XXXVII. Worked Example Six: A Two-Door Restaurant's Use of the City Gate

This section is a fictional example. It transmits no so-called secret formula, and only demonstrates the division of labor between a main door and a side door.

1. The Current State of the Two Doors

Suppose a restaurant's main door faces east, opening onto a spacious atrium, while a second, mall-permitted side door sits to the north, close to a parking-lot passage. At midday, foot traffic through the atrium is heavy; in the evening, customer traffic from the north parking area is heavy. Both doors are legal, and the original plan kept both open all day, with the two resulting passages crossing at the register, causing staff and customers to keep bumping into each other.

In terms of form, the main door has a proper bright hall and suits serving as the primary brand entrance; the side door has a time-dependent approach of qi, and can serve as a city-gate-style auxiliary intake. First check, according to the chart, whether the city-gate star of the trigram adjacent to the north side is actually usable, and only then decide the schedule for opening and closing. Even where the city-gate star is usable, the side door must never be allowed to override the main door's primary qi.

2. Recording the City-Gate Convention

The report notes the period chart used, the facing point, the palace adjacent to the north side, the steps for starting the city-gate star, and the judgment of whether it currently governs — it does not write "secretly transmitted wealth door." Suppose the north side is found usable: the side door can then be opened during dinner service, with a small reception point set up just inside it, turning the incoming qi toward the waiting area; at midday, the main door remains primary. If fire code requires both doors to be operable at all times, this primary-secondary distinction refers only to how customers are greeted — it never means locking an emergency exit.

3. Adjusting the Door, Path, Stove, and Register

Pull the register out of the point where the two paths cross, placing it where both doors remain visible and with support behind it. The route from the north side should reach the waiting area first, without rushing straight at the stove. The stove sits in the rear Fire palace, and cold air from the side door must not blow directly onto its flame. Do not seal off the space between the two doors with a tall screen — a low cabinet and floor-level guidance are enough to separate the two routes.

4. Annual Change

If Five Yellow arrives at the north palace in a given year, the side door need not be sealed off entirely. Its intensity of greeting customers can be reduced, with no construction or added red lighting at that door, and the existing metal door frame used to drain it; the main flow of customers can return to the main door. Reassess the following year, so that a temporary measure is never allowed to become fixed. The city gate is an auxiliary qi mouth, and should never be allowed to take over as if it were the primary one.