Timing and sister disciplines
About this page
This is page 4 of 4 in the glossary. It covers the time-aware Xuan Kong family, the solar calendar that drives feng shui dates, the cautious annual stars, the calendrical scaffolding used to name years and hours, the Form School distance terms, and the two sister disciplines that often get confused with feng shui itself.
Anshan. An shan, "desk hill". The low foreground hill in front of an ideal Form School site, sitting between the immediate Vermilion Bird table and the distant Chaoshan view. It anchors the middle ground of the classic landscape reading. See the Form School landscape terms.
BaZi. Ba zi, "eight characters". The Four Pillars of Destiny birth-chart system, a sister discipline that reads a person rather than a place. It is not feng shui itself, even though the two share elements and stems and branches. See what BaZi is and is not.
Chaoshan. Chao shan. The distant facing mountain or feature in the Form School landscape, sitting beyond the closer Anshan. It provides the long view that anchors a site's outlook and gives the eye somewhere to rest. See the Form School landscape terms.
Cun. Cun, "classical inch". The classical Chinese inch, used in the Form School principle that terrain one cun lower than its surroundings should be read as a virtual watercourse. It is a unit of attention as much as a unit of measure. See Form School landscape reading.
Da Gua. Da gua, "great hexagram". An advanced Xuan Kong technique that uses the 64 hexagrams of the Yi Jing rather than the eight trigrams alone. It is specialist work and not the starting point for a home reading. See Xuan Kong on the schools page.
Day Master. Ri zhu. The Heavenly Stem of the day pillar in a BaZi chart, read as the sketch of a person's core temperament. Treat it as a starting hypothesis, not a verdict about who someone is. See the day master in BaZi.
Earthly Branches. Di zhi. The twelve animal-signed branches used to mark hours, days, months, and years in Chinese metaphysics. Twelve of the 24 Mountains on a Compass School luopan are named for them. See Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.
Fei Xing. Fei xing, "flying stars". The Xuan Kong technique of moving the nine Luo Shu numbers through the nine palaces on Period, annual, and monthly schedules. It is the timing engine inside most modern Compass School practice. See Flying Stars on the schools page.
Five Yellow. Wu huang. The most cautious of the nine Flying Stars, an Earth-element star traditionally read as a source of instability and accidents when untimely. Metal objects are the classical neutraliser when it lands in a sensitive sector. See the cautious annual stars.
Four Pillars of Destiny. The English name for BaZi. The four pillars are the Heavenly-Stem-plus-Earthly-Branch pairs for the year, month, day, and hour of birth. Together they form the eight characters that give BaZi its name. See the four pillars in BaZi.
Heavenly Stems. Tian gan. The ten elemental stems (yang Wood, yin Wood, yang Fire, and so on) that combine with the twelve Earthly Branches to form the 60-pair cycle used across Chinese calendrics. They sit at the top of every BaZi pillar. See Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.
Jiang Da Hong. Jiang da hong. A late Ming Dynasty master traditionally regarded as the forefather of the modern Xuan Kong schools. Much of today's Flying Stars lineage traces its method back through his teaching. See Xuan Kong on the schools page.
Li Chun. Li chun, "beginning of spring". The solar term around 4 February that marks the start of the Chinese astronomical year. Feng shui Periods, annual stars, and BaZi year pillars all change on this boundary, not on the lunar New Year. See the Li Chun boundary.
Nine Palaces. Jiu gong. The nine-cell grid underlying the Bagua, the Luo Shu, and Flying Stars. It is also the structural basis of Qi Men Dun Jia, which is why the two systems feel related. See the nine palaces grid.
Period. Yun. A 20-year time block in the San Yuan cycle, used in Xuan Kong to determine a building's natal-chart ruling star. The Period a home was built in shapes how its Flying Stars read for its lifetime. See Periods and the Xuan Kong clock.
Period 9. Jiu yun. The current Xuan Kong period, running from 4 February 2024 to early February 2044. Its ruling star is 9 Purple, a Fire star in the south Li-trigram palace. See the current Period.
Qi Men Dun Jia. Qi men dun jia, "QMDJ". A divination and date-selection system built on the nine palaces, used for strategy and timing rather than space. It is a sister discipline to feng shui, not feng shui itself. See what QMDJ is and is not.
San He. San he, "three combinations". One of the four major Compass School sub-schools, focused on the spatial relationships between mountains, water, and the site. It is strong on landform and orientation rather than time. See the four schools in one map.
San Yuan. San yuan, "three cycles". The Compass School lineage that includes Xuan Kong Flying Stars. It adds time as an explicit dimension and uses the 180-year calendar of three nested cycles. See the four schools in one map.
Two Black. Er hei. The illness star of Flying Stars, an Earth-element star traditionally read as cautious at every time scale. Metal objects are the classical neutraliser when it visits the bedroom or main door sector. See the cautious annual stars.
Xuan Kong. Xuan kong, "mysterious subtlety". The time-aware sub-school of Compass School. It contains Flying Stars and related techniques that move stars through the nine palaces by date. See Xuan Kong on the schools page.
Xuan Kong Fei Xing. Xuan kong fei xing. The full classical name of the Flying Stars system, literally the flying stars of subtle space. Most modern practitioners shorten it to Fei Xing or simply Flying Stars. See Flying Stars on the schools page.
Yuan. Yuan, "cycle". A 60-year time block in the San Yuan cycle, made of three 20-year Periods. Three Yuan together form the full 180-year San Yuan cycle. See the San Yuan calendar.
Where to go next
To re-enter the glossary from the start, return to the core feng shui terms page. For the school, direction, and Bagua vocabulary, see the schools, directions, and Bagua glossary. For the language of cures, rooms, and elements, see the cures, rooms, and elements glossary. To see how all of these terms fit into a single practice, read the methodology page.