Northeast (艮)

The direction of the mountain — associated with stillness, threshold and the youngest son. Northeast is the mountain direction (艮 Gen). It is read as the direction of stopping: the place where movement ends, and therefore the direction associated with boundaries and with knowledge in the classical scheme.

Directions are read as a set, not one at a time. The direction of the mountain — associated with stillness, threshold and the youngest son. Northeast is the direction most sensitive to the method in use: in Flying Stars it shifts meaning with each period, while in Eight Mansions it is fixed — the same direction, two readings.

Gen is the mountain trigram — one solid line over two broken ones. The tradition reads it as the youngest son and as the place of transition between one cycle and the next, which is why it appears in discussions of doorways and of the turn of the year. It is grouped under Earth (土) in the five-element system.