Xuankong Flying Star

The Zhongzhou lineage preserves three ancient formulas: An Xing (star placement), Pai Long (dragon arrangement), and Shou Shan Chu Sha (gathering mountain, expelling sha). None appeared in any published book before Mr. Wang Tingzhi released them. Pai Long is the very essence: to know only the Later Heaven facing without the primordial dragon is to grope at an elephant blindfolded.

6.1 An Xing: Standard and Substituted Stars

An Xing divides into standard placement and substituted placement. The standard method matches Shen's published work. Shen's substitution method, however, is flawed — he was self-taught and the substitution verse was a closely guarded secret. The Zhongzhou verse is recorded in full below:

6.2 Pai Long: The Dragon Arrangement

Pai Long is the Zhongzhou lineage's most important formula: it belongs to the primordial order, while the facing belongs to the later heaven. Details in the next section.

6.3 Shou Shan Chu Sha

Shou Shan Chu Sha determines whether a dwelling should open up or hold in — simple to apply, yet unusually consequential. See section 8.

7.1 The Twelve Dragon Palaces

Pai Long uses twelve palaces — Zi through Hai — each holding two mountains, twenty-four in all. Memory aid: besides the branch itself, the cardinal and "growth" palaces hide the branch's stored stem (Zi hides Gui, Yin hides Jia), while the four "grave" palaces hide the four trigrams (Chou-Gen, Chen-Xun, Wei-Kun, Xu-Qian). These twelve palaces must be memorised.

7.2 Primordial Yin-Yang of the 24 Mountains (Yin Forward, Yang Backward)

Pai Long belongs to the Primordial order, so its yin-yang differs from Later Heaven flying stars: the twelve earthly branches are yin and move forward; the eight stems and four trigrams are yang and move backward. This is "yin forward, yang backward" — the exact reverse of Later Heaven practice, and a closely guarded secret. The ancient verse hints: "Yang turns round upon the left; yin passes through upon the right" — meaningless unless you know it refers to the primordial dragon's yin-yang.

7.3 The Dragon and the Water Mouth

Pai Long is determined from the centre of the dwelling relative to the nearest water mouth that most affects it. Standing at the centre, sight the compass at the water mouth: the reading at the near end is the incoming dragon; the reading at the far (water mouth) end is the incoming water. Dragon and water form one pair; sitting and facing form another — never confuse the two.

The four kinds of "water mouth"

• Crossroads
• T-junctions
• Where a main road turns into a lane
• Three-way forks (irregular T-junctions)

7.4 The Sequence and the Twelve Stars

The second and third lines give the order of the stars and their fortune. The order is identical whether flying forward or backward: Po Jun, You Bi, Lian Zhen, Po Jun, Wu Qu, Tan Lang, Po Jun, Zuo Fu, Wen Qu, Po Jun, Ju Men, Lu Cun — twelve in all.

7.5 Worked Examples

7.6 Dragon Elements and Building Shape

The dragons' elements differ slightly from Later Heaven: Tan Lang Wood, Ju Men Earth, Lu Cun Earth, Wen Qu Water, Lian Zhen Fire, Wu Qu Metal, Po Jun Metal, Zuo Fu Earth, You Bi Earth. Best is building generating dragon, then dragon generating building, then matching. Worst are dragon overcoming building (financial loss) and building overcoming dragon (loss of family). Where they clash, mediate through the element of the three sitting palaces.

7.7 He Tu Substitution by Period

Dragons may also be read by He Tu pairing: in periods 1 and 6, Tan Lang and Wu Qu; in 2 and 7, Ju Men and Po Jun; in 3 and 8, Zuo Fu and Lu Cun; in 4 and 9, Wen Qu and You Bi. Thus in period 7 even Po Jun (normally inauspicious) is in season, and with a Wang Shan Wang Xiang facing can bring fortune — but for that period only; once the period turns, disaster follows. Conversely, the four auspicious dragons may fail to deliver if they are out of season.

7.8 Leaving the Trigram

The closing line warns about leaving the trigram. Combinations such as Wu-Ding share yin and are acceptable; Wu-Bing mixes yin and yang and must not exceed the 3-degree boundary (1.5 degrees past the midline), or it becomes yin-yang mismatch. Worst is Bing-Si, which commits the great void of leaving the trigram: even a perfect Later Heaven facing cannot escape disaster. The dragon is the substance, the facing the function: when the substance is bad, the function must be bad.

7.9 Summary of Procedure

1. Sight from the centre to the most influential water mouth: the reading at your end is the dragon, at the far end the incoming water.
2. Start Po Jun at the opposite palace and distribute the twelve stars — yang backward, yin forward — keeping the five auspicious and discarding the seven.
3. Having found an auspicious palace, take one of its two mountains as the facing, cast the chart for the move-in period, and check the Later Heaven chart. Five-auspicious dragon plus Wang Shan Wang Xiang facing is primordial and later heaven in accord — great fortune.
4. If the dragon leaves the trigram, the property is unusable — do not bother with the Later Heaven chart; move.

This formula determines the manner of the dwelling — whether to open it up or to hold it in. The Zhongzhou version differs from that in Shen's work.

The fourteen "expelling" mountains (open up, do not dam)

A dwelling sitting on Chou, Wei, Chen, Xu, Yi, Xin, Ding, Gui, Gen, Kun, Yin, Shen, Zi or Wu should have a gate or main door that opens generously rather than closes in: a large door, glazing beside it, no screen or obstruction just inside, and ground outside slightly lower than the threshold.

The ten "gathering" mountains (hold in and secure the living qi)

The other ten — Qian, Xun, Jia, Bing, Geng, Ren, Mao, You, Si and Hai — should hold their qi in: a modest door, with a screen or vestibule, so that living qi gathers rather than escapes.

The practical Zhongzhou / Wuchang procedure for assessing a dwelling runs as follows:

1. Take the sitting and facing with a compass.
2. Find the centre of the plan geometrically.
3. Measure the dragon (Pai Long).
4. Divide the plan into eight palaces and twenty-four mountains with a polar ruler.
5. Cast the star chart from the sitting and facing.
6. Overlay the chart on the plan and judge each palace against the actual landform.
7. Locate the key points for attracting good fortune, then adjust the layout accordingly.

10.1 Two Centres, Never to Be Confused

10.2 Using the Polar Ruler

A polar ruler is a sheet of firm transparent plastic printed with the 24 mountains and 360 degrees, used to divide a plan precisely. First find the centre geometrically, then draw a line perpendicular to the main door (one end sits, one end faces; for a typical apartment block this line is perpendicular to the entrance).
Where a polar ruler is unavailable, use a 360-degree protractor: notch the mountain boundaries onto its edge. Note that a compass scale increases clockwise while a protractor increases anticlockwise — turn the protractor over when using it.

10.3 Choosing a Compass

Xuankong works through time and space, and space is fixed with a compass, so accuracy is critical. Study Xuankong with a San Yuan or combined compass (the San He type is less suitable). Essentials: ① a red cross-hair, a rotating plate, 360-degree graduations and a spirit level; ② the cross-hair must align exactly with 0/90/180/270; ③ the needle must sit exactly on the red meridian line; ④ no vertical wobble, slight resistance when turning; ⑤ the 24-mountain and 360-degree rings must be crisp; ⑥ an eight-inch plate (about 25 cm square) is best — smaller ones invite error.

11.1 Form and Qi in Accord Is the First Principle

The supreme principle is whether the chart and the surrounding land and water agree — form and qi in accord (Dao Shan Dao Xiang) or in conflict (Shang Shan Xia Shui). When they agree, even poorly matched stars or awkward outbuildings cause no great harm; when they conflict, even well-matched stars bring no lasting good. This accord is the bedrock of Xuankong judgement.

11.2 Check the Facing Line First

First check whether the facing line commits excessive leaning, small or great void, riding the line, or yin-yang mismatch. Any of these makes a bad house: with conflicting form and qi the trouble comes at once; even where they agree, the period may pass quietly, yet one slip in the annual stars or interior layout brings no small misfortune but a great one.

11.3 Judging Water in an Urban Setting (Critical)

A prosperous Mountain star meeting a building means a thriving family; a prosperous Water star meeting a roadway means wealth. But in cities one must be careful: buildings stand in rows, and a true "meeting water" formation requires the road in front to be a main thoroughfare for the whole estate or an open garden. A mere gap between two rows of blocks does not count — read the Mountain star instead. The exception is a new estate with an unusually wide gap containing pavilions and gardens: then read it as water.

For a street-facing house with a road in front and a tower across it, weigh the road's vitality against the building's mass. If it is a busy thoroughfare with constant traffic, read it as water (even if the tower across is much taller — with prosperous water between, treat it as returning qi). If it is a quiet, narrow lane and the building across is as tall or taller, read the Mountain star.

11.4 Two Ways Landform Affects the Stars

1. Elemental influence: suppose a palace holds 7 Red and a "fire" form stands outside it (a transmission tower, pylon, church or any sharply pointed roof). If 7 Red is the Mountain star, a building counts as "meeting the mountain" and the family prospers; fire overcoming metal brings no great disaster, just bad habits, or — with many yin stars — drunkenness and dissipation, harming the youngest and causing throat and mouth complaints. Out of period it means haemorrhage, surgery and lawsuits. If 7 Red is the Facing star, however, a building means the water star has gone up the mountain and the difficult star is activated: read serious trouble — surgery, accidents, litigation. A good dragon softens it; once the period turns it harms the family.

2. Shapes: beyond elements, judge whether the form is handsome or ugly. The old赋 record such rules as "if Kan is blocked and high, deafness; if Li is jagged rock, damaged sight." As between the two, form outweighs element: an elemental clash can often be remedied, whereas a bad shape is far harder — sometimes impossible — to correct.

Interior layout is built on taking the centre of one's own unit — different from choosing a building, which uses the whole block's centre. This is a principle, not a preference.

12.1 The Bedroom

Door and bedroom matter most. We spend roughly a third of life asleep, so the qi a bedroom receives bears directly on one's fortunes, and the criteria are strict.

1. Place the bedroom in a palace where the Mountain star is prosperous.
2. Failing that, use palaces with the Growing or Assisting stars, or secondarily the Three Whites (1 Tan Lang, 6 Wu Qu, 8 Zuo Fu).
3. A palace where the Mountain and Facing stars are one yin, one yang and generate each other is best; both yin or both yang is second rate.
4. Avoid direct onslaught, damaged structures and reverse-bow forms outside the room.
5. A bedroom's shape should be Earth or Wood; never Metal or Fire.

12.2 Door and Bedroom in Combination (Four Cases)

The door draws qi in; the bedroom receives it — one gives, one takes. Determine what qi the door draws and how the bedroom's own qi responds, using the Five Elements and the prosperity or decline of the stars.

12.3 The Living Room

The living room is where the household gathers and the hub of the whole dwelling — one must pass through it to reach the other rooms, so the qi flowing there affects every room. It also supplements the door star.

Judge the living room chiefly by its Facing star: a weak door with a strong living room reduces the harm; a strong door with a weak living room reduces the good.

12.4 The Kitchen

The kitchen feeds the whole household; if its stars are poor it is illness entering by the mouth. Judge it from two angles.

• First, the kitchen should sit in a palace where the Mountain star prospers or that forms a Three-Ban-Gua.
• Second, avoid a kitchen whose Facing star is 5 Yellow, 2 Black, 6 White or 9 Purple.

In modern flats the kitchen cannot be moved, but the gas pipe can be, and so the hob can be repositioned. First diagnose the problem: is it a weak Mountain star or an unfavourable Facing star?

12.5 Furniture Placement

Furniture is placed from the centre of each room, casting eight palaces within it. First know the star quality of the room itself (in the unit's chart); if poor, use the element of the furniture's own palace (in the room's chart) to remedy it; if good, to improve it further. The items that gather most qi are the bed, sofa and desk — used longest, the bed above all.

13.1 He Tu Element of a Storey

Storeys take He Tu numbers: 1 and 6 water, 2 and 7 fire, 3 and 8 wood, 4 and 9 metal, 5 and 10 earth. For towers of dozens of floors, use the last digit — the 29th and 39th floors read as the 9th, the 100th as the 10th. A basement car park does not count as a storey: if you are three floors above ground you are on the third, even with a basement below.

13.2 Storey and Facing

Choose a storey whose He Tu element generates or matches the facing palace's element, also weighing the star and dragon elements. But this is only a guide for choosing, never an absolute verdict — a harmonious storey can still turn out badly, because a house is judged chiefly by the stars, the dragon and the landform; the storey number can only soften or intensify what is already there.

13.3 The Five Zi Cycles

The Five Zi Cycles divide the sixty jiazi into five cycles of twelve years each: Jia Zi (water), Bing Zi (fire), Wu Zi (wood), Geng Zi (metal), Ren Zi (earth). The rule: the storey's He Tu element is the "body" (what is acted upon) and the cycle is the "function" (what acts). A cycle that generates or matches the storey is best.

• Cycle generates storey — growth in family
• Cycle matches storey — wealth
• Storey generates cycle — decline, loss of family
• Storey overcomes cycle — death: wealth but poor health and strife
• Cycle overcomes storey — kill: loss of wealth and family, lawsuits

The following lines from the classical Xuankong verses carry the essence of the tradition and repay repeated study.

Xuan Kong Mi Zhi (Secret Principles of Xuankong)

Xuan Ji Fu (Ode to the Mysterious Mechanism)

Fei Xing Fu (Ode to the Flying Stars)

Qing Nang Jing (The Azure Bag Classic)