Sung Dynasty Feng Shui Master Lai Bu Yi

Among the many students of Yang Yun Sung (600 – 804 AD) there were the more famous ones Liu Jiang Dong and Zheng Wen Can. Zheng Wen Can was the one who wrote Qing Nang Xu, Green Satchel Continuation, one of the three Green Satchels Feng Shui texts.

These disciples often started their own schools, following the traditional Chinese style of setting up their own Tangs (schools or practicing houses). In those days, the traditional practice would be to pass on the teachings only to sons and not to daughters.

These schools started to teach outsiders and thus spreaded Fengshui on a wider scale. At the same time, there were also individuals who developed their own new tactics or learnt from other masters who were not of the original school.

For example, the Yang Gong school admits that there were masters who developed their own form of Yang Gong Fengshui by incorporating other methods into the original form. Thus was the beginning of Yang Gong Xin Fa (Yang Gong New Method).

• There was the original type of Yang Gong Fengshui. But, with the advent of the new methods, the original type had to be defined as Yang Gong Gu Fa (Yang Gong Old Method) to differentiate between the old and the new.

  The new methods could have come from Zheng Wen Can and Liu Jiang Dong's second or third generation disciples. No one is sure when it happened. It all had to happen many years after Yang Yun Sung died.

It was in the second generation that the famous Feng Shui master Lai Bu Yi appeared. The record said that he learnt from his father who was a student of Yang Yun Sung. Another record said that he was a student of Zheng Wen Can.

LAI BU YI The Sung dynasty famous Feng Shui and astrology master Lai Bu Yi was also a master swordsman. Many do not realise that Feng Shui masters were often also swordsmen, like Confucius himself.

Lai Bu Yi wrote two Feng Shui books: Di Li Xue Fa, and Cui Guan Pian.

Yang Yun Sung was credited with the invention of the Di Pan, Dian dian dao Ring, 72 Dragons Ring, and Tian Pan. It is wrongly claimed that within his Qing Nang Aow Yi is the famous but seldom properly understood theory of Dian Dian Dao using the Di Pan 72 dragons. Only his two rings, Di Pan and Tian Pan, were used.

• It was Lai Bu Yi who was the inventor of the third ring, Ren Pan Zhong Zhen (Human Plate Center Needle) of the Luopan. He incorporated his knowledge and skill in Ba Zi and Zi Wei Dou Shu into the Luopan to audit for external features. Some famous formulations found by Lai Bu Yi were :

• Tan Lang star
  Fu Xing Shui Fa method
  60 dragons and also 72 dragons.
  Use of the 28 constellations.

SEARCH FOR AUSPICIOUS SITE KNOWN AS HSUEH OR "DRAGON CAVE" The auspiciousness of a site can be determined only through Luan Tou methods. San Yuan practitioners have been fooling people with use of Compass methods to determine the hsueh.

Lai Bu Yi's Ren Pan Misunderstood and Attacked by Yang Gong School

Some, e.g. the Yang Gong school, do not accept Lai Bu Yi's Ren Pan:

• Right up to Yang Jun Song's time and thereafter, but before a latter day famous Yang Gong Fengshui practitioner called Lai Bu Yi, the Luopan had only Di Pan and Tian Pan. Nothing else.

  The Ren Pan was actually invented by Lai Bu Yi, who is an expert in Bazi, and observed the movements of the stars and determined that since the Stars affect human luck, he decided to include a Ren Pan to track the stars. But we all know that mountains and waters are NOT AFFECTED by star movements. There is no theoretical basis to do that. Therefore this practice of using Ren Pan to audit mountain and waters is also unacceptable in Yang Gong Fengshui.

Yang Yun Sung's Qing Nang Aow Yi notes that originally there was only 12 Branches in the Pan and the 24 Mountains were added to help determine which of the 12 Branches should be used.

Modern practitioners are not familiar with the real reasons for the 24 Mountains.

By the Sui dynasty, it was realised that the then intercalary method of adding lunar months was getting erratic, and the months were not synchronised with the four major points of the solstices and equinoxes. During the Sui dynasty it was decided that, to assist in determining the lunar month, the solar year should be divided into 24 equal divisions, each division being equivalent to 15 degrees in the circle. Two contiguous divisions would sum up to 30 degrees. This is the origin of the 12 solar months of the solar calendar.

To track the lunar months, it was recognised that the lunar month is about 29 degrees. The beginning of a solar division to the end of the next solar division is exactly 30 degrees. That is, the 29 dgrees of the lunar month is just short of the 30 degrees of two contigous solar divisions. Most of the time, the lunar month would normally cover the beginning of one solar division and beginning of the next solar division. However, when the lunar month had only one solar division, and missed the other beginning, the next month became an intercalary month. This next intercalary month would become the double month of the month.

• This was what Yang Yun Sung meant in the Qing Nang Aow Yi. All Feng Shui and astrology concern only 12 Branches. The use of the 24 divisions was to help determine more accurately which of the 12 Branches was in order.

  It was never Yang Yun Sung's idea that suddenly the age old accepted 12 Feng Shui or astrological periods should become 24! This is the massive error perpetuated by the Compass schools down the centuries!

  Western and Hindu astrology all use the 12 Zodiac signs. We need to go back to restore the true use of the original "12 Branches".

The 24 Mountains were meant to increase the efficiency of computing the lunar months and their intercalations to synchronise them with the solar year.

The adjoining two of the 24 Mountains are actually one Branch or one lunar month! The modern Compass schools have lost the understanding of how the Luopan markings are to be used!

• In fact, this same type of mistake extends to the Compass schools reading of the 60 signs. The 60 signs are obviously the 12 Branches multiplied by the 5 Elements. The actual representation of the 60 signs should be 5 concentric rings, each ring to represent the next cycle of the 12 Branches. It was for convenience that the five concentric rings were placed side by side. Thus, there are never the 60 divisions, each of 6 degrees as favoured in Yin Feng Shui - it is actually 12 sets of 30 degrees repeated 5 times! Instead of five concentric rings, they were squeezed side by side into one ring.

  The presence of the 28 Constellations should be a warning that these Luopan markings especially of the outer rings of 24 Mountains and 60 signs are Time markers and not to be confused as physical directions.

  • Only the innermost ring of the 8 trigrams marked the 8 main directions. All the rest denote Time interactions with the fundamental 8 directions.
  
  
  

  What a mess the current Compass schools have made of the Luopan markings!

The traditional armchair or horseshoe shaped hsueh as the auspicious site of the "Dragon Cave" Its frontage is always at the South

Confucius wrote much about the hsueh or Ming Tang in his writings. Find out more from us!

The Compass 24 Mountains are meant to help track the proper timing of the 12 Branches. The 12 Branches, 24 Mountains and even 60 signs on the Luopans are all meant for proper tracking of Time.

However, Lai Bu Yi could see even during his time, people were superstitiously misusing the Luopan Time markings for physical orientations or directions. These 24 Mountains "directions" were then wrongly used to determine auspiciousness of a site.

• Liao Yu had say: "Pure Yin pure Yang really move (startled) the world, Tzu Wei Bagua Fang (to) reproduce (or) copy is false, same with plum blossom (which is) not the proper discussion, heaven star Zhong (ancestor hall) temple how can know?" … Tzu Wei, Bagua false methods cannot be used. Plum blossom method calculation fortune telling only uses the book surface (superficially)… heaven star method early already claimed as too simple. Lai Bu Yi… had say: "inside and outside water … going back to the ring, inside and outside mountain … care, itself becomes a wealthy land, no need Bagua, already auspicious." Of course, if suitable with Bagua if more auspicious…

Liao Yu was a direct disciple of Yang Yun Sung, while Lai Bu Yi was of the next generation of disciples.

Both Liao Yu and Lai Bu Yi were merelty expressing a view which was already recorded by the Tang document Xue Xin Fu, that the Luan Tou determination of the auspiciousness of a site cannot be challenged by Compass methods. Other Feng Shui masters were also aware that, thiswise, Xue Xin Fu attacked the Compass schools:

• See a Feng Shui (to) find a dragon that cave most important must look at the Luan Tou, after have a good Luan Tou, cave (then) only can be a real cave. Luan Tou no good, even heaven star is good, also is not the good cave… Meaning of Snow Heart mentions point (identify) the cave have to depend on Luan Tou as the master, single use of Bagua to point cave (whether) auspicious and inauspicious is wrong. Suitable the Bagua and (also) have a good Luan Tou, naturally is more better.

The last passage above states that the sole use of the Compass method to determine the auspiciousness of a site is wrong. The auspiciousness can only be determined by the Luan Tou method. Do not be fooled by the Compass schools when they resort to dubious claculations to say a site is auspicious or not. Yang Yun Sung and Xue Xin Fu says they are all quacks!

The Time aspects of the Luopan markings are meant for something else - this is a complex subject matter where you may have to attend our courses to find out. The truth is that modern practitioners have lost the original true method of using the Luopan. The real Compass techniques have been long lost! They all have got to go back to primary school to re-learn.

Restoration of True Feng Shui.

There is no doubt that Xue Xin Fu, Snow Heart Poem, is against extant Compass schools doctrines and classifies the Compass methods as misleading people. It identifies the issues of determining the auspicousness of a site and the Kung Mang lines as where the Compass schools commit serious errors. Famous Sung dynasty Feng Shui master Lai Bu Yi also agreed.

Practitioners should not just swallow what the Compass masters say. That there are so many different Feng Shui groups is a warning signal to express caution in believing which Feng Shui school is right or wrong.

Yes, there are many wrong doctrines, but how do you know? You just have to study the ancient Feng Shui texts, the historical development of Feng Shui and also the scientific basis to know and judge.

Otherwise, you would just have to keep your mouth shut and pretend to know!

Luoyang, Land of the Mowtan. The hsueh is always a well watered green lush area. There will be wildlife and songbirds. Compass masters are bluffing people about barren sites. By resorting to dubious calculation methods, the Compass masters would incorrectly claim as auspicious various buildings which are nothing more than concrete jungles. It is time to call their bluff.