teaching image, and ours on the chart. The 滴天髓 stresses the strength under the softness; the 三命通會 gives wind and living wood.
-
The day stem is itself a Ten God, the Friend (比肩).
falseWhat the record shows: A 乙 in another pillar is a Friend to a 乙 day master; the day stem itself is the reference point, labelled Day Master (日主) by every tool we surveyed.
-
乙 runs the twelve stages backward, born (長生) in 午.
disputedWhat 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 乙 day master can be scored strong or weak, and its useful god computed.
disputedWhat 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 乙 tell a person's rank, marriage and length of life.
told as loreWhat 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
- Jiǎ 甲, yang Wood the other Wood stem; to a 乙 day master, Rob Wealth
- Gēng 庚, yang Metal combines with 乙; to a 乙 day master, Direct Officer
- Xīn 辛, yin Metal clashes with 乙; to a 乙 day master, Seven Killings
- Friend 比肩 what a second 乙 in the chart is to a 乙 day master
- Direct Officer 正官 what 庚, its partner in combination, is to a 乙 day master
