Kua 2 corresponds to Kun 坤, the Earth trigram — the receptive field, seated in the south-west of the Later Heaven arrangement — and belongs to the West Group of life numbers in Ba Zhai 八宅, the Eight Mansions school. It is also, with Kua 8, one of the two most common Kua numbers in practice: men whose birth-year calculation resolves to the centre number 5 are read as Kua 2 by classical convention. Like every Ming Gua, Kua 2 fixes a permanent compass profile — four directions that favour activity and four that do not — and this guide sets out both halves and their use.
The four favourable directions of Kua 2
Kua 2's favourable four are the West Four directions, as they are for every West Group number. Sheng Qi 生氣, the generating breath, falls in the north-east — the prime direction for effortful work, initiative, and standing. Tian Yi 天醫, the heavenly doctor, falls in the west; the tradition pairs this star with Ju Men 巨門 and assigns it to recuperation, steadiness, and the arrival of help when help is needed. Yan Nian 延年, longevity, falls in the north-west and presides over lasting bonds — spousal harmony, loyalty, the slow goods. Fu Wei 伏位 rests in the south-west, Kun's own palace: the direction of stability, routine, and quiet self-possession, favoured for contemplative rather than ambitious aims.
The four unfavourable directions of Kua 2
The unfavourable four for Kua 2 are the East Four positions — east, south-east, south, and north. Huo Hai 禍害, mishaps, falls in the east — minor frictions, leaks, and irritations rather than ruin. Wu Gui 五鬼, the five ghosts, falls in the south-east, the star classical texts tie to quarrels, mistrust, and mischief within the household. Liu Sha 六煞, the six killings, falls in the south — entanglements, disrepute, compounding errors. Jue Ming 絕命, the severed fate and gravest of the four, falls in the north: Kan's water palace, where the doctrine reads earth and water as mutually injurious — the mirror of the Kua 1 table, in which the south-west plays the same role. Prolonged facing, sitting, and sleeping toward these directions is what the school advises against — passing use carries no weight.
Applying the table: desk, bed, stove, and door
For focused work, a Kua 2 occupant sits facing north-east or west; for rest, the bed is set so the crown of the head points north-west or south-west — the head, not the feet, is what the manuals measure. A main door facing any of the favourable four is preferred. The kitchen carries a rule of its own, and Kun — the trigram of nourishment — is a fitting place to state it: the classical stove sits in an unfavourable sector while its fire-mouth faces a favourable direction, 座凶向吉 — seat on the inauspicious, face the auspicious. The same logic governs the rest of the house: give bathrooms, storage, and laundry to the East Four sectors, and reserve the West Four for the rooms where life actually happens.
The character of Kua 2
Kun is the Receptive — the mother of the trigram family in the Shuo Gua, the field that bears whatever is planted in it. Kua 2 people are classically described as patient, provident, and dependable: the ones who hold households, teams, and long undertakings together, who serve without ceremony and finish without applause. Earth's virtue is constancy; its liability is inertia. The tradition cautions the Kun native against over-accommodation — absorbing every demand until nothing of one's own remains — and against mistaking endurance for consent. Its counsel is measured: cultivate the receptive strength deliberately, choose what to carry, and let the north-east, the generating breath, be the direction in which one's own projects are pursued.
References
Canonical sources that inform this guide.
- Feng shui · WIKIPEDIA
- The Living Earth Manual of Feng Shui · BOOK
- Ba Zhai Ming Jing (八宅明鏡) · BOOK