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GUI WORLD OF CULTURE |
WORLD OF FENG SHUI |
on Feng Shui |
on Feng Shui |
Article FS09/feb1 | ![]() |
Introduction
Although practitioners like to tout the Luopan as the most important instrument in Feng Shui, a number of rings remain mysteries to them. Almost every Feng Shui so-called master pretends to know the Luopan - he will lose face to his students if he admits he does not know! The truth is that there are a lot of things these people do not know about the Luopan. It is time to understand in a scientific way why the San He Luopan has the 3 rings of Di Pan, Tian Pan and Ren Pan. When we understand the basis of these 3 rings, we can also understand why the San Yuan Luopan has an inner ring which displaces the 8 trigrams 4 hexagrams clockwise to the original Early Heaven trigrams.
Practically all modern Feng Shui practitioners will be unable to answer the issues raised above! Their inability to answer would indicate how much they really know about the Luopan.
Inventions of the Tian Pan and Ren Pan During the Tang dynasty, Yang Yun Sung invented the Luopan by creating the Di Pan (Correct or Earth Needle) with the 12 dizhi signs interfaced with 8 tiangan signs and the four ordinals. There are 24 Mountains to the Di Pan. He then created the Tian Pan (the Outer Heaven or Seam Needle) to help usage of the Di Pan. The Tian Pan has the same 24 Mountains as the Di Pan but is aligned 7.5o clockwise to the Di Pan.
Later, Yang Yun Sung's second generation student Lai Bu Yi invented the Ren Pan (Inner, Middle or Man Needle) which also has the same 24 Mountains as the Di Pan. But this Ren Pan is aligned 7.5o anticlockwise to the Di Pan. It is therefore 15o from the Tian Pan.
Lai Bu Yi wrote a document called "Cui Guan Pian" (Induce the Government Positions) . This Sung dynasty text contains fantastic revelations of how Lai Bu Yi used the astronomical stars to foster Feng Shui. Keep with us to learn his secrets!top Scientific Reason for Yang Yun Sung's Tian Pan Early debates speculated that the 3 rings of the San He Luopan were meant to adjust for the differences of magnetic declinations. This could be true for Yang Yun Sung's Tian Pan, but it is difficult to see why this is so for Lai Bu Yi's Ren Pan.
Lai Bu Yi Invented Ren Pan It is not difficult to see why the Tian Pan was invented. However, the same arguments cannot be applied to Lai Bu Yi's Ren Pan. Why is the Ren Pan aligned 7.5o in the opposite direction to that of the Tian Pan?
People believe that Yang Yun Sung created the Tian Pan to realign with the difference in the magnetic declination. However, Lai Bu Yi's reason was not for the magnetic declination but for tracing the stars. Why was it necessary for Lai Bu Yi to do that? It has to do with the stars or astronomy. What astronomical phenomenon caused Lai Bu Yi to do that? A calendar reform was made during the Sui dynasty, when the mechanism of the 24 Solar Terms were created to help determine the intercalary months. From the end of the Sui dynasty to Lai Bu Yi time it was already 400 to 500 years later. The precession of the equinoxes shift the Zodiac signs at a rate of 0.015o every year. Thus, in the 400 to 500 years, the precession would have shifted the Zodiac signs by some 7 to 7.5 o! Hence, the Ren Pan was meant to track the astronomical signs by allowing for the 7.5o shift in the star signs due to the precession of the equinoxes! That is why, it was known that La Bu Yi invented the Ren Pan to measure the stars. Just as Yang Yun Sung invented the Tian Pan to adjust for the magnetic declination, Lai Bu Yi invented the Ren Pan to adjust for the precession of the equinoxes. When looking at the sky one could see which of the 28 Lunar Constellations the Earth would be passing through. The Luopan would indicate the dizhi and tiangan signs equivalent to the particular Lunar Constellation. However, due to the precession of the equinoxes, it was necessary to adjust 7.5o to get the correct Ganzhi significance.
San Yuan Luopan The San Yuan Luopan was created after Jiang Da Hong after AD 1600. The San Yuan Luopan dispenses with Yang Yun Sung's Tian Pan and Lai Bu Yi's Ren Pan. It retains the Di Pan with its 24 Mountains and 8 trigrams. However, like in Xuan Kong Da Gua calculations, the trigrams applied are realigned 4 hexagrams clockwise to those of the Di Pan. Four hexagrams amount to 22.5o displacement. Once again it should be asked why the trigrams are not read from the Di Pan but instead from the ring displaced 22.5o clockwise. The clue is that the San Yuan Luopan also takes into account the precession of the equinoxes! By Jiang Da Hong's time, the precession of the equinoxes had advanced further, more than the 7.5o in Lai Bu Yi's time. 22.5o displacement is equivalent to some 1,500 years of precession. As each hexagram is 5.625o, there may be a rounding up and the period could be some 1,200 to 1,500 years.
Somebody had taken a Time reference point in Jiang Da Hong's time back to some time in the end of or soon after the Han dynasty.
Conclusion There were different valid astronomical reasons for the Tian Pan, Ren Pan and San Yuan ring of shifted trigrams. Trying to apply the same reason had confused earlier commentators from realising the real situations.
Lai Bu Yi's Ren Pan and the Xuan Kong Da Gua's shift of 4 hexagrams indicate that corrections must be made for the precession of the equinoxes. There is a good chance that current Luopans have not been updated for the precession of the equinoxes since Jiang Da Hong's time. Current Luopans may have a time bomb of serious errors! There are other major aspects of the Luopan ill-understood by current practitioners. Read the next article on Riddle of 28 Lunar Constellations in Jiang Da Hong's Luopan. We hope to write a book or have courses to expound the corrected Luopan.
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