Feng Shui for North-Facing Houses: Which Elements Match, What to Note

Who does the North direction suit?

According to Bát Trạch (the Eight Mansions system), the North direction is the Khảm palace, belonging to the Đông tứ trạch (East Four Mansions). For people in the Đông tứ mệnh (East Four Destinies) group, this is one of the four good directions; for people in the Tây tứ mệnh (West Four Destinies) group, it is a bad direction. Exactly how good or how bad depends on the cung phi (the personal trigram), as shown in the table below.

The cung phi (also called quái số, or mệnh quái) is calculated from birth year and gender. Take the last two digits of the birth year, add them together and reduce to a single digit. For men born before 2000, subtract that number from 10; for men born from 2000 onward, subtract from 9. For women born before 2000, add 5 to that number; for women born from 2000 onward, add 6, then reduce to a single digit again. The result is a cung phi number from 1 to 9.

The two groups are divided as follows:

• Đông tứ mệnh: Khảm (1), Chấn (3), Tốn (4), Ly (9).
• Tây tứ mệnh: Khôn (2), Càn (6), Đoài (7), Cấn (8).

Cung phi 5 has no trigram of its own: men are assigned to Khôn (2), women to Cấn (8).

Each cung phi has four good directions, Sinh Khí, Thiên Y, Diên Niên and Phục Vị, and four bad directions, Họa Hại, Lục Sát, Ngũ Quỷ and Tuyệt Mệnh; together these are called the tám du niên (eight wandering years). The books Dương Trạch Tam Yếu and Bát Trạch Minh Cảnh both use these eight du niên to judge good or bad fortune for each direction according to the householder's cung phi.

The table below lists the eight cung phi with the North direction, looked up by birth year from 1950 to 2009:

If you want to look up your own eight directions, you can use the site's house direction tool. Note that you should enter the lunar year: people born in January or February of the solar calendar before Tết should use the previous year.

On the sitting position: Bát Trạch Minh Kính names the dwelling according to the sitting side (the back of the house). A house facing North sits to the South, that is, it sits in the Ly palace, so it is also called a Ly dwelling, belonging to Đông tứ trạch. With this direction, the sitting and the facing fall in the same group, so naming it by the sitting or by the facing gives the same group either way.

Why do the five elements method and the Bát Trạch method give two different conclusions?

Because the two methods measure two different things. Bát Trạch relies on the cung phi, calculated from birth year and gender; the five elements method relies on the nạp âm element of the birth year's can chi (heavenly stem and earthly branch) and does not distinguish between men and women. So for the same age, a husband and wife can have different cung phi and receive two different conclusions about the same direction.

Examples of divergence, where the five elements method says compatible but Bát Trạch says bad:

• Man born 1971 (Tân Hợi, Thoa Xuyến Kim, Metal element): cung phi Khôn (2), Tây tứ mệnh; the North direction is Tuyệt Mệnh (bad), while by the five elements Metal and Water are mutually generating.
• Woman born 1972 (Nhâm Tý, Tang Đố Mộc, Wood element): cung phi Cấn (8), Tây tứ mệnh; the North direction is Ngũ Quỷ (bad), while by the five elements Wood and Water are mutually generating.
• Woman born 1973 (Quý Sửu, Tang Đố Mộc, Wood element): cung phi Càn (6), Tây tứ mệnh; the North direction is Lục Sát (bad), while by the five elements Wood and Water are mutually generating.
• Man born 1974 (Giáp Dần, Đại Khê Thủy, Water element): cung phi Cấn (8), Tây tứ mệnh; the North direction is Ngũ Quỷ (bad), while by the five elements Water and Water are the same element.

Examples of divergence, where the five elements method says clashing but Bát Trạch says good:

• Woman born 1976 (Bính Thìn, Sa Trung Thổ, Earth element): cung phi Ly (9), Đông tứ mệnh; the North direction is Diên Niên (good), while by the five elements Earth and Water are mutually clashing.
• Woman born 1977 (Đinh Tỵ, Sa Trung Thổ, Earth element): cung phi Khảm (1), Đông tứ mệnh; the North direction is Phục Vị (good), while by the five elements Earth and Water are mutually clashing.
• Man born 1978 (Mậu Ngọ, Thiên Thượng Hỏa, Fire element): cung phi Tốn (4), Đông tứ mệnh; the North direction is Sinh Khí (good), while by the five elements Fire and Water are mutually clashing.
• Man born 1979 (Kỷ Mùi, Thiên Thượng Hỏa, Fire element): cung phi Chấn (3), Đông tứ mệnh; the North direction is Thiên Y (good), while by the five elements Fire and Water are mutually clashing.

When the two methods disagree, the site's tool follows Bát Trạch. This article does not judge which method is correct.

Is a house facing North good or bad?

According to Bát Trạch, whether the North direction is good or bad depends on the cung phi and is not fixed. It is a good direction for all four Đông tứ mệnh cung phi: Phục Vị for Khảm, Thiên Y for Chấn, Sinh Khí for Tốn, Diên Niên for Ly. Conversely, it is a bad direction for all four Tây tứ mệnh cung phi: Tuyệt Mệnh for Khôn, Lục Sát for Càn, Họa Hại for Đoài, Ngũ Quỷ for Cấn.

It should also be made clear where the books are not consistent. Bát Trạch Minh Kính names the dwelling according to the sitting side, while the common approach and the site's tool consider the house direction (the door direction) with the eight du niên of the cung phi. For the four directions East, West, Southeast and Northwest, these two approaches give two opposite groups; for North, South, Northeast and Southwest they coincide. The book Phong thủy cổ đại Trung Quốc: lý luận và thực tiễn also divides dwellings into Đông tứ trạch and Tây tứ trạch based on sitting and facing, placing Khảm, Chấn, Tốn and Ly in Đông tứ trạch and Càn, Khôn, Cấn and Đoài in Tây tứ trạch.

What should be kept in mind when arranging a house facing North?

The North direction usually receives less direct sunlight than the South and East directions, especially in winter, so the house tends to be darker and colder. It is therefore worth increasing artificial lighting with warm yellow light, using mirrors to reflect natural light from other directions, and painting walls in bright, warm tones such as cream white, pale yellow or beige instead of dark, cold tones.

On colours and materials: the North direction belongs to the Water element, but using too much black or navy blue can make the space feel cold and gloomy. You can balance this with white, grey and graphite tones (the Metal element, since Metal generates Water) and favour metal or glass materials in the northern area. Limit red, orange, pink and purple tones (the Fire element) because Water overcomes Fire.

On the position of the rooms:

• The living room should be placed at the front of the house, near the main door, to welcome good energy. The sofa should have its back against a solid wall, facing the main door or an open space.
• The kitchen: by the five elements approach, the kitchen belongs to Fire, so it should be avoided in the exact centre or in the northern area because Water overcomes Fire; it can be placed to the East or Southeast (the Wood element) so that Wood generates Fire.
• The bedroom: avoid placing the bed directly opposite the room door or a mirror. The belief that a bed should be placed along the North-South axis to align with the Earth's magnetic field and help you sleep well is a common belief, not something with scientific backing.
• The workspace: the desk should be placed where you can see the entrance but not directly facing the door, which helps with concentration and keeping track of work.

How can someone unsuited to the North direction remedy it?

By the five elements approach, someone with a Fire destiny can use Earth-element items (ceramics, quartz stone) in the northern area, because Fire generates Earth and Earth overcomes Water, reducing the clash. Someone with an Earth destiny can use Metal-element items (metal, metal wind chimes), because Earth generates Metal and Metal generates Water, creating an indirect generating chain.

According to Bát Trạch, the book Bát Trạch Minh Cảnh treats the main door, the master room and the kitchen as the three main elements of a dwelling (dương trạch tam yếu). People in the other group are advised to place the main door, bedroom and kitchen according to their own four good directions to optimise the flow of good energy. The book Ung Dung Trung Quốc also sets out remedies for when the dwelling and the destiny do not match: choose a room in the dwelling group that suits your destiny, or place the bed according to the dwelling group that suits your destiny, regarded as a lower-tier solution when there is no other option.