The Eight Stars: Sheng Qi, Yan Nian, Tian Yi, Fu Wei and the four bad directions
Eight Mansions sorts the eight compass directions into four good and four bad, known as the eight wandering stars. They are not stars in the sky. They are worked out from your own trigram by changing its lines one at a time, which is why everyone's Sheng Qi and Jue Ming point somewhere different.
Four good, four bad
| Star | Nine-star name | Rating | What the classics say | Traditional use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sheng Qi (Life Generating) | Tan Lang (Greedy Wolf) | Good | The best direction. The classics tie it to vitality, drive and money: the direction for getting things moving. | Front door, the direction your head points in bed, the way your desk faces |
| Yan Nian (Longevity) | Wu Qu (Military Arts) | Good | Very good. Said to bring harmony with people and a steady relationship or marriage. | Master bedroom, living room, wherever a couple spends time together |
| Tian Yi (Heavenly Doctor) | Ju Men (Giant Door) | Good | Good. The old texts speak of helpful people and a sound body; today it reads best as the place where you rest well. | Bedroom, a quiet corner for resting |
| Fu Wei (Stability) | Fu Bi (the Assistants) | Good | Mildly good. The home direction of your own trigram, linked to calm, self-cultivation and study. | Study, meditation, anywhere you need to focus |
| Huo Hai (Mishaps) | Lu Cun (Salary Keeper) | Bad | Mildly bad. Said to bring petty quarrels and small annoyances. | Storage room, bathroom, clutter |
| Liu Sha (Six Killings) | Wen Qu (Literary Arts) | Bad | Bad. Said to bring tangled relationships and things that keep going wrong. | Bathroom, laundry |
| Wu Gui (Five Ghosts) | Lian Zhen (Chastity) | Bad | Very bad. The classics name accidents, disputes and fire. | Storage, toilet; the old rule puts the stove here to "press down" the bad direction |
| Jue Ming (Total Loss) | Po Jun (Army Breaker) | Bad | The worst direction in the system. | Toilet, storage; not for the master bedroom or the front door |
How they are derived: the Great Wandering Year
Each trigram has three lines, each solid (yang) or broken (yin). Start from your own trigram and flip the top line, then the middle, the bottom, the middle, the top, the middle and the bottom again. Each flip gives a new trigram, and in that order they are Sheng Qi, Wu Gui, Yan Nian, Liu Sha, Huo Hai, Tian Yi and Jue Ming; your own trigram is Fu Wei. Take Qian (☰): flip the top line and you get Dui (Sheng Qi, west); flip the middle and you get Zhen (Wu Gui, east); flip the bottom and you get Kun (Yan Nian, southwest), and so on. The old texts turned the Qian house into a mnemonic, 乾六天五禍絕延生, which gives Kan, Gen, Zhen, Xun, Li, Kun and Dui in turn as Liu Sha, Tian Yi, Wu Gui, Huo Hai, Jue Ming, Yan Nian and Sheng Qi. Every direction table on this site is computed with that rule and then checked against the mnemonic.
Direction table for all eight Kua
| Kua | Group | Sheng Qi | Yan Nian | Tian Yi | Fu Wei | Huo Hai | Liu Sha | Wu Gui | Jue Ming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kan | East group | Southeast | South | East | North | West | Northwest | Northeast | Southwest |
| Kun | West group | Northeast | Northwest | West | Southwest | East | South | Southeast | North |
| Zhen | East group | South | Southeast | North | East | Southwest | Northeast | Northwest | West |
| Xun | East group | North | East | South | Southeast | Northwest | West | Southwest | Northeast |
| Qian | West group | West | Southwest | Northeast | Northwest | Southeast | North | East | South |
| Dui | West group | Northwest | Northeast | Southwest | West | North | Southeast | South | East |
| Gen | West group | Southwest | West | Northwest | Northeast | South | East | North | Southeast |
| Li | East group | East | North | Southeast | South | Northeast | Southwest | West | Northwest |
Notice the pattern: the East group (Kan, Li, Zhen, Xun) always has its four good directions among north, south, east and southeast, while the West group (Qian, Kun, Gen, Dui) always has them among northwest, southwest, northeast and west. That is where the rule "East-group people in East-group houses, West-group people in West-group houses" comes from.
Find your Kua number: East group or West group?
Enter your Gregorian birth date and sex to get your Eight Mansions Ming Gua (the year changes at the Start of Spring, around February 4) and the rating of all eight directions. Optionally pick how your home sits to see whether your Kua and the house trigram match. Everything is calculated in your browser.
"Sitting" is the side the building backs onto; "facing" is the side it opens toward. For an apartment, practitioners usually take the main light-facing side or the side with the entrance; schools differ.
Two common misconceptions
Wu Gui and Jue Ming directions make bad things happen.
The dramatic names are just the old naming style. Eight Mansions uses the bad directions for toilets and storage to "press them down", not as something to fear. A direction cannot make anything happen to you.
These are the same Tan Lang and Wu Qu as in Zi Wei Dou Shu.
The eight stars borrow the names of the Nine Stars, and Zi Wei Dou Shu has stars with the same names, but the two are calculated in completely different ways and have nothing to do with each other.
A straight word: Feng Shui is folk tradition, and light and air come first
Eight Mansions is one school of traditional Feng Shui (others include Flying Stars and San He). It pairs a person with directions, and the old books do not all agree with each other. Use it as one input when you arrange a space, but what makes a home good to live in is daylight, fresh air, sensible circulation and safety. There is no need to renovate because a direction is labeled "bad", and no need to buy remedies or charms. Everything on this site is for reference and entertainment.
Find your eight directions
Enter your birth date and sex to get your Kua and where each of the eight stars falls for you.
Eight Stars FAQ
What are the eight stars in Eight Mansions?
Good: Sheng Qi, Yan Nian, Tian Yi, Fu Wei. Bad: Huo Hai, Liu Sha, Wu Gui, Jue Ming.
How are they calculated?
Starting from your own trigram, flip the top, middle, bottom, middle, top, middle and bottom lines in turn to get Sheng Qi, Wu Gui, Yan Nian, Liu Sha, Huo Hai, Tian Yi and Jue Ming; your own trigram is Fu Wei.
Which direction is best?
The classics rank Sheng Qi best, then Yan Nian, Tian Yi and Fu Wei; among the bad ones, Jue Ming is the worst.