Tian Yi · Restoration

Meaning

Tian Yi, 天醫 tiānyī, the heavenly helper, is the second of the eight mansions: for each Kua, a direction for rest, for regaining energy and for receiving help from others. The tradition suggests it for the head of a bed or for a place to recover one’s calm, and counts a front door facing it, after Sheng Qi, among the most welcoming.

Its classical name says, word for word, heaven’s physician. Ulune calls it Restoration, and the tradition read it so too: a side of the home where one gets one’s breath back, sleeps well, lets others lend a hand. It promises nothing about health and never stands in for care; it is a direction for resting, as a garden bench is a place for resting. Its gift is ease; its only difficulty is that rest wants time, and a bed placed well does not replace the hours given to it.

Tian Yi is the direction whose trigram differs from the person’s in its two lower lines: Kan ☵ and Zhen ☳, Kun ☷ and Dui ☱, Xun ☴ and Li ☲, Qian ☰ and Gen ☶. Those four couples of Kua, 1 and 3, 2 and 7, 4 and 9, 6 and 8, are each other’s Tian Yi, and the direction always belongs to the person’s own group.

In practice

• For sleep: the tradition suggests the head of the bed towards Tian Yi, your Restoration direction, or towards Yan Nian, your Harmony; a Kua 1 sleeps with the head to the east, a Kua 8 to the north-west.
• The door: a front door facing Sheng Qi or Tian Yi suits best, the tradition says; a door is seldom chosen, so it is taken as a reason to keep that entrance bright and clear.
• A place to recover: a reading chair, a quiet corner after work, a room for a guest who needs rest are the uses the tradition gives it, more than a busy desk.
• Two people: the Relationship lens looks for a direction supportive for both for a bed they share; a Tian Yi of one may be the other’s Harmony, or a middle ground.
• The years: the Cycles lens shows when the year’s stars strengthen your Tian Yi, and when an affliction asks that side to rest.

Across traditions

• In the Flying Stars Ju Men, the star the Ba Zhai Ming Jing gives Tian Yi, is the classical name of the 2 Black, the star of land, property and care; the same name, a different role.
• In Western astrology the twelfth house is the house of retreat, where one withdraws from the world to recover; it divides the sky at birth, where Tian Yi divides the compass of a room.
• In India Vastu Shastra suggests one direction for the main bedroom for everyone, the south-west; the Eight Mansions give each Kua its own.

Origin and history

The Ba Zhai Ming Jing, the Qing-dynasty manual of the Eight Mansions, sets Tian Yi second in its table, gives it the star Ju Men, and finds it for each Kua by the classical method of changing the trigram’s lines one at a time: Tian Yi comes on the sixth change, the middle line’s, after the top, the middle, the bottom, the middle and the top have turned, and ends two lines away from the Kua’s own trigram, the two lower ones.

Translations of its name have varied with their readers: heavenly doctor, celestial healer, heaven’s medicine. Ulune chose Restoration, so that the page describes what the direction is used for and never makes a promise about health, while the classical name stays beside it.

How Ulune calculates it

Ulune reads Tian Yi from the classical table of the Eight Mansions, the second of each Kua’s eight directions. The table follows the line rule exactly: Tian Yi is the direction whose trigram differs from the Kua’s own in the two lower lines, and Ulune’s tests check that the table reads the same both ways and keeps each Kua’s four supportive directions in its own group.

Correspondences