Rooms · the house as a gradient
From the door to the pillow.
The tradition reads a house as a slope, not a list. The entrance is yang: bright, public, in motion. The bedroom is the far end of it: dark, private, still. Every other room sits somewhere between, and what you should do in each follows from where it sits.
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The outside
Approach
Garden, balcony and approach: the ground the tradition was written for, at the scale of a plot.
The tradition asks for Solid behind, open in front, a path that curves
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Entrance
Arrive
The mouth of qi: the door through which everything, including you, comes in.
The tradition asks for Clear floor, light on arrival
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Hallways and stairs
Move
The parts of a house nobody lives in, through which everything passes. The tradition reads them as rivers.
The tradition asks for A stair that turns, light at the end
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Kitchen
Cook
Fire and Water in one room, a metre apart. The tradition’s most literal problem.
The tradition asks for Fire kept clean, and kept from water
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Dining room
Eat
A table is a small plan of the household. The tradition wants it round, and the host’s back covered.
The tradition asks for A round table, the host’s back to the wall
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Living room
Gather
The room with the most people and the most light. Its centre is the centre of the house.
The tradition asks for Seats with their backs covered
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Home office
Work
A desk is a small architecture. Where it faces decides how the day feels.
The tradition asks for Steady light, a wall behind, the door in view
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Bathroom
Wash
The room the classical house did not have. What the tradition made of it when it arrived.
The tradition asks for Closed, dry, out of the door’s line
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Children’s room
Grow
A bedroom that is also a workroom and a playroom, for someone who is still changing.
The tradition asks for A bed in command, floor kept open
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Bedroom
Rest
Where the body is unguarded for a third of its life. The room the tradition cares about most.
The tradition asks for Dark, cool, quiet, enclosed
The gradient, in one sentence
A room that tries to be both ends of the house does neither well.