Dīng

丁 (Dīng) is the yin half of fire, the small flame after the great one. 三命通會 卷二 makes it the stars in the sky and lamps on the ground, and it explains the lamp with a homely detail: the oil burned in it is the fat of 乙 wood. 淵海子平 likewise gives 丁 the shape of a candle or lamp, as large as a furnace when strong and no bigger than a lamp stand when weak.

Gentleness that stays centered is the subject here, and the commentary glosses 昭融 as soft outside and bright within. The next lines use court and family: 丁 holds 乙, its mother, against the metal 辛 that threatens her, and joins 壬, its lord, in a way that keeps 戊 earth from pressing him. This copy prints 考 in that line while its commentary speaks of 孝, being filial, and the translation follows the commentary. As for 嫡母, the true mother who makes autumn and winter possible, the commentary never repeats the word and supplies 甲 for it, a change of parent from the 乙 it has just described.

In the ten-god table both parents get names from 丁's side: 乙 is Indirect Resource and 甲 is Direct Resource, and the lord 壬 is Direct Officer. The method counts 長生, the stage of birth, for this stem at 酉, which 三命通會 explains by the evening, when lamps are lit and stars come out, and puts its 死, the stage of ending, at 寅, the sunrise that hides them. Season is what the last lines of the verse turn on, so a reader checks the month and looks for 甲 before saying anything about the flame. Popular modern writing likes to call 丁 people quiet and perceptive, and that belongs to the modern layer alone.