Directions
Eight sectors of forty-five degrees.
The compass is the tradition’s first instrument. Each sector carries a trigram, an element, a season and an hour of the day, and each reads differently in a room because the light comes from a different side.
- 000° North Kan Water The direction of deep water and of the year’s turning. Classical siting put the back of a house here, against the cold, so that the building sat with north at its shoulders and faced the sun. Sun on this wall · 45°N Jun 6.8 hMar · Sep noneDec none
- 045° Northeast Gen Earth The mountain: the still point before dawn, where the year has not yet turned. A direction for study, for the quiet room, for anything that benefits from being left alone. Sun on this wall · 45°N Jun 6.3 hMar · Sep 3.6 hDec 1.0 h
- 090° East Zhen Wood Sunrise, spring and the first movement of the year. The direction of beginnings, of morning light on the wall, of the rooms in which a household starts its day. Sun on this wall · 45°N Jun 7.6 hMar · Sep 5.9 hDec 4.2 h
- 135° Southeast Xun Wood Wind: growth that has found its rhythm. Long morning light, gradual increase, the direction the tradition associates with things accumulating slowly. Sun on this wall · 45°N Jun 9.0 hMar · Sep 8.3 hDec 7.6 h
- 180° South Li Fire Noon and midsummer: the brightest wall in the house. In classical maps south is drawn at the top; it is the direction a house was built to face. Sun on this wall · 45°N Jun 8.5 hMar · Sep 12.0 hDec 8.5 h
- 225° Southwest Kun Earth The receptive: three open lines, the field that takes everything in. Warm afternoon light and the tradition’s direction for the rooms in which people are together. Sun on this wall · 45°N Jun 9.0 hMar · Sep 8.3 hDec 7.6 h