Glossary
Browse Terms
Backing · Bagua · Direct Door Alignment · Feng Shui · Five Phases · Flying Star Feng Shui · Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches · Kanyu · Li Qi · Luopan · Ming Tang · Qi · Qi Mouth · Sha · Sheng Qi · Sitting and Facing · Taiji · Twenty-Four Solar Terms · Wenchang · Xing Shi / Forms and Configurations · Yangzhai / Yang House · Yin–Yang
Backing（靠山）
Backing refers to the supporting condition behind a site, building, or important position within a room. It may be provided by a hill, another building, or a solid wall. Good backing depends on proportion, distance, stability, and the relationship to what it supports—not merely the presence of something behind it.
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Bagua（八卦）
Bagua means the Eight Trigrams, eight symbols formed from combinations of three broken or unbroken lines. Originating in traditional Chinese thought, they express different patterns of Yin and Yang and are associated with natural phenomena and directions. Different schools of Feng Shui draw on the meanings of the Eight Trigrams according to their own theories and methods.
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Direct Door Alignment（門沖）
Direct door alignment describes a close, unbuffered relationship between facing openings, or a doorway opening directly toward a sensitive position such as a bed or stove. In Traditional Feng Shui, the concern is how one space directly exposes or disturbs another, rather than simply whether two doors appear to line up.
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Feng Shui（風水）
Feng Shui is a traditional Chinese approach to understanding and assessing places. It considers landforms, water, buildings, spatial relationships, orientation, and time to examine how environmental conditions relate to human life. It is much more than arranging furniture or placing objects believed to bring good fortune.
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Five Phases（五行）
The Five Phases (Wu Xing), also commonly known as the Five Elements, are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. They describe five kinds of qualities and patterns of change, rather than simply five physical substances. Feng Shui uses their relationships to understand how different conditions interact within an environment.
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Flying Star Feng Shui（飛星風水）
Flying Star Feng Shui is a traditional school of Feng Shui that took shape during the 17th century (1600s). It examines how the changing strengths of nine symbolic stars at different times influence the conditions associated with different directions. Although time and direction are central to its calculations, the surrounding landforms and spatial configurations are also essential to its assessment.
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Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches（天干地支）
The Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches are two sets of traditional Chinese symbols consisting of ten stems and twelve branches. Combined in sequence, they form a repeating cycle of sixty pairs, known as the sexagenary cycle, used in Chinese calendrical reckoning. In Feng Shui, they are also used to organize directions and other traditional correspondences.
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Kanyu（堪輿）
Kanyu is a historical Chinese term closely related to Feng Shui. It has historically been associated with traditional knowledge of astronomy and geography, which partly overlaps with Feng Shui. Today, Kanyu and Feng Shui are often treated as similar or interchangeable names, although their meanings and scope have not always been identical.
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Li Qi（理氣）
Li Qi is one of the major domains of Traditional Feng Shui. It examines sitting and facing, direction, time, and the particular relationships of qi associated with these factors. Different Li Qi methods may draw on compass directions, as well as theories and applications of the I Ching, Yin–Yang, and Five Phases as understood within different traditions. Li Qi complements, rather than replaces, the assessment of physical forms and spatial configurations.
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Luopan（羅盤）
A luopan is the traditional Feng Shui compass. It has a magnetic compass at its center and multiple surrounding rings containing directional information and traditional systems of correspondence. Practitioners use it to measure and interpret orientation, particularly in methods that involve detailed directional analysis.
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Ming Tang（明堂）
Ming Tang, traditionally translated as “Bright Hall,” refers to the space in front of a site or dwelling. Its quality is assessed through its size and proportions, whether the ground is level, and how the surrounding landforms and physical features define the space. Ming Tang is understood in relation to the dwelling’s overall facing, not simply the position of its entrance.
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Qi（氣）
Qi is a fundamental concept in Traditional Feng Shui. Its movement, gathering, and dispersal are understood through the conditions of a place, including terrain, water, and spatial arrangements. Qi is not simply airflow or a person’s feeling about a space, although such experiences may offer clues.
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Qi Mouth（氣口）
A Qi mouth is an opening through which a building or space receives or exchanges qi with its surroundings. It may be a main entrance, a large opening, or another important point of connection. Its significance depends on the overall spatial configuration; not every door or window is automatically a Qi mouth.
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Sha（煞）
Sha refers to a condition judged unfavorable in Traditional Feng Shui. It may arise from physical forms, spatial relationships, directional or time-based factors, or environmental disturbances. A condition is not automatically harmful because it resembles a named Sha; its actual relationship to the place being assessed must be considered.
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Sheng Qi（生氣）
Sheng Qi is a kind of life-supporting qi described in the Zangshu (Book of Burial) as moving within the earth. In traditional burial-site Feng Shui, surrounding mountains, terrain, and water are studied to identify places where Sheng Qi may gather and be received. These features help practitioners locate it; they do not create it.
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Sitting and Facing（坐向）
Sitting and Facing describe the principal back-to-front orientation of a building or site. Sitting identifies its rear direction, while Facing identifies the direction it primarily addresses. These are opposite directions considered together. A building’s facing is determined through its overall relationship with the surroundings, not necessarily by its entrance alone.
Taiji（太極）
Taiji is a foundational Chinese concept associated with Yin and Yang and their relationship within a unified whole. In Feng Shui, it also provides a way to consider a home or another subject of assessment as a whole, allowing its orientation and internal spatial relationships to be understood together.
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Twenty-Four Solar Terms（二十四節氣）
The Twenty-Four Solar Terms divide the Sun’s apparent annual path into twenty-four equal segments. Developed in traditional China, they describe changes throughout the year and have long guided agriculture and seasonal activities. Some Feng Shui methods also use them to establish timing, including Lichun, the Beginning of Spring.
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Wenchang（文昌／文昌星／文昌位）
Wenchang is traditionally associated with learning, scholarship, writing, and literary achievement. In Feng Shui, it may refer to the Wenchang Star or to positions associated with these activities, depending on the method used. It does not designate one universal study corner that applies to every home.
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Xing Shi / Forms and Configurations（形勢）
Xing Shi refers to the physical forms of a place and the broader configurations created by their relationships. It considers not only shapes, but also scale, distance, direction, enclosure, continuity, and the way features support or affect one another. These relationships are central to understanding a place through Traditional Feng Shui.
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Yangzhai / Yang House（陽宅）
Yangzhai, or Yang House, refers to dwellings and other places used by the living, in contrast to Yinzhai, which concerns burial sites. Yangzhai Feng Shui examines a building in relation to its surrounding landforms, orientation, entrances, internal arrangement, and the activities of its occupants.
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Yin–Yang（陰陽）
Yin and Yang describe complementary and relative qualities, such as light and shade, activity and stillness, or openness and enclosure. Neither is inherently good or bad. In Feng Shui, the important question is whether these qualities are appropriate to the place and how it is used.
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