#3. [八 宅] 8 houses…which house is good for me?

From my experiences of using all the Feng Shui formulas I’ve learnt, The most easiest one to use is the BA ZHAI (八宅) or the 8 houses (sometimes known as 8 mansion). In the 8 mansion formula, All of us have a (命卦) or Life Gua. This life gua serves as a guide for us to find a suitable house and the facing direction of the house. For example, there are 8 life gua for all. They are

坎 (KAN)，坤 (KUN)，震 (ZHEN)，巽 (XUN)，

乾(QIAN)，兑 (DUI)，艮 (GEN) and 离 (LI).

Kan is water element, Kun and Gen are Earth element. Zhen and Xun belong to wood element, Qian and Dui are metal element. Finally, Li is Fire element. So depending on which life gua you belong you will be able to know if you are suited to live in a west facing or east facing house. For those whose life element belonging to KAN, KUN, ZHEN and XUN, your group belongs to the EAST life group (东命卦). The rest belongs to the WEST life group ( 西命卦). As 8 mansion make full use of the Yi Jing Ba Gua (易经八卦), The theory correspond to the 8 directions. They are four auspicious and inauspicious directions. You must know which element you belong and then calculate to determine which house direction/ facing is most suited for you.

For those who are East life gua, you can’t go wrong with a house facing South, North, East or Southeast. For those of West life, Your best bet is to go for houses facing Northeast, Southwest, Northwest and West. These are the basics of 8 mansions. Another classic formula most Feng Shui practitioners use is locating the stove of the kitchen in an inauspicious location according to 8 mansion formula, and the stove’s fire mouth (火口) is pointing to the most auspicious direction.

Next is to locate the bed in an auspicious location within the bedroom and the head board to be place pointing to any of the four auspicious directions.

The four auspicious directions are:

SHENG QI (生气) – Door of Vitality/ Life.

TIAN YI (天医) – Heavenly Doctor

YAN NIAN (延年) – Door of Longevity

FU WEI (伏位) – Door of Stability

The four inauspicious directions are:

HUO HAI (祸害) – Door of Misfortune

WU GUI (五鬼) – Door of 5 demons

LIU SHA (六煞) – The Six Killings

JUE MING (绝命) – Door of Death

Based on these directions, one can enhance one’s way of life, promote opportunities for wealth and health luck or besetted by misfortunes and death and other negative aspects. If you can face your best direction ie: your SHENG QI. Then, that is wonderful. If you can’t, you can try to face the other 3 auspicious directions. Your opportunities for success will increase in due time. 8 mansion has a time factor. It depends on your own luck, If you are at your peak of Luck, then the effects are swift and you will see the results very quickly. If your luck is average, then you will see opportunities coming slowly into the picture. If your luck cycle is down, then at the very least, it will support your present situation and ensure you do not get yourself into a tight spot.

There are pros and cons to using this formula. If you are living in a landed property, it’s easy to use this formulas as you can move each rooms according to the theory, for example, if your toilets sits on your good location, you can move it to another area so it will suppress your bad location. However, if you are living in a condo unit, then chances of you shifting the toilet room is difficult indeed. Sometimes, you can’t use the 8 mansion formula at all on the house layout. All these depends on the situation and environment.