TL;DR: Thành Đầu Thổ is the na am of the years Mậu Dần and Kỷ Mão, belonging to the Earth element but carrying the energy of earth on city walls, symbolizing solidity, protection, and dignity. In the Five Elements, Earth generates Metal, so these people suit yellow, brown, white, and metallic colors; they should avoid excessive Wood elements (which controls Earth).
What is the Nayin Cheng Tou Tu in the Sixty Jiazi, and the meaning of the Five Elements
What is the Nayin Cheng Tou Tu in the Sixty Jiazi?
The Sixty Jiazi is a system that combines the 10 Heavenly Stems (Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui) with the 12 Earthly Branches (Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai) to create 60 year combinations, and each combination is assigned a nayin, a symbolic name describing the Five Elements nature of that year. The nayin is not simply the element (Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth) but is further classified into 30 different nayin types, each with its own metaphorical image.
Cheng Tou Tu (城頭土, meaning "earth on top of the city wall") is the nayin of the two years Wu Yin (戊寅) and Ji Mao (己卯). In the nayin system, Earth is divided into 6 types: Bi Shang Tu (earth on the wall), Cheng Tou Tu (earth at the head of the city wall), Wu Shang Tu (earth on the roof), Da Ze Tu (earth of the great storehouse), Sha Zhong Tu (earth in the sand), Lu Bang Tu (earth by the roadside). Each type carries a different characteristic and degree of "strength or weakness."
What is the Five Elements meaning of Cheng Tou Tu?
What are the characteristics of the Earth element?
In feng shui, the Five Elements are the five basic factors that make up all things: Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth. They interact with one another according to the laws of mutual generation and mutual overcoming. Specifically:
- Mutual generation: Metal generates Water, Water generates Wood, Wood generates Fire, Fire generates Earth, Earth generates Metal.
- Mutual overcoming: Wood overcomes Earth, Earth overcomes Water, Water overcomes Fire, Fire overcomes Metal, Metal overcomes Wood.
Earth represents stability, nourishment, and shelter. In housing, the Earth element is often expressed through ceramics, bricks and stone, terracotta, the colors yellow and brown, and square, solid shapes, bringing a feeling of peace, balance, and firmness.
What does the image of "earth on top of the city wall" mean?
Cheng Tou Tu evokes the image of a layer of earth piled high on city walls, bamboo ramparts, and fortresses. This is not a soft, weak type of earth that erodes easily, but earth that has been packed tight and tempered, capable of protecting and resisting every impact from the outside. Therefore, people carrying the Cheng Tou Tu nayin are often likened to a "city wall" sheltering their family, with a steadfast, firm character and a high sense of responsibility.
How is Cheng Tou Tu different from other Earth nayin?
While Da Ze Tu is the vast earth of storehouses and fields, symbolizing fertility and embrace; or Lu Bang Tu is earth by the roadside, small and easily trampled; Cheng Tou Tu stands out with a temperament of dignity, authority, and a defensive, protective nature. It is not aimed at proliferation like farmland, but is the foundation of safety, order, and discipline.
How is it applied in Tu Vi (Vietnamese astrology) and feng shui?
What are the personality and destiny of people born in the years Wu Yin and Ji Mao?
According to astrological interpretation, people belonging to the Cheng Tou Tu nayin often have these traits:
- Steadfast, firm: Like a rampart, they are hard to sway by outside opinions, with clear standpoints.
- Rich in responsibility: They always tend to protect relatives and friends, ready to step forward and shoulder difficulties.
- Leaning toward safety: They like stability, and dislike risk or sudden change.
- Sometimes rigid: The drawback is difficulty adapting, sometimes conservative and rigid in thinking.
However, it must be emphasized: the nayin is only one factor in Tu Vi, it does not determine the whole of one's destiny. It needs to be combined with many other factors such as the Heavenly Stems, Earthly Branches, the life palace, the periods of fortune, and so on, to have a complete view.
Favorable and unfavorable colors
Based on the principle of the Five Elements, choosing colors for people of the Earth element (including Cheng Tou Tu) needs to follow the law of mutual generation and mutual overcoming:
- Colors that generate (Fire generates Earth): Red, pink, purple, belonging to the Fire element, helping to boost energy and bring luck.
- Colors that harmonize (Earth element): Yellow, earth brown, orange yellow, reinforcing the native element and creating stability.
- Colors that are generated (Earth generates Metal): White, gray, silver, metallic gold, helping to bring wealth into play, because Earth generates Metal.
- Unfavorable colors (Wood overcomes Earth): Dark green, if used too much it can cause suppression and fatigue.
In home feng shui, people of the Earth element should prioritize items made of ceramics, stone, or brick, or spaces dominated by yellow and brown tones. However, overuse should be avoided, because too much of the Earth element will create a feeling of heaviness, lethargy, and dullness.
House directions and feng shui items
- Good directions: Directions belonging to the Earth element such as Southwest and Northeast, or directions belonging to Fire (South), because Fire generates Earth.
- Items: Stone statues, ceramic vases, yellow or brown quartz spheres; avoid too many sharp metal objects (because Earth generates Metal, which will drain the energy of Earth).
| Type | Element | Color | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mutual generation | Fire | Red, pink, purple | Fire generates Earth, adding energy |
| Harmonizing | Earth | Yellow, brown | Reinforcing the native element, firmness |
| Being generated | Metal | White, silver, metallic gold | Earth generates Metal, activating wealth |
| Mutual overcoming | Wood | Green | Wood overcomes Earth, should be limited |
