Qian Mountain Direction in the 24 Mountain Directions of Feng Shui: Meaning and Interpretation

Where does the Qian mountain sit on the compass, and why is its position derivable rather than memorised?

The Qian mountain sits at roughly 307.5° to 322.5° on the compass ring, meaning 15 degrees within the Northwest direction. This is the 22nd mountain among the 24 mountains, counted clockwise from Zi at due North.

This position is not a fact to be memorised, but something derived from two structural rules. First, the 24 mountain ring divides 360 degrees evenly, so each mountain occupies exactly 15 degrees. Second, the mountain at the centre of each of the eight directions carries the name of that direction. The Northwest direction has its centre at 315°, and its central mountain is Qian, so Qian takes 315° as its centre, opening out 7.5° to each side, giving 307.5° to 322.5°.

From that rule, to know where a mountain sits you only need to know whether it is the central mountain or a side mountain of a given direction. The Qian mountain is the central mountain of the Northwest, so its coordinates are fixed by the centre of the direction, not by a disconnected memorisation table.

Which palace does the Qian mountain belong to in the Later Heaven bagua, and which three mountains share that palace?

The Qian mountain belongs to the Qian palace in the Later Heaven bagua. This is the only correct palace for this mountain; there is no other way to assign it within the 24 mountain system.

The three mountains sharing the Northwest direction, ordered as Earth, Heaven and Human nguyên long, are Xu, Qian and Hai. Xu is the Earth nguyên long, Qian is the Heaven nguyên long, Hai is the Human nguyên long. Qian sits in the middle, so it is the central mountain of the direction, and that is also why it carries the name of that direction.

A distinction must be made between palace and direction. The Northwest is one of the eight directions of the compass, each 45 degrees. The Qian palace is one of the eight palaces of the Later Heaven bagua, and within the 24 mountain system the Qian palace coincides with the 45 degree band of the Northwest direction. The three mountains Xu, Qian and Hai all lie within the Qian palace, each 15 degrees, adding up to exactly 45 degrees.

What is the Five Elements nature of the Qian mountain, and why are there two answers that do not contradict each other?

There are two answers, and they do not contradict each other because they speak about two different things.

Consider the Five Elements of the name itself that the mountain carries: Qian is one of the trigrams in the bagua, and the Qian trigram belongs to the Metal element. This is the Five Elements of the Qian trigram itself, tied to the mountain's name.

Consider the palace that contains it on the Later Heaven compass: the Qian mountain lies in the Qian palace, and the Qian palace also belongs to the Metal element. In the particular case of the Qian mountain, the two systems give the same result, so there is nothing to adjudicate.

But for many other mountains the two answers differ, and that is where confusion easily arises. For example, a mountain named after an earthly branch carries the Five Elements of that earthly branch, yet sits in a palace with a different Five Elements. An article that writes "mountain X belongs to the Earth element" and then a few lines later writes "mountain X belongs to a palace of the Wood element" without stating its frame of reference will make readers think the author contradicts himself. The correct way to write is always to state clearly: considering the Five Elements of the name, it belongs to which element, and considering the Five Elements of the palace containing it, it belongs to which element. These two statements do not clash because they answer two different questions.

For the Qian mountain, both systems give the Metal element, so it can be put briefly: Qian belongs to Metal, whether considered by trigram name or by the palace containing it.

What is the Tam Nguyên long of the Qian mountain, and what does that mean when choosing mountain and direction?

The Qian mountain belongs to the Heaven nguyên long. Among the three mountains of the Northwest direction, Xu is the Earth nguyên long, Qian is the Heaven nguyên long, Hai is the Human nguyên long.

Tam Nguyên long is the classification of the 24 mountains into three groups, used when pairing mountain with direction in direction-setting methods. Earth nguyên long, Heaven nguyên long and Human nguyên long cannot substitute for one another, because each group corresponds to a different kind of relationship between mountain and direction. The three mountains in the same palace may all lie within the 45 degrees of the Northwest direction, but once the Qian mountain has been chosen as the sitting position, one cannot switch to Xu or Hai and keep the same interpretation, because each mountain has its own nguyên long and the nguyên long is an input parameter of the pairing method.

In other words, within the same Northwest direction, the three mountains Xu, Qian and Hai are three different coordinates, and that difference is not erased by their sharing a palace. This is why in practice, when measuring the sitting position of a house or a tomb, one must determine down to the mountain level rather than stopping at the direction level.

Where does Bát Trạch place the Qian mountain, and what are the limits of that placement?

In Bát Trạch, the Qian palace belongs to the West Four Houses. The West Four Houses group comprises the four palaces Qian, Kun, Gen and Dui; the remaining group is the East Four Houses, comprising Kan, Li, Zhen and Xun.

This placement is used to compare the palace of the building's sitting position with a person's life palace, from which four directions are classed as favourable and four as unfavourable. Its limit lies in the fact that Bát Trạch works only at the level of the 45 degree palace, and does not distinguish the three mountains within a palace. For Bát Trạch, Xu, Qian and Hai all belong to the Qian palace, all belong to the West Four Houses, and Bát Trạch has no tool to separate those three mountains. To separate down to the mountain level one must move to another system, for example Tam Nguyên long or flying stars.

A second limit: Bát Trạch is a system used to compare palace with life palace, not a system describing whether the Qian mountain is in itself good or bad. The Qian mountain itself carries no ready-made auspicious or inauspicious label; that label appears only when the Qian palace is set beside a specific life palace.

How does Xuan Kong flying stars use the Qian mountain, and where do the schools not yet agree?

Xuan Kong flying stars uses the Qian mountain as one of the 24 coordinates for setting up a star chart: the sitting position of a house or tomb is determined down to the mountain level, and from there the flying star chart is built according to the period, and interpreted through the relationships between the stars flying into the palaces.

Where the branches of Xuan Kong do not agree is in how yin and yang are assigned to each mountain. Some branches assign yin and yang by a rule based on the mountain's position within the palace and its type of nguyên long, other branches assign it differently, and the consequence is that some forward-flying or reverse-flying methods can give different results between branches. This is a real disagreement within the tradition, not something this article has invented.

It should be said more clearly: that disagreement lies at the step of assigning yin and yang and its flying star consequences, not in which palace the Qian mountain belongs to. The division of the 24 mountains and the assignment of each mountain to a Later Heaven palace is the shared part; no branch uses a different system for that. Anyone who writes "according to this branch, the Qian mountain belongs to a different palace" is writing incorrectly, because the palace of the Qian mountain in the Later Heaven bagua is only one.

How does measurement error affect determining the Qian mountain?

Each mountain is only 15 degrees wide, so a small deviation crosses into another mountain. The Qian mountain has two degree markers at its two ends, 307.5° and 322.5°. Below 307.5° is the Xu mountain, above 322.5° is the Hai mountain.

The practical consequence: if the compass needle reads 306°, the sitting position being recorded is Xu, not Qian. If the needle reads 324°, the sitting position being recorded is Hai. Only when the needle falls between 307.5° and 322.5° is it called the Qian mountain.

Because the margin is very narrow, errors from local magnetism, from the metal structure of the building, from how the compass is placed, can all push the result into the neighbouring mountain. This is why in survey practice, people usually measure several times at several points, and record a range of variation rather than taking a single number. A sitting position close to 307.5° or close to 322.5° is one that needs re-measuring before drawing a conclusion.

Which parts of this article are cultural knowledge rather than prediction?

The cultural knowledge parts comprise: the structure of the 24 mountains and the 15 degree division, the position and degree range of the Qian mountain, the Qian palace in the Later Heaven bagua, the fact that Qian belongs to the Heaven nguyên long, the fact that the Qian palace belongs to the West Four Houses in Bát Trạch, and how Xuan Kong uses the mountain as a coordinate for setting up a chart. These are structured, verifiable conventions that can be cross-checked between documents.

The parts that are not prediction, but also should not be read as prediction: every connection between the Qian mountain and wealth, health, career or family relationships. Those connections belong to the layer of cultural interpretation and the beliefs of each tradition, not to measurement results. This article makes no promise about specific outcomes for anyone who chooses or avoids the Qian mountain.

A reasonable way to read is to separate the two layers: the structural layer is used for reference and measurement, the interpretive layer is read as part of feng shui culture, for reference, and does not replace decisions based on the actual conditions of the house and the needs of its occupants.

Quick reference table: the Qian mountain

The figures in the table match the results of the reference tools on Nhật Nguyệt.

Overview article on the topic: What is feng shui? Foundational principles and how to apply them