Zhèn

East is the direction of Zhen (震), number 3 in the count. 說卦傳 opens its whole sequence of eight trigrams with it, and the Ming book 陽宅十書 counts it as wood, along with 巽. The imperial almanac 協紀辨方書 lists three compass points under it: 甲, 卯 and 乙.

In the book's two groups it belongs to the East Four. Its verse line is 延生禍絕，五天六, and when we read the line through the ring of palaces after Zhen, which is our method, it gives 延年 to 巽, 生氣 to 離 and 天乙 to 坎. The other four positions land on 坤, 兌, 乾 and 艮, which are all West Four palaces.

One thing is special about Zhen. In the book's 180-year table the line for 辛未 in the first span reads 男震女震, the only kind of year in which a man and a woman born together share a palace. A man's number falls and a woman's rises, so the two meet once in every nine years, and they meet at 3. That gives 1988, 1997, 2006, 2015 and 2024 by the rule, and our sources do not say where the year itself turns.