The first number in each of the series goes into the palace labeled “A” (in the center). The next number, whether we are counting forward or reverse, goes into “B”. Then the next one goes into “C”.  And so on through “I”.

Qi (pronounced as ‘chi’ ) is in a key concept in many Chinese metaphysics including Feng Shui. Qi can have different meaning depending on where it is applied and trying to come out with a single definition can be quite a challenge.

Qi literally means breathe or air, you cannot see or hear but its influence can be felt around us and in all places. Qi is dispersed by the wind and gathers by the boundaries of water.

There are two type of qi namely Sheng Qi or Living Qi and Sha Qi or Killing Qi. Sheng Qi can help improve wealth, heath, relationships etc while Sha Qi may cause injury, accident, fire, lawsuit, illness and so on. In the practice of Feng Shui we want to live in a place with plenty of Sheng Qi and to avoid places or offending structures that generate Sha Qi.

There are various types of qi and their corresponding sources, functions, distributions and relevance. For example, the mountains, being static and stable, provide the force for stability, the force of support. The mountain ranges with lush green vegetation are a rich source and carrier of qi. In Feng Shui, mountains are known as Dragon and hence qi is also known as the dragon breath.

The idea of applying Feng Shui practice is to assess and harness the right type of qi. To achieve this, certain techniques of assessing our living environment are employed. Feng Shui is in fact, a study of qi in our living environment and how it affects the residents.

In the study, there is a few of Feng Shui techniques. The first technique is Xing Fa where is about the surrounding forms and how they affect us. The second technique is Li Fa on the other is about qi that we cannot see. It is about the effect of planetary movements on us. This is a qi that we cannot see but we know where they are at different time by applying the formulas left to us by our forefathers.

The Four Celestial Animals consist of the Green Dragon, White Tiger, Black Tortoise and Red Phoenix are derived from the twenty-eight constellations and stations of the moon. The Celestial Animals were originally groups of constellations the Chinese recorded in the night sky. Each group occupied a quarter of the sky, and was completely visible only during its associated season. In the winter saw the constellations that comprise the Black Tortoise. The spring, the Green Dragon’s constellations filled the sky. The summer saw the constellations of the Red Phoenix flew overhead, and in the autumn, the constellations of the White Tiger stalked the night.

The ancient sages believe that the ideal site for a house should be supported by hills at the back and have a clear uncluttered view in front. In addition, the hill on the left (inside looking out) should be higher than that on the right. These formations of the landform are definitely a protective function. The Four Celestial Animals are the Four Guardians of the house. Each animal represents a different energy from the earth.

The hill formation at the posterior part is known as the Black Tortoise. The clear uncluttered area at the front which should ideally include a slow meandering river or a distance low mountain is called the Red Phoenix. The hill formation on the left is known as the Green Dragon while the formation on the right is known as the White Tiger are carrier of life giving qi while water is an accumulator.

• The Green Dragon: Refers to the left side or the East and its element is wood.
• The White Tiger: Refers to the right side or the West and its element is metal.
• The Black Tortoise: Refers to the back or the North and its element is water.
• The Red Phoenix: Refers to the front part or the South and its element is fire.

Furthermore, there are many presentations for the Four Celestial Animals. With each associated to career, wealth, good health, power and fame are following:-

• The Left: The Green Dragon is the Yang force, symbolizes the male. A house with a stronger Green Dragon side is believed to be beneficial to the males in house. The Green Dragon also symbolizes good relationship and prosperity. It brings success in every area of our lives.
• The Right: The White Tiger is the Yin force, symbolizes the female, poor relationship, loss of money and misfortune. This leads to the belief that occupants of houses with a strong White Tiger have less money luck and poor relationship. It protects the household from any harm.
• The Front: The Red Phoenix is the Yang force. It brings fame, recognition and ensures good standing in the community.
• The Back: The Black Tortoise is the Yin force. It is important as the Green Dragon, and would benefit in career, promotions and having a good job.

It is said that every site is surrounded by symbolic of Four Celestial Animals. Unfortunately, if there’s no hill and no embracing mountain, the artificial forms based on five elements can play this role. In urban areas, the Black Tortoise, Green Dragon and White Tiger can be substituted by buildings or trees. The Red Phoenix can be an open area or a fountain. Therefore, we could roughly compare the area of these Four Celestial Animals into own homes and premises.

Just as in real estate, location plays a key role in Feng Shui. The best location must be near waterway and enveloped the lofty mountain for protected of wind in monsoon season.

In modern architecture, it may be difficult to achieve this ideal location of having a mountain or waterway, therefore, should be applied in practice due to difficult real life situations. Any building or structure taller than the dwelling should be considered Mountain Dragon or lofty mountain and the street or road in front of the dwelling should be considered Water Dragon or waterway. Such consideration is about shape of building around the dwelling, It should not be unfortunate Dragon or irregular shaped. While the road should be meander and embrace, as like as Dragon alive. If the straight road, it looks like dead Dragon. Furthermore, the feature of road is not auspicious. However, there are other factors that practitioners need to consider when choosing the location e.g. the shape of the land, the direction of wind and site. These important factors depend on meticulous and observant of the Master of Feng Shui.

However, the practitioners have to studying from theoretical knowledge alone is insufficient for arbitrate that they will have the true knowledge. The important thing is to have onsite surveys, otherwise the practitioners might be likes the warriors that train all time, but they will become to easily die when go to battlefield.

Acquiring the theoretical basis with a guide from true Master is an important. Because the theoretical basis is wrong from the original, it is only knowledge in the textbook then make mistakes of conclusion. Conversely, if the practitioners can achieve knowledge of locations which reveal by experienced Master maybe they obtain a secret of theoretical basis which cannot see in the text book. Thus, the practitioners have to understanding about location from principle and real experience. The considering from photograph which location is suitable it cannot completely conclusions, possible there is something about outside environment that is not auspicious but it don’t appear in the photograph.

Tai Ji symbol also known as Tai Chi symbol

The Yin and Yang are natural forms of energy that are in a constant state of change, movement and interaction. There exists two opposing and interrelating forces in our universe. This dynamic relationship creates and governs all life. From Birth, Growth, Sickness and Death, the stages of existence are in constant evolution.

The Yin and Yang meaning is embodied by the Tai Chi symbol shown on the above. It is a circle made up of two different tadpole parts, one in black (known as the Yin side) and the other in white (known as the Yang side). You will notice that in Yang (represented by the white tadpole) lies the seed of Yin (represented by the black dot) and vice-versa. In addition Yin and Yang are cyclical. In the symbol you can see that Yang reaches its peak, Yin is born and vice versa. This illustrates that when something reaches its peak, decline sets in. Everything in our universe functions this way because the basic building blocks, atoms act this way.

In Feng Shui, yin and yang takes on a different dimension. Here are just some examples of yin yang.

Each twenty year period is governed by its own Star. For example an upper cycle; star 1, star 2 and star 3 take possession of this cycle.

Upper Cycle

Period 1: 1864 – 1883      20 years

Period 2: 1884 – 1903      20 years

Period 3: 1904 – 1923      20 years

Middle Cycle

Period 4: 1924 – 1943       20 years

Period 5: 1944 – 1963       20 years

Period 6: 1964 – 1983       20 years

Note: For period 5 – First ten years are absorbing energy from period 4 and last ten years will absorb energy from period 6.

Lower Cycle

Period 7: 1984 – 2003       20 years

Period 8: 2004 – 2023       20 years

Period 9: 2024 – 2043       20 years

Every range is exactly twenty years long, and the period numbers go in numerical order. There are nine periods in all, and when the ninth one ends they start over again at one. So 2006 was in period 8, and 2050 will be in period 1.

The 24 mountains come from 8 Heavenly Stems, 12 Earthly Branches and 4 Trigrams. They represent trigrams as well as directions. Each mountain comprises of 3 sectors, each sector is 45 degrees and each sub-sector is 15 degrees, so you can see that 15 multiplied by 24 will give us the 360 degrees that make up the full circle of a Luo Pan. Xuan Kong Flying Stars charts are drawn up based on these measurements. Example if a compass reads 342 degrees it is North 1 facing Ren.

When Chou, himself a good scholar, was kidnapped and imprisoned by another emperor, he spent time playing around with the Ba Gua and transformed the theoretical aspects into practical applications.

Chou moved Fire to the position of Heaven in the Early Heaven Ba Gua while the position of the Swamp was moved to the West in his Later Heaven Ba Gua. He had the Thunder position in the Northeast now occupied by the Mountain. Meanwhile, Thunder had been moved to the East in the Later Heaven Ba Gua.

Chou rationalized that Heaven, which is associated with the element Metal, should not be in the South. With South already occupied by Fire, Metal will get melted or destroyed. He has thus moved Heaven to Northwest in the Later Heaven Ba Gua. Meanwhile, Earth was moved to the Southwest. The North is considered to be full of Water. The Southeast, where the Wind is positioned.

The Lo Shu

Legends attribute China prehistoric personality, Hsia Yu – he who tamed the Yellow River of floods to be the one who discovered the Lo Shu. Yu saw some very interesting markings on the shell of a giant tortoise that emerged from the River Lo in Central China. This became Lo Shu.

The Lo Shu is quite similar to the He Tu, except that the layout of the dotted patterns is different. The white dots in the image are yang numbers, whereas the black dots represent yin numbers. The He Tu has ten dotted patterns, whereas the Lo Shu has only nine. A reproduction of the original Lo Shu diagram is found below:

Lo Shu is often drawn in the form of a 9-square chart with each square representing a direction in the compass namely North, South, East, West, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest and the Center. They are usually identified by numbers as you can see by the chart below.

This pattern corresponds to the eight sides of the Ba Gua, with the 5 in the centre, corresponding to the Earth. The number combinations is similar to the He Tu pattern, the numbers 1 and 6 combine to form water; 3 and 8 combine to form wood; 2 and 7 combine to form fire and 4 and 9 combine to form metal.

On a closer look odd (yang) numbers 1,3,7,9 appear on the four cardinal directions and even (yin) numbers 2,4,6,8 are placed in the four sub-cardinal directions.

As you can see, the sum of the three numbers in any horizontal, vertical or diagonal direction gives a result of 15. In other words, if you ignore the 5 in the center, you will notice that the number opposite each other all sums up to 10, reason for which it is called the magic square.

The relevance of the number 15 is that it is the number of days it takes from full moon to new moon. The 24 Chinese seasons follows this lunar pattern and the days are approximately divided into 15 each.

Each number has different properties and one of the 5 elements assigned to it also.

In the He Tu we saw the cycle of production whereas in the Lo Shu it is the cycle of destruction. Following an anticlockwise direction from the centre earth [5] destroys water [1,6] destroys fire [2,7] destroys metal [4,9] destroys wood [8,3] destroys earth.

The Later Heaven Ba Gua is the arrangement that depicts the ‘Changing Universe’, that some people refer the He Tu as the birth chart and the Lo Shu as the result chart.

Zheng Wu Xing is the future divination from the Chinese calendar which will be able to describe with high degree of accuracy, a person’s personality traits, behavior, family and social relationships, potentials which can be applied to career choices and future major decisions, achievements and health and so on, by simply reading the data of the person’s birth year, month, day and hour.

This information is displayed in seven columns of Chinese ‘numerical’ character. Each column is called a ‘pillar’ with the two characters placed on top of each other. In each pillar, the one on the top is a Heavenly Stem and the bottom one is an Earthly Branch.

The 10 Heavenly Stems classify into either Yin or Yang polarities and match up with one of the 5 elements, which are namely as following:

The 12 Earthly Branches are more commonly known as the twelve animals of the zodiac, which are namely as following:

An example of a genuine elements table for a male individual born on 26th of June 2012 at 5 am, that is shown as below. The arrangement of the genuine elements table is based on its original form and its read from right to left. The table is represented by fourteen characters arranged into seven columns which are representing the year, month, day, hour, soul, fertilize and love.

The secondary table otherwise known as the Life Path table consists of a set of pillars with each pillar is representing a period of 10 years of an individual’s life. Life Path can further be broken down into five year lucky periods and even annual lucky periods.

From the genuine elements table by studying the interaction of the characters with each other, one can tell the characteristics of an individual and the relationship between the individual with the surrounding environment. For example:-

• Year Pillar : Society, relationship with old age, etc.
• Month Pillar : Family background, relationship with parents, etc.
• Day Pillar : The day overseer, relationship with spouse/partner, etc.
• Hour Pillar : Relationship with children/inferior, etc.
• Soul Pillar : Personality traits
• Fertilize Pillar : Health
• Love Pillar : Marriage

The genuine elements table can also forecast the strength and weakness in our destiny which represents the ups and downs of life.

Zheng Wu Xing can also be used to select the most suitable date for the action that you may want to take, e.g. the best date for opening a business, changing jobs, moving house, getting married etc. Compatibility of business partners and prospective marriage partners can also be analyzed.

In the present, the core subjects of Zheng Wu Xing have already been deleted and shuffle all the words inside out. No one could acquire the real knowledge without a guide from true Master.



In ancient times, there was a sage named Fu Xi (2852-2737 BCE) who observed the stars in the heavens, the contours of the world, the markings of birds and beasts and all the mysterious working of nature. From his observation, Fu Xi formulated a common law of existence, which is graphically depicted by the Ba Gua.

The Early Heaven Ba Gua, which is derived by various combinations of the yin and yang energy, describes the nature of the universe. This can be seen from its eight trigrams (Heaven, Earth, Wind, Thunder, Water, Fire, Mountain and Swamp) that represent the eight directions – North, South, East, West, Northeast, Southwest, Southeast and Northwest.

According to Fu Xi’s theory of the universe, these are all opposing forces perfectly balance against each other – a dynamic equilibrium.

Based on ancient formulae, Heaven and Earth support each other, Wind and Thunder wrestle together, Water and Fire do not shoot each other while the qi or energy of the Swamp and Mountain is linked together.

The adjustment of the trigrams is symmetrical by forming exact contrary pairs. They symbolize the opposite forces of Yin and Yang and represent an ideal state, when everything is in balance as shown on the below.

Each direction corresponds to a trigram with its respective correspondences:

乾 – Qian (Heaven) at the top, in the South.
坤 – Kun (Earth) at the bottom, in the North.
離 – Li (Fire) on the left side, in the East.
坎 – Kan (Water) on the right side, in the West.
巽 – Xun (Wind) in the Southwest.
震 – Zhen (Thunder) in the Northeast.
艮 – Gen (Mountain) in the Northwest.
兌 – Dui (Swamp) in the Southeast.

Not only that, Fu Xi discovered the Middle Heaven Ba Gua known as Zhongtian Ba Gua, which is completely the Ba Gua. This essential knowledge will reveal to a scanty practitioner who is descendent with the absolute sages.

The He Tu (River Map)

Fu Xi is believed to be the first of China’s mythical emperors. His miraculous birth, as a divine being with a serpent body, is said to have occurred in the 29th Century BC.

One day, as Fu Xi was sitting on the back of the Yellow River, a Qi Lin rose out of the waters and approached him. On its back it carried certain markings. A reproduction of the markings is found below:

In the He Tu, the white dots in the image are yang numbers, whereas the black dots represent yin numbers. The He Tu has ten dotted patterns. Comprising of black and white dots, five combinations, occupying the directions can be found below:

The number combinations, their locations and representing elements of the He Tu is tabulated below:

In every combination, there exists one Yang (Odd number, white dots) and one Yin (Even number, black dots). Notice that opposite every Yin number exists a Yang number and vice versa. Some people refer 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 as the birth number and 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 as the result number. The difference between the birth number and result number is always 5.

Following a clockwise direction starting from the centre (Earth), we saw the cycle of production.  The combinations flow in the same manner as that of found in the cycle of birth (Earth [5,10] produces Metal [4,9], Metal produces Water [1,6], Water nourishes Wood [3,8], Wood nourishes Fire [2,7], Fire produces Earth and so on).

This corresponds to the theory that everything possessed a positive male bright side (Yang) but at the same time had a negative female dark side (Yin). These aspects are complementary and integrate with each other, and it is believed that harmony can only be achieved with a balance between the two.

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