Resources
The reference material behind the guides — terms, mistakes, and where to read further.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art — Chinese Garden Design & Geomancy — A museum-published overview of the design traditions feng shui grew out of
- Library of Congress — Asian Reading Room, Chinese collections — Public catalogue access to primary and academic sources on Chinese geomantic traditions
- Smithsonian Freer|Sackler — Chinese art and architecture resources — Museum-level context for the visual and spatial traditions referenced across these guides
This site draws on the Form School's spatial rules and, for compass-based placement, the Compass School (Bazhai) — two real, sometimes disagreeing schools of feng shui practice — and it does not offer readings, predictions, or a substitute for a paid consultation with a qualified practitioner.
Checklists you can work through
Before you move any furniture
- Sketch the room roughly to scale, including doors and windows
- Note which walls are solid and which have pipework or shared noise behind them
- Identify the room's main function and who uses it
- Clear visible clutter first — before testing any placement change
- Decide whether you're following Form School, Compass School, or both, separately
- Take a 'before' photo so you can judge whether a change actually helped
Quick entryway pass
- Clear the path just inside the door of shoes and bags
- Check the light at the entrance actually works
- Note whether the door opens onto a wall, a staircase, or another door
- Add a mirror or art piece if the sightline is blank or blocked
- Confirm the door closes and locks properly
- Check whether a bathroom is visible from the entrance and close its door if so
Common mistakes
Mixing Compass School and Three-Door Bagua on the same floor plan
Pick one anchoring method for the Bagua map and stay with it — mixing the two produces zone assignments neither school would recognise.
Treating every online 'rule' as agreed-upon
Check whether a claim shows up consistently across sources before treating it as settled — a lot of granular colour and number rules circulate without agreement even among practitioners.
Chasing a perfect layout before fixing clutter
Clutter reduction is the one change nearly every source agrees matters most — do it before any furniture rearrangement.
Assuming a rented space can't be worked with
Almost everything on this site is furniture and object placement, not structural change — a rental with fixed walls still has plenty to adjust.
Expecting a specific life outcome from a placement change
No source this site considers credible claims that furniture placement produces wealth, health or relationship outcomes — treat layout changes as intentional space design, not a mechanism.
Forcing the commanding position at the cost of a workable room
If the ideal bed or desk position blocks a window or a closet you need daily, a mirror-based workaround is a genuine, commonly cited alternative — not a failure.
Glossary
The words that get used as if everyone already knows them.
Commanding position
Furniture placement — usually a bed, desk or stove — that allows a clear view of the room's door without sitting directly in line with it.
Bagua map
A nine-zone grid traditionally laid over a floor plan, each zone associated with a life theme such as wealth or relationships.
Form School
A branch of feng shui focused on the physical shape of land and buildings — sightlines, doors, and spatial relationships — largely independent of compass direction.
Compass School (Bazhai)
A branch of feng shui that calculates favourable directions and placements from a compass reading, the building's facing direction, and the occupant's kua number.
Kua number
A number calculated from birth year and sex, used in Compass School guidance to determine personally favourable directions.
Luopan
A specialised compass used by Compass School practitioners, marked with multiple traditional rings of information beyond magnetic direction.
Chi (qi)
The traditional concept of vital energy or flow that feng shui practice is generally described as arranging a space to support.
Five Elements (Wu Xing)
The traditional framework of wood, fire, earth, metal and water, used across feng shui writing to describe how objects, colours and materials interact.
Missing corner
A section of a home's footprint absent from an otherwise rectangle-shaped floor plan, traditionally treated as a zone needing compensation rather than a defect.
Cure
A traditional term for an object or placement change — a mirror, plant or light — used to address a specific layout concern.
Three-Door Bagua (BTB)
A more Westernised method of anchoring the Bagua map to the location of the front door rather than to compass direction.
Sha chi
Traditionally described as harsh or cutting energy, often associated with sharp angles, exposed beams, or direct sightlines between two openings.