# Feng shui & architecture glossary

> These are the 33 terms Home Check uses when measuring orientation, setting polarity, checking feng shui and designing: from the 24 Mountains, bagua and nine palaces to the three-scale Water Mouth, birth-year mountain, bed head and building coverage. Each entry has a short definition, Chinese characters, names in Vietnamese and Chinese, and a few questions.

## Compass & qi theory

- [24 Mountains](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/twenty-four-mountains/index.md) (二十四山): The 24 mountains divide the 360° compass into 24 equal sectors of 15°, each called a mountain.
- [Set polarity](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/set-polarity/index.md) (立极): Setting polarity means finding the centre of a house on its floor plan and placing the compass there, turned to the measured facing degree.
- [Sitting and facing](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/sitting-and-facing/index.md) (坐向): Sitting is the side a house leans its back against; facing is the side it looks out from.
- [Bagua](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/bagua/index.md) (八卦): The bagua are the eight three-line trigrams of the I Ching: Qian, Kan, Gen, Zhen, Xun, Li, Kun and Dui.
- [Early Heaven and Later Heaven bagua](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/early-and-later-heaven-bagua/index.md) (先天八卦 · 后天八卦): Early Heaven and Later Heaven are two arrangements of the eight trigrams around a circle.
- [Nine palaces (Lo Shu)](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/nine-palaces-lo-shu/index.md) (九宫 · 洛书): The nine palaces are a 3×3 grid that divides a plan into eight palaces around a centre palace.
- [Center palace](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/center-palace/index.md) (中宫): The center palace is the middle square of the nine palaces, around the centre of the house; in the Lo Shu it holds the number 5 and the Earth element.
- [Five elements](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/five-elements/index.md) (五行): The five elements are Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth, linked by two cycles.
- [Birth-year mountain](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/birth-year-mountain/index.md) (年命山): A person's birth-year mountain is the compass mountain that shares the Earthly Branch of their birth year.
- [Prosperous and weak sectors](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/prosperous-and-weak-sectors/index.md) (旺方 · 衰方): Prosperous sectors are the parts of a home considered to have strong, favourable energy for its orientation; weak sectors have faint energy.
- [Death point](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/death-point/index.md) (死点): The death point is the sector where, given the house's orientation, energy is considered most depleted.
- [Xuan Kong Flying Stars](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/flying-stars/index.md) (玄空飞星): Xuan Kong Flying Stars is a feng shui school in which nine stars, numbered 1 to 9, fly through the nine palaces in Lo Shu order.
- [Five Yellow](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/five-yellow/index.md) (五黄): The Five Yellow is star number 5 among the nine stars; each year it flies to a different direction in Lo Shu order.

## Landform & water

- [Water method](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/water-method/index.md) (水法): Water methods read how water moves around a site — where it comes from, where it gathers and where it leaves — and compare it with the house's sitting and facing to judge good and bad.
- [Water Mouth](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/water-mouth/index.md) (水口): The Water Mouth is where water leaves a site or the bright hall in front of a house, measured as a degree from the centre of the home.
- [Grand scale](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/grand-scale/index.md) (大局): The grand scale is the widest range in reading landform and water: the rivers, lakes and major hills of the whole region around a site.
- [Middle scale](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/middle-scale/index.md) (中局): The middle scale is the intermediate range in reading landform and water: the rise and fall of the land within a few kilometres of the site.
- [Small scale](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/small-scale/index.md) (小局): The small scale is the range right around the house: the street, lane, yard and drains next to the site.
- [Street water](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/street-water/index.md) (街道水 · 虚水): Street water is the practice in urban water methods of treating streets and lanes as waterways, because flows of people and vehicles carry energy the way water does.
- [Dragon Entry](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/dragon-entry/index.md) (龙入首): Dragon Entry is the last stretch of a dragon vein — a line of higher ground that carries energy — before it enters a site or house.
- [Dragon veins](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/dragon-veins/index.md) (地脉): Dragon veins are lines that carry energy along ridges of higher ground — mountains, hills, mounds — like the veins of the earth.
- [Sha (surrounding landforms)](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/sha-landforms/index.md) (砂): Sha are the mounds, hills or buildings around a site that shield it from wind and hold energy.
- [Bright hall](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/bright-hall/index.md) (明堂): The bright hall is the open space in front of a house where energy gathers before entering the main door.
- [Contours](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/contour-lines/index.md) (等高线): Contour lines join points of equal elevation on a terrain map.
- [Direct wind](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/direct-wind/index.md) (直冲风): Direct wind is a strong current of air that blows straight at the main door or rushes right through a house.
- [Hide the wind, gather the qi](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/hide-wind-gather-qi/index.md) (藏风聚气): "Hide the wind, gather the qi" — shelter from wind and energy is kept — is the root principle of feng shui.

## Inside the home

- [Main door as qi intake](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/main-door-qi-intake/index.md) (大门纳气): The main door as qi intake is the idea that the main door is the mouth of the home (the qi mouth), where outside energy comes in.
- [Door–kitchen–WC alignment](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/door-kitchen-wc-alignment/index.md) (门灶厕对冲): Alignment is when the main door, the stove and a WC door sit on one straight axis, looking straight at each other.
- [Bed head](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/bed-head/index.md) (床头): The bed head is where the pillow lies and the sleeper's head rests.
- [Altar sitting](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/altar-sitting/index.md) (神台坐向): An altar's sitting is the side its back rests against, opposite the direction it faces.
- [Light well](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/light-well/index.md) (天井): A light well is a vertical void open to the sky that brings light and air into the middle of a house.

## Architecture & codes

- [Building coverage ratio](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/building-coverage-ratio/index.md) (建筑密度): Building coverage ratio is the percentage of a plot covered by the building's footprint.
- [Setback](https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary/setback/index.md) (建筑退界): The setback is the distance from the street boundary line (between road land and the plot) to the building line (which the house may not cross).

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Original page: https://myhomecheck.ai/learn/glossary  
Other languages: [Tiếng Việt](https://myhomecheck.ai/vi/tri-thuc/thuat-ngu/index.md) · [中文](https://myhomecheck.ai/zh/learn/glossary/index.md)  
Updated: 2026-10-21