Kan
Kan: a yang line between two yin lines. Water, the middle son, north.
Symbolism
Firm inside and soft outside — the image of flowing water: it takes any shape, yet has strength in its depths. Its second meaning is danger, the abyss, something whose bottom cannot be seen.
Direction: north; season: winter. Kan is associated with toil, risk and also honesty: water cannot flow uphill.
In a hexagram
In the lower position, Kan means inner difficulty: fear, risk, a heavy state of mind. In the upper position, it means outside danger, circumstances that pose a threat.
Two Kan trigrams make hexagram 29, “The Abyss,” one of the hardest in the book.
In feng shui
The north sector governs career. Kua number 1 belongs to Kan. The watery nature of the sector is supported with metal and not suppressed with earth.