Feng Shui · Landforms · Eight Mansions

Feng Shui — Landforms, Bagua & Eight Stars

In short

Form School reads the mountains, water and open ground around a site. In Eight Mansions (Ba Zhai), your birth year and sex give your Life Gua — one of the eight trigrams — which sorts you into the East or West Four Houses. Each gua then maps the eight directions to eight stars, four auspicious and four inauspicious.

Landforms and water

四神砂Four Guardian Hills
The hills around a site — Black Tortoise (rear), Vermilion Bird (front), Azure Dragon (left), White Tiger (right).
背山臨水Mountain behind, water in front
A slope at the back, water to the front — the most widely used siting rule.
明堂Ming Tang (bright court)
The open ground before the site — the court where qi collects and settles.
案山An Shan (table hill)
The low hill facing the site, like a desk set before it.
朝山Chao Shan (court hill)
The far range beyond the table hill, standing as if in audience with the site.
坐向Zuo Xiang (sitting and facing)
The direction a building backs onto and the one it faces — the baseline for every judgement.
水口Shui Kou (water gate)
Where water enters and leaves the view — the tighter the exit, the better.
主山Zhu Shan (parent mountain)
The main mountain supporting the rear — the 'mountain behind' of the siting rule.
龍脈Long Mai (dragon vein)
The current of qi running down along a mountain ridge.
穴Xue (the point)
Where the vein stops and qi knots — the spot a building actually occupies.

The Eight Trigrams (八卦) · your Life Gua

The Eight Stars (八星) · auspicious & inauspicious directions

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Feng Shui is a traditional art of spatial arrangement, for reference only.