Feng Shui experts have called the compass (luo pan) the essential tool of the trade because so much theory and application is relative to directions. Your North is someone else’s South.  For example, if you need to make an adjustment to the Northeast sector, it is vital to know the real boundaries of the Northeast and not accidentally place a remedy in the East.

Throughout the history of Feng Shui, there are been different references to directions, with True North as the guide until Magnetic North was discovered.  Did you know that Feng Shui masters invented the compass (luo pan) for Feng Shui purposes before the compass was used for maritime navigation? Europeans were late to the party when it came to using a compass.

When looking at the traditional Luo pan, all the rings in Chinese and Hexagram characters from the I-Ching may look daunting.  A Deeper Understanding of the Luo Pan discusses how each ring on the luo pan compass is really a “cheat sheet” for the feng shui practitioner to have the formulas at their fingertips. There are different styles of luo pan for different Schools of Feng Shui as well.

EXCERPT:

“In the same way that you may know the age of a tree, based on the number of rings in the trunk, with each new discovery, more rings were added to the luopan. The addition of rings double as documentation for historical Feng Shui milestones.  The changes that have been made to it through the centuries and even modern-day renditions of the luopan, all reflect what was/is important to the art and practice of Feng Shui, at the time the luopan addition was made.

Some luopans are quite simple and small with very few rings around the compass needle in the center.  And yet there have been some luopan(s) created with as many as 42 rings around them, and some so large and heavy that they could only be lifted by several people holding it in unison.  Of course, a luopan like that might not be practical to carry around, but as a work of art and monument to Feng Shui, I can appreciate even the jumbo-sized luopan, for what it’s worth.

When I began my own studies in Feng Shui, I was primarily concerned with the mechanics of how things were calculated and the results for the end-user.  I was not so much interested in the history of Feng Shui, Chinese culture or politics.  And yet, many years later I have discovered that studying the history of Feng Shui, the real history, not the vague fairy tale versions, can be very inspiring and humbling. It also answers a lot of questions which remain a mystery or which are ignored by other teachers and westernized schools.

Feng Shui in practice before the luopan

As much as we relate to the luopan as an essential diagnostic instrument, there was a long period of time when feng shui was practiced before the invention of the compass.  With recorded history of Feng Shui going back some 5,000 years, it was not even originally called “Feng Shui.”  That term was coined by Guo Po, who authored The Book of Burial.   Guo Po lived from 276- 324 CE. Prior to that, what we know as Feng Shui, was called K’an Yu or Ti Li.

These terms refer to measurements and observations of the earth, the land, and the Qi coursing through the land.  A feng shui practitioner during those times would have been referred to as a ti li master or a K’an Yu Shih.

You can try to get hold of a very expensive and hard to find copy of Juwen Zhang’s A Translation of the Ancient Chinese ‘The Book of Burial’ by Guo Po.  It mostly covers Yin Zhai, or Yin House: the divination of grave sites. The Chinese title for this book is Zang Shu. In that book, Guo Po used for the first time the phrase that Qi is dissipated by the wind (feng) and collected at the boundaries of water (shui).

Before the invention of the compass, this divination practice included observations and theories which we might now refer to as “Form School.” This would include, but not be limited to, interpretations of natural landscapes for the effects they have on people, such as literal mountains and streams, etc.

But there WAS also a directional component to Feng Shui, or K’an Yu Theory even before the invention of the compass. Since the origins of Feng Shui all refer back to astronomy, initially observations were made in relation to TRUE NORTH, also called Astronomical North.  It is only with the invention of the compass (luopan) that other schools of Feng Shui evolved, using MAGNETIC NORTH as a reference. 

In fact, in some of the first renditions of the luopan, there were rings solely devoted to making adjustments for the difference between the magnetic declination and True North. This was so a practitioner could still use the luopan for some applications when they wanted to refer to True North. This ring is 7.5 degrees out of sync with the 24 mountain ring, sometimes called the Man plate.

But of course this adjusted ring could not be used for all time or all places because A) magnetic declinations are different in different parts of the world and B) magnetic declinations change slowly over time.  So, the early Feng Shui masters incorporated into their observations the difference between both magnetic north and true north.  But I am not sure they knew it was different beyond their region of practice or how it would change over time.

Before the invention of the luopan/compass, another type of mystical instrument was used by the Chinese “geomancers.”  It was called a Shih Board.  Hence, early practitioners were also called “Fang Shih.”

Author: Kartar Diamond

Company: Feng Shui Solutions (R)

From the Feng Shui Theory Blog Series