Eight Mansions Feng Shui: The 8 Ba Zhai Stars

Eight Mansions (八宅 Bā Zhái, also written Pa Chai) is a classical school of feng shui that divides every space and every person into eight directions, each carrying one of eight field stars, four auspicious (四吉) and four inauspicious (四凶). Your personal version is set by your Kua number, which places you in the East group or the West group.

The four auspicious stars are Sheng Qi (生氣, Life Generating), Tian Yi (天醫, Heavenly Doctor), Yan Nian (延年, Longevity), and Fu Wei (伏位, Stability). The four inauspicious stars are Huo Hai (禍害), Liu Sha (六煞), Wu Gui (五鬼, Five Ghosts), and Jue Ming (絕命). Each is paired with one of the 九星 nine wandering stars.

Ba Zhai sorts people into two groups by Kua number. The East group (East Four Houses) belongs to the Kan, Li, Zhen, and Xun trigrams; the West group (West Four Houses) belongs to Qian, Kun, Gen, and Dui. Your group decides which four directions are auspicious for you and which four are not.

Calculate your Kua number from your birth year and gender. Your Kua number names your life trigram, and the Eight Mansions then assign each of the eight compass directions one of the eight stars. The free Kua Number calculator does this in a moment.

Yes. The same eight stars are read in the Ba Zhai number method: each adjacent pair of digits maps to one of the eight fields. The sequence of fields, weighted toward the last digits, is read as a number's overall energy. The free Number Energy reader scores any phone number this way.

This is the real debate practitioners disagree on. Some lineages read the person's Life Gua (Kua number) first; others read the House Gua (the building's sitting direction) first, and most experienced practitioners weigh both. There is no single settled answer, which is why a careful reading discloses the method it uses.

Eight Mansions divides its eight stars into four auspicious (四吉) and four inauspicious (四凶). The auspicious four are 生氣 Sheng Qi (vitality), 天醫 Tian Yi (steady support), 延年 Yan Nian (lasting bonds), and 伏位 Fu Wei (stability). The inauspicious four are 禍害 Huo Hai, 六煞 Liu Sha, 五鬼 Wu Gui, and 絕命 Jue Ming, each describing a friction pattern, not a curse.

Eight Mansions (八宅) is person-and-building based and fixed: your Kua number sets your eight directions for life. Flying Star (玄空飛星) is time-based, mapping how energy shifts by period and year across a home. They answer different questions, and many practitioners run both, Eight Mansions for personal directions and Flying Star for timing.

Eight Mansions is well suited to renters because its personal directions travel with you. You cannot move a wall, but you can face your auspicious direction at a desk, orient your bed toward a supportive field, and sit facing 生氣 (Sheng Qi) in meetings, none of which needs renovation or a landlord's permission.

Fu Wei (伏位) is the stabilising star of Eight Mansions, the +1 position that holds rather than expands. It is used for steadiness: a study facing Fu Wei supports concentration, a bed oriented to it supports rest, and it is the quiet anchor you reach for when life already feels scattered and you want to consolidate rather than push.

Your Eight Mansions directions do not change; they are set by your Kua number and hold for life. This is what separates them from annual feng shui, where the Flying Stars shift each year. The yearly afflictions (such as Tai Sui) are a separate overlay; your personal Ba Zhai map stays fixed beneath them.

For wealth, Eight Mansions pairs 生氣 Sheng Qi (drive and opportunity) with 天醫 Tian Yi (steady support and recovery). Sheng Qi opens doors; Tian Yi keeps income stable. The lucky-numbers-for-wealth reading pairs exactly these two fields, which is why a wealth number ideally carries both rather than one alone.