luopan

A luopan does not point to the north pole of Earth.

However, a luopan differs from a compass in several important ways.

This luopan was said to have been used in the Tang dynasty.

One use for a Luopan is to detect the flow of qi.

Like a conventional compass, a luopan is a direction finder.

A Luopan is a magnetic compass to determine the precise direction of a structure or an item.

The most important ring on the Luopan is the 24 Mountain ring.

The needle of a luopan points to the south magnetic pole (it does not point to the geographic pole).

The luopan is an image of the cosmos (a world model) based on tortoise plastrons used in divination.

Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, three types of luopan have been popular.

Each Feng Shui master may design a luopan to suit preference and to offer students.

This luopan combines rings from the San He and San Yuan.

A conventional compass has markings for four or eight directions, while a luopan typically contains markings for 24 directions.

Archaeologist Li Xueqin links the design to the liuren astrolabe, zhinan zhen, and Luopan.

If you mark a series of 24 points on the ecliptic it creates a cycle of 365.25 days, which means that each degree on a luopan approximates a terrestrial day.

Traditional feng shui instrumentation consists of the Luopan or the earlier south-pointing spoon (指南針 zhinan zhen)-though a conventional compass could suffice if one understood the differences.

The oldest precursors of the luopan are the 式shi or 式盤shipan (Chinese for astrolabe or diviner's board) also called liuren astrolabes unearthed from tombs that date between 278 BCE and 209 BCE.

They both practice a traditional form of feng shui that relies on analysis of the physical attributes of a site using the luopan, or feng shui compass, and the astrology of the client to determine the most auspicious arrangement.

Lin Yun, a well-known West Coast practitioner who has lectured at the Library of Congress and Harvard University, said he had no use for the luopan and relied instead on his intuition to determine the flow of qi.