金 Metal

What this phase represents

Metal (金 jīn) is the phase of refinement, structure and contraction — the gathering-in that follows the fullness of summer. It carries connotations of clarity, sharpness and value: the edge of a blade, the ring of a bell, the worth of gold. The character 金 originally pictured metal nuggets in the ground and means both "metal" and "gold"; it is the radical for a large family of characters for metals and metalwork.

Associations

Metal corresponds to autumn, the season of harvest and withdrawal; to the west, where the sun sets; and to the colour white, associated with autumn and with mourning. Its qualities are firm and incisive — solidity, precision, the cutting and shaping of things — which is why classical thought reads metal as the phase of consolidation and order after the expansive phases of wood and fire.

Cultural use

In the sexagenary calendar, years ending in 0 or 1 are metal years, giving the zodiac its "Metal Rat" or "Metal Ox". Metal's instruments — bells and chimes — were central to classical ritual music, and the west-and-autumn pairing takes its place in the directional scheme of fengshui and the bagua. Because 金 also means gold and wealth, the character is especially common in given names and auspicious phrases, and the colour white carries its autumnal and solemn associations through the arts.

In the two cycles

In the generating cycle (生) metal carries water — dew and droplets gather and run from a cool metal surface, and in the classical image metal "produces" water — so metal generates water and is itself produced by earth, which holds its ores. In the overcoming cycle (克) metal cuts wood, the axe to the tree, so metal restrains wood and is in turn restrained by fire, which melts it. Its place in the ring is 金→水, toward the end of the sequence.

Metal years

Each phase colours two consecutive years of the sexagenary calendar. These are the metal years in the 1924–2046 window, with the zodiac sign of each.

Further reading

• Wuxing (five phases) — Wikipedia
• Bagua (eight trigrams) — Wikipedia