Kūn

Kun (坤) is number 2 and holds the southwest. 說卦傳 describes it as earth, the place where all things receive nourishment. Of the twenty-four compass points, the imperial almanac 協紀辨方書 assigns it 未, 坤 and 申, and 星厯考原 counts it with 艮 as the two earth trigrams.

Kun is one of the West Four (西四位), beside 乾, 兌 and 艮. The house book 陽宅十書 prints a short verse for it, 天延絕，生禍五六. Read around the fixed ring of palaces starting just after Kun, the verse gives 天乙 to 兌, 延年 to 乾, 絕命 to 坎, 生氣 to 艮, 禍害 to 震, 五鬼 to 巽 and 六煞 to 離. The verse carries no key, so reading it around the ring is our method, and the result agrees with the palaces the book names in its own entry for a Kun person.

Kun also takes in the number 5. The middle of the nine-number square has no trigram, so every source we could read that deals with it sends a man's 5 to Kun and a woman's to 艮. By this rule Kun covers two years in nine for men, 1986 and 1989 for instance, and one in nine for women, such as 1987 and 1996. 星厯考原 likens the move to the idea that both trigrams are earth.