Feng Shui

Introduction

Feng Shui is a study of the physical environment to determine the auspicious and inauspicious elements that may have an impact on people. This includes the study of both the internal environment of a house or building, as well as location and land forms.

In Yang Feng Shui, the study would be on dwellings or other buildings to be inhabited by people. In Yin Feng Shui, the object is to select a suitable burial site, so that the descendants of the deceased may benefit from the good or favorable qi or "energy" of the site.

Methods Of Feng Shui

There are many methods or practices in Feng Shui that are used to help the practitioner determine favorable locations for a house or burial site. The methods of Feng Shui include Flying Star and Xuan Kong Da Gua.

Flying Star

Flying Star Feng Shui

Xuan Kong Da Gua

Constructing A Geomantic Chart

A Geomantic Chart is also known as the Nine Palaces Chart. A Geomantic Chart consists of the Earth Base, the Mountain Stars, and the Facing Stars. Each set of 3 stars will be located in each Palace of the Geomantic Chart.

Constructing The Earth Base

The Earth Base Stars are also known as the Palace Stars. They are constructed by putting the Period Number into the center of the 3 by 3 grid. The numbers are then placed in increasing order (the Yang order) in the other "palaces" of the chart.

Constructing The Mountain Stars

The Mountain Stars are constructed using the Period Chart and the Mountain Direction (also known as the Sitting Direction) of the house or building. In practice, the Sitting Direction is the direction that is opposite the Facing Direction of the building.

The Mountain Stars are prepended to the top left-hand corner of the respective Earth Star. The Mountain Stars will move in a forward direction (Yang) or reverse direction (Yin), as indicated by the Period Chart. For example, if the Earth Star is 4, and the first Mountain Star is 7, then 7 will be written in the top left-hand corner of the number 4 (the Earth Star) in the center of the 3 X 3 grid. If the direction of movement is Yang, then the next numbers to be written down will be 8,9,1,2,3,4,5,6. On the other hand, if the direction of movement is Yin, then the next numbers to be written down will be 6,5,4,3,2,1,9,8.

Constructing The Facing Stars

The Facing Stars are constructed using the Period Chart and the Facing Direction of the house or building. The Facing Direction is usually, but not necessarily, the direction of the Main Door, looking from the inside of the house to the outside, through the Main Door.

The Facing Stars are appended to the top right-hand corner of the respective Earth Star. The Facing Stars will move in a forward direction (Yang) or reverse direction (Yin), as indicated by the Period Chart. For example, if the Earth Star is 4, and the first Facing Star is 5, then 5 will be written in the top right-hand corner of the number 4 (the Earth Star) in the center of the 3 X 3 grid. If the direction of movement is Yang, then the next numbers to be written down will be 6,7,8,9,1,2,3,4. On the other hand, if the direction of movement is Yin, then the next numbers to be written down will be 4,3,2,1,9,8,7,6.

Steps In Setting Up A Geomantic Chart

Setting Up A Geomantic Chart

Direction Of Flight

The stars may fly in a forward or reverse direction. In either direction, the flight of the stars always follow a fixed pattern, starting from the center of the 3 X 3 grid, moving on to the second position at the bottom-right palace, and finally ending in the top-left palace.

Yang Direction

In a Yang Direction, the Flying Stars fly in increasing order (also known as forward order). For example, if the starting star number is 1, the forward order of flight will be:

9 (End of flight)	5 (fifth)	7 (seventh)
8 (eighth)	1 (Start of flight)	3 (third position)
4 (fourth)	6 (sixth)	2 (second position)

Yin Direction

In a Yin Direction, the Flying Stars fly in decreasing order (also known as reverse order). For example, if the starting star number is 1, the reverse order of flight will be:

2 (End of flight)	6 (fifth)	4 (seventh)
3 (eighth)	1 (Start of flight)	8 (third)
7 (fourth)	5 (sixth)	9 (second position)

The 24 Mountains

The 24 Mountains are directions or locations that are used to identify or locate auspicious or inauspicious "Qi" or energy in an area. The 24 Mountains may be classified under the following 8 directions:

Direction	Name	Chinese	Trigram
South	LI	離	☲
South West	KUN	坤	☷
West	DUI	兌	☱
North West	QIAN	乾	☰
North	KAN	坎	☵
North East	GEN	艮	☶
East	ZHEN	震	☳
South East	XUN	巽	☴

The above arrangement of the 8 trigrams is known as the Later Heaven Arrangement in I Ching. When put into a grid, a magic square is formed, where the sum of the numbers, whether horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, adds up to 15. The basis for the flight of the flying stars may be obtained from this magic square as follows:

Add 1 to the center of the grid, which houses the number 5. The result is 6, which is the next position of a flying star.
Add 1 to 6 (the North West position). The result is 7, which is the next location of the flying star (West)
Add 1 to 7 (the West position). The result is 8, which is the next location of the flying star (North East)
This process is repeated to obtain the complete flight of the flying stars in the grid. (When 1 is added to 9, the next number is 1, since the number of squares in the grid is 9.)

4 (巽) South East	9 (離) South	2 (坤) South West
3 (震) East	5 (Centre)	7 (兌) West
8 (艮) North East	1 (坎) North	6 (乾) North West

The table of 24 Mountains is given below:

Direction	Name (Pinyin)	Name (Wade-Giles)	Chinese	Source of Chinese character	From	To
South East-South	bing	ping	丙	Heavenly Stem of Ba Zi	157.6°	172.5°
South	wu	wu	午	Earthly Branch of Ba Zi	172.6°	187.5°
South West-South	ding	ting	丁	Heavenly Stem of Ba Zi	187.6°	202.5°
South-South West	wei	wei	未	Earthly Branch of Ba Zi	202.6°	217.5°
South West	kun	kun	坤 (☷)	Trigram of I Ching	217.6°	232.5°
West-South West	shen	shen	申	Earthly Branch of Ba Zi	232.6°	247.5°
South West-West	geng	keng	庚	Heavenly Stem of Ba Zi	247.6°	262.5°
West	you	yu	酉	Earthly Branch of Ba Zi	262.6°	277.5°
North West-West	xin	hsin	辛	Heavenly Stem of Ba Zi	277.6°	292.5°
West-North West	xu	hsu	戌	Earthly Branch of Ba Zi	292.6°	307.5°
North West	qian	chien	乾 (☰)	Trigram of I Ching	307.6°	322.5°
North-North West	hai	hai	亥	Earthly Branch of Ba Zi	322.6°	337.5°
North West-North	ren	jen	壬	Heavenly Stem of Ba Zi	337.6°	352.5°
North	zi	tzu	子	Earthly Branch of Ba Zi	352.6°	7.5°
North East-North	gui	kuei	癸	Heavenly Stem of Ba Zi	7.6°	22.5°
North-North East	chou	chou	丑	Earthly Branch of Ba Zi	22.6°	37.5°
North East	gen	ken	艮 (☶)	Trigram of I Ching	37.6°	52.5°
East-North East	yin	yin	寅	Earthly Branch of Ba Zi	52.6°	67.5°
North East-East	jia	chia	甲	Heavenly Stem of Ba Zi	67.6°	82.5°
East	mao	mao	卯	Earthly Branch of Ba Zi	82.6°	97.5°
South East-East	yi	i	乙	Heavenly Stem of Ba Zi	97.6°	112.5°
East-South East	chen	chen	辰	Earthly Branch of Ba Zi	112.6°	127.5°
South East	xun	sun	巽 (☴)	Trigram of I Ching	127.6°	142.5°
South-South East	si	ssu	巳	Earthly Branch of Ba Zi	142.6°	157.5°

Notes:

The columns "Name (Pinyin)" and "Name (Wade-Giles)" are the Chinese names for the directions that are transliterated/romanized differently by different authors. For example, for direction South 1, the Chinese character is 丙, and this is romanized as "bing" in pinyin and "ping" in Wade-Giles.
The directions South 1, South 2 and South 3 are all classified under South. Similarly, the directions South West 1, South West 2 and South West 3 are all classified under South West, etc.

Aquarium Feng Shui

Substitute Star

Ref: Wong, Eva. A Master Course in Feng-Shui. Shambala. Boston & London. 2001.