Feng Shui Questions
What is South 1 (S1), South 2 (S2) and South 3 (S3)?
The four (4) cardinal directions are north, south, east and west while the
four (4) inter-cardinal directions are north-east, south-east, south-west and
north-west.
Each of these directions take up a 45 degrees pie (360 degree divided by 8).
Each of these pies can be further sub-divided into three equal pieces of 15
degrees to give a total of 24 divisions as shown on the right.
In Feng Shui, this is called the 24 Mountains (or directions) and each
sub-division is given
names such as Bing, Wu, Ding etc that are derived from the Heavenly
Stems, Earthly Branches and Ba Gua.
For the English speaking world, trying to relate a direction using Chinese
characters such as Bing, Wu, Ding etc can be quite a challenge. To make things
easier, early Feng Shui authors used the numerals 1, 2 and 3 to identify the
pies from left to right and the practice has stuck since. Take a look at the
example for S1, S2 and S3 on the right.
The compass reading for each of the 24 mountains are shown in the table below:-
| Direction | Mountains | Compass Degree |
| N1 | Ren | 337.5 - 352.5 |
| N2 | Zi | 352.5 - 7.5 |
| N3 | Gui | 7.5 - 22.5 |
| NE1 | Chou | 22.5 - 37.5 |
| NE2 | Gen | 37.5 - 52.5 |
| NE3 | Yin | 52.5 - 67.5 |
| E1 | Jia | 67.5 - 82.5 |
| E2 | Mao | 82.5 - 97.5 |
| E3 | Yi | 97.5 - 112.5 |
| SE1 | Chen | 112.5 - 127.5 |
| SE2 | Xun | 127.5 - 142.5 |
| SE3 | Si | 142.5 - 157.5 |
| S1 | Bing | 157.5 - 172.5 |
| S2 | Wu | 172.5 - 187.5 |
| S3 | Ding | 187.5 - 202.5 |
| SW1 | Wei | 202.5 - 217.5 |
| SW2 | Kun | 217.5 - 232.5 |
| SW3 | Shen | 232.5 - 247.5 |
| W1 | Geng | 247.5 - 262.5 |
| W2 | You | 262.5 - 277.5 |
| W3 | Xin | 277.5 - 292.5 |
| NW1 | Xu | 292.5 - 307.5 |
| NW2 | Qian | 307.5 - 322.5 |
| NW3 | Hai | 322.5 - 337.5 |