If you have read up on the Eight Mansion or Eight House Feng Shui system, you would have come across the concept of personal gua.
To recapitulate, it is a number or name of a gua that is derived from your Chinese solar year of birth and sex. Please refer to the Lou Shu and Early Heaven Pakua diagram below. There are eight numbers (from 1 to 4 and 6 to 9) and eight corresponding gua. If your gua number is 1, you are a Kan Gua person or if your gua number is 7, you are a ‘Dui’ gua person.
People with gua number 1, 3, 4 and 9 (Kan, Zhen, Xun and Li gua) falls into a group known as the East Life group while those with gua number 2, 6, 7 and 8 (Gen, Qian, Dui and Kun gua) falls into another group called the West Life group. For those in the East Life group, their favorable sectors and directions are north, south, east and south east. For those in the West Life groups, their favorable sectors and direction are west, south west, north west and north east.
What about the House Gua?
In the Eight Mansions systems, a house also has a gua. This is derived from the sitting direction of the house. For example a house that sits north (faces south) is known as a ‘Kan’ house. Similarly a house that sits east (faces west) is known as ‘Zhen’ house and so on.
Houses with sitting direction north, south, east and south-east is known as East Houses while those sitting west, south-west, north-west and north-east are known as West Houses.
Like the personal gua system, the house gua determines the favourable and unfavourable sectors of a house. The favourable sectors of a East House are north, south, east and south east and unfavourable sectors are west, north-west, south-west and north east.
A practitioner applying this system of Feng Shui would try to place the important areas of a house such as the main door in a favourable sector. For example for a ‘Kan’ house (sitting north), a practitioner would recommend to have the main door in the east, south-east or south sector of the house, all which are favourable sectors for a Kan house.
You may notice that the favourable sectors of a East Life person is the same as that for a East House and vice versa. This is why practitioners of this system urge (though not mandatory) East Life persons to live in a East House and vice versa.
In a typical household, you will find both East and West life group persons living in the same house. Does this mean for example that a West Life person should not or will not benefit from living in a East House. The answer is not. In theory a East Life person will likely benefit more from living in a East House but it does not mean that West Life person living in a East House will suffer.
Remember that in a East House, there are four favourable west sectors. Practitioners would try to place a West Life group person in the west sectors (west, north west, south west and north east) of a East House.
What if the husband is from one group whiles the wife is from another? In ancient Chinese society, the husband is always the breadwinner, and the selection is based on the husband’s gua.
In these modern times where the wife may be the breadwinner, it pays to ask first!
