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
/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:

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:

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:

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:
 * 1) 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.
 * 2) Add 1 to 6 (the North West position). The result is 7, which is the next location of the flying star (West)
 * 3) Add 1 to 7 (the West position). The result is 8, which is the next location of the flying star (North East)
 * 4) 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.)

The table of 24 Mountains is given below:

Notes:
 * 1) 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.
 * 2) 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
/Aquarium Feng Shui/

Substitute Star
/Substitute Star/

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