The Southwest Zone: Eight Family Placements

A son's or daughter's placement lasts only while they are unmarried and living at home; when one marries, the younger brothers or sisters move up a place. For how the zones are found and family members ranked, see How to Read Your Home Map.

Father: Standstill (天地否)

A married man who sleeps in the Southwest forms Standstill.

Character: His ambition outstrips his ability, and he does not know it; he rushes ahead without measuring his own talent. Living in this placement he still thinks himself right. He achieves nothing all his life, blames heaven and everyone around him all day long, and laments being born at the wrong time.

Career and money: In public office he is blocked at every turn and achieves nothing in the end; far from being promoted, he draws disaster on himself and is pushed into retirement. In business he suffers heavy losses: his money scatters, his family breaks, and in the end he fails completely.

Health: Serious illness clings to him. If an annual phase in his destiny also meets the Yang Blade, he suffers bleeding.

Marriage: Disastrous: husband and wife turn into enemies. If his destiny already breaks his marriage, this placement puts it beyond saving.

Mother: Earth (坤为地)

A married woman who sleeps in the Southwest forms Earth.

Character: She is a strong woman with more drive than her husband, and no one can match her. In old age she draws close to religion and takes pleasure in good works.

Career and money: In public office she holds power; in business, money comes to her with ease. Once this placement forms, the company must be in the wife’s name, and it succeeds only when the woman runs it. A company can have the husband as its head only if he sleeps in the Northwest and forms Heaven (乾为天). If the company is in the husband’s name while the wife sleeps in the Southwest, the placement is broken, and the company fails in the end.

Marriage: Her marriage breaks apart, and she fights alone, carrying the whole weight of the family; this comes from her husband’s failure to make his way. Once the marriage breaks, she does not remarry: even if she finds another partner, they only live together. This is certain. When it breaks is read from her destiny, and the house placement accounts for only half. A woman whose earlier marriage failed, who wants only career and health and has no wish to remarry, gains greatly from this placement: she achieves a great deal in her life, never lacks money, lives safely into old age, and has no husband to worry about. For her, a man is then only a burden and cannot help her in the end.

Family: She is alone in old age, and none of her children wants to stay by her side, because her nature grows withdrawn.

Eldest son: Enthusiasm (雷地豫)

The Eldest son who sleeps in the Southwest forms Enthusiasm.

Career and money: His pay takes him far from home. He has both wealth and office, and he rises swiftly to high rank. In his career he is an able second: any owner or manager who hires him is glad to have his help. The placement greatly favors those born in the Year of the Horse.

Marriage: He marries five years later than others born at the same time. He often marries a woman who has been married before, or a woman older than himself.

Family: At home he is his mother’s helper and handles every household task, large and small; a man who cooks a fine meal is in this placement. He is distant from his relatives.

Second son: Holding Together (水地比)

The Second son who sleeps in the Southwest forms Holding Together. When his eldest brother marries, it turns into Enthusiasm; but if the eldest brother still lives with him after marrying, or if he has taken a sworn elder brother, the placement is hard to change. The eldest brother’s destiny shows when he marries, and so when the placement changes.

Career and money: In his career he holds a supporting role and never becomes a manager. In business too he works for others and never becomes the owner. Others born at the same time may be very successful owners, but under this placement he never makes his way, all his life.

Marriage: When he reaches marrying age, he is drawn to women older than himself. Where others born at the same time marry at twenty-eight, he marries three years later, at thirty-one, and only a wife older than himself makes the match right; otherwise the marriage breaks within a year. If his destiny breaks his marriage, this placement keeps him unmarried for life, and his relationships with married or divorced women come to nothing.

Family: Holding Together is the image of closeness. He likes helping his mother, works hard without complaint, takes on all the housework himself, and is of one heart with his mother.

Third son: Splitting Apart (山地剥)

The Third son who sleeps in the Southwest forms Splitting Apart. It is a very dangerous placement: once it is found, it must be changed as soon as possible to avoid great harm.

Splitting Apart is the image of wearing away: a family with great wealth produces one son who squanders it all. Sworn brothers ranked by age form the placement too. Three old men living out their years in a retirement home become sworn brothers, and if they form Splitting Apart, one of them squanders all three men’s money and belongings. The cause is always money, yet people never understand how anyone could be so greedy, still unable to let go of gain at nearly seventy. The placement works its way deep into a person and changes him without his knowing, until he loses his good name in old age.

Character: A dark, vicious streak grows in him unseen; he harms others without their knowing.

Study and exams: Academic honors do not come, and he fails his exams.

Health: He suffers many illnesses and mishaps.

Marriage: His marriage does not happen. In an annual phase when the Red Phoenix star stirs and others born at the same time marry, he still cannot.

Family: A home with this placement wears away and ruins the family estate; family ethics are lost and morals decay.

Eldest daughter: Contemplation (风地观)

The Eldest daughter who sleeps in the Southwest forms Contemplation. The placement is found only in an eldest daughter.

Character: She is good at quiet observation and sees through everything around her; her flaw is that she sees too clearly.

Marriage: Because she sees too clearly, she decides whether to marry by wealth: she will not marry a man whose career is not yet made, however much she loves him, and would rather be a rich man’s mistress. If her destiny holds ill for marriage, she marries a man who has been married before and already has children, and she enters a formal marriage six years later than others born at the same time. If hers is a monastic destiny, she never marries.

Family: Before she marries she takes on her mother’s role and runs the household’s affairs, large and small: the eldest sister is like a mother.

Second daughter: Progress (火地晋)

The Second daughter who sleeps in the Southwest forms Progress.

Character: She is gentle and full of motherly love. She holds on to her money and does not spend it; she is extremely frugal.

Marriage: She often marries late, around forty or after. She becomes a mistress, where others born at the same time become wives. A partner born in the Year of the Rooster is highly favorable, but he is often much older than she is.

Third daughter: Gathering Together (泽地萃)

The Third daughter who sleeps in the Southwest forms Gathering Together. The placement is fairly rare.

Character: She spends her days building her virtue and her skills.

Career and money: Working in the food and restaurant trade greatly favors her; it is the one path that brings her happiness.

Marriage: She does not want to marry.

Family: She withdraws into the home and takes on her mother’s role; she is the good-mother type.

Source: The Way of the Earth's Veins (天纪：地脉道)