The School of Forms

By Joey Yap

Know your landforms and environment, with the San He school of Feng Shui.

Most of you probably have heard that there are two schools of Feng Shui. The concept of 'school' is
used as an English interpretation of the Chinese word 'Pai'. In Feng Shui, like in many Chinese arts
(such as Qi Gong or Kungfu) there are 'pai' or groupings. These groupings are usually based around a
certain method, technique or approach to a field. When Bruce Lee developed his own form of Kung
Fu, known as Jeet Kune Do, he was essentially establishing his own 'pai' or group. In that sense, the
word 'school' in the context of 'school of thought' does to a degree, capture the concept of 'pai'.
One incorrect and highly misleading interpretation on the two schools of Feng Shui is that they
comprise of the 'Compass School' and the 'Forms School'. In fact, all methods and techniques of Feng
Shui use Forms and a Compass or Luo Pan. A more appropriate and correct division of the two
schools of thought in Feng Shui is that Feng Shui methods and techniques fall into either a Forms
School (Xing Shi Pai) or a Qi School (Li Qi Pai). There are two famous 'schools' that advocate Xing Shi
and Li Qi, and these are the San He (Three Harmony) and San Yuan (Three Cycles). Most major Feng
Shui systems, methods and techniques will fall under either one of these schools.
Even with this subdivision, it is important to recognize that both schools pay attention to Qi flow and
Landform - the difference is the emphasis of the techniques, methods and formulas. Generally, San
He favours landform assessment over Qi assessment, whilst San Yuan favours Qi calculation over
landform assessment.
This week, I'm going to delve in depth into the San He School - the aim here is to provide you with a
clearer understanding of what this particular school of Feng Shui is all about. Thus when you engage
a Feng Shui practitioner, you will be able to appreciate the methods he is using, gain a basic
understanding of why certain changes or suggestions are made and appreciate what the Practitioner
is trying to achieve. I am also going to talk about some of the common fallacies and
misinterpretations of San He principles so that those of you who are interested in Feng Shui and do
some reading of your own, can separate the false theories or incorrect interpretations.
Now you might be wondering - do I need to know what technique my Feng Shui practitioner is using?
After all, most people don't know anything about plumbing when they hire a plumber. Well, you don't
need to know the subject to the level of depth of say a practitioner but by understanding the
methods and techniques, you will be in a position to understand why certain changes are requested I find in my practice that when clients appreciate why they are being asked to do something,
compliance is usually easier to achieve. Also, it makes it easier for members of the public to
distinguish New Age practitioners from Classical Feng Shui practitioners.
Methodology and Approach in San He Feng Shui
San He is one of the oldest Feng Shui systems in practice. Famous advocates and masters of this
system include Great Grandmaster Yang Yun Song(Tang Dynasty) , Zeng Wen , Jing Dao
He Shang and Lai Bu Yi . The foremost texts for San He practitioners, written by Grand
Master Yang, is the Han Long Jing and Yi Long Jing. However, there are also some other important
texts on San He that form the core readings required for any San He mastery, including Yu Sui Zhen
Jing (Jade Essence Classics) Ru Di Yan (Entering Earth Eye) and Xue Xin Fu ( Snow Heart Classics)

San He methods focus on five factors - Long(Mountains), Sha (mountain embrace), Xue (Meridian
Spot ), Shui(water) and Facing (Xiang). San He focuses largely on techniques of analyzing external
Feng Shui. The methods are largely focused on appreciating and understanding how landforms
generate and concentrate Qi, identifying the Meridian spot (Long Xue) through evaluating the land
contours and ascertaining where the Qi has concentrated, by looking at the formations in the land.
San He in that sense is focused on observation of the land first, before moving onto the calculations
of Qi for the internal of the property.
Another distinctive principle of San He is the concept of Three Harmony. What is Three Harmony? It
involves applying the Earthly Branches Three Harmony (which talks about the Mountain ranges in the
vicinity) in tandem with the Water Formula Three Harmony that includes the 12 Growth
Phases(Chang Sheng Jue) and the systematic alignment between environment, house and man.
Some typical methods for analysis and application used by San He Masters: Includes Ba Sha Huang
Quan - 8 Killings Yellow Spring, Piercing Mountain 72 Dragons, Earth Penetrating 60 Dragons, 120
Gold Divisions, 12 Growth Water, Assistant Star Water and Land Embrace methods (Bu Sha Fa).
What system is my Feng Shui master using?
Okay, so you are aware of the theory now but how do you know what method your Feng Shui
practitioner is employing. Well of course, one way of finding out would be to ask him but you can
also tell by observing what he does during the audit.
A San He practitioner usually will focus on the external environment primarily so if your practitioner
studies the mountains in the vicinity of your property, and the waterways in the area, and uses a San
He Luo Pan, chances are that he is using San He as his pet system. Of course, the San He
practitioner will not ignore the inside of the house or internal Feng Shui, but his focus will be to check
the environment first.
His goal will be to determine how to best orientate the property to suit the surrounding Mountain and
Water formations and to try and match the location of the Water and Mountains in the area, to San
He formulas. Do not be alarmed or think you are being conned if he doesn't recommend Water
Formulas to you because remember, all these formulas require natural water formations to conform
to the formula and if you don't have a natural formation you can use, the practitioner will not tell you

to force the situation by digging a canal or putting a drain around your house. Instead, a good
practitioner will strive to work with what is in the environment already.