What Sheng Chi, Tian Yi, Yan Nian and Fu Wei mean
Published 2026-08-20
Sheng Chi, Tian Yi, Yan Nian and Fu Wei are the names Eight Mansions (八宅, Ba Zhai) gives to the four directions that suit you, and each name carries a theme the tradition associates with it. Sheng Chi (生氣) is the one usually called strongest and is associated with prosperity and momentum. Tian Yi (天醫) is associated with health and recovery, Yan Nian (延年) with relationships and longevity, and Fu Wei (伏位) with stability and clear thinking.
Those are associations the tradition makes, not effects anyone has measured, and this site reports them as names rather than as forecasts. What is checkable is where each name lands for a given person, and that has a derivation.
The eight names
| Name | Chinese | Side | Associated with |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sheng Chi | 生氣 | favorable | prosperity and momentum |
| Yan Nian | 延年 | favorable | relationships and longevity |
| Tian Yi | 天醫 | favorable | health and recovery |
| Fu Wei | 伏位 | favorable | stability and clear thinking |
| Huo Hai | 禍害 | unfavorable | small mishaps and irritation |
| Wu Gui | 五鬼 | unfavorable | restlessness and disputes |
| Liu Sha | 六煞 | unfavorable | conflict and loss |
| Jue Ming | 絕命 | unfavorable | the most draining direction for you |
Those labels come from src/lib/kua.ts and are the exact wording the
calculator shows. The four names on each side are traditional. The order within
each side is a choice this site made so tools could sort a list, and the method page says so.
Where the assignment comes from
Each of the eight directions holds a trigram: three stacked lines, each either yang or yin. Your Kua number puts you in one of them, and the star for any other direction comes from comparing the two trigrams line by line and seeing which lines differ.
| Direction | Trigram | Top / middle / bottom |
|---|---|---|
| North | Kan 坎 | yin / yang / yin |
| Northeast | Gen 艮 | yang / yin / yin |
| East | Zhen 震 | yin / yin / yang |
| Southeast | Xun 巽 | yang / yang / yin |
| South | Li 離 | yang / yin / yang |
| Southwest | Kun 坤 | yin / yin / yin |
| West | Dui 兌 | yin / yang / yang |
| Northwest | Qian 乾 | yang / yang / yang |
And the rule, which is STAR_BY_LINE_CHANGE in the code:
| Lines that differ | Star |
|---|---|
| none | Fu Wei |
| top only | Sheng Chi |
| middle only | Jue Ming |
| bottom only | Huo Hai |
| middle and bottom | Tian Yi |
| top and middle | Wu Gui |
| top and bottom | Liu Sha |
| all three | Yan Nian |
Work one through. Kua 1 sits in Kan, North, which reads yin / yang / yin. Southeast is Xun, which reads yang / yang / yin. Only the top line differs, so Kua 1’s Sheng Chi is Southeast. Compare North with Southwest instead — Kun, yin / yin / yin — and only the middle line differs, so Southwest is the Jue Ming direction for Kua 1.
The direction table on this site is generated by running that comparison for all eight seats, not typed in from a book. Two published tables and one npm package were found to be wrong while the site was built, and a generated table cannot have a typo in row six.
Fu Wei is always your own direction
Fu Wei is the “no lines differ” case, so it is your own trigram’s seat, and that holds for all eight numbers with no exceptions. Kua 1 sits North and its Fu Wei is North; Kua 7 sits West and its Fu Wei is West.
That is why Fu Wei is described as the settled or quiet one rather than the strongest, and why some sources prefer it for a bedroom specifically — a bedroom being the room where you are least active. Other sources put Sheng Chi first everywhere, and Eight Mansions does not contain a rule that settles it.
The relationship runs both ways
The comparison is symmetric: if the lines that differ between your seat and some direction are the top line, they are also the top line going the other way. So the stars are mutual. Kua 1’s Sheng Chi is Southeast, and the number seated in the southeast is 4 — whose Sheng Chi is North, the seat of 1. Every pair works like that, for all eight names.
One consequence is that a Sheng Chi direction is never “unclaimed”. It is always another number’s home seat, and that number is always in your own group.
A common claim that does not survive checking
You will read that Jue Ming, the worst direction, is the one directly opposite your Fu Wei. Run the comparison for all eight seats and it holds for two of them:
| Kua | What lies directly opposite your own seat |
|---|---|
| 1 and 9 | Yan Nian |
| 2 and 8 | Sheng Chi |
| 3 and 7 | Jue Ming |
| 4 and 6 | Huo Hai |
So for six of the eight numbers the direction facing your own seat is not the worst one, and for two of them it is the strongest one there is. Flipping a direction does not flip all three lines except in special cases. It is the kind of shortcut that gets repeated because it sounds symmetrical.
What the names weigh
Where the site has to rank the four, the weights are ours and stated openly: in the bedroom generator a head direction that is Sheng Chi moves a position by 30 points, Yan Nian by 24, Tian Yi by 20 and Fu Wei by 16, against penalties of 30, 24, 20 and 14 on the other side. Eight Mansions publishes no numbers like that. It gives names and a side, and any ranking finer than favorable or unfavorable is a decision by whoever built the tool.
What the names do not do
Sheng Chi is associated with prosperity, and Tian Yi with health. Neither association is a prediction, and this site makes no claim that facing one of them changes anything measurable — see method and assumptions. If your bed points at your Jue Ming direction and you sleep well, there is nothing to reconcile: the tradition classifies directions, and that is all it does.