South 南
The Li 離 direction, fire and clarity, and the seat Kua 9 is born into. South favours the east four.
What south is
South is the 離 Li palace, the fire trigram, ninth of the nine. Fire is the classical image of clarity and of being seen: the thing that shows what is there.
The trigram names the seat. It does not name a quality the room has for everyone who walks into it. In Eight Mansions the compass belongs to the person, so a south wall is one thing for Kua 3 and quite another for Kua 6, and the wall itself is doing nothing differently.
Kua 9 is born into this seat, which is why 伏位 Stability lands in the south for Kua 9 and for no one else.
Who south favours
South 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. The two sets divide the compass exactly in half with no overlap.
Among the four it favours, it is strongest for Kua 3, carrying 生氣 Success, the star classical practice ranks first and associates with push, growth and visibility. For Kua 4 it is 天醫 Health, the recovery ground. For Kua 1 it is 延年 Relationships, the long game and steady relations. For Kua 9 it is the own seat.
When south is one of your rough four
For the west group the same wall reads the other way, and the tradition grades the four rather than treating them as one block.
South is 禍害 Mishaps for Kua 8, mildest of the four and a matter of small friction. It is 六煞 Setbacks for Kua 2, and 五鬼 Conflict for Kua 7, which classical practice reads as disputes and crossed purposes. For Kua 6 it is 絕命 Instability, the most heightened of the eight, where momentum tends to disperse.
Those describe ground rather than people, and none of them is a forecast. The order is what makes them usable: when a home offers no clean answer, it tells you which compromise costs least.
Assignment, not avoidance
Every home contains a south. No reading asks you to do anything about that.
The work is assignment: which room is used for what, which wall a desk faces in a season that needs push, which one a headboard sits against in a season that needs rest. The scale of the answer is a chair turned or a bed rotated, never a renovation.
Which of the eight south is for you follows from one number, derived from your birth year and the basis your chart is read on. A reading works that out and then says what to do with the other seven.
Common questions
NotesIs facing south always best?
That rule comes from building orientation and climate, not from Eight Mansions. Here south 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. Half of all Kua numbers are better served by a different wall.
What trigram is south?
離 Li, the fire trigram, in the ninth of the nine palaces. Kua 9 is born into it, so 伏位 Stability lands here for Kua 9 alone.
Do these directions change with the year?
Not in Eight Mansions. The Kua number is fixed by your birth year and the calculation basis, and the eight designations that follow from it do not move. Annual systems that shift directions year by year are a different tradition, and mixing the two produces a contradiction rather than a refinement.
What south 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 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