Origins and Foundations
本原
The Twenty-Four Compass Directions
二十四方位
Overview of the 24 Directions
二十四方位總說
卦四天干八地支十二共為二十四方位。陰陽家名二十四山，言山則向在其中。如子山則必午向，午山則必子向，壬山則必丙向，丙山則必壬向之類是也。
Four trigrams, eight Heavenly Stems, and twelve Earthly Branches together form the twenty-four compass directions. Yin-yang practitioners call them the 'twenty-four mountains.' To speak of a mountain implies its facing direction: Zi mountain necessarily faces Wu; Wu mountain faces Zi; Ren mountain faces Bing; Bing mountain faces Ren -- and so forth.
Eight Palace Assignments
八宮分配
以二十四山分屬八卦則一卦管三山。戌乾亥屬乾，壬子癸屬坎，丑艮寅屬艮，甲卯乙屬震，辰巳屬巽，丙午丁屬離，未坤申屬坤，庚酉辛屬兌。謂之八宮。
Distributing the twenty-four mountains among the eight trigrams, each trigram governs three mountains. Xu-Qian-Hai belong to Qian (NW); Ren-Zi-Gui belong to Kan (N); Chou-Gen-Yin belong to Gen (NE); Jia-Mao-Yi belong to Zhen (E); Chen-Xun-Si belong to Xun (SE); Bing-Wu-Ding belong to Li (S); Wei-Kun-Shen belong to Kun (SW); Geng-You-Xin belong to Dui (W). These are called the Eight Palaces.
Why Cardinal Trigrams Are Not Used Directly
四正四隅用法
八卦惟用四隅而不用四正者，以四正卦正當地支子午卯酉之位，故不用卦而用支，用支即用卦也。天干不用戊己者，戊己為中央土，無定位也。
Of the eight trigrams, only the four corner trigrams are used, not the four cardinal ones. This is because the four cardinal trigrams (Kan, Li, Zhen, Dui) fall exactly at the Earthly Branch positions Zi, Wu, Mao, You -- so using the Branch IS using the trigram. The Heavenly Stems Wu and Ji are not used because they represent Central Earth, which has no fixed directional position.
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