What Does the "Roadside Earth" Fate Mean? An Analysis of the Nayin Five Elements Earth Fate

The "Roadside Earth" fate is one of the Nayin Five Elements concepts in traditional Chinese fate theory. According to the division of the sixty Jiazi Nayin, people born in a Gengwu year or a Xinwei year have a yearly fate Nayin of Roadside Earth, which is also commonly and simply called an Earth fate. For example, 1990 was a Gengwu year and 1991 was a Xinwei year, and people born in these two years are often said to have a Roadside Earth fate.

This name comes from the ancients' observation of and analogies with all things in nature. Roadside earth refers to the soil on both sides of a road; this kind of earth is close to people's lives, easily absorbs rain and dew, and grass, trees, and crops can all take root and grow in it. Traditional fate theory texts therefore describe roadside earth as earth that can nourish all things and bear loads, and its imagery differs from that of earth on city walls or earth on rooftops.

In the sixty Jiazi Nayin system, there are six groups belonging to Earth in total: Roadside Earth, City Wall Earth, Rooftop Earth, Wall Earth, Great Post Road Earth, and Earth in Sand. Each corresponds to different stem-branch years, and their symbolic meanings are also different. Roadside Earth is only one of the six Earth fates, and all Earth fates should not be lumped together.

There are many folk sayings attached to the Roadside Earth fate, such as the belief that such people are as simple and kind as the soil by the road, able to endure hardship, and willing to give. However, in traditional Bazi theory, the yearly fate Nayin is only one reference factor; fate analysis emphasizes looking at the year, month, day, and hour of birth together, and a single yearly fate cannot determine good or bad fortune.

It should be noted that the Roadside Earth fate belongs to the category of traditional folk culture and has no scientific basis; it reflects more the ancients' way of thinking in which natural objects were used as analogies for life. It is enough to treat it as a window for understanding traditional culture, and it should not be used to judge one's own fate or the fate of others.