Facing Jia: the door to the morning sun
Jia is met more often as a facing than as a sitting. A house that sits on Geng and faces Jia has its door open to the east, a little north of due east. From inside that door, the ground in front should be lower than the house, level enough to hold water, and closed at the far side by a hill, a row of houses or trees. When the front falls away steeply, or a road runs straight at the door from 75 degrees, the facing is wrong whatever the sun does. Water arriving from Jia is read the same way: a curve in from the east, not a straight cut past the door.
Tianyuan, the park, needs an open front
Tianyuan is Heaven's Park, a pasture in the sky, and its sense is livestock and plenty. It is a common star. In our school the sky is matched to the ground, never the other way: the pasture star does not create a pasture; it is read against the front of the site to see if one is there. On Jia the test is the ming tang, the open ground in front. Wide, soft and watered, it fits the name. Narrow, stony or blocked by a wall, it does not, and Tianyuan is then only a word on the dial. A peak on Jia is judged as wood: tall, straight, green, not forked.
What this means on the ground
Inside the door, back to the door, luopan level, away from the steel frame and the car, three readings: that is the facing. A reading of 75 is Jia; the house sits on Geng. At a grave, stand behind the stone along its face, and a reading of 255 means sitting on Jia, facing Geng. Inside Jia, 72 to 78 degrees is the centre. From 67.5 to 70 you lean on Yin and the Gen trigram, and the 67.5 line itself is a trigram border we keep well clear of. From 80 to 82.5 you lean on Mao, due east, one of the three auspicious mountains. A door on 82 is neither Mao nor fully Jia.
Common mistakes
The first mistake is to treat Jia as east. Due east is Mao at 90 degrees; Jia is 15 degrees north of it and carries a different star. A door at 80 degrees is Jia, not Mao, so Mao's rank cannot be borrowed. The second is the Bazi trap: a Jia day master in a birth chart is a matter of time, and it does not point to the Jia mountain. The third is reading from a plan or a satellite map, which gives true north; the luopan needs magnetic north and you inside the door. The fourth is a stone on the 67.5 line, the Gen and Zhen border, with no trigram at all.
Questions people ask
What direction is Jia on a feng shui compass?
Jia is 75 degrees magnetic, east by north-east, from 67.5 to 82.5 degrees. It is a wood stem, the first mountain of the Zhen trigram, between Yin and Mao. A stone on Jia faces Geng.
Is Jia the same as east in feng shui?
No. Due east is Mao at 90 degrees. Jia lies 15 degrees north of it, with its own star, Tianyuan, and its own facing, Geng. The two are read as separate mountains.
What is the Tianyuan star on Jia?
Tianyuan, Heaven's Park, is a common star of pasture and plenty. Our school reads it against the open ground in front of a Jia site; it confirms a good ming tang and does not make one.
Does your front door open towards 75 degrees? Send three readings and a photo of what lies in front, and Master Zhang will read the Jia facing for you.