There are many different schools of Feng Shui and many different approaches, even under the umbrella of traditional Feng Shui. One branch or school is called Ba Zhai or Eight Mansion School. It is also referred to as the East- West School.

This is the school which relegates all structures into eight house types, based on their orientation. And it also assigns one of eight possible “gua” or a personal trigram to each person, based on their year of birth.

These gua or personal trigrams are like zodiac signs, in that they are based on year of birth and have many interesting attributes which ring true for people who are classified according to this system. The eight trigrams are associated with the directions of North, South, East, West, Northwest, Northeast, Southwest and Southeast. The trigrams are profound symbols, encoded with tremendous information, but a detailed description is beyond the scope of this article.

However, there is a controversy within this school, which many traditional practitioners are not even aware of. The personal gua is a concept which began with the inception of Feng Shui more than 3,000 years ago. But originally, the personal gua or trigram was just based on year of birth and the same for both genders. For example, if you were born in 1951, you are the Xun trigram, whether you are male of female.

In the 8th century this all changed. A monk named Yi Xing was ordered by the Chinese Emperor to make alterations to the canon of knowledge known as Feng Shui and to simplify a predictive art which had already become very sophisticated and evolved. The San He School was already well established, sometimes translated as “3 Harmony School.” Monk Yi Xing altered the gua system so that females have different gua than males who are born in the same year. This is a bit like changing one’s zodiac sign based on gender. This school was intended to be a corrupted doctrine, gifted to the rival Mongol Empire and yet this school ended up being practiced on a larger scale and has endured for centuries, with many modern practitioners world-wide unaware of the controversy and the reasons why the personal gua was altered in the first place.

What adds to the confusion about which is the “real” gua for females is the fact that many people can relate to more than one gua. These gua depict personality traits as well as vulnerability to certain physical weaknesses. It is highly probable that most of us can identify with more than one gua/trigram.

For example, my personal trigram is related to the feet and the liver, the Zhen trigram. I can attest to having weaknesses in those body areas. But I can also relate to the Kun trigram (abdominal area, digestion) and the Kan trigram (kidneys, blood, circulation). I can actually relate to all the trigrams, so any one of them would be believable if assigned to my year of birth.

My older published materials include applications for the Ba Zhai School, just like virtually all other traditional books. I have since created an Addendum to my books which discusses this issue and anyone is welcome to request a copy of the Addendum. However, there are many big names in the Feng Shui world who would be resistant to even acknowledging this controversy. And this includes teachers and authors (both Asian and non-Asian) who are otherwise reliable sources of information.

No matter which ming gua or personal trigram you relate to, it is generally understood within the Flying Star Schools that there are many influences on us, which rank much higher in importance when we evaluate how well or how poorly you may do in any given environment. Some physical spaces are so good that anyone can benefit, regardless of their birth data. And some spaces have such bad Feng Shui, that we don’t care what your personal trigram is, since anyone could be affected negatively by those features deemed undesirable or problematic.

We all have a spine and a brain and a nervous system, so we will respond similarly to the same physical surroundings. But the personal trigram (ming gua) gives us an extra layer of influence to explore. We can personalize space based on our Ming Gua, but we should be skeptical of the heavy-handed interpretations of the good and bad personal directions associated with the trigrams. There were political reasons why certain pieces of information were released to the masses and the rulers of the time did not necessarily have the best interests of their people in mind. Sound familiar?

Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions (R) Since 1992
From the Health and Personal Matters Blog Series