LEE SUANG CHUI LEE XUNJIAN, KENNETH LEOW DASHENG, JACKSON LIM FUNG LENG LOKE CHO MUN TAN CHYE HUAT
Table of Content
Table of Content ............................................................................................................................................2 Objectives of Our Project ..............................................................................................................................4 Origins of Luo Pan.........................................................................................................................................5 Development of Luo Pan ...............................................................................................................................6 The two schools of Feng Shui; earthly forms and compass ......................................................................6 Luo Pan Feng Shui in Ancient China ............................................................................................................7 Landscape surveillance..............................................................................................................................7 Architecture of the ancient dwellings ........................................................................................................7 Cursed birthdays ........................................................................................................................................7 Luo Pan Feng Shui in Modern Singapore......................................................................................................8 Shape of Suntec City: resemblance of a palm ...........................................................................................8 The new Merlion Park ..............................................................................................................................8 Twelve-Four Solar Divisions (Chieh Chi) .................................................................................................10 Solar divisions .........................................................................................................................................10 Solar divisions in Luo Pan.......................................................................................................................11 Solar divisions and the Big Dipper..........................................................................................................11 Orientations The Four Celestial Animals and Four Seasons ....................................................................12 The Four Celestial Animals .....................................................................................................................12 South ....................................................................................................................................................12 East ......................................................................................................................................................12 West .....................................................................................................................................................12 North ....................................................................................................................................................12 Centre of the Compass.........................................................................................................................12 The Four Seasons.....................................................................................................................................12 Former and Later Heaven Sequences ..........................................................................................................13 Differences between Former and Later Heaven ......................................................................................13 Former Heaven Sequence ............................................................................................................................13 Later Heaven Sequence ...............................................................................................................................14 The Nine Moving Stars................................................................................................................................16 The Nine Stars .........................................................................................................................................16 The Big Dipper and the Nine Moving Stars ............................................................................................16 The Moving Stars ....................................................................................................................................17 The Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions.............................................................................................................17 Definition of constellation .......................................................................................................................17 Lunar Mansions and the Celestial Animals .............................................................................................17 Lunar Mansions and the Western Zodiac ................................................................................................18 The angles of the constellations on Luo Pan ...........................................................................................19 Lunar Mansions and twelve-four Solar Divisions ...................................................................................20 Chi (): its Sources and Effects ................................................................................................................21 Sheng and SSu Chi .................................................................................................................................21 Earth, Atmosphere and Heaven Chi ...........................................................................................................21 Heaven Chi (tien Chi)..........................................................................................................................21 Earth Chi (ti Chi)...................................................................................................................................21 Weather Chi............................................................................................................................................21 Yin and Yang...............................................................................................................................................22
3 The Trigrams ...........................................................................................................................................22 Discussions ..................................................................................................................................................23 Is Luo Pan a cosmological representation of the stars? ...........................................................................23 Can Luo Pan work in the Southern Hemisphere?....................................................................................23 Is Luo Pan a scientific tool?.....................................................................................................................23 Closer analysis of the 28 Constellations and the Western Zodiacs .........................................................24 Appendix 1 - Our Luo Pan Model ...............................................................................................................25 Our model of Luo Pan .............................................................................................................................25 How does it work? ...................................................................................................................................25 Stars charts...............................................................................................................................................25 Appendix 2: Overview of Position of starsReferences................................................................................26 Appendix 2: Overview of Position of starsReferences................................................................................27 References....................................................................................................................................................28 Books .......................................................................................................................................................28 Websites...................................................................................................................................................28
4
OBJECTIVES
Have you ever wondered about how Feng Shui masters use their circular metal device (Luo Pan) to conclude that the Feng Shui of a site is good or bad? Did you know that the Luo Pan actually is intimately linked to western astronomy? Have you ever thought about the mysteries and implications different rings of the Luo Pan have in them?
a brief history from the invention of Luo Pan and the development up to the present one.
7) Discussions
this is our main focus. There are many materials we had come across and not all facts are true. Through our analysis of certain areas, we arrived at our own conclusions based on the knowledge we have gained so far.
5
HISTORY OF LUO PAN
6
HISTORY OF LUO PAN
7
LUO PAN IN CULTURAL PRACTICES
Ancient China
If you had been to Chinas any cities with rich history, you might notice almost all the houses along some of the streets facing a single direction, mostly South, instead of facing oppositely each other. Landscape surveillance
In the ancient times, the Feng Shui Master (hsien-sheng) would analyze the landscape in very interesting ways. He would be seen carried by his servants in sedan, occasionally took out his compass and orientated its needle. Sometimes, upon the instant of inspiration, he would plunge down a slope as fast as his legs could take him until he reached an upslope where he marked it. This was known as riding the dragon, or detecting the flow of the Chi. He would pick up the exact locations of the major forms in the landscape such as mountains, ridges and rivers. Finally, he would make a consultation of the night sky to determine the position of the constellations on the horizon before coming to a conclusion.
Figure 6 paying tribute to the Luo Pan Master in ancient China
Cursed birthdays
Some of the religious Chinese believe that certain days and timings are considered bad luck. When a person happens to born on such unlucky timings, he/she is deemed to have hereditary characteristic ( the set of eight characters that defined the path of an individual life) that were bad or detrimental to his/her parents. He/she is even forbidden to acknowledge his parents. They usually call their parents
8
LUO PAN IN CULTURAL PRACTICES
uncles or aunties. His/her name can be given from birth like Ah Gou which means dog, or Shi Tou which means stone. Bias against the child is often the case until they grow up. Such cases are more often seen in families that run businesses.
Modern Singapore
Feng Shui has immersed influences in Hong Kong and Singapore. Luo Pans are being consulted by Feng Shui Masters on matters from the dates of
Figure 7 Suntec Convention - where international conferences are held
the opening ceremonies to the shape of a building. Shape of Suntec City: resemblance of a palm
Suntec City is an example where Feng Shui is consulted extensively. It has five office towers, a convention hall and a large fountain. The 5 towers is supposed to represent the fingers of the hand, the convention hall the wrist and the fountain in the center of the Suntec City, means water (wealth) flowing into the palm of the hand, which is a building has obviously taken Feng is most likely to be needed in good omen. The architecture of the Shui into consideration and a Luo Pan determination of the geomancy.
9
LUO PAN IN CULTURAL PRACTICES
newly-built of the Esplanade Bridge. Because the Merlion does not have open access to the sea, it is interpreted by a Feng Shui master as a sign of wealth being blocked, as seen during the recent financial crisis. As a result, it was shifted into a new position which is supposed to have good Feng Shui as it faced the mouth of the Singapore River. Again, a Luo Pan is most likely to be needed in this case to determine the Feng Shui of the new position.
Figure 11 the opening ceremony of the new Merlion site by Senior Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew on 15 Sep 2002
10
THE TIME-FINDING ART
Twelve-Four
The Chineses approach to meteorology involves the aid of the weather Chi in explaining the seasons and was used as a solar calendar by the Chinese farmers in the ancient times. Solar divisions
Chinese solar calendar begins at Li Chun when the Big Dipper (See p. 16 The Big Dipper and the Nine Moving Stars) points to the 15th degree of the constellation Aquarius, which happens on either Feb 4th or 5th of every year. The Spring Equinox (0 degree Aries) is "mid spring" which happens in between the beginning of spring (Li-Chun) and the beginning of summer (Li-hsia). The summer solstice (0 degree Cancer) is the mid point between the Li-hsia, beginning of summer, and the Li-Chiu, beginning of autumn. The autumn equinox (0 degree Libra) is called Chiu-Fen, the mid autumn. The winter solstice (0 degree Capricorn) is called Tung chih, the coming of winter. The following are the 24 Chieh Chi (solar fortnight):
Chieh Chi Chieh Chi Chieh Chi Chieh Chi Chieh Chi Chieh Chi Chieh Chi Chieh Chi Chieh Chi li chun yu Shui ching chih chun fen ching ming ku yu li hsia Hsiao man mang chung hsia chih Hsiao shu ta shu li chiu chu shu pai lu chiu fen han lu shuang chiang beginning of Spring rain water excited insects Spring Equinox clear and bright grain rains Summer begins grain filling grain in ear Summer Solstice slight heat great heat autumn begins limit of heat white dew Autumn Equinox cold dew hoar frost descends 5 Feb (first day) 20 Feb 7 Mar 22 Mar 6 Apr 21 Apr 6 May 22 May 7 Jun 22 Jun 8 Jul 24 Jul 8 Aug 24 Aug 8 Sep 24 Sep 9 Oct 24 Oct
11
THE TIME-FINDING ART Chieh Chi Chieh Chi Chieh Chi li tung Hsiao hsueh ta hsueh tung chih Hsiao han ta han Winter begins slight snow great snow Winter Solstice slight cold great cold 8 Nov 23 Nov 7 Dec 22 Dec 6 Jan 21 Jan
When the Big Dipper points East direction and Chen1 quadrant, this is the Li-Chun, beginning of spring. The sun rises at 15 degree of Aquarius. Li-hsia, the summer beginning, is another Jie which sun rises at 15 degree of Taurus. The Big Dipper points South (180 degree compass) direction and Li quadrant. When the Big Dipper points to the west 270 degree compass direction and Tui quadrant, the sun rises at 15 degree Leo. This is the Li-Chiu, beginning of autumn. When the Big Dipper points to the north 360 degree compass direction and Kan quadrant, the sun rises at 15 degree Scorpio, this is the Li-Tung, beginning of winter. The Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumn Equinox, and the Winter Solstice are the mid points between the Li-Chun, Li-Hsia, Li-Chiu, and Li-Tung (the beginning of the four seasons).
12
THE DIRECTION-FINDING ART
13
THE DIRECTION-FINDING ART
The sun rises in the East (spring), reaches its peak in the South (Mid-Summer), sets in the West (autumn) and is dark in the North (Mid-Winter) Spring East Summer South (Maximum Yang) Autumn West Winter North (Maximum Ying) The four animals traditionally attributed to the compass quarters are colored in a way which reflects their geographic / climatic attributes.
14
THE DIRECTION-FINDING ART
Chien Summer South Tui Li Chen Sun Khan Ken Kun Winter Autumn Spring South-East East North-East
maximum Yang more Yang equal Yin and yang more Yin
Table 2 The Names of the Eight Trigrams and their associated directions and seasons
In terms of the Former heaven sequence, south is associated with summer while north is associated with winter. This is because Chinese in the past view the beginning of spring as the beginning of a new year. They also correlated the beginning of the year with the beginning of the day. Since the sun rises in the east, they naturally linked east with the spring. The sun when viewed from China reaches its peak in the south at all times of the year during noon, and as noon is the warmest period of the day just as summer is the warmest period of the year, the Chinese correlated south with midsummer. The same goes for autumn, as the sun sets in the west and both are thus correlated. After the sun sets, the sun continues its revolution until it is in the north of China, when it will be at midnight. As midnight is the coldest period of the day just as winter is the coldest period of the year, they are both correlated.
Chien Heaven
15
THE DIRECTION-FINDING ART
Autumn
West
Summer South Spring East South-East Winter North North-East Earth North-West
The Later is linked to the Former Heaven as it was devised from it. Both may exist as two different rings together in Luo Pans and are used for the detection of Yin-Yang harmony or disharmony at particular points. They are prominent in Luo Pans used nowadays.
16
THE ASTRONOMICAL LINKS
The
Of all cosmological forces in Luo Pan the most directly manifested in the forms of earth are the Nine Moving Stars. The Nine Stars
Their details are to be found in Han Lung Ching by Yang Yun-sung (the form school), but are not of central importance to the Compass school. Therefore, it is not a necessary component in the compass. There are 24 divisions in the ring. In practice, they are used as categories to define the various hill and mountain forms. Tan lang Chu men Lu tsun Wen chu greedy and savage great gate Rank (salary) preserved civil or literary activities
Figure 16 the Stars arrangement on Luo Pan
Lien chien honesty, purity and uprightness Wu chu Po chun Tso fu Yu pi military windings breaker of the Phalanx Broken Army (luck) left assistant right assistant of the Celestial Emperor
Table 4 the names of the nine stars and their meanings in Chinese
17
THE ASTRONOMICAL LINKS
that is part of a constellation. The remaining two are assistance stars, which are located many light years away but appear near the Mizar Star. A Java Applet showing the Urza Major constellation (Please refer to the CD-Rom): Stars of Urza Major
The Twenty-Eight
Lunar Mansions
In the Luo Pan one of the rings is called the Lunar Mansions containing the Chinese 28 constellations. The Chinese stars charts were known to be the most accurate in the ancient times. Definition of constellation
A constellation is a collection of stars, grouped together to form a from Earths position of observation, they appear next to each other.
Figure 20 this is the famous Suzhou Astronomical Chart of 1247, displaying the Milky Way and Chinese constellations
recognizable figure. They are observed from the Earth. Although there are far away from each other, but
18
THE ASTRONOMICAL LINKS
The stars of the 28 constellations are situated around the Celestial Equator on different times of the year. The 28 constellations are grouped into the four Celestial Animals (See p. 12 The Four Celestial Animals) which corresponds to the seasons they appear. This means that during each season, there will be 7 constellations appearing in the sky one after another. The stars appear to rise in the East and set in the west in clockwise direction as Earth rotates anti-clockwise around its axis. As the Earth revolves around the sun, the stars appear to move in anti-clockwise direction with respect to the Sun. Eventually, the current stars disappear and new stars appear. Therefore, the position of constellations changes with the time of the year.
Figure 23the ancient Chinese star chart showing the 28 constellation (Part 2). There are 615 stars in this chart.
Figure 24 the ancient Chinese star chart showing the 28 constellation (Part 2). There are 660 stars in this chart.
stars of the Western Zodiac (See p. 25 Stars charts). Similarly to the Western counterpart, the Chinese also
Figure 21 The Chinese celestial sphere
19
THE ASTRONOMICAL LINKS
inferred shapes from the stars. Later, the name of the shapes became names of legendary people. Therefore, on the Luo Pan, you will see strange names given to the constellations.
20
THE ASTRONOMICAL LINKS
(Stomach) (Pleiades) (Net) (Beak) (Orion) (Well) (Ghosts) (Willow) (Star) (Bow) (Wings) (Carriage)
15 11 16 1 9 30 3 14 6 18 20 19
White Tiger
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
Aries/35 Ari Pleiades/17 Tau or 16 Tau Taurus/Epsilon Tau Orion/Lamda Ori or Phi Ori Orion/Delta Ori or Beta Ori Gemini/Mu Gem Cancer/Delta Cnc orTheta Cnc Hydra/Delta Hya Alp hard/Alpha Hya Crater/Nu Hya Corves/Alpha Crt Corves/Gamma Crv
Table 5 this is based on 1950 Luo Pan. The North is at the mid-point of zi.
21
THE BIG PRINCIPLES OF LUO PAN
It is responsible for the changes in form which is a characteristic of all living things, including the Earth. The various forms of Chi include sheng Chi or vital Chi and ssu Chi or torpid Chi. The former is Yang Chi and the latter Yin Chi. The sheng Chi flows most readily during the hours of rising sun while ssu Chi prevails during the declining hours of sun (noon to midnight). Hence, as the sun moves from east to west, the compass point from which one will expect either sheng Chi or ssu Chi alternate.
Figure 26 the five types of Weather Ch'i extend between Heaven and Earth Ch'i
the earth and along the watercourse and subjected to decay. They are governed by the Later Heaven
Weather Chi
22
THE BIG PRINCIPLES OF LUO PAN
This is consists of rain, sunshine, heat, cold and wind. The weather partake the nature of both Heaven and Earth and is governed by both. Chi is an all important principle underlying Luo Pan. It acts on every level from human to climatic and exists in Heaven, Earth and Weather. The essence of good direction finding is to determine the best site which is able to trap the Chi energy flowing through the site and accumulate it without allowing it to go stagnant.
the Chinese views of the centre is the Yin-Yang Yin and Light half represents contains a seed of opposite
behind Luo Pan is the Yin and represents all that are negative. represents all that are positive. The
concept of Yin and Yang came from the classic IChing, as a whole line (Yang) and as a broken line
The Trigrams
The trigrams are unique combination of the Yin and Yang. A trigram consists of three lines on top of one another, each line being either a whole line (Yang) or a broken line (Yin). Sage Fu Hsi invented the Trigrams more than 4000 years ago. It is consisted of all the eight combinations of Yin and Yang called the Former Heaven sequence (See p. 13 Former Heaven Sequence). Later King Wen (the first ruler of the Chou dynasty, 1150BC) combined each of the eight Trigrams with each of the others to form the 64 hexagrams, forming the classic IChing. Each of these Hexagrams had a textual interpretation. The ancient Chinese believes all changes can be predicted from these 64 hexagrams. King Wen derived the Later Heaven sequence (See p. 14 Later
Figure 28 Fu-Hsi, creator of Former Heaven Sequence
Heaven Sequence) from these 64 Hexagrams using complex and metaphoric formulas.
23
DISCUSSIONS
Discussions
Is Luo Pan a cosmological representation of the stars?
In our opinion, we feel that the Luo Pan is actually a cosmological graph of the stars in the skies of China; we think that Luo pan might just be what ancient people produced while trying to relate what they saw in the sky and what actually happened around them. From our interpretation of the Luo Pan, we think one can actually determine the constellations which are visible to the Chinese in that particular season. By pointing the south needle in the direction of the current season, we can observe the constellations visible to the people. The constellation which is at the furthest end of the line extended from season in the Luo Pan will appear first followed by the rest of the constellations until it reaches the constellation which coincides with the ending of the season. This will be clearly illustrated in our model of the Luo Pan.
24
DISCUSSIONS
seriously by scientists, people have begun to adapt and explore the underlying concepts and theories behind them.
25
APPENDIX 1
Stars charts
Below are stars charts showing the specific locations of the stars and the key stars which are circle in yellow:
Figure 30 7 constellations in the East, represented by the Celestial Animal Azure Dragon
Figure 29 7 constellations in the North, represented by the Celestial Animal Dark Warrior/Tortoise and Snake
26
APPENDIX 1
Figure 32 7 constellations in the West, represented by the Celestial Animal White Tiger
Figure 31 7 constellations in the South, represented by the Celestial Animal Red Bird/Phoenix
27
APPENDIX 2
28
REFERENCES
References
Books
Figure 34 from left to right: The Living Earth of Feng-Shui, Chinese Geomancy, An anthological Analysis of Chinese Geomancy and Feng Shui
1) Skinner, Stephen (1982), The Living Earth Manual of Feng-Shui, Graham Brash (Pte) Ltd, Singapore 2) Walters, Derek (1989), Chinese Geomancy, Dr J J M de Groots seminal study of Feng Shui together with detailed commentaries by the Western worlds leading authority on the subject, Element Books Limited 3) Feuchtwang, Stephan D.R. (1974), An Anthological Analysis of Chinese Geomancy, Collection Co naissance De Lasie Vol. 1, Editions Vithagna, Laos 4) Skinner, Stephen (2001), Feng Shui, Paragon
Websites
Luo Pan http://www.innerx.net/personal/tsmith/LuoPan.html Descriptions: This is a website done by Frank D. (Tony) Smith, Jr. based on a 19 rings Luo Pan. He explained the Luo Pan ring by ring with great details. It is an interesting website worth seeing. He has websites on many other areas like the Clifford algebra and comets. David B. Kelleys Web Pages http://hawk.hama-med.ac.jp/dbk/kelley.html Descriptions: This is a website done by Dr. David B. Kelley, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Japan. There are pictures of the ancient Chinese observations of stars. It has plenty of information of variety of topics, like medieval lunisolar playing cards, Maya calendar and Mexican cultures. Feng Shui at Geomancy.Net - Singapore http://sg.geomancy.net/default-spore.htm Descriptions: This is a commercialized Feng-Shui website based in Singapore. It has a large database of photographs, mainly in the areas of application of Feng-Shui. There are many humorous graphics created
29
REFERENCES
by the websites Feng-Shui master too. It also offers basic guides for Feng-Shui beginners. The website is very well-designed with a lot of graphics but can take time to download. Feng Shui and Time Cycle by Aifen Wong http://www.traditionalfengshui.com/articles/fstimecycle.htm Descriptions: This is a simple website with few features. However it has a few good articles worth reading especially on the Chinese Solar Calendar. Star Charts and Moon Stations by Steve Renshaw and Saori Ihara http://www2.gol.com/users/stever/charts.htm Descriptions: This is an informative website done by Steve Renshaw and Saori Ihara. It is mainly about Japanese star charts. However, some of the charts used originated from China as the ancient Japanese astronomers were closely linked to their China counterparts.