Xin mountain

Meaning

Xin, 辛 xīn, is the third mountain of the west (W3): the fifteen degrees from 277.5° to 292.5°, centred on 285°. It takes its name from Xin, the eighth of the ten Heavenly Stems, yin Metal: one of the eight stems that stand round the compass, while Wu and Ji, the stems of Earth, keep the centre.

Xin carries the image of its stem, the jewel and fine metal, refinement and a value that shows once it is polished. On the compass it closes the west, a little north of due west, up to the line at 292.5° where the north-west begins. A home facing Xin sits in Yi, a little south of east: a Zhen house, like every home that faces the west.

For the Flying Stars Xin is the west’s Man dragon and counts as yin, like You, so a home facing Xin has You’s main chart: both of the period’s stars at the front if it was built in Period 8, at the back if it was built in Period 9. Even its replacement star, 7, is You’s; the two part only at the edges, Xin’s upper edge being the line between the west and the north-west.

In practice

• The facing: a home whose front faces between 277.5° and 292.5° faces Xin, and sits in Yi, E3: a Zhen house of the East group. The Home lens tints Xin on its dial and draws Yi dashed.
• Near its edges: within 3° of 277.5° or 292.5° many schools read a replacement chart, which Ulune shows beside the main one; within 1.5° the facing is on a void line: at 277.5° the line towards You, inside the west; at 292.5° the line between the west and the north-west, towards Xu.
• The Flying Stars: built in Period 9, a home facing Xin has the formation Double stars at the sitting; built in Period 8, the formation Double stars at the facing.
• The year: with its two neighbours Xin holds the Three Killings in some years, such as 2027, 2031 and 2035, which the classics suggest facing rather than having at one’s back. The year’s 5 Yellow visits its palace, the west, in 2024 and 2033.

Across traditions

• The solar terms: on luopan plates that carry a ring of the solar terms, Xin goes with the Cold Dew, the Sun at 195°, halfway through Libra in the Western zodiac.
• Years by their names: China’s revolution of 1911 is still called by its year, 辛亥 Xinhai, Xin with the Pig, as the reform of 1898 is the Wuxu reform: the sixty pairs name years as the mountains name directions.
• On the Western rose: Xin’s upper edge, 292.5°, is the west-north-west of the 16-point compass, where the luopan passes from Dui’s palace to Qian’s.

Origin and history

Xin closes the west as autumn deepens, with the Cold Dew on the ring of terms, the term that opens the Dog’s month. With Geng it frames You, the two Metal stems on either side of the Metal branch, as Jia and Yi frame Mao in the east, Bing and Ding frame Wu in the south and Ren and Gui frame Zi in the north: each cardinal direction holds its phase three times, a stem, a branch and a stem.

How Ulune calculates it

Ulune finds the mountain a home faces from its magnetic facing, among 24 mountains of 15° counted from Ren at 337.5°: Xin takes every facing from 277.5° up to 292.5°, that edge belonging to the next, and the home sits in the mountain opposite, Yi. For the Flying Stars, Xin is the third mountain of a cardinal palace, of the group the classics call the Man dragon, and so counts as yin: when the stars look to it for their flight, it sends a star backward. Its replacement star, from the classical verse, is 7, which takes the place of the number going to the centre when, near an edge, it is the mountain that decides.

Correspondences