The Eight Yellow Springs

The Eight Yellow Springs are a fixed rule of feng shui for judging water. For each facing, the rule names one direction from which water must not flow toward the lair, and water that flows toward the lair from that direction is harmful.

The rhyme

Reading the water of a standard site layout begins with the Eight Yellow Springs (八路黄泉). For whether the water itself is good or bad, see Reading Water; the Eight Yellow Springs judge whether water is good or ill by its direction. The rhyme has eight lines:

庚丁坤向是黄泉，坤向庚丁且莫言。
巽向忌行乙丙上，乙丙须防巽水先。
甲癸向上忧见艮，艮逢甲癸祸连连。
辛壬乾路最宜忌，乾向辛壬祸亦然。

Our translation:

Facing Yang Metal or Yin Fire, Earth is the forbidden direction

Facing Earth, speak not of Yang Metal or Yin Fire

Facing Wind, shun the Yin Wood and Yang Fire path

Facing Yin Wood or Yang Fire, guard first against water from Wind

On a Yang Wood or Yin Water facing, dread the sight of Mountain

Mountain meeting Yang Wood or Yin Water brings disaster after disaster

For Yin Metal or Yang Water, the Heaven path is most to be shunned

Facing Heaven, Yin Metal and Yang Water bring disaster too

The four groups are as follows:

The rule runs both ways. With a Yang Metal or Yin Fire facing, Earth is the forbidden direction for water; with an Earth facing, Yang Metal and Yin Fire are forbidden directions too. The other three groups work the same way.

Water from the forbidden direction

The only water to avoid is water that comes from the forbidden direction toward the front. A door opened or a drain set on that side is avoided in the same way.

The forbidden direction is found from the sitting mountain, by counting the twelve life stages on the fingers. Take a site sitting on Yang Wood and facing Yang Metal: Yang Wood is born at Pig, stored at Goat and spent at Monkey. Goat and Monkey both lie in the Earth sector of the compass, so the forbidden direction is Earth. The other facings are worked out the same way.

A Yang Metal facing sits on Yang Wood, and a Yin Fire facing sits on Yin Water; this is what the old saying means when it says that the Goat direction gathers what Yin Water and Yang Wood bring. Water in the Earth and Goat directions should flow away, not come toward the lair. Water that comes in toward the front of the lair from there is harmful.

This method works from the sitting mountain alone; it makes no difference whether the water turns left or right.

Where the book explains the method with its figure, it says water should neither come nor go in the forbidden direction: water coming from that direction and water going toward it both bode ill.

Birth, peak and storage, and the sons’ lines

The birth, peak and storage directions are read together, and from them the three sons’ lines of a family are told apart: the eldest son’s line, the middle son’s line and the youngest son’s line. Water from the birth and peak directions should come; water at the storage direction should leave.

• Leaving where it should come: when water flows away from the birth or nurture position, the eldest son’s line declines; when water flows away from the peak position, the middle son’s line declines.
• Coming where it should leave: when water comes in from the dormant or storage position, the youngest son’s line declines.

The other cases follow by the same reasoning.

Reading it on the compass

On the compass, the outer ring holds the 24 mountains, and the inner ring marks the direction to avoid for each facing. On the outer ring, Earth lies between the Yang Metal and Yin Fire facings: with a Yang Metal or Yin Fire facing, the direction to avoid is Earth. Wind lies between the Yin Wood and Yang Fire facings: with a Yin Wood or Yang Fire facing, the direction to avoid is Wind.

The inner ring can also be read directly. For a Yang Wood facing, the inner ring shows Mountain against Yang Wood, so with a Yang Wood facing the direction to avoid is Mountain.

When measuring, the person stands on the lair, back to the incoming dragon, facing the water mouth.

Source: The Way of the Earth's Veins (天纪：地脉道)