Bing · Yang Fire

Meaning

Bing is the third Heavenly Stem and the yang side of Fire: fire as the sun is fire, a light that shines on everything at once and asks nothing back. The Han historians read in it the way of yang made bright and visible, things standing out clearly in the light, and the Di Tian Sui gives it the boldest of its verses: “Bing fire is fierce: it scorns the frost and makes light of the snow.”

It is read as warmth, openness and enthusiasm, the generosity of someone who lights up a room, a frankness that hides nothing, the courage to be seen. Like the sun it gives without choosing, and it is at its best when it has something to warm and to bring to life. Its difficulty is the other side of noon: a light that burns too long tires itself and dazzles others, and Bing can be all brightness and little patience, quick to blaze and quick to move on.

The classics also give Bing its tenderness. The Di Tian Sui says that it can forge Geng, hard Metal, yet turns shy before Xin, the soft Metal it combines with; that much Earth makes it kind, as warmth that ripens a field; and that faced with raging Water it shows its integrity. Its fire is not only force: it is the warmth that makes the other phases grow, as the summer sun ripens the year.

In practice

• As the Day Master, Bing finds its resources in Wood, Jia its Indirect Resource and Yi its Direct Resource, and its peers in Fire, Ding being its Rob Wealth. Earth is its output, Wu its Eating God and Ji its Hurting Officer; Metal is its wealth, Geng indirect and Xin direct; Water shapes it, Ren its Seven Killings and Gui its Direct Officer.
• Its roots: Bing is the main qi of Si, the Snake, and is hidden in Yin, the Tiger. In the twelve life stages it is born in Yin, prospers in Si and stands at its peak in Wu, the Horse, at midsummer.
• Its partners: Bing combines with Xin, yin Metal, its Direct Wealth, a pair that leans, against expectation, towards Water; it clashes with Ren, yang Water, the sun against the sea.
• In time: the years ending in 6 are Bing years, counted from Lichun: 2026 is the year of Bing-Wu, the Fire Horse, and 2036 will be Bing-Chen, the Fire Dragon’s. A Bing or Xin year opens with a Geng-Yin month, and a Bing or Xin day with a Wu-Zi hour.
• In Feng Shui, Bing is a mountain of the luopan, the first of the south, from 157.5° to 172.5°, and a yang one for the Flying Stars.

Across traditions

• In Japan 丙 is read hinoe, “elder brother of fire”; in Korea byeong, in Vietnam Bính. As the third letter of Chinese lists it is the C, and in chemistry three carbon atoms: 丙烷 bǐngwán, propane, and 丙酮 bǐngtóng, acetone.
• The sun is the image of the stem in Chinese teaching, and the Sun of Western astrology says much the same of a chart: the light at its centre, vitality and the will to shine. The two meet in their warmth, though the stem is a phase in a pillar and the Sun a body in the sky.

Origin and history

On the oracle bones 丙 names the third day of the Shang week and appears in the names of royal ancestors, among them Bao Bing and Wai Bing. Sima Qian explained the stem by the light of yang, which in Bing makes everything clear, and Ban Gu wrote that things shine bright in Bing; Xu Shen’s Shuowen Jiezi (c. 100) places it in the south, where the ten thousand things are complete and radiant.

BaZi’s classics drew their picture from the summer sun. The Yuanhai Ziping of the Song dynasty and the San Ming Tong Hui of the Ming read Bing as the strongest of the fires, and the Di Tian Sui’s verse, with Ren Tieqiao’s commentary of the Qing dynasty, describes a fire that fears neither cold nor water, that needs Earth to turn its heat to use and Metal to give it something to work on. Modern teachers keep the sun as its image, and call a Bing person the warmth of the group.

How Ulune calculates it

Bing is the stem of six of the sixty pillars, Bing-Yin, Bing-Zi, Bing-Xu, Bing-Shen, Bing-Wu and Bing-Chen, each joining it to a yang branch. In BaZi’s balance a visible Bing counts one point of Fire, a hidden one its weight (0.6 in Si, 0.3 in Yin, twice in the month branch). For a Bing Day Master Ulune counts the life stages forward from Yin, as for every yang stem, and finds its symbolic stars by the classical verses: the Nobleman in Hai and You, the Academic star in Shen, the Prosperity star in Si and the Sword Edge in Wu. The stem combination with Xin is said to lean towards Water, and Ulune asks whether it transforms by four stated conditions: the two stems side by side, a month that supports Water, no clash breaking them, no rival seeking the same partner. The pages draw Bing in Fire’s red.

Correspondences