This course is one of a series of homestudy courses offered by the Yap Cheng Hai Feng Shui Center of Excellence, and it certainly lives up to that name.

At a time when there are many homestudy courses on the Xuan Kong (or Hsuan-k'ung) school of feng-shui, it is refreshing to see one that teaches Xuan Kong materials authentically. Structured in twenty lessons, this volume covers the basic and necessary information that any serious student of Xuan Kong should know.

The Xuan Kong school of feng-shui has been misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misrepresented in many articles, books, and even homestudy courses. This has led to much confusion among students who are trying to learn the system. Xuan Kong feng-shui is actually not difficult to learn if it is taught properly. Mr. Joey Yap has designed a course that not only presents Xuan Kong concepts clearly and correctly but also clears up a lot of confusion introduced by courses that teach Xuan Kong incorrectly.

To learn a system of feng-shui properly, a student must begin with the basics. And the basics of Xuan Kong, or for that matter San-yuan and San-ho, are the theories of "change" or "i". Not just the notion of "change" as discussed in the I-ching, but "change" as understood throughout the history of Chinese divination. Mr. Joey Yap has presented this information admirably.

It is important for students to understand the philosophy of Chinese divination before they learn how to use it in feng-shui. Much of the confusion exhibited by many students of feng-shui comes from skipping the basics and going straight into learning, for example, how to set up the Flying Stars. Xuan Kong is not just Flying Stars; it is a way of understanding directional energy (li-ch'i), integrating it with land and architectural forms (hsing-ch'i), and applying it to specific situations. Mr. Joey Yap is certainly aware of this, and he takes the student through the lessons in a way such that each step of the learning process is built on a strong and solid foundation.

Xuan Kong Official Website

Here are a few highlights of the course that I feel are very important for the student of Xuan Kong to learn:

1. Determining the facing direction of a site. If you don't know how to figure out which is the facing direction of a house, you won't be able to obtain the facing star correctly. Consequently, the entire Flying Stars chart will be wrong. Many people only know by rote how to set up Flying Stars but are at a loss when they are standing at a site. Mr. Joey Yap shows you how to determine the facing direction, demonstrating that facing direction is not determined solely by the position of the main entrance but by many other factors.
2. Interpreting the interactions of stars in a palace. This is also a source of much confusion among many students. Mr. Joey Yap has provided one of the clearest analysis I have seen regarding how the palaces are evaluated. Again, when many presentations of Xuan Kong throw technical terminology around without explaining them, Mr. Joey Yap's course is careful to present just the right amount of information.
3. Superimposing the 9 Palaces onto the floor plan. Mr. Joey Yap dissolves the controversy of the wedge vs square methods of superimposition once and for all. Traditional Xuan Kong does not talk about whether to divide the floor plan into squares or wedges because it is a moot point to take a set structure and plug it into a concrete situation. The palaces should be placed in rooms such that each area contains a distinctive "unit" of directional energy. This comes straight from the basic assumption of classical feng-shui that "form energy or hsing-ch'i" (manifested as room partition, corridors etc.) constrains "direction energy or li-ch'i" (manifested as palace stars). Anyone with doubts about how to put the 9 Palaces into a house should study this lesson well.

I believe that a good course in feng-shui should present information in a way that can be understood easily. The original Xuan Kong classics were written by experts for experts; in other words, even if you read ancient Chinese fluently, you will still find it very hard to learn Xuan Kong if you tried to use, for example, the texts of Jiang Da Hong or Yeh Chiu-hsing. Even the Kung Shih and Shen Shih books are not suitable for beginning or even intermediate students. The challenge to teach any form of traditional Chinese feng-shui is great. First, it requires a good understanding of the teachings of the old masters, and secondly, it requires skill in presenting the information to students. Mr. Joey Yap has done both these jobs excellently.

Finally, courses are vehicles of teaching, not an arena for authors or teachers to show off what they know or impress people with colorful graphics. Therefore, accuracy of information and clarity of presentation, not just quantity of materials or flashy format, are the hallmarks of a good instructional book or course. It is impossible to cover the entirely of Xuan Kong in any book or course. Anyone trained by traditional Chinese teachers will tell you that the most intricate information must be transmitted orally. The goal of an instructional manual or a course in feng-shui is to help you build the proper foundation in order to learn personally from a genuine teacher. Mr. Joey Yap's homestudy course succeeds admirably in giving students that preparation. I recommend this course to anyone who is interested in a serious study of Xuan Kong feng-shui.

For more details about the Xuan Kong book , you can visit the official website at http://www.ychfengshui.com/xuankong

reviewed by Eva Wong
- Shen Shih Xuan Kong lineage carrier
- Kung Shih San-yuan Xuan Kong lineage carrier