# 24 Mountains (二十四山)

> The 24 mountains divide the 360° compass into 24 equal sectors of 15°, each called a mountain. Their names are the 12 Earthly Branches, 8 of the Heavenly Stems (Wu and Ji are left out) and the 4 trigrams Qian, Kun, Gen and Xun; Zi sits at due north.

- Vietnamese: 24 sơn
- English: 24 Mountains
- Chinese: 二十四山
- Chinese characters: 二十四山
- Also called: Twenty-four mountains · 24 sơn · Er Shi Si Shan

## Explanation

Each trigram of the bagua spans 45° and holds exactly three mountains. Kan in the north holds Ren, Zi and Gui; Xun in the southeast holds Chen, Xun and Si. Because each mountain is only 15° wide, two homes that both "face southeast" may sit in three different mountains.

That is why quantitative feng shui always reads orientation as a degree first, then converts it to a mountain, instead of naming one of eight directions.

## How Home Check uses it

Home Check measures orientation by exact degree and reads the mountain, trigram and sitting direction at once; every mountain has its own page in this knowledge base. — [Compass & site reading](https://myhomecheck.ai/compass)

## Related terms

- [Sitting and facing](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/sitting-and-facing): Sitting is the side a house leans its back against; facing is the side it looks out from.
- [Bagua](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/bagua): The bagua are the eight three-line trigrams of the I Ching: Qian, Kan, Gen, Zhen, Xun, Li, Kun and Dui.
- [Set polarity](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/set-polarity): Setting polarity means finding the centre of a house on its floor plan and placing the compass there, turned to the measured facing degree.

## Questions

### Why does the compass use 24 mountains rather than 8 directions?

Each of the eight directions is 45° wide — too coarse to read a house. Splitting the circle into 24 mountains of 15° tells apart homes that differ by only a few dozen degrees.

### Why are there no Wu and Ji mountains?

Wu and Ji belong to Earth at the centre and match no point on the circle, so the 24 mountains use only the other eight Heavenly Stems.

---  
Original page: https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/twenty-four-mountains  
Other languages: [Tiếng Việt](https://myhomecheck.ai/vi/tri-thuc/thuat-ngu/24-son/index.md) · [中文](https://myhomecheck.ai/zh/learn/glossary/twenty-four-mountains/index.md)  
Updated: 2026-10-21