Bì — the Wall — closes the Black Tortoise’s seven mansions and classically presides over the wall, the library, and the protection of scholarly knowledge. Tong Shu doctrine reads Bì days as favourable for scholarly endeavours, the writing of texts, the establishment of libraries, and the preservation of records.
Configuration
- Mansion: 壁 (Bì) — the Wall
- Position: 14 of 28
- Four Symbol: 玄武 Black Tortoise — North, Winter, water element
- Animal totem: 貐 (Yu (mythical creature))
- Element: water
- Presiding weekday: Wednesday
Classical domain
Bì — the Wall — closes the Black Tortoise’s seven mansions and classically presides over the wall, the library, and the protection of scholarly knowledge. Tong Shu doctrine reads Bì days as favourable for scholarly endeavours, the writing of texts, the establishment of libraries, and the preservation of records. The mansion’s classical domain encompasses the wall, the library, scholarship and protected knowledge.
Auspicious activity register (Tong Shu doctrine)
Classical Tong Shu commentary records Bì as broadly favourable for: scholarly examinations, writing and publishing, library-establishment, preservation of records, signing of important documents.
Cautious activity register
Classical commentary records caution for: demolition, public exposure of private matters, careless handling of records. The cautious register is descriptive of the mansion’s classical reading, not prescriptive of a fixed prohibition — chart-specific reading determines whether the caution applies in a given case.
Black Tortoise context
The Black Tortoise (a tortoise entwined with a serpent) governs the northern quadrant — the winter constellations, the water element, and the register of stillness, longevity, and the deep waters. Its 7 mansions span the structures of the household and storehouse. Bì is mansion 7 of the Black Tortoise’s seven, sitting within the broader water-element register of the northern quadrant.