Liu Fa Feng Shui

Liu Fa
Posted by howardchoy under feng shui | Tags: Lin Zhi-Rong., Liu Fa, Tan Yang-Wu, Xuan Kong Kiu Fa |
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A new book written in Chinese by Lin Zhi-Rong 林志榮, a Taiwanese Feng Shui master has just came on the market, showing how Master Tan Yuan-Wu’s 談養吾 Xuan Kong Liu Fa 玄空六法 works in theory and in practice.

At the end of the book, he gave three work samples and I found one of them particularly interesting from a FS architect point of view, because he first amended the original design in a sensible way and then use the Liqi theories to support his redesign.

Below showed the work sample in question and if we look at them carefully we can see the core idea of Liu Fa is to “fen ci xiong” 分雌雄 and “na sheng qi” 納生氣 of the period by paying special attentions to the location of the Ling Shen and Zheng Shen for timeliness by lining up the furniture, windows and doors. The concept of “one item, one Taiji” is also evident at work and once the principles, and there are six of them are known, the applications are relatively easy to carry out.



Illustration 7.4 showed the original layout of an old public housing type, which has poor planning and inefficient use of space and circulation.



Illustration 7.5 showed the revised layout after Form analysis. The front door has been relocated to the right side and the bedrooms are grouped in the middle part of the house with a central corridor. All the windows and doorways are located in such a combination that they are in the Ling Shen position in relationship to the furniture, so as to na qi (take in or receive the sheng qi).



Illustration 7.6 showed if the centre of the house is used to Li-ji, then the relocated front door is to the NW1 (Xu) and the facing windows are also to the west, which are all Ling Shen directions for Period 8, hence they are auspicious, because Ling Shen should have movement and Zheng Shen should have stillness.



Illustration 7.7 and 7.8 showed if the user is used to Li-ji, then when the user is sitting on the sofa of the Living Room, he can “na” the auspicious sheng qi of the front door in the southwest (it should be northwest, the Qian direction as pointed out by Kit Hau), and when the occupant is lying in his or her bed, located in such a way that the doors are all in the Ling Shen directions to na sheng qi again.



There are some comments here:(I know it is Oct 2008)

#
Kit Hau Says:

October 3, 2008 at 11:43 am

Dear Howard,

I am a Feng Shui student and have been reading your various articles in your previous website with much interest. I just saw your latest article on Liu Fa and noted a few anomalies (I humbly think):-

1. You said that the NW & N are Ling Shen in P8, it should be Zheng Shen (Ill. 7.6)
2. W.r.t. the living room sofa, the front door is in the NW (Qian), not SW (Ill. 7.7)

Your comments would be appreciated.

Regards,
Kit
#
howardchoy Says:

October 10, 2008 at 8:13 pm

Hi Kit,

Thanks for reading my blog.

According to author Lin, in Period 8, Xu used the Water Kun Gua of the Fu-Mu Gua in Period 2 to obtain Wang Shui or the Prosperous Water, so Xu is Ling Shen and not Zheng Shen. The same applies to You (W2), so it is good to have a window there.

You are right about Qian, it should be northwest and not southwest - my typo mistake.

Regards,
Howard Choy
#
Kit Hau Says:

October 21, 2008 at 10:06 am

Hello Howard,

Thanks for the clarifications.

However, my current knowledge is rather limited and I have difficulty to understand your statement: “in Period 8, Xu used the Water Kun Gua of the Fu-Mu Gua in Period 2 to obtain Wang Shui or the Prosperous Water”.

Do you mind explain a little, plse?

Regards,
Kit
#
howardchoy Says:

October 21, 2008 at 12:10 pm

Hi Kit,

I have to post the Lower Era Period 8 chart on how to obtain the timely mountain and water for an explanation. But unfortunately I will be leaving for Santiago Chile in a couple of hours and I still have not packed, so you have to wait for a couple of weeks, after I return to Berlin, before I can give you an answer.

Regards,
Howard

The Six Schools of Xuan Kong

The Six Schools of Xuan Kong
Posted by howardchoy under feng shui | Tags: feixing, flying stars, Shen Zhu_nai, Xuan Kong, Xuan Kong Da Gua, Zhang Da-Hong, Zhang Xin-Yin |
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At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic era in China there were six major schools of Xuan Kong, they were the Wu Chang Pai (無常派), the Xiang Chu Pai (湘楚派), the Dian Nan Pai (滇南派), the Su Zhou Pai (蘇州派), the Guan Dong Pai (廣東派), and the Shang Yu Pa (上虞派). 　　　　

Out the six schools only the Wu Chang Pai, that is the Feixing Pai 飛星派 or the Flying Stars Schools as we know it today, headed by Zhang Zhong Shan 章仲山 at the time, flies the stars in the way that is genuinely Xuan Kong. The others did not really survived or at least they are not practiced much any more, with the exception of the Shang Yu Pai originated by Zhang Xin-Yin 張心言, and is popularly known nowadays the Yi Gua Pai 易卦派 or Xuan Kong Da Gua 玄空大卦, where it divided the 360 degrees of the western compass into 64 Hexagrams of approx 5.6 degrees each.

Because everyone is very secretive, it is difficult to known exactly how the other four school worked, except they tended to be static and don’t fly the stars. Some don’t worry about sitting or facing; they take Period 1 as Kan Qi, Period 2 as Kun Qi and Period 3 as Zhen Qi etc. (that is, using the Early Heaven Trigrams and matched them with the Luoshu numbers instead of using the Later Heaven Trigrams like Flying Stars do).

Some fixed the stars in a particular palace, like the Qian palace as the Sheng Qi palace, and the opposite Xun palace is the Tong Gua Qi (Connected Gua Qi), therefore a house that sits or faces these two directions are always auspicious.

Some chose a different way to fly the stars, for example the Fu Mu Gua (the Parent Gua) always fly reverse ending up always a reversed house.

Some used the facing as the Period Plate and the sitting as the period 5 plate, that is the sitting is always Period 5 and only the facing flies according to the period the house was built.

Some used the Hetu paring to work the period, for example if it is Period 1 then add 6 a to do the chart. It was a confusing time.

There are no connection between these schools and the Taoist sects; they are practiced more by region (eg Suzhou Pai and Guangdong Pai, etc), rather than by religion.

The most authentic and traditional was the Wu Chang Pai and still survived today, thanks to Master Shen Zhu-Nai, who cracked their secrets and wrote books on them to pass down to us.

There were six schools of Xuan Kong and only one was genuine, because Zhang Da-Hong, the lineage holder of the Xuan Kong system, insisted that their art be kept secret from the public, so many not belonging to the lineage, tried their best to interpret Zhang’s writing to come up with their own interpretations that are often incorrect.

Most teachers don’t mention the other four schools because they don’t existing at all as far as the general public is concerned, especially in the West, so there is no need to say anything about them, with the exception of Da Gua of course. It is usually distinguish from the Flying Stars by name and teaching.

Some do mix some of the other schools techniques in their interpretations, but it is seldom the case and if they do, they would call themselves a special name, like the Imperial School of Feng Shui or the Central China School of Feng Shui (Zhong Zhou Pai).

Gradually, Feng Shui is opening up in the West, so the chance of being ripped off by the charlatan teachers is getting less and less. But nevertheless be extremely careful in choosing the right teacher and course to begin your Feng Shui study, as your first teacher always has a deeper influence on your future development then other teachers who come after.

Below shows a Liji Ruler used by the Xuan Kong Feixing School.

Feng Shui color and material trend for 2009

Feng Shui colorjavascript:void(0) and material trend for 2009
Posted by howardchoy under art/architecture
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One of my students works for an interior design magazine and she wants to know just before Christmas last year how to use Feng Shui to predict the color and material trend for the coming year.

I told her Feng Shui prediction is done through correlative thinking, and one of the most widely used method is to associate the color and material with the elements of the coming year’s Stem and Branch and use the Wuxing Sheng-ke relationships to do the predictions.

It is more desirable to match the year’s elements; then use a good dose of generate-in, less dose of control-in, and avoid generate-out and control-out, unless one deems necessary. But she must also do the three following things as well:

One is to find out the trend for the current and past couple of years so she has a good sense of continuity from the past to present then she has a better chance of projecting her thoughts into the future.

Two is have a thorough understanding of the current social, political and economical situation of the world, in particular the country and the audience she writes for. The audience’s needs, fears and longings in a particular situation and time frame, should be addressed as fitful as possible in her predictions.

Three is to be general and not too specific in her predictions, and try not to pick a choice that will alienate too many people, but she has to be creative and slightly controversial at the same time to generate “ganying” (mutual response).

She asked me for an example, so I gave her the following practice piece, telling her this is a rough sketch because I have not done my proper research yet and my writing skill is geared for someone who knows a bit about how Feng Shui works and not for a more general audience. Her editor can help her better than I can in this aspect.

“With Yin Earth on Yin Earth, a receptive gray/yellow/brown organic earthy tone pallet will be the dominant Feng Shui color theme for the next year of the Ox. The accent is on a return to authentic and sustainable materials that makes one feels cool, protected and stable.

Next year’s color choice should make one feels nurtured and cared for. They are colors of hibernation deep deep down in the damp earth, but with a generous amount of fire red (generate in) accent to keep us warm and a little bit of wood green accent to keep us awake (control in).

If you ever dream of building a mud brick home, this is the year to do it, you don’t need to go and see your bank manager, just pick up a shovel and dig up the earth on your land to do it.

Make sure you mix the dirt with plenty of hay and water, don’t use corrugated iron for the roof, it will weaken the Earth, use an earth covered roof and grow grass on it for insulation instead.Don’t use metal windows either, use wooden ones instead and let them go gray naturally.

As for flooring material, it should be burnt clay or naturally exposed grayish concrete. Think Yin Earth with a little bit of warm Fire and naturally weathered Wood, being receptive and nurturing in your choice and you can’t go wrong in a Yin Earth on Yin Earth year of the Ox.”

Everything goes in cycles, I would like to think our 230 years old timber and mud farmhouse show below is trendy again in the year of the Ox. Come and spend a few days there, if you have the time: