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feng shui in the Yi (Phong Thuy)

By Vi Nhật Sơn · Updated 2026-09-20

Phong thủy trong Dịch

feng shui in the Yi (Phong Thuy) — what is it? Feng shui in the Yi: the view is simply “where it is faulty, mend it there”; the reading rests on the Self and Parents lines, and the Officer line if moving.

The Yi has a domain of its own for feng shui. One often hears that the Yi is the source of all the East Asian occult disciplines, but personally I do not hold that — or the source may be one of time, that is, it is the discipline that appeared first in the logical system of East Asian philosophy. This logical system rests on the principle: the Limitless gives birth to the Supreme Ultimate, the Supreme Ultimate gives birth to the Two Forms, the Two Forms give birth to the Four Images; that much is certain. But to take it as given that the Yi is the inspiration for all the other disciplines, such as feng shui, Zi Wei or Zi Ping, is only a hypothesis. As for proving this hypothesis right or not, that is left to those who come after.

Where it is faulty, mend it there

On the technique of reading a feng shui hexagram, the first important point to keep in mind is the view: “the view of the Yi is simply ‘where it is faulty, mend it there’”, and it will not be common to every case that the hexagram gives the same result. To take one instance, the Yi has 6 lines, and lines 3 and 4 stand for the door. So suppose a house with a hundred doors — which door is this one? There is nothing certain about the differences among them in quality, size and orientation, by which the reader could settle where the faulty part is.

Before speaking of how to mend it, the most basic part is determining where the fault of a house lies. That divides into two parts. Part 1: the macro, that is, the house in general. One cannot enter a house and grope over every row of trees and every brick — so how is it to be done?

The order of settling a feng shui hexagram

To settle this, one must speak of the order of settling a feng shui hexagram. A feng shui hexagram is not raised straight away, but must come through another hexagram — except for someone who already knows, who reads a hexagram at once for “how is my house at present?” Otherwise one simply asks whether the house one lives in is good, or sound.

With this form of question, what matters for the reader is sensitivity: “So, what do you need?” If one needs the house for business, or is concerned with money, or simply with speculation or investment, the reading rests only on the Wealth line. If one is to live there for good, then deeper things are needed, and the reading rests on 3 points: the Self line and Parents, and the Officer line if it moves.

The Self line

The Self line stands for one's own peace and health while living in the building asked about. For example, a Weak Wu means one feels irritable, uncomfortable, stifled…..

Parents

Parents stands for the quality of the building; but one central point to note while reading a feng shui hexagram: if Parents is in the Void or in Six Clashes, this house has lost the land vein, and decline is only a matter of time. This holds in the feng shui of graves as well, except in the case of a clash changing into a combination, or the Day clashing a Prosperous Void line.

The Officer line

The Officer line here reports something not good, but not coming from this world. This case is an exception within the Yi, and two situations arise:

Holding the Self line
Moving

The case of holding the Self line is close to the person, and then, according to the element of the Officer line, what problem does one have? Moving reports outside the person; though not as direct as holding the Self line, yin and yang sharing quarters usually brings trouble. The following problems will be met, depending on the strength of the line. If it holds the Self line, fear Weak; if it moves, fear Prosperous

Fire: haste, unease, a hot temper, no control of oneself, an irregular heartbeat, trouble with heart disease. The one who has died usually died in smoke and fire; if Weak, the place affected is an old battlefield
Metal: conservative, rigid, illness of the lungs, gooseflesh…. The one who died is connected with an object of metal
Water: illness of the blood, the kidneys, the fluids of the body… The one who died did so by water
Wood: headache, aching and fatigue, illness of the liver, migraine, disorder of the peripheral nervous system… Someone sheltering in a tree; with the Flying Serpent added, it is the image of hanging
Earth: disordered metabolism, tumours, lumps…

To settle it thoroughly of course takes someone with the expertise; but where the means are not there, what can be done at once is: on the day the Officer line enters the Tomb, prepare a bowl of rice and set it in the Tomb direction of the Officer line, light 3 sticks of incense and say the invitation to be seated here, and on the 2nd and the 16th make an offering — then the house will be eased.

Line positions within a house

When the Self line has a problem in a case that is not the Officer line, only then do we read a feng shui hexagram to know what in this house is affecting us.

The hexagram is then divided into 6 parts:

Line 1: the floor of the house and the space near the dwelling
Line 2: the space inside the house
Lines 3 and 4: the door
Line 5: the space of worship
Line 6: the upper storeys, the roof, the space above

And then each hexagram is weighed to know the house in general; once the general is known, one begins to go into the detail to know where the problem is, and then it will be settled — which will be known in the next instalment