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Chapter 6 of 10
阳宅十书
Humans are born between heaven and earth, and this body moves entirely within qi, as the ancients put it: "Clearly, people travel amidst qi." 🌬 When people dwell within houses, qi is divided by walls and differs accordingly; only the door is the sole passage through which inner and outer qi circulate. At the point where the door ventilates qi, if harmonious qi is obtained, it brings fortune; if perverse qi is received, it invites calamity — this is the inevitable principle of creation. Therefore, the ancient sages created the door ruler, established auspicious directions, and carefully selected months and days, precisely because the matters concerning doors are of the greatest importance. A predecessor once said: "Better to build ten graves for others than to repair one door for others." This shows the weight of door construction.
For opening doors and constructing gates, one should select days of Tian De (Heavenly Virtue), Yue De (Monthly Virtue), Man (Fullness), Cheng (Completion), and Kai (Opening), and the auspiciousness must align with the Door Light Star for good fortune. Construction and installation of doors should not violate the following baleful influences: Tian Lao (Heavenly Prison), Hei Dao (Black Path), Tian Huo (Heavenly Fire), Du Huo (Lone Fire), Jiu Gong (Nine Palaces), Si Qi (Dead Energy), Da Xiao Hao (Great and Small Depletion), Tian Zei (Heavenly Thief), Di Zei (Earthly Thief), Tian Wen (Heavenly Plague), Shou Si (Received Death), Bing Xiao Wa Jie (Ice Melting and Tile Crumbling), Yin Yang Cuo (Yin-Yang Error), Tian Di Zhuan Sha (Heaven-Earth Turning Killer), Si Hao (Four Depletions), Si Fei (Four Wastes), Jiu Chou (Nine Ugly), Jiu Tu (Nine Earths), Gui Li Ke (Ghost Leaving Nest), Si Ji (Four Taboos), Si Qiong (Four Exhaustions), Geng Yin Day, Zhi Tui (Scorched Retreat), San Sha (Three Killers), Liu Jia (Six Jia), Tai Shen (Fetal Spirit), Hong Zui Zhu Que (Red-Beaked Vermilion Bird), Jiu Liang Xing (Nine Good Stars), Qiu Gong Sha (Qiu Gong Killer), Da Sha (Great Killer), Bai Hu Ru Zhong Gong (White Tiger Entering the Central Palace), Zhai Mu Xing (Debt Wood Star), Lei Ting (Thunder), and other baleful influences (for the detailed list of auspicious and inauspicious days, see the Selection section).
All door installations should primarily take the Fu Yuan (Blessing Foundation) as the guiding principle; aligning harmoniously with auspicious stars brings great prosperity. One must avoid facing direct rushes, sharp projections, slanting water cutting across, precipitous cliffs, dangerous roads, malignant rocks in mountain hollows, collapsed and twisted peaks, withered trees, temples, and the like — these are called "riding the killing energy through the door." One should face water and face mountains for auspiciousness.
Do not construct an east door in spring, a south door in summer, a west door in autumn, or a north door in winter. Geng Yin Day is the death day of high officials and is unsuitable for construction or door installation. On Jia Si Day, the Six Jia and Fetal Spirit occupy the door, making it unsuitable for construction. Auspicious days for sealing doors should use the Fu Duan (Hidden Severance); inauspicious days to avoid include C Bing Yin, Ji Si, Geng Wu, and Ding Si days.
| Year | Door Occupied |
|---|---|
| Ding Hai, Gui Si years | Occupies the main gate |
| Ren Yin, Geng Shen years | Occupies the room door |
| Ding Si year | Occupies the front door |
| Ding Mao, Ji Mao years | Occupies the back door |
| Year Stem | Month Occupied |
|---|---|
| Jia, Ji years | Occupies the 9th month |
| Yi, Geng years | Occupies the 11th month |
| Bing, Xin years | Occupies the 1st month |
| Ding, Ren years | Occupies the 3rd month |
| Wu, Gui years | Occupies the 5th month |
| Baleful Name | Month Occupied |
|---|---|
| Great and Small Depletion | 1st and 7th months |
| Fetal Spirit | 3rd and 9th months |
| Earth Duke | Spring and Summer |
| Wandering Dragon | 4th, 5th, and 11th months |
| Crouching Dragon | 3rd, 4th, and 10th months |
| House Dragon | 4th and 5th months |
| Ox Yellow | 5th, 7th, and 11th months |
| Ox Fetus | 3rd and 9th months |
| Pig Fetus | 3rd and 4th months |
| Year Stem | Direction Occupied |
|---|---|
| Wu, Gui years | Occupies the Kun direction |
| Jia, Ji years | Occupies the Chen direction |
| Yi, Geng years | Occupies the Kan-Yin direction |
| Bing, Xin years | Occupies the Wu direction |
| Ding, Ren years | Occupies the Qian direction |
In the above years, doors should not be constructed or installed in the corresponding directions.
Doors should not be constructed or installed on these days.
Geng Wu, Ji Mao, Wu Zi, Ding You, Bing Wu, Yi Mao — installing the main gate is taboo on these days.
For all door construction, door repair, installation of large and small doors, and laying door foundations, the Door Light Star should be used. Those with water dots are auspicious Door Light Stars; the rest are inauspicious stars. For large months, use all; for small months, omit the character "xiao" (diminish).
Formula: "Tian tian xiao, zuo ye yu lin li. Yu guo Changsha man Dongting, dao zai jiang hu liu bu jin, de cheng qing chu, shi yi cheng qing."
This formula takes characters containing water dots as auspicious. For large months, count from bottom to top; for small months, count from top to bottom. White circles are auspicious, the character "ren" (person) harms people, and black circles harm livestock.
For large months, count from bottom to top; for small months, count from top to bottom
○○●●●○○人人人○○○●●●○○○人人人●●●○○○
White circles (○) are auspicious, the character "ren" harms people, and black circles (●) harm livestock.
"Exchanging images and drawing lines has its own reasons, three people walk the same path yet not together. When masters of the time understand the method of moving doors, they shall be Yang Gong exhausting heaven and earth."
Although every house has twenty-four mountains, it is governed by eight mountain positions:
| Door-Opening Direction | Trigram Affiliated |
|---|---|
| Ren, Zi, Gui direction | Belongs to Kan ☵ |
| Chou, Gen, Yin direction | Belongs to Gen ☶ |
| Jia, Mao, Yi direction | Belongs to Zhen ☳ |
| Chen, Xun, Si direction | Belongs to Xun ☴ |
| Bing, Wu, Ding direction | Belongs to Li ☲ |
| Wei, Kun, Shen direction | Belongs to Kun ☷ |
| Geng, You, Xin direction | Belongs to Dui ☱ |
| Xu, Qian, Hai direction | Belongs to Qian ☰ |
All four cardinal doors belong to Metal. (The four cardinal doors of Kan, Li, Zhen, and Dui all belong to Metal. From Kan to Li and Li to Kan both signify Prolonged Years, Metal. From Zhen to Dui and Dui to Zhen both signify Broken Army, also Metal.)
The door ruler is made of wood, with both the front and back faces inscribed as per the previous pattern.
This section comprises four star positions: Wealth Wood Star, Illness Earth Star, Separation Earth Star, and Righteousness Water Star.
First, the Greedy Wolf brings horizontal wealth; business and trade naturally come. What others entrust is never taken — clearly one gains outside riches.
Modern interpretation: This star governs financial fortune, especially benefiting those who seek wealth through business, with the indication of unexpected wealth entering the household.
Second, the Giant Gate brings mourning garments; one roams and wanders abroad. Illness plagues the body and fields and dwellings are lost; licentiousness brings calamity upon sons and daughters.
Modern interpretation: This star governs illness and mourning, unfavorable to health and household stability, prone to loss and depletion.
Third, the Emolument Preservation makes people cruel; separation from home is inauspicious. Husbands and wives part and never meet, causing sons and daughters to lose their homeland.
Modern interpretation: This star governs separation, unfavorable to family reunion, prone to the suffering of distant travel.
Fourth is the Literary Curve Star; generations stand near kings and lords. Their family is rich and noble, with fame proclaimed for generations.
Modern interpretation: This star governs literary nobility, benefiting scholarship and official titles, with the indication of rising above the crowd.
This section comprises four star positions: Official Metal Star, Robbery Fire Star, Harm Fire Star, and Auspicious Metal Star.
Fifth is the Martial Song Star; its family enjoys literary glory. All five tones and farmland wealth advance; generations possess talent and renown.
Modern interpretation: This star governs official position and literary glory, benefiting career advancement, farmland, and wealth.
Sixth is the Robbery Fire Star; lawsuits drive one from fields and forests. Robbery causes one to be solitary; unexpected calamities come ceaselessly.
Modern interpretation: This star governs legal disputes and loss of wealth, prone to sudden disasters, unfavorable to household peace.
Seventh is the Broken Army Star; its family produces violent people. Wealth recedes with much ruin; plague and disease never leave the door.
Modern interpretation: This star governs ruin and disease; family fortune is uneven, and one must guard against disputes and gossip.
Eighth is the Assistant Star; its family is wealthy with gold and silver. All five tones and farmland wealth advance; generations are most prosperous and glorious.
Modern interpretation: This star is the most auspicious, governing great wealth and nobility, with the family path flourishing.
This section comprises four star positions: Noble Person Star, Heavenly Disaster Star, Heavenly Calamity Star, and Heavenly Wealth Star.
Modern interpretation: This star governs support from noble people, benefiting one's official career and social interactions, with enhanced personal charisma.
Modern interpretation: This star governs disaster, illness, and loss; family discord, with caution against accidents.
Modern interpretation: This star is inauspicious, governing sudden calamity and household unrest; avoiding it brings great fortune.
Modern interpretation: This star governs heaven-bestowed wealth, benefiting scholarship and official career, with both blessings and emolument.
This section comprises four star positions: Official Emolument Star, Solitude Star, Heavenly Thief Star, and Prime Minister Star.
Modern interpretation: This star governs flourishing progeny and prosperous family enterprise, benefiting literary talent and artistry.
Modern interpretation: This star governs solitude, separation, and the decline of the family path, unfavorable to progeny.
Modern interpretation: This star governs thieves and legal disputes; one must guard against loss of wealth and legal complications.
Modern interpretation: This star is the greatest auspicious star on the door ruler, governing the emergence of generals and prime ministers, with nobility beyond words.
Several types of door rulers have been passed down within the seas, and after repeated testing, only this ruler is true. Its length corresponds precisely, and its auspiciousness and inauspiciousness are without error. For in ancient times, Gongshu Zi Ban (Lu Ban), the sage of carpentry who delved into the subtleties of creation, created this ruler, which later generations named the Lu Ban Ruler. It can be used not only for measuring doors, but for all beds, rooms, and implements. Each inch and each fen bears definite relation.
The front eight cun follow the order of Wealth, Illness, Separation, Righteousness, Official, Robbery, Harm, and Auspicious; the back eight cun follow the order of Noble Person, Heavenly Disaster, Heavenly Calamity, Heavenly Wealth, Official Emolument, Solitude, Heavenly Thief, and Prime Minister. In truth, the two faces are mutually expressive, with identical auspiciousness and inauspiciousness. The front speaks comprehensively, while the back details the fractions separately — a further analysis.
In usage, simply align the characters facing upward and calculate correctly; for all places where doors and windows ventilate, whether measured vertically or horizontally, concurrence with auspicious stars is excellent.
Further subdivision:
Referencing, measuring, and verifying in use, fortune and calamity become self-evident.
The core idea of this chapter can be summarized as: The door is the throat of a house's qi movement; repairing and installing doors must follow the rhythms of heaven and earth's qi.
The ancients elevated the door to the status of "better to build ten graves for others than to repair one door for others," because graves govern yin-house matters, while doors govern the qi entrance of yang houses. When the qi entrance is open, the entire house is open; when the qi entrance is blocked, the entire house is blocked. The door is not merely a physical entrance and exit, but rather the passage through which the qi field circulates, and through which fortune and calamity enter.
The design of the door ruler (Lu Ban ruler) embodies the ancients' precise consideration of the relationship between numerology and space. Each inch and fen corresponds to specific stellar imagery and auspicious/inauspicious attributes. This mode of thinking — "measurement is divination" — is a typical manifestation of the concept of "heaven-human isomorphism" in traditional Chinese occult arts: heaven has constellations, earth has directions, objects have dimensions, and the three mutually correspond, forming a rigorous network of correspondence.
From a modern perspective, the door does indeed exert significant influence on the living experience:
Although the setting of auspicious and inauspicious scales on the Lu Ban ruler carries strong metaphysical overtones, it secretly contains the ancients' naive understanding of ergonomics:
The ancients' practice of selecting days for door construction is essentially a form of temporal optimization in thinking. Modern people also pay attention to timing during renovation — avoiding construction in rainy seasons, choosing suitable temperatures for work, considering the coordination of construction schedules with daily rhythms, and so on. The ancients' day-selection system can be understood as an early attempt to incorporate the "time factor" into architectural decision-making.
| Principle | Traditional Basis | Modern Correspondence |
|---|---|---|
| Avoid direct rushes | Riding killing energy through the door | Avoid the main gate facing directly toward elevators or staircases rushing toward it, reducing airflow impact and privacy exposure |
| Face water and mountains | Absorbing qi and gathering wealth | The entrance should have an open vista; avoid directly facing obstacles or reversing bow roads |
| Seasonal direction taboos | No east door in spring, etc. | Consider wind direction and sunlight angles in different seasons to choose the most livable door orientation |
| Auspicious door ruler measurements | Auspicious star scales | Modularized dimensions in modern door and window design, balancing aesthetics and practicality |
The saying "people clearly travel within qi" embodies the monistic theory of qi, an extremely important concept in ancient Chinese philosophy. Human beings are not isolated entities but living beings immersed in the qi of heaven and earth. While a house provides protection, it also creates the problem of "qi being separated and blocked," and the door serves as the crucial device for resolving this issue.
This idea resonates with modern ecological architecture: a building should not be a closed box but an organism that exchanges matter and energy with nature. As the node of exchange, the door's design quality directly affects the healthy functioning of the entire system.
The Lu Ban ruler assigns auspiciousness and inauspiciousness to specific dimensions, reflecting a profound philosophical view: numbers connect with fate, and measurements link with fortune. In this worldview, the world is not random or chaotic but governed by a mathematical order. Every choice a person makes—including the dimensions of a door—constitutes a dialogue with this order.
This mode of thinking remains inspiring today: our perception of spatial proportions and our preferences for dimensions do profoundly affect our psychological state and quality of life. Good design is not merely aesthetic but also "in harmony with numbers."
In the Door Formula, the lines "exchanging trigrams and altering yao patterns have their own reasons; three people on the same road may walk differently" reveal an important principle: even when facing the same direction, the meaning of a door differs according to the house's orientation and the owner's natal destiny. This reminds us not to apply rules dogmatically but to adapt to time, place, and individual circumstances—this is precisely where the flexibility of traditional Chinese wisdom lies.