Pi Yao is the heavenly variation of a particularly powerful and auspicious creature of good fortune. He is said to have the power to assist anyone suffering from bad Feng Shui due to having offended the Grand Duke Jupiter (Tai Sui). In 2005, the Grand Duke resided in the West, so those born in the year of the Rabbit will have been in conflict with him. Practitioners of Feng Shui should ensure that they display the Pi Yao in the West to appease Tai Sui. The Pi Yao should also be displayed in homes for those enduring a period of bad luck soon after moving into a new home or soon after undertaking renovations. In 2006, Tai Sui moved to the Northwest. His exact position in 2006 is West-Northwest.

During China’s history, ”Pi Xiu” were commonly displayed in ancient architecture to ward off ”Yin Qi” (陰氣) and to harness auspicious ”Qi”.

The statues of a Pixiu are commonly found on the four corners of the roofs of houses–usually houses of important people such as the emperor. The Pixiu is lined 5th, behind the dragon, phoenix, winged horse and sea horse. In ancient China, statues of ”Pi Xiu” were also used as tomb guardians.

*”Pi Ya” – must be placed facing out of the house. Displaying ”Pi Ya” at the affected area of the house or office can avoid misfortune and disasters. For displaying towards openings or entrance, a pair of ”Pi Ya” is needed.

*”Tian Lu ”- for attracting wealth, one may place it at the desired wealth area such as attractive wealth area or accumulative wealth area. Do not place ”Tian Lu” facing directly on any person like a confronting position. Ideally, ”Tien Lu” should not be place on the floor but it should never be place above eye level.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Pixiu, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Luopan is a Chinese magnetic compass, also known as a Feng Shui compass. It is used by a Feng Shui consultant to determine the precise direction of a structure or other item. Since the invention of the compass for use in Feng Shui, traditional feng shui has required its use.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Luopan, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect I. M. Pei, the building is 305.0 metres (1,000.7 ft) high with two masts reaching 367.4 metres (1,205.4 ft) high. The 72 story building is located near Central MTR station. This was the tallest building in Hong Kong and Asia from 1989 to 1992, the first building outside the United States to break the 305 m (1,000 ft) mark, and the first composite space frame high-rise building. That also means it was the tallest outside America from its completion year, 1990. It is now the fourth tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong, after International Commerce Centre, Two International Finance Centre and Central Plaza.

A small observation deck on the 43rd floor of the building is open to the public.

The structural expressionism adopted in the design of this building resembles growing bamboo shoots, symbolising livelihood and prosperity. The whole structure is supported by the five steel columns at the corners of the building, with the triangular frameworks transferring the weight of the structure onto these five columns. It is covered with glass curtain walls. While its distinctive look makes it one of Hong Kong’s most identifiable landmarks today, it was the source of some controversy at one time, as the bank is the only major building in Hong Kong to have bypassed the convention of consulting with feng shui masters on matters of design prior to construction.

The building has been criticised by some practitioners of Feng Shui for its sharp edges and its negative symbolism by the numerous ‘X’ shapes in its original design, though P

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Bank of China Tower, Hong Kong, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Timely and Untimely

Flying stars can be timely or untimely. The nature of flying star depends on which period is to be referred and which star is being activated.

Portents and Natures

Famous Combination of Stars=

Bull fight

Result of overcoming of untimely Flying Star 3 (Wood) upon Star 2 (Earth)

Relationship: Son harassing mother-in-law, a male violating a woman

Activities: Problems (Conflict, arguments, combat, lawsuit, disharmonies) for mother

Health: woman is hurt at the belly (while pregnant) or having stomachache

Death and Disastrous

Result of combination of untimely Flying Stars 2 (Earth) and 5 (Earth)

Activities: Accidents, bankruptcy, haunted house, death

Health: Serious sickness, cancer of the digestive system

Fire hazard

Result of fire combination of untimely Flying Stars 2 and 7, or of untimely Flying Stars 7 and 9

Relationship: Lesbian, Male with strong female personalities

Activities: Fire, explosion

Penetrating the heart

Result of combination of untimely Flying Stars 3 (Wood) and 7 (Metal)

Relationship: Male and female fight

Activities: Cripple, armed robbery, burglary, lawsuit, scams

Health: foot disease, liver cancer, arm injury by metal

Wisdom

Result of combination of timely Flying Stars 1 (Water) and 4 (Wood),

or combination of timely Flying Stars 3 (Wood) and 9 (Fire),

or combination of timely Flying Stars 1 (Water) and 6 (Metal)

Activities: Intelligence, Splendid for studie

Metal in battle

Result of metal combination of untimely Flying Stars 6 and 7.

Relationship: combat and competition between brothers

Activities: Conflict, armed robbery, death by metal

Rich and Authority

Result of combination of timely Flying Stars 6 and 8, or timely Flying Stars 2 and 6

Activities: Success in business, especially real estate or owning land, Inheritance, Great authority

Fame and Celebration

Result of combination of timely Flying Stars 8 (Earth) and 9 (Fire)

Activities: Promotion, Marriage, Birth, Fame, Championship

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Flying Star Feng Shui, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Just as suggested by evidence found at early Yangshao culture sites, Hongshan culture sites also provide the earliest evidence for Feng shui. The presence of both round and square shapes at Hongshan culture ceremonial centers suggests an early presence of the gaitian cosmography (heaven-round, earth-square).

Early Feng shui relied on astronomy to find correlations between humans and the universe.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Hongshan culture, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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“Ley lines” were postulated by Alfred Watkins in 1921 at a presentation at the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club, later published in ”Early British Trackways” (1922) and ”The Old Straight Track” (1925). Watkins formed the ”Old Straight Track Club” in 1927, which was active until 1935 but became defunct during the World War II period.

A revival of interest in the topic begins in the 1960s, now associated with neopagan currents like Wicca, and with UFOlogy.

The “Ley Hunters’ Club” was formed in 1962 by Philip Heselton and others as a revival of Watkins’ ”Straight Track Club”. The club’s journal ”The Ley Hunter” appeared from 1965, from 1970 subtitled ”the magazine of earth mysteries”.

The New Age boom of the 1980s expands the scope of the “Earth mysteries” field beyond British landscape

and ”Earth mysteries” as a “New Age invented tradition” by the 1990s could include the study of ancient sites and landscapes (including archaeology, archaeoastronomy, and ley lines), Chinese geomancy or feng shui, western magical concepts of gematria, and dowsing.

An important writer combining these fields during the 1970s to 2000s was John Michell.

Related ideas include the “landscape archaeology advocated by German author Kurt Derungs from about 1990, and

the wider field of “Forteana”, a term taken to include paranormal phenomena more generally.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Earth m

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*Version 1.0: ワタシnoイエ

*Version 2.0: 二色人（ニイルピト）の夜

*Version 3.0: 新宿チャンスン

*Version 4.0: 闇吹く夏

*Version 5.0: 絶の島事件

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Sim-Feng Shui, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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In classical thought, the four elements Earth, Water, Air, and Fire frequently occur; sometimes including a fifth element or ”quintessence” (after “quint” meaning “fifth”) called Aether in ancient Greece.

In Greek thought, the philosopher Aristotle added aether as the quintessence, reasoning that whereas fire, earth, air, and water were earthly and corruptible, since no changes had been perceived in the heavenly regions, the stars cannot be made out of any of the four elements but must be made of a different, unchangeable, heavenly substance.

The concept of essentially the same five elements was similarly found in ancient India, where they formed a basis of analysis in both Hinduism and Buddhism. In Hinduism, particularly in an esoteric context, the four states-of-matter describe matter, and a fifth element describes that which was beyond the material world (non-matter). Similar lists existed in ancient China and Japan. In Buddhism the four great elements, to which two others are sometimes added, are not viewed as substances, but as categories of sensory experience.

Classical elements in Babylonia

The concept of the four classical elements in the Western tradition originates from Babylonian mythology. The ”Enûma Eliš”, a text written between the 18th and 16th centuries BC, describes four cosmic elements: the sea, earth, sky, and wind.

Classical elements in Greece

The Greek classical elements (Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and Aether) date from pre-Socratic times and persisted throughout the M

Plato characterizes the elements as being pre-Socratic in origin from a list created by the Sicilian philosopher Empedocles (ca. 450 BC). Empedocles called these the four “roots” (ῥιζὤματα, rhizōmata). Plato seems to have been the first to use the term “element (στοιχεῖον, ”stoicheion”)” in reference to air, fire, earth, and water. The ancient Greek word for element, ”stoicheion” (from ”stoicheo”, “to line up”) meant “smallest division (of a sun-dial), a syllable”, as the composing unit of an alphabet it could denote a letter and the smallest unit from which a word is formed.

According to Aristotle in his ”On Generation and Corruption”:

* Air is primarily wet and secondarily hot.

* Fire is primarily hot and secondarily dry.

* Earth is primarily dry and secondarily cold.

* Water is primarily cold and secondarily wet.

One classic diagram (above) has one square inscribed in the other, with the corners of one being the classical elements, and the corners of the other being the properties. The opposite corner is the opposite of the these properties, “hot – cold” and “dry – wet”.

According to Galen, these elements were used by Hippocrates in describing the human body with an association with the four humours: yellow bile (fire), black bile (earth), blood (air), and phlegm (water).

Classical elements in Hinduism

The ”pancha mahabhuta,” or “five great elements”, of Hinduism are ”kshiti” or ”bhūmi” (earth), ”ap” or ”jala” (water), ”tejas” or ”agni” (fire), ”marut” or ”pavan” (air or wind), ”byom” or ”shunya (or akash?)” (aether or void). Hindus believe that the Creator used akasha, the most “subtle” element, to create the other four traditional elements; each element created is in turn used to create the next, each less subtle than the last. Hindus believe that all of creation, including the human body, is made up of these five essential elements and that upon death, the human body dissolves into these five elements of nature, thereby balancing the cycle of nature set in motion by the Creator. Each of the five elements is associated with one of the five senses, and acts as the gross medium for the experience of sensations. According to Hindu thought, the basest element, Earth, was created using all the other elements and thus can be perceived by all five senses – hearing, touch, taste, smell, and sight. The next higher element, water, has no odor but can be seen, tasted, heard, and felt. Next comes fire, which can be seen, heard and felt. Air can be heard and felt. “Akasha” (ether)is the medium of sound but is inaccessible to all other senses.

Buddhist elements

In the Pali literature, the ”mahabhuta” (“great elements”) or ”catudhatu” (“four elements”) are earth, water, fire and air. In early Buddhism, the four elements are a basis for understanding suffering and for liberating oneself from suffering. The earliest Buddhist texts explain that the four primary material elements are the sensory qualities solidity, fluidity, temperature, and mobility; their characterization as earth, water, fire, and air, respectively, is declared an abstraction—instead of concentrating on the fact of material existence, one observes how a physical thing is sensed, felt, perceived.

The Buddha’s teaching regarding the four elements is to be understood as the base of all observation of real sensations rather than as a philosophy. The four properties are cohesion (water), solidity or inertia (earth), expansion or vibration (air) and heat or calorific content (fire). He promulgated a categorization of mind and matter as composed of eight types of “kalapas” of which the four elements are primary and a secondary group of four are color, smell, taste, and nutriment which are derivative from the four primaries.

The Buddha’s teaching of the four elements does predate Greek teaching of the same four elements. This is possibly explained by the fact that he sent out 60 arahants to the known world to spread his teaching; however it differs in the fact that the Buddha taught that the four elements are false and that form is in fact made up of much smaller particles which are constantly changing.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu (1997) renders an extract of Shakyamuni Buddha’s from Pali into English thus:

Seven chakras

In the philosophy of the seven chakras there are correspondences to the five elements as shared by both Hinduism and Buddhism as well as two other elements:

*Sahasrara (Crown): Thought/Space

*Ajña (Third Eye): Light/Dark

*Vishuddhi (Throat): Ether/Sound

*Anahata (Heart): Air

*Manipura (Navel): Fire

*Svadhisthana (Sacral): Water

*Muladhara (Root): Earth

Bön elements

In Bön or ancient Tibetan philosophy, the five elemental processes of earth, water, fire, air and space are the essential materials of all existent phenomena or aggregates. The elemental processes form the basis of the calendar, astrology, medicine, psychology and are the foundation of the spiritual traditions of shamanism, tantra and Dzogchen.

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche states that

The names of the elements are analogous to categorised experiential sensations of the natural world. The names are symbolic and key to their inherent qualities and/or modes of action by analogy. In Bön the elemental processes are fundamental metaphors for working with external, internal and secret energetic forces. All five elemental processes in their essential purity are inherent in the mindstream and link the trikaya and are aspects of primordial energy. As Herbert V. Günther states:

In the above block quote the trikaya is encoded as: dharmakaya “god”; sambhogakaya “temple” and nirmanakaya “house”.

Chinese elements

The Chinese had a somewhat different series of elements, namely Fire, Earth, Water, Metal and Wood, which were understood as different types of energy in a state of constant interaction and flux with one another, rather than the Western notion of different kinds of material.

Although it is usually translated as “element”, the Chinese word ”xing” literally means something like “changing states of being”, “permutations” or “metamorphoses of being”. In fact Sinologists cannot agree on one single translation. The Chinese conception of “element” is therefore quite different from the Western one. The Western elements were seen as the basic building blocks of matter. The Chinese, by contrast, were seen as ever changing and moving forces or energies—one translation of ”wu xing” is simply “the five changes”.

The Wu Xing are chiefly an ancient mnemonic device for systems with five stages; hence the preferred translation of “movements”, “phases” or “steps” over “elements”.

In Taoism there is a similar system of elements, which includes metal and wood, but excludes air, which is replaced with ”qi”, which is a force or energy rather than an element. In Chinese philosophy the universe consists of heaven and earth, heaven being made of ”qi” and earth being made of the five elements (in the Chinese view, the attributes and properties of the Western and Indian Air element are equivalent to that of Wood, where the element of Ether is often seen as a correspondent to Metal). The five major planets are associated with and named after the elements: Venus 金星 is Metal (金), Jupiter 木星 is Wood (木), Mercury 水星 is Water (水), Mars 火星 is Fire (火), and Saturn 土星 is Earth (土). Additionally, the Moon represents Yin (陰), and the Sun 太陽 represents Yang (陽). Yin, Yang, and the five elements are recurring themes in the I Ching, the oldest of Chinese classical texts which describes an ancient system of cosmology and philosophy. The five elements also play an important part in Chinese astrology and the Chinese form of geomancy known as Feng shui

The doctrine of five phases describes two cycles of balance, a generating or creation (生, shēng) cycle and an overcoming or destruction (克/剋, kè) cycle of interactions between the phases.

”Generating”

* Wood feeds fire;

* Fire creates earth (ash);

* Earth bears metal;

* Metal collects water;

* Water nourishes wood.

”Overcoming”

* Wood parts earth;

* Earth absorbs water;

* Water quenches fire;

* Fire melts metal;

* Metal chops wood.

There are also two cycles of imbalance, an overacting cycle (cheng) and an insulting cycle (wu).

Japanese elements

Japanese traditions use a set of elements called the (”go dai”, literally “five great”). These five are earth, water, fire, wind/air, and void. These came from Buddhist beliefs; the classical Chinese elements (, ”go gyô”) are also prominent in Japanese culture, especially to the influential Neo-Confucianists during the Edo period.

*Earth represented things that were solid.

*Water represented things that were liquid.

*Fire represented things that destroyed.

*Air represented things that moved.

*Void represented things not of our everyday life.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Classical element, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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The rules are intended to be simple and easy to learn. There is one central mechanism for making skill checks. Non-combat checks are generally resolved with a single roll of the dice, whereas a scene involving combat can last half an hour or more.

Skills checks

For each skill a character has, they have an associated ”Action Value” that states how good they are at that skill. When a skill is used, two six-sided dice are rolled. One, the positive die, is added to the Action Value. The other, the negative die, is subtracted from that sum. The final value is the ”Action Result” which is then compared to the difficulty of the task being performed. If the Action Result is greater than or equal to the difficulty, that action succeeds. Because the average Action Result is equal to the Action Value, the difficulty can simply be the Action Value of an opponent.

Schticks

Characters also have ”schticks”, or special abilities, which greatly enhance either their combat prowess or their usefulness out of combat. Some can be acquired by a character as they become more experienced, but some are unique to a particular character archetype (see below).

Character creation

A character will be created based on one of the pre-written archetypes in the game. Each archetype is a typical example of a protagonist from a certain genre of action film. Some examples are the Maverick Cop, the Martial Artist, the Journalist and the Big Bruiser. The archetype defines what the character is best at, and although character advancement is free-form after initial creation it is usual to remain within the original archetype.

The character details are defined by attributes, skills, schticks and weapons.

*A character has ‘primary attributes’ which are divided into ‘secondary attributes’. However, in many cases all the secondary attributes are the same as their associated primary attribute which keeps book-keeping simple.

*’Skills’ come as a skill bonus to be added to the appropriate secondary attribute, although after character creation only the final Action Value is important.

*The character may have one or more ‘schticks’ as part of the archetype, and may be able to choose some more.

*’Weapons’ appropriate to the character’s style of fighting.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Feng Shui (role-playing game), under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Nine Palace Flying Stars or ”Jiu Gong Fei Xing” is another name of Flying Stars method whereby palaces are the nine sectors overlaid onto a layout of the house.

Flying Star Chart

A Flying Star chart consists of three numbers in each Palace of the Luo Shu. These numbers are called the Base Star, the Facing Star and the Sitting Star.

Constructing a Flying Star Chart requires

- The dates that the building was occupied by the owners

- The facing of the building

For example, if a building is constructed in the year 2003, but the residents do not move in until February 4 of 2004, the Period of the building is 8, not 7.

Period does not change again unless there is major renovation undertaken to the structure.

Rules and Procedures

Creating a ”Flying Star chart” is always begun with the Base Star. Period of the building determines the number occupies the Base Star position of the ”Central Palace”. Base Stars always fly in the Luo Shu path.

Once all the base stars are distributed amongst the nine palaces, the number in Facing Palace on the Luo Shu grid is determined by the facing direction of the building. This number is the facing star.

The ”Sitting Palace” is always opposite of the ”Facing Palace”. The sitting star is the number in the sitting palace.

For instance, in a Period-8 building that faces southwest, the number that locates in Facing Palace is number 5 whereas the number in Sitting Palace is number 2; thus, 5 is Facing Star and 2 is Sitting Star.

Unlike the Base Star, the Facing Star and Sitting Star can fly in either ascending (”Yang”) order, or descending (”Yin”) order. The order depends upon two factors on

1 Whether the star is an even number or an odd number, and

2 Which the mountain that the unit faces.

Even-numbered Stars follow a ”Yin-Yang-Yang” form. In a certain number which comprises three mountains, should the mountain that the property faces is ”Yang”, then the numbers fly in ascending order of Lo Shu path, and vice versa.

Odd-numbered Stars follow a ”Yang-Yin-Yin” form. In a certain number which comprises three mountains, should the mountain that the property faces is ”Yang”, then the numbers fly in ascending order of Lo Shu path, and vice versa.

To determine the polarity of number 5 star, go by the polarity of the Period number.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Flying Star Feng Shui, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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