The Use of Different Metrics or Feng Shu PDF

Academic Journal of Feng Shui – 1st Symposium – Oceania
University of Technology Sydney, Australia, 13 & 14 May 2017 Skinner 2017
THE USE OF DIFFERENT METRICS OR FENG SHUI

FORMULAE FOR DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE BUILT
ENVIRONMENT
Stephen Skinner
International Feng Shui Association - Singapore
ABSTRACT
Feng shui treats different parts of the built environment differently. For example, the
sitting/facing position of a building is utilised by San Yuan Flying Star formulae, but the best
positioning of its doors is handled by Eight Mansion formulae. The building’s relationship to
the external environment is a function of San He feng shui and the three Plates of the luopan
or Chinese compass. The location of external water in the environment and its relationship,
beneficial or otherwise, to the building is measured by the Heaven Plate of the luopan.
However the circulation of qi inside the building is dealt with by San Yuan Flying Star
formulae. The apparent clash of some of these methods such as the interior assessment of the
quality of various rooms in terms of Flying Star formulae as opposed to their analysis by
Eight Mansion formulae are often the cause of controversy and doubt. Another example is the
apparent, but not real, tension between front door positioning and facing direction. All these
issues have a very real impact of the assessment of the feng shui of a building.
In fact classical feng shui formulae do not clash, but simply measure different things in the
built environment. It is the objective of this paper to demonstrate that different formulae in
feng shui cover different domains or zones of the built environment, and so, when rightly
understood, do not clash.
KEY WORDS
Feng shui, built environment, Flying Stars, Eight Mansion, San He, San Yuan, doors, ‘sand
sha’, luopan, qi.
INTRODUCTION
Feng shui is concerned with utilising the built environment in order to generate the most
favourable conditions for human occupancy, or to put it in a more accessible manner, to
improve the luck of the occupants. ‘Luck’ is often seen in the West as a synonym for chance,
for example the odds on winning the lottery. However the feng shui concept of luck is more
like a commodity which leads to an increase in opportunities for abundance in a number of
fields. These opportunities can be either increased or decreased by physical feng shui changes:
an increase in such ‘luck’ leads to wealth and good business relationships on one hand, and to
fertility, good family relationships, health and many bright children on the other.
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There are many feng shui formulae designed to enable these outcomes. Because of the way
feng shui is taught to English speaking audiences, these formulae or ‘schools of feng shui’ are
often seen as competing, and sometimes look very different one from another, to the point of
appearing to conflict.
Common Cosmological Basis

In essence all feng shui formulae depend upon the same few simple Chinese cosmological
concepts. These are often taught at a feng shui 101 level, and then promptly forgotten, but
they form the ongoing backbone of all feng shui formulae. Unlike Western physics which is
still looking for a unified field theory or ‘theory of everything,’ Chinese Metaphysics and
science has long since had common roots for all of its branches, using the same cosmological
principles to support the theory and practice of medicine, feng shui, bazi astrology, TCM,
acupuncture, and face-reading, etc.
Western physics has identified what it sees as the basic forces of the universe: magnetism,
electricity, gravity, the strong force, the so-called weak force, but it pines for an overall
theory of everything which will tie them all together. Chinese science starts with
philosophical absolutes like yin and yang and the five Elements, and then proceeds to apply
them to each of the various disciplines: medicine, kung fu, military strategy, temple building,
astrology, astronomy, agriculture, geography, and of course feng shui.
Ancient Chinese thinking about any science or technology was very orderly and its principles
were unitary. Furthermore, in this thinking, time and space were closely related, rather than
being seen as different dimensions or unrelated subjects. As long ago as the second century
BCE, time, the seasons, astronomy, directions, feng shui and geography were clearly
delineated and closely interrelated in the Huainanzi (Major, 1993). The Huainanzi was
compiled by order of Liu An, King of Huainan shortly before 139 BCE. It was written in the
form of a guide to the whole world of Chinese cosmological and political thought for the use
of the King. The chapters which cover the cosmological basis of Chinese arts and sciences
are chapters 3, 4, and 5. Other chapters advise the King on political thought, statecraft, etc.
Common Numerical Bases

This unity of thinking was based on the use of a limited number of numerical principles to
define things: yin/yang polarity, the 5 Elements (wu xing), and the 12 Earthly Branches (di
zhi). By combining these principles, further categories were generated, such as the 10
Heavenly Stems (tian gan), the 12 Mountains (shan), the solar calendar with 24 mini-seasons,
the 60 jiazi combinations or Dragons, the extended 72 Dragons, and the 120 fen chin, all of
which are simply based on multiples of the numbers 2, 5 and 6. These terms were applied to
physical sciences like geography and time keeping, as well as being the building blocks of
Chinese Metaphysics, specifically feng shui, and notably San He feng shui.
San Yuan feng shui on the other hand, which was generated more than a millennium later,
used the different numerical base of 8, relying upon the 8 trigrams and 64 hexagrams of the
Yijing (Aylward, 2007). This historical time difference between these two Schools will be
amplified and pinpointed later in this paper.
The eight trigrams on the inner rings of the luopan, although ancient, were primarily used as
directional indicators, just as we might use N, S, E, W, NW, SW, NE, SE, and not initially
directly related to any San Yuan feng shui formula. Multiples of 8 did not either form the
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theoretical basis of feng shui (as recorded on the luopan) prior to the Sung dynasty, nor did
they interpenetrate the whole range of other Chinese arts and sciences in quite the same way
as the base 2, 5 and 6 categories of the yin/yang/Five Element/Stem/Branch combinations.
As John Major says in the introduction to his translation of the key chapters of the Huainanzi,
(Major, 1993, p.8) when speaking about the earliest Chinese Metaphysics:
Conspicuous by its absence is any reference in these chapters to the Yijing (Book of
Changes) or its appendices. This is not terribly surprising: as Fung Yu-lan long ago
noted, the cosmological theories of the Yijing and the Yin/yang/Five Phases [Elements]
schools, remained quite separate until the early Han.
Indeed the Yijing did not become involved with feng shui until the Northern Sung dynasty
(960-1127 CE). Although the hexagrams of the Yijing clearly date back to King Wen (1122
BCE) and his son Duke Chou, their use in San Yuan feng shui dates from much more recent
times. The numerology usually associated with the feng shui manipulation of the hexagrams
dates from Shao Yung (1011-1077 CE), but the first ring of hexagrams to be seen on the
luopan dates from the early Ming dynasty. Even then, only 60 hexagrams appeared on the
luopan, and they were carefully matched with the 60 jiazi (combinations of Earthly Branches
and Heavenly Stems) in order to remain compatible with the rest of the rings of the luopan,
and incidentally with San He feng shui.
It may be confirmed by reference to 地理辨正疏 Di Li Bian Zheng Shu that it was not until a
few years before 1827 that all 64 hexagrams were incorporated in a ring on the luopan
(Zhang Xin Yan, 1827). In this book Zhang puts forward the then novel idea that all 64
hexagrams should appear on the hexagram ring. Prior to that the four main ‘pure’ hexagrams,
Heaven, Earth, Fire and Water, were allocated to the four cardinal directions, but did not
explicitly appear on any hexagram ring of any known luopan.
Separate Functions
The basic divide in methods between San He and San Yuan not only corresponds to a
difference in arithmetic base (2, 5, 6 versus 8, 64) but also corresponds to a divide in the zone
or field of action. San He is primarily involved in exterior calculations, whilst San Yuan,
especially with regard to Xuan Kong Fei Xing, deals primarily with the feng shui of
interiors.1
The common numerical basis of feng shui formulae is one reason why the formulae generated
from these basic cosmological building blocks are compatible. A second and more cogent
reason for their compatibility is that the separate formulae serve quite different functions.
Amongst modern practitioners there is often confusion about the exact function of each of
these formulae which sometimes causes a formula to be applied in the wrong context,
resulting in apparently conflicting results. The main purpose of this paper is to examine a few
of these conflicts and to resolve the most important ones, so that the application of different
feng shui formulae to the built environment can be carried out in a logical and integrated
manner.
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Xuan Kong Da Gua, is an exception as it deals with exteriors, but more recently has been applies to interiors as
well. XKDG also has applications in date selection formulae.
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The use and abuse of different feng shui formulae

Below I give a few examples of the mismatching of formulae with that which is being
measured, to demonstrate existence of this type of problem.
1. One of the most obvious examples of incorrect application is the idea that Flying Star
feng shui can be applied to garden design, using it to decide, for example, the colours of
flowers in particular segments of the garden beds. This method considers the garden an
extension of the interior feng shui, when nothing could be further from the truth, as the rules
for exterior garden feng shui are quite different. This is wholly inappropriate as Flying Star
formulae were always intended to only deal with interior spaces. This is further compounded
by the use of the faux feng shui ‘eight life aspirations’ formula.
One ‘authority’ explains on her web site:
If you are looking to add a water feature to your garden, feng shui areas such as
southeast (money & abundance); east (health & family) and north (career & path in
life), are excellent areas for water feng shui element energy…
Working with feng shui colors is a great way to emphasize various feng shui rhythms in
your garden. In feng shui, color is used according to the five elements theory, and you
can bring healing harmony and joy to your garden by choosing colors that emphasize
specific energies, such as, for example, the Fire energy in the south
with red or purple flower colors, or Earth energy in the Southwest with light yellow
color. (www.thespruce.com/create-good-feng-shui-in-your-garden-1275303.)
This passage confirms that the author is still thinking in terms of ‘life aspiration’ feng shui, a
faux feng shui method with a pseudo-bagua that was popularised by English language books
on feng shui published in the late 20th century (for example Lillian Too (2000)).
Figure 1: The miss-application of interior ‘eight life aspirations’ bagua to external garden
feng shui. (http://www.chiff.com/a/garden-feng-shui.htm).
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2. The application of Later Heaven Sequence trigrams to external feng shui calculations,
(or the application of Early Heaven Sequence trigrams to interior feng shui calculations) is at
the root of this error. In both cases the reverse is true.
3. Modern practitioners often discard Eight Mansions analysis when they perceive that
its results appear to clash with the results of a Flying Star analysis. For example a situation
where an Eight Mansions formula has been applied to a room which is thereby categorised as
jue ming (the worst possible designation), whilst the application of a Flying Star formula
categorises the room as an 8-6-1 Star combination (a good combination in any period). In fact
there is no clash between these methods as they each measure quite different things. This
question will be addressed later in this paper by examining exactly what these two systems
actually measure.
4. Attempting to apply Flying Star formulae to graves is another example of
inappropriate usage because a grave is not divided into nine Palaces, as is a home, and
therefore does not have the same pattern of circulation of qi. This confusion arose because
Shen Zhu Reng wrote that originally he came to understand the time element in Flying Star
formulae after questioning the quality of a grave which had excellent feng shui from a
landform point of view, but was subsequently a disaster for the occupant’s descendants (Shen,
2015). Despite the trajectory of his original reasoning on that occasion which produced a
useful conclusion, at no time did he suggest that Flying Star analysis was appropriate for
grave feng shui.
5. Another common cause for confusion in Flying Star analyses is using the front door
as an indication of the facing direction of the building. In Flying Star feng shui, building
facing direction and front door facing do not necessarily coincide.
6. Interior Palace division of a building is another area rife with confusion. Traditionally
the division of the building was carried out using nine Palace divisions with a rectangular
grid. This contrasts with the division of the building by an eight segment pie-wedge grid. The
pie-wedge division method is a relatively late introduction, having originated in the 1970s in
Hong Kong. The confusion came about by practitioners attempting to make feng shui more
‘logical.’ They realised that the act of measuring distant objects and mountains using a
luopan was effectively a radial method of dividing the exterior landscape. They decided, in
the interests of consistency, to ignore the centuries old method of rectangular Palace division,
and applied a pie-wedge method of dividing the circulation of qi inside the building.
7. At a more technical level, using the Earth Plate to map water courses has also resulted
in incorrect analyses. Mapping water courses should be done using the Heaven Plate on the
luopan. As the Heaven Plate is 7.5 degrees ‘ahead’ of the Earth Plate, reading in a clockwise
direction, errors of more than half a Mountains can be involved if the wrong Plate is used.
Many feng shui classics confirm that the Heaven Plate is the correct applicable Plate for
water measurements.
What are we trying to measure?

Although feng shui is a veritable smorgasbord of methods, these methods can be usefully
divided by their field of application. Instead of trying to pick the ‘best’ system to use, one
should be asking “what do I want to measure?”
Instead of asking “should I use Eight Mansions, Flying Star, San He, San Yuan, Liu Fa, Xuan
Kong Da Gua, or Xuan Kong Fei Xing?” or any one of a dozen other feng shui methods, the
question should be “what exactly am I trying to measure with this method?”
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To answer this question we need to divide the built environment and its surrounding
hinterland into specific zones, ranging from the macrocosm of the whole nation, through the
landform made up of rivers and interfluves, the hinterland surrounding a city, the structure of
the city itself, the set of all things within sight of the building (the ‘sand-sha’), the orientation
of the building, the location of doors in the outer wall of the building, the circulation of qi
within the building, its circulation within specific rooms, the location and orientation of
furniture, specifically the bed, dining table, and other common sitting location, and finally the
interaction of the occupants and the building (in terms of their bazi charts, date of entry, etc).
These form discreet and easily identifiable zones.
Zones of the Environment

Each of these items forms a distinct ‘zone’ ranging from the largest to the smallest, and each
is dealt with by specific feng shui formulae. By dividing the built environment and the
surrounding hinterland into a series of ‘zones,’ or concentric shells, it becomes easier to
associate each feng shui method with its proper ‘zone.’ This is not a question of which
formula is better, but a question of which formula was originally meant to be applied to a
particular zone. Each zone requires the application of a different feng shui formula. Much of
the current confusion in feng shui practice is caused by the miss-application of formulae to
zones.
Sequence of analysis
In order to enumerate the main methods (fa) of feng shui and relate them to their respective
zones of application, I will examine the built environment from the outside inwards.
Interestingly, this sequence of analysis from the outside landforms via the hinterland
landscape and the local environment to the examination of the distribution of qi inside the
house and its effect on the human occupants, follows almost the same chronological
trajectory as the historical evolution of feng shui, with the oldest San He theories being
applied to the distant mountains, and the more historically recent San Yuan theories being
applicable to the internal rooms of a building.
This also reflects the historical pattern of the evolution of feng shui from the Emperor’s
exclusive access to techniques applied to site palaces and mansions in relation to rivers and
mountains, to the use of feng shui in current times to analyse the interior of the smallest of
flats or even single rooms. In the 20th and early 21st centuries, feng shui ceased to be an
Imperial prerogative and became the province of the common man who did not have wide
demesnes or whole hillsides to play with, but had to content himself with making changes to
the layout of his rooms and the orientation of his bed or dining table.
Working from the far horizon inwards, we can examine the field of action of each of these
methods:
EXTERIOR CONSIDERATIONS
San He School
This method deals with the identification of the main landform features (mountains and
watercourses) and their relationship with cities and building(s). In San He the luopan
compass is used considerably more than in methods involving the interior of a building (such
as Flying Star) where the Earth Plate of the luopan is used just once to determine the Sitting
and Facing Mountains of a building. (In this case ‘Mountain’ does not refer to a physical
mountain but to one of the 24 divisions of a particular ring of the luopan, or three rings in the
case of San He)
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A. The Nation and Provinces

It is well known that China was seen by its citizens as the Middle Kingdom, situated in the
centre of the civilised world, with succeeding zones radiating out from the centre and
embracing successively more barbaric nations.
This concentric view also occurs at a national level, and some early luopans had a ring which
showed the fen yeh, or ancient provinces of China. San He formulae existed which were
designed to predict luck outcomes for each province in specific years, primarily in the fields
of agriculture or natural disasters (Wang Dao Heng (1996); Skinner (2008), p. 295, ring 25
and 26). This idea is sometimes optimistically invoked by modern practitioners who attempt
to predict the fortunes of countries outside of China in a particular year, by analysing the
Flying Star movements and directions of the 8 trigrams. This may have some validity in
terms of the fen yeh ring, but is certainly not an appropriate macrocosmic use of Flying Star
formulae, which was always designed to track microcosmic qi flows inside a building.
B. The Interfluve zone

By definition, any land which lies between two rivers is called an interfluve. With the
exception of structures which span rivers, such as bridges, all buildings can be located in one
interfluve or another. In San He theory each interfluve forms a discrete territory or zone.
The ‘interfluve’ is a technical geographic term identifying the land area between two rivers or
streams. Almost all land (in any non-desert area) can be divided into interfluves. Although
not using this term, San He feng shui utilises this concept by stressing the importance of the
shui kou or ‘water mouth,’ which is the point where two streams meet, thereby neatly
terminating each interfluve, and forming a consistent zone suitable for feng shui
interpretation. According to San He feng shui, all buildings within an interfluve have the
same dragon qualities, and the effect of this on a building can be measured by using the 72-
Dragon ring.
Figure 2: Aerial photograph showing the main dragons, and the embrace of the xue (located
near the ring mark). The dotted lines indicate the passage of dragon energy. This photograph
demonstrates the division of the landscape into interfluves separated by rivers. (Hu, 2016.)
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A wider definition of shui kou includes the point where a watercourse is constricted between
a pair of hills, or turns a sharp corner due to underlying geological structures. Water mouths
are an important feature of San He feng shui as they neatly divide up the landscape into
discreet areas.
The Xuan Kong Da Gua definition of a water mouth is a lot wider, and can include the
junctions of roads. However that interpretation came historically a lot later.
Figure 3: Relationship between ancient settlements and the drainage patter: interfluve
analysis (Wheatley (1974), p. 209). Note there are five distinct interfluves shown on this map,
but only three water mouths, as the other two are further downstream.
The practical importance of this zone is demonstrated in Figure 3. Here the buildings marked
Chu-Li Ch’eng and Lung Shan Chen occupy a different interfluve from the building marked
P’ing-Ling Ch’eng. They both have different water mouths, and arise from a different
direction. The direction from which the first interfluve arises is south, and therefore gives the
Elemental quality of Fire to the interfluve, and its buildings. Likewise an interfluve
originating in the NW carries with it the Elemental quality of Metal, whilst one originating in
the East carries with it a Wood influence. This San He method popularised by Yang Yun
Sung uses the orientation of an interfluve to characterise the Elemental nature of all buildings
built within that zone, and allows precise positioning of the building using the 72 Dragon ring
of the luopan. For analysis, it is important to determine the Element of the interfluve upon
which the building is constructed, and to use this piece of information to precisely orientate
the building to the closest 365/72 = 5 degrees.
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C. The xue and its surrounding zone

We can now zoom in our focus a bit more to look at the zone of the landform surrounding a
particular house or grave or its xue. The xue is the most desirable in the landscape, and the
term can apply to either yin chai (gravesite) or yang chai (home). The xue in Figure 2 is
located in front of the ring mark at the end of the central dragon and embraced by two
dragons, one on either side. The xue in Figure 4 is shown in relation to its surrounding rivers
and mountains.
Figure 4: A Chinese site map of a xue, showing a site facing Ding (south, at the top) and
sitting at Gui (the respective luopan Mountains). Four physical mountains are marked
according to their perceived five Element nature and one in accordance with its Nine Stars
nature. (March, (1968) reproduced in Skinner (1976), p. 51 with additional captioning).
The xue is the focus of the whole site map in Figure 4. It is the spot which the feng shui
master strives to discover, as it is the most beneficial place to either build or bury. The water
mouth is the point where the two streams meet roughly to the left of centre in the map, before
meandering to the south (top of the map). In this zone the location of mountains and the entry
and exit points of watercourses are analysed using San He mountain and water formulae.
However, many San He water formulae designed for evaluating yin (grave) feng shui have
also been incorrectly applied to yang house feng shui, but a lack of space precludes a full
explanation of that.
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D. The Hinterland surrounding a City

The appropriate feng shui formulae for this ‘zone’ are also San He landform formulae. Such
San He formulae are applied in decisions involving large scale projects, the layout of cities or
isolated country mansions. They are also involved in building works associated with the
rectification of the landform around a city, such as the building of pagodas at the back of
Guangzhou, during Imperial times, to protect that city, and to improve its citizens’ scholarly
chances at the Imperial exams (see Figure 5).
Figure 5: A nineteenth century map of Canton (Guanzhou) showing the positioning of one of
several protective pagodas to the north of the old city (top centre), in relation to the line of
hills, or dragon, stretching away to the NE. (Author’s collection, 1840)
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THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

After analysing the effect of the surrounding landscape on a city or building, the next thing to
examine (moving ever inwards) is the orientation of the structure. Calculations involving the
structure itself and its interior fall into the province of San Yuan feng shui, and its associated
Xuan Kong methods.
E. Orientation of the Building
The categorisation of buildings according to their sitting position is addressed by the Eight
Mansions method. Eight Mansions is a San Yuan method, due to its reliance upon the
trigrams, and can be applied to both the orientation of buildings and the orientation of people
within a building (in both cases based on their sitting position)..
Figure 6: The ‘Precious Mirror table’ (the key to Eight Mansions) from the reverse side of a
late Qing dynasty luopan (Author’s collection).
It is well known that Eight Mansion theory is used to identify the type of structure based on
the gua of its Sitting direction as shown in Figure 7. The key to this method is shown on the
back of the luopan, and not amongst the rings on its face.
Figure 7: The eight trigrams which are used to name the eight types of building identified by
their sitting gua (Walters, 1991, modified). Note that as the formula is applied to a building
(rather than the landscape) it uses the Later Heaven Sequence bagua.
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Once the type of house is identified by its Sitting direction, it is then simple to look up the
four best and four worst directions for that house. The types of houses then divide into East
Houses (sitting E, SE, N, S) and West Houses (sitting W, SW, NW, NE). In the Ming
Encyclopedia of 1609 (Wang & Wang, 1609) this method is referred to as the ‘Four East
Four West’ method rather than the ‘Eight Mansions’ method.
So for example, a house sitting in the West would be identified as a Tui house (its sitting
trigram). This information used to be engraved or written on the back of all luopans (see
Figure 6). Nowadays it is preserved in tabular form independent of the luopan. From such a
lookup table, the best direction (or sheng qi) of this particular type of house is NW. Other
good directions are North (huo hai), NE (yen nien) and SW (tian yi). Correspondingly there
are four bad directions (of which the worst, jue ming, is located in the East. According to the
best known classic of this system, the Eight Mansion Bright Mirror (Chan, 2011), this
indicates that (in simplistic terms) the best direction to open a door is in the NW (sheng qi)
whilst the worst direction will be East (jue ming).
F. Location of Doorways
If you examine the Eight Mansion Bright Mirror (Ruoguan, 2010: Chan, 2011) it becomes
clear that the method deals with doors (men). At no point does it develop maps of the
building divided up into eight sectors, although such maps have been incorrectly added in
recent editions of this text, especially in English translations.
In the late 20th century it became popular to attribute the quality of these directions to the
adjacent rooms (i.e. the best room would be supposedly located in the NW whilst the room
most to be avoided was located in the East) in a Tui house. However if one reads the classic
(and avoids the illustrations added to modern editions) it becomes obvious that this
interpretation is not warranted. In fact, in as much as the Eight Mansions theory applies to
buildings, it establishes two things: the gua of the building and its best and worst directions,
following which the effect of opening doors in any of these various directions is explained in
considerable detail. There is nothing in the Eight Mansion Bright Mirror which pertains to
the interior rooms. The use of this theory to identify eight sectors inside a building and its
rooms, and assign them qualities, is a misconception.
Eight Mansion theory is therefore primarily concerned with the opening of doors. It is not, as
commonly portrayed in English language literature, concerned with dividing up of interior
areas or rooms. It is because of this that it does not clash with Flying Star feng shui which
does deal with the qi quality of individual Palaces or rooms.
There is of course a second dimension to Eight Mansion theory that identifies the gua of a
person, derived by performing certain calculations on their birth date. This then opens up a
means of categorising a person by their gua and dividing persons into East House or West
House persons, after which one can identify the suitability or otherwise of a person living in a
particular house.
G. The Internal Rooms zone

Moving further inwards, Flying Star feng shui or Xuan Kong Fei Xing is the next method.
This is used to define the qi circulation and qualities of individual rooms. Rooms are marked
out as rectangular Palaces, rather than the recently adopted practice of dividing the room up
into pie-wedge shapes.
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H. Furnishings
After the feng shui of each room has been dealt with (using Flying Star), Eight Mansions
comes back into the picture to deal with best positioning of the key pieces of furniture, such
as bed, dining table, and stove. (Flying Star also has input in the positioning of the stove).
Eight Mansions here applies to the best personal directions of the occupants. This ‘kua’
number is calculated from the date of birth.
I. Personal positioning
Using the ‘kua number’ of the individual, Eight Mansions tracks his/her best facing and
sitting directions. Just as Eight Mansions is concerned with the facing and sitting direction of
a house so at the microcosmic level, personal Eight Mansions is concerned with the facing
and sitting positions of the individual occupants of the house.
Figure 8: Illustrations from an early edition of the Eight Mansion Bright Mirror, showing that
the method deals with doorways and walls, not with enclosed spaces and rooms. (Ruoguan,
2010), The Chinese characters on the walls are abbreviated single character forms of the eight
possible ‘auspices.’
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CONCLUSIONS
Feng shui formulae are adapted to perform specific tasks which apply to specific ‘zones’ of
the built environment and its surroundings. These are very much a case of “horses for
courses,” and are not meant to be used across the board. The miss-application of these
formulae to a zone for which they were not designed has produced incorrect analysis and
confusion amongst students and practitioners. This is particularly noticeable in the confusion
of exterior and interior methods, which are quite distinct as demonstrated by Table 1.When
applied to the correct ‘zone’ these problems do not arise.
San Yuan Da Gua and a number of other formulae have been omitted from consideration in
an effort to simply address the question of zone appropriate formulae, rather than providing a
totally comprehensive analysis of all feng shui formulae, which would be a book-length
project.
Zone School or feng shui formula
A Nation and Provinces San He fen yeh

B Interfluve Zone San He 72 Dragons, etc. San He exterior
C Xue and its surrounding zone San He mountain and river formulae formulae
D Hinterland surrounding a city San He landform formulae

E Orientation of the Building Eight Mansions
F Location of Doorways Eight Mansions applied to the building
San Yuan Interior
G Internal Rooms Xuan Kong Flying Star
formulae
H Furnishings Eight Mansions applied to the
I Personal positioning individual
Table 1: A schematic of the zones of the built environment and its surroundings and their associated
feng shui formulae.
REFERENCES
-四庫全書 Ssu K’u Ch’üan Shu, ’Complete Library of the Four Treasures’ (The Qing
Dynasty Imperial Encyclopaedia), compiled by Order of the Emperor, Beijing, 1773-
1782.
Aylward, Thomas (2007). The Imperial Guide to Feng Shui and Chinese Astrology, Watkins,
London.
Chan, Terence (transl.) (2011). Eight Mansions Bright Mirror: Ba Zhai Ming Jing. JY, Kuala
Lumpur.
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Hu Zhao Tai (2016). Guide to Yang House Feng Shui, Hulair, Taiwan.
Huainanzi, see Major (1993).
Lillian Too (2000). Feng Shui for the Garden, Element, Shaftsbury.
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Corresponding Author:
Dr Stephen Skinner
International Feng Shui Association - Singapore
Email: perscon@gmail.com
Website: www.SSkinner.com
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Academic Journal of Feng Shui – 1st Symposium – Oceania

University of Technology Sydney, Australia, 13 & 14 May 2017 Skinner 2017

THE USE OF DIFFERENT METRICS OR FENG SHUI

Common Cosmological Basis

Common Numerical Bases

The use and abuse of different feng shui formulae

What are we trying to measure?

Zones of the Environment

A. The Nation and Provinces

B. The Interfluve zone

C. The xue and its surrounding zone

D. The Hinterland surrounding a City

THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

G. The Internal Rooms zone

Zone School or feng shui formula

A Nation and Provinces San He fen yeh

D Hinterland surrounding a city San He landform formulae

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