South-east 東南
The Xun 巽 direction, wind and gradual work, and the seat Kua 4 is born into. South-east favours the east four.
What south-east is
South-east is the 巽 Xun palace, the wind trigram, fourth of the nine. Wind in the classical scheme is the image of something that works gradually and gets everywhere: penetration rather than force.
That is a description of the seat. What the seat does depends entirely on who is standing in it, because in Eight Mansions the compass is read from the person, not from the building. The same corner of the same flat is the best ground in the house for one number and the hardest for another.
Kua 4 is born here, so 伏位 Stability lands in the south-east for Kua 4 alone.
Who south-east favours
South-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 at its strongest for Kua 1, where it carries 生氣 Success, first of the eight and the star classical practice attaches to growth, push and visibility. For Kua 9 it is 天醫 Health, the ground associated with recovery and with asking for help. For Kua 3 it is 延年 Relationships, the long game. For Kua 4 it is the own seat, quiet and steady rather than dramatic.
When south-east is one of your rough four
For the west group the same corner is read the other way, and the four are ranked rather than treated as one undifferentiated bad half.
It is 禍害 Mishaps for Kua 6, mildest of the four. It is 六煞 Setbacks for Kua 7, and 五鬼 Conflict for Kua 2, which classical practice associates with disputes and with effort that meets resistance. For Kua 8 it is 絕命 Instability, most heightened of the eight, where things tend to scatter rather than hold.
Read those as descriptions of ground, never as forecasts about a person. The ordering is the useful part, because it tells you which of your four rough sectors is the cheapest to live with.
Assignment, not avoidance
No home is missing a south-east, and the tradition has never asked anyone to wall one off.
What it does is assign. A rough sector is a fine place for a corridor, a store cupboard or a room nobody sits still in; a favourable one earns the desk, the bed or the chair you actually use. Practitioners commonly give the bedroom first claim when only one favourable room is going, on the grounds that sleep is the longest exposure in the house.
Which of the eight south-east is for you comes down to a single number from your birth year, and that is the first thing a reading settles.
Common questions
NotesIs south-east the wealth direction?
That claim comes from a different system, not from Eight Mansions. Here south-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, and what it carries changes with the number. Eight Mansions does not assign money to a compass point.
What trigram is south-east?
巽 Xun, the wind trigram, in the fourth of the nine palaces. Kua 4 is born into it, which is why 伏位 Stability lands here for Kua 4 and for nobody else.
Can a direction be favourable and still not suit a room?
Yes, and this is the most useful thing to understand about the four. They are not interchangeable: one is associated with push, one with rest, one with steady relations, one with holding a position. A favourable direction used for the wrong purpose is a wasted wall rather than a harmful one.
What south-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 south-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