South-west 西南
The Kun 坤 direction, earth and receiving, and the seat Kua 2 is born into. South-west favours the west four.
What south-west is
South-west is the 坤 Kun palace, the earth trigram, second of the nine. Earth in the classical scheme is the receiving image: what holds and supports rather than what initiates.
That describes the seat, not a quality the corner carries for everyone. Eight Mansions reads the compass outward from a person, which is why the same south-west corner of the same building is good ground for four Kua numbers and rough ground for the other four, with nothing about the corner changing.
Kua 2 is born into this seat, so 伏位 Stability sits in the south-west for Kua 2 alone.
Who south-west favours
South-west is one of the four favourable directions for the west group, Kua 2, 6, 7 and 8, and one of the four rough ones for the east group, Kua 1, 3, 4 and 9.
It is strongest for Kua 8, where it carries 生氣 Success, first of the eight, which classical practice ties to growth and to work that is visible. For Kua 7 it is 天醫 Health, associated with recovery and unhurried conversation. For Kua 6 it is 延年 Relationships, the long game. For Kua 2 it is the own seat, quiet rather than dramatic.
The four are not interchangeable. A wall that suits pushing on something does not suit resting, which is why a reading assigns them to rooms rather than listing them.
When south-west is one of your rough four
For the east group south-west is ranked from mildest to most heightened rather than dismissed.
It is 禍害 Mishaps for Kua 3, the mildest, small friction rather than anything larger. It is 六煞 Setbacks for Kua 9, and 五鬼 Conflict for Kua 4, which classical practice associates with disputes and with effort that meets resistance. For Kua 1 it is 絕命 Instability, most heightened of the eight, where things tend to scatter rather than accumulate.
Each of those is attached to ground, not to a person, and none is a prediction. The ordering is the working part of the sheet.
Assignment, not avoidance
There is no house without a south-west, and the tradition does not ask for one.
It assigns instead: storage and corridors absorb a rough sector cheaply, while the desk, the bed and the chair you actually sit in earn a favourable one. Practitioners commonly give the bedroom first claim on a favourable room over the study, because sleep is the longer exposure of the two.
Which of the eight south-west is for you comes from a single number, and that number comes from your birth year and the calculation basis your chart is read on.
Common questions
NotesIs south-west the relationship corner?
That is a claim from a different school, laid over a floor plan rather than over a person. Eight Mansions reads south-west as one of the four favourable directions for Kua 2, 6, 7 and 8 and one of the four rough ones for Kua 1, 3, 4 and 9, and what it carries changes with the number.
What trigram is south-west?
坤 Kun, the earth trigram, in the second of the nine palaces. Kua 2 is born into it, so 伏位 Stability lands here for Kua 2 and for nobody else.
What if my favourable directions are all in rooms I cannot use?
That is the ordinary case rather than the unlucky one, and it is what the severity order is for. When the favourable four are in a stairwell and a bathroom, the practical question becomes which of the rough four you spend time in and how mild it is, which a reading answers with a ranked ladder.
What south-west 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-west 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