Building a Xuan Kong Flying Star chart step by step: placing the period star in the center, flying it along the Luo Shu, taking the mountain star and facing star, and deciding forward or reverse flight by the San Yuan Long

What is a Xuan Kong flying star chart and why must it be built step by step?

A Xuan Kong flying star chart is a nine palace diagram, each palace holding three numbers: the period star, the mountain star and the facing star. This diagram is used to describe the distribution of qi according to time (the period) and according to direction (mountain, facing) of a house. This lineage was popularised in the late Qing dynasty thanks to Shen Zhu Reng with the Shen school of Xuan Kong studies; Zhai Yun Xin An (compiled from 1927, translated by Lê Việt Anh) is a collection of case records following his method. The book Zhai Yun Xin An records an introduction stating that this work was compiled by a geography researcher from 1927 and was revised and supplemented by many well known experts and scholars.

The three layers of stars are not set at the same time in the same way. The period chart always flies forward, without considering yin and yang. Only the mountain chart and the facing chart must consider the yin and yang of the three yuan dragons to decide whether to fly forward or reverse. This is the point that makes many beginners set it wrongly right from the second step.

Why does the period chart always fly forward while the mountain chart and facing chart must consider yin and yang?

The period star is the star of the time period, it is not tied to a specific mountain so it has no yin or yang to consider, therefore it always enters the centre and flies forward along the Luo Shu path. By contrast, the mountain chart takes the number in the sitting palace, the facing chart takes the number in the facing palace; these two numbers are tied to a specific mountain so they must consider the yin and yang of the three yuan dragon of that mountain. The book Zhai Yun Xin An clearly records the three yuan dragon rule as follows:

• Earth yuan dragon: yang is Giap, Canh, Nham, Binh; yin is Thin, Tuat, Suu, Mui.
• Heaven yuan dragon: yang is Can, Khon, Can, Ton; yin is Ty, Ngo, Mao, Dau.
• Human yuan dragon: yang is Dan, Than, Ty, Hoi; yin is Quy, Dinh, At, Tan.

Yang flies forward, yin flies reverse. Note carefully: this is the yin yang convention of Xuan Kong, different from the way of dividing yin and yang of the 24 mountains used in San He. The book Zhai Yun Xin An also records the 12 earthly branches arranged clockwise according to the 12 solar terms, with six opposing pairs Tý Ngọ, Mão Dậu, Thìn Tuất, Sửu Mùi, Dần Thân, Tỵ Hợi, and the 10 heavenly stems placed according to the yin yang five elements of the direction: Giap yang wood sits to the left of Mao, At yin wood sits to the right of Mao, Binh yang fire to the left of Ngo, Dinh yin fire to the right of Ngo.

What order does the Luo Shu flight path follow?

According to Ho Peng Yoke (2003), Chinese Mathematical Astrology: Reaching Out to the Stars, RoutledgeCurzon, the stars always move in this order: down to the lower right (northwest), across to the middle right (west), down to the lower left (northeast), up to the middle top (south), down to the middle bottom (north), up to the upper right (southwest), across to the middle left (east), up to the upper left (southeast), then back to the central palace. This is the flight path of the nine stars on the Luo Shu board, and it is the path used for the period chart, the mountain chart and the facing chart alike.

In other words, when a number enters the centre, its next number (in the cycle from 1 to 9) goes into the northwest palace, then west, then northeast, then south, then north, then southwest, then east, then southeast. Flying reverse goes against this order.

How do you build a period 9 chart for a house sitting Ty and facing Ngo?

This is a complete example to see how all three layers of stars are placed. A house sitting Ty and facing Ngo means the back of the house turns to the north (mountain Ty) and the front of the house looks to the south (facing Ngo).

Step 1: placing the period chart

Period 9 has period star 9. Place the number 9 in the central palace, flying forward along the Luo Shu path. According to the flying palace method in Ho Peng Yoke (2003), Chinese Mathematical Astrology: Reaching Out to the Stars, RoutledgeCurzon, pp. 24 to 25 (adding 4 to each Luo Shu cell so that 5 becomes 9), the period 9 period chart is:

Step 2: taking the number in the sitting palace to place the mountain chart

The sitting palace is the north palace. In the period chart just built, the north palace carries the number 5. So take the number 5 into the central palace of the mountain chart. The sitting mountain is Ty. According to the three yuan dragon convention above, Ty belongs to the heaven yuan dragon and is yin. Yin flies reverse. The mountain chart flies reverse from the number 5:

Step 3: taking the number in the facing palace to place the facing chart

The facing palace is the south palace. In the period chart, the south palace carries the number 4. So take the number 4 into the central palace of the facing chart. The facing mountain is Ngo. Ngo belongs to the heaven yuan dragon and is yin. According to the sample chart building at the end of the article, facing star 4 enters the central palace flying forward. For the details of why it is forward or reverse in this case, one should consult the books of the Shen school, because on the point of the three yuan dragon (considering yin and yang at the mountain of the same yuan dragon belonging to the palace of the number entering the centre) popular materials record it differently. The facing chart flies forward from the number 4:

Step 4: combining the three star layers into a complete flying star chart

Combine the period star (large, in the middle), the mountain star (small, on the left) and the facing star (small, on the right) into each palace. According to the presentation in Zhai Yun Xin An, the number written large in the palace is the heavenly star of the period, the small number on the left is the flying star of the mountain chart, the small number on the right is the flying star of the facing chart. We get:

How do you read the configuration from the period 9 chart sitting Ty and facing Ngo?

Period 9 takes star 9 as the prosperous star. For a house sitting Ty and facing Ngo, star 9 lies in the central palace, not in the sitting palace or the facing palace, so this is not the configuration of reaching both mountain and facing (the prosperous star arriving at both sitting and facing at the same time). This configuration is also not double stars meeting at the facing (the prosperous star and the mountain star both arriving at the facing) or double stars meeting at the sitting (the prosperous star and the mountain star both arriving at the sitting).

The configurations of reaching both mountain and facing, double stars meeting at the facing, double stars meeting at the sitting, and mountain on top water below are four configurations often mentioned in Xuan Kong books. Reaching both mountain and facing is when the prosperous star flies to both the sitting palace and the facing palace at the same time, usually regarded as the ideal configuration for both people and wealth. Mountain on top water below is the opposite case: the prosperous star of the facing flies to the sitting palace, the prosperous star of the mountain flies to the facing palace, usually regarded as draining. Double stars meeting at the facing is when the prosperous star and the mountain star of the current period fly together to the facing palace. Double stars meeting at the sitting is when the prosperous star and the mountain star of the current period fly together to the sitting palace.

It must be stressed: this is a reading based on li qi (pattern and qi). Many Xuan Kong books hold that li qi is only one half, and that the form aspect (the terrain of mountains and water around the house) is what decides actual fortune and misfortune. A beautiful flying star chart without matching terrain may still fail to take effect, and may even backfire.

Why is the number 5 entering the centre a place where books often say different things?

When the mountain star or the facing chart falls on the number 5, that is, the number 5 enters the centre, it no longer belongs to a specific trigram to look up yin and yang, so a separate convention must be used. The book Zhai Yun Xin An records: "2, 5 entering the centre, control entering, auspicious; 9, 1 entering the centre, generating out, inauspicious; 6 entering the centre, control leaving, inauspicious" for the group of Nhị Hắc, Ngũ Hoàng, Bát Bạch Earth in destiny calculation. Other destiny groups (Tam Bích Tứ Lục Wood, Lục Bạch Thất Xích Metal, Cửu Tử Fire, Bát Bạch Water, and so on) also have their own tables, and each table gives different auspicious or inauspicious results when the number 5 enters the centre.

Some books place the number 5 in the Khon palace or the Can palace to look up yin and yang, while other books stipulate that 5 entering the centre always flies forward. On this point there is no absolute consensus between schools. Readers should know which convention this article follows before applying it, rather than assuming there is only one correct way.

Table of the 24 mountains with yuan dragon and yin yang according to the Shen school

The table below is built by the site's calculation core, compiling the 24 mountains according to the three yuan dragons and yin yang used for Xuan Kong. This table differs from the yin yang table of the 24 mountains used in San He, so the two should not be mixed.

This table is only correct for houses on an exact facing, so what about houses that straddle?

The flying star table at the end of the article is only correct for houses on an exact facing, that is, houses whose sitting and facing fall neatly within one mountain, also called lower trigram. When a house straddles by more than three degrees, meaning the sitting or facing encroaches on the neighbouring mountain, many books use a substitute trigram instead of using the original mountain directly. The handling of straddling houses is not consistent between books: some books take the straddling mountain as the main mountain, some books use a replacement trigram, some books only allow straddling within a certain degree limit. Readers need to check the exact convention of their own reference book before interpreting.

What are the Luo Shu and the 24 mountains behind this method of building?

The numbers used in the flying star chart are the numbers of the Luo Shu. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, entry Magic square, the Luo Shu is a third order magic square, the sum of the three numbers in every row, every column and every diagonal all equal 15. The number 5 lies at the centre, and the sum of two cells symmetrical about 5 always equals 10. Legend tells that King Yu in high antiquity was taming the waters, and a divine turtle rose from the Luo river with the Luo Shu pattern on its shell. The Luo Shu is often used paired with the He Tu in geography, numerology and philosophy. In common usage, the number 1 is placed at the bottom (north) and the number 9 at the top (south), corresponding to the Kham trigram and the Ly trigram in the Later Heaven eight trigrams.

The 24 mountains on the luopan are the division of the eight directions into 24 mountains, three mountains per direction. The table below is built by the site's calculation core, listing the 24 mountains by direction, used to determine which mountain the sitting and facing belong to before building the flying star chart.

How do you measure direction before building the chart?

The direction must be measured accurately before doing any feng shui system. The feng shui compass is used to determine the exact direction of a building. The most important ring on the compass is the ring of 24 mountains. For a house, the direction is determined by the frontage that receives the most yang qi; for an apartment, the direction of the unit is usually taken from the direction of the whole building, or from the side with the busiest flow of people if the building has no clear frontage. An error in measurement will lead to a wrong mountain, and a wrong mountain means the flying star chart built will be wrong too, so the step of measuring direction cannot be taken lightly.

This article does not assert absolute fortune or misfortune for any sitting or facing. The configurations mentioned above are readings according to the li qi of the Xuan Kong lineage; actual results also depend on the form, the timing and many other factors.

What does a sample flying star chart look like for period 9, sitting Ty facing Ngo?

The flying star chart below is built by the same method that Nhật Nguyệt uses in its Xuan Kong tables, arranged according to the nine Luo Shu cells with the South at the top row as in the old books. Each cell records the period star, the mountain star and the facing star. This house belongs to the configuration: Double stars reaching the sitting.