Xin

The sense underneath Xin is new — the turn of the year when everything is made over — and as an object it is small worked metal, the piece that has been ground and polished. It is also the most direct statement of error anywhere in the ten stems. Where Xin appears, something in that matter has been done wrong.

• Error and fault: a job done wrong, a defect that has surfaced, the person at fault — and at the far end of the range, the offender and the criminal.
• Renewal and revolt: reform, innovation, refusing to leave things as they are. There is nothing to remake until something is admitted to be wrong.
• Form and temper: a sharp edge on a quiet body. Well turned out and conscious of appearances — and, quite often, the one doing the planning from behind.
• Faults have a date on them. What the heaven plate carries is the error as it shows now and the reform it is turning into; what the earth plate carries is where the fault was first cut, and what the matter is genuinely built on beneath the polish.

Xin points its fault at whatever is being asked about, and nowhere else. Ask about a marriage and the fault is in the marriage; ask about the job and the fault is in the job. One character, one chart, and the location of the error moves the moment the question moves — which is about as plain a demonstration of how Qi Men imagery behaves as you will get.

Nature

The pull is toward the pure and the finished, with an unusually fine sense for detail and for material quality. Rough work and going-through-the-motions are genuinely hard to sit with. Feeling is kept in, and correction is done privately, on oneself — the surface is calm, and the standard the person involved is holding is much higher than it looks.

Style

Careful. Correct first, then act. Overall quality gets lifted through the detail rather than announced, and the person involved is rarely first to move but tends to arrive exactly where it counts. Small and excellent is always preferred to large and loose.

Strength

An eye that grades accurately — what is finished, what is still a hair short, sorted at a glance. A process, a product or a presentation comes back from the person involved a full level up, and even rough material can be worked until it is genuinely good. Design, editing, planning and assessment roles fit best.

Impression

Cool, restrained, slightly at a remove — and every detail on show is considered, so anyone can tell at a glance that the standard here is high. Not warm at first meeting; the refinement is what people notice once they have been around a while.

Pitfall

The whole standard is loaded onto the self, and the more it is applied the tighter it gets. One remark from someone else stays in the mind for a long time, and since showing weakness is off the table, it gets digested alone. Then the fear of getting it wrong sets in, and the work simply does not start.

In the built environment, Xin is metal that is small, fine and sharp: keys and screws, watches and clocks, scissors and needles, and jewellery such as rings and chains.

• Objects: gold, silver and precious stones, silverware, small knives and surgical blades, prayer beads and small ornaments — anything valuable and small enough to hold.
• Buildings and places: doors and windows, roads, stone and cement, and the workshops that make small metal goods — hardware plants, watch factories, jewellery and craft workshops.
• Indoors it tends to fall on wall corners, doors and windows, and where staples are stored; outdoors it falls mostly on roads and vehicles.

Outdoors Xin also covers the small sharp things aimed at a building. That is the size distinction with Geng (庚) in one line: Geng is the trunk road and the pylon, Xin is the needle, the shard and the small hard piece.