Seven Red Metal combines the number 7, the Red name and the Metal phase. Sonoda’s Later Heaven diagram pairs it with Dui. The classical text connects Dui with a lake or marsh and with delight; later in the same chapter it includes speech among its images. Those are cultural associations, not proof of charm, sociability or an easy life.
This is a calendar label, not a score. Your selected side of the displayed Beginning of Spring boundary determines the effective season year; uncertainty retains both adjacent labels.
Dui and the image of a lake
Seven Red Metal combines the number 7, the Red name and the Metal phase. Sonoda’s Later Heaven diagram pairs it with Dui. The classical text connects Dui with a lake or marsh and with delight; later in the same chapter it includes speech among its images. Those are cultural associations, not proof of charm, sociability or an easy life.
Lake differs from water, heaven and fire
Dui’s lake image differs from One White Water’s Kan and from Six White Metal’s Qian, despite sharing water imagery with the former and a phase with the latter. Its Red name also does not make it Fire; Nine Purple is the Fire label here. Keeping names, phases and trigrams separate prevents a colour from becoming an invented scoring rule.
Delight is not a demand to entertain
Reading a symbol of delight does not create a duty to smile, speak often or make a group happy. The historical source is not evidence that a Seven-labelled person should spend more, host every gathering or be responsible for others’ feelings. A cultural image can be enjoyed without becoming a prescribed social role.
A new example: checking what makes a gathering pleasant
Imagine friends choosing a short evening activity. Asking whether they prefer a quiet walk or a busy café makes different kinds of enjoyment discussable. This is a new reflection using the delight image; it is not a prediction of anyone’s tastes. A quiet preference is no less compatible with reading this guide than an outgoing one.
An optional expression with room for another answer
In one low-stakes plan, state a preference and invite another person to offer theirs without demanding agreement. Notice whether the plan becomes clearer. You may decline to organise anything. The exercise is about an actual exchange, not proving a sociable identity, and an awkward response neither confirms nor refutes a calendar symbol.
Sources and the separate year calculation
Source roles are separate: Sonoda’s 1934 Kaisei Hōi Meikan, printed page 19, supplies the Later Heaven diagram pairing; the classical Shuo Gua text and Kong Yingda commentary supply the inherited natural images. These are cultural records, not scientific validation. The annual calculation uses the adopted NAOJ boundary table and the stated year convention. It omits forecasts, directions and month/day/hour stars. All present-day examples above are original FermatMind writing.
For the Gregorian year 2020, the adopted table shows Beginning of Spring at 2020-02-04 18:03 in Japanese Standard Time, UTC+09:00. Clearly after that boundary uses season year 2020 and returns 7; clearly before it uses 2019 and returns 8. The rule is ((1927 − season year) mod 9 + 9) mod 9 + 1. Unknown time or timezone, or birth within the displayed boundary minute, keeps both labels. Do not treat a local calendar date alone as an exact instant.