East 東
The Zhen 震 direction, thunder and beginning, and the seat Kua 3 is born into. East favours the east four.
What east is
East is the 震 Zhen palace, the thunder trigram, third of the nine. Thunder is the classical image of something beginning: the first movement rather than the sustained one.
The trigram describes the seat. It does not describe the people the seat favours, and this is the distinction most popular writing about directions loses. In Eight Mansions the compass is personal. East is one thing for Kua 9 and a different thing for Kua 7, and neither reading is about the room.
Kua 3 is born into this seat, so 伏位 Stability sits here for Kua 3 and no one else.
Who east favours
East is one of the four favourable directions for the east group, Kua 1, 3, 4 and 9, and one of the four rough ones for the west group, Kua 2, 6, 7 and 8.
It is strongest for Kua 9, where it carries 生氣 Success, the star of push, growth and being visible, and the one classical practice ranks first of the eight. For Kua 1 it is 天醫 Health, the ground for recovery and unhurried work. For Kua 4 it is 延年 Relationships, associated with the long game and with relations that hold. For Kua 3 it is the own seat.
Being one of your four does not make it the one you use for everything. Which of the four suits a room depends on what the room is for, and that is the part a reading works out rather than a table.
When east is one of your rough four
For the west group east is graded from mild to heightened, not written off.
It is 禍害 Mishaps for Kua 2, the mildest, a matter of small friction rather than anything larger. It is 六煞 Setbacks for Kua 8, and 五鬼 Conflict for Kua 6, which classical practice reads as disputes and crossed purposes. For Kua 7 it is 絕命 Instability, the most heightened of the eight, where effort tends to disperse instead of compounding.
These are tendencies attached to ground. The ladder matters because most homes force at least one compromise, and the tradition would rather you make the cheap one knowingly.
Assignment, not avoidance
Every home has an east. The work is never removing it.
What a reading does is decide where things go: which wall a desk faces when the season calls for push, which one a bed sits against when it calls for rest, and which rooms can absorb a rough sector without costing much. A chair turned is the usual scale of the answer.
Which of the eight east is for you follows from one number, computed from your birth year and the basis your chart is read on.
Common questions
NotesIs east always a good direction?
No direction is. East is one of the four favourable directions for Kua 1, 3, 4 and 9, and one of the four rough ones for Kua 2, 6, 7 and 8. The name of the group is a coincidence of translation: being in the east group does not mean east is your best wall, only that it is one of your four.
Why is the group called the east group?
Because its four favourable directions are east, south-east, south and north. The Chinese name is 東四命, literally the east four life, and it is a label for a set of four directions rather than a claim about the single direction east.
What trigram is east?
震 Zhen, the thunder trigram, in the third of the nine palaces. Kua 3 is born into it, so 伏位 Stability lands here for Kua 3 alone.
What east is for each Kua
Computed · 8 Kua numbersOne number decides the whole column. Find yours on the left and read across: the four favourable readings run strongest first, and the four rough ones run mildest first, which is the order the tradition ranks them in.
Not sure of your Kua number? It comes from your birth year and the calculation basis your chart is read on. How Eight Mansions works.
What east is in your own home
Find your day master free →This page describes the direction. A reading works out your Kua number, names all eight directions in severity order, and says which room each one should be doing rather than leaving you a table to apply.
Still working out which system answers your question? All eight directions
Method and sources
The trigram, the Kua whose seat this is, and what this direction is for each of the eight Kua numbers are computed from the same function the readings use, never typed. What each designation tends to mean follows the classical verse listed below.
Read against the classical direction verse and the dwelling essentials:
- 大遊年歌 Da Youniange Song of the Great Wandering Year, the anchor verse, attributed to 八宅明鏡 Bazhai Mingjing
- 陽宅三要 Yangzhai Sanyao The Three Essentials of Dwellings