Nǚ — the Maiden — classically the celestial weaving girl (織女) of the Qixi legend, paired with the cowherd in Niú. The mansion presides over weaving, women’s craft, and the careful construction of fabric. Tong Shu doctrine reads Nǚ days as favourable for the beginning of intricate work, the establishment of partnerships, and matters requiring patience; cautious for hasty decisions.
Configuration
- Mansion: 女 (Nǚ) — the Maiden
- Position: 10 of 28
- Four Symbol: 玄武 Black Tortoise — North, Winter, water element
- Animal totem: 蝠 (Bat)
- Element: earth
- Presiding weekday: Saturday
Classical domain
Nǚ — the Maiden — classically the celestial weaving girl (織女) of the Qixi legend, paired with the cowherd in Niú. The mansion presides over weaving, women’s craft, and the careful construction of fabric. Tong Shu doctrine reads Nǚ days as favourable for the beginning of intricate work, the establishment of partnerships, and matters requiring patience; cautious for hasty decisions. The mansion’s classical domain encompasses the maiden, weaving, women’s work, the celestial weaving girl.
Auspicious activity register (Tong Shu doctrine)
Classical Tong Shu commentary records Nǚ as broadly favourable for: beginning of intricate craft work, partnerships, marriages where patience is foundational, women’s ceremonies, weaving.
Cautious activity register
Classical commentary records caution for: hasty decisions, demolition, abrupt endings, cutting of fabric. 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. Nǚ is mansion 3 of the Black Tortoise’s seven, sitting within the broader water-element register of the northern quadrant.