The Xuan Kong teachings of feng shui are some of the mostly widely practiced forms of San Yuan feng shui today due to their potency and generally quick results.
Two of the most popular schools of thought branched out of Xuan Kong are 8 mansions and flying stars.
There is another school of thought called Xuan Kong Liu Fa (玄空六法), or simply as the 6 laws or 6 methods (methodologies), that has quite a reputation.
It’s origins come mostly from the classical texts of 青囊奧語, 天玉經, 都天寶照經 and 青囊序.
But unlike 8 mansions and flying stars that are able to blend and compliment each other most of the time, 6 laws feng shui contain various concepts that seem to contradict with various fundamentals of the two other metaphysical science.
This is why we seldom find feng shui masters who incorporate 6 laws into their audits which are primarily based on 8 mansions and/or flying stars. And those who practice 6 laws tend to be specialists who only focus on 6 laws and debunks everything else.
2 eras made up of 8 periods
The time dimension of Xuan Kong Liu Fa (XKLF) schedules itself with a 180-year cycle that repeats itself at the end of it’s cycle.
It has an upper era and a lower era consisting of 4 periods each. It does not have a period 5.
| Period | Years | Time Period | Era |
| 1 | 18 | 1864 – 1881 | Upper |
| 2 | 24 | 1882 – 1905 | Upper |
| 3 | 24 | 1906 – 1929 | Upper |
| 4 | 24 | 1930 – 1953 | Upper |
| 6 | 21 | 1954 – 1974 | Lower |
| 7 | 21 | 1975 – 1995 | Lower |
| 8 | 21 | 1996 – 2016 | Lower |
| 9 | 27 | 2017 – 2043 | Lower |
The methodology to calculating the number of years in each period is be referencing the numbers on the luo shu squares and matching them with the trigram positions of the early heaven bagua. With the trigram identified, each yin yao line will be given a number of 6 and each yang yao line will be given a number 9. Adding up the total of the 3 number would generate the number of years.
For example, the number 1 is located at the north sector of luo shu, and that is the sector where the Kun gua is located in the early heaven arrangement. Since Kun is made up of 3 yin lines, the total number of years would be 6+6+6 = 18 years.
This simple formula is applied to all the 8 periods of XKLF.
With reference to the above table, it can be observed that according to 6 laws feng shui, we have already entered period 9 in 2017.
This revelation alone can sometimes be enough to send flying stars feng shui students up in arms in protest. Which is why many totally reject the ideas behind Liu Fa feng shui.
What are the 6 laws?
As the name suggests, there are 6 primary laws that dictate the applications of XKLF. They are namely:
- Xuan Kong (玄空)
- Man and women (雌雄)
- Golden dragon (金龍)
- Sorrowful star (挨星)
- Castle gate (城門)
- Grand duke (太歲)
Xuan kong basically refers to the concept of luck cycles as elaborated previously regarding the 8 periods consisting of 180 years.
Man and women simply refers to the fundamental concepts of yin and yang.
The golden dragon is a reference to how stars and luck periods are interpreted according to a different concept. The 8 stars are categorized into two groups consisting of 1-3-6-8 and 2-4-7-9 respectively. The golden dragon is also a reference to the 5 yellow, and it’s position is that of the indirect spirit. The concept of direct and indirect spirit plays a prominent role in 6 laws.
The sorrowful star is a reference to converting the 8 segments as determine in golden dragon into the 24 mountains, each with an assigned trigram. This makes specificity a focal point. To push this specificity further, teh flipping yao concept is applied to generate an additional 8 mountains resulting in a total sum of 32.
The castle gate is not a reference to the castlegate theory commonly known by feng shui practitioners. This is specifically meant to convey how energy congregate at a focal point depending on energy points and chi mouths.
Grand duke is used for refinement in date selection and time selection to undertake important tasks or to carry out events. The variables used in this application is centered around the earthly branches in ganzhi.
