The Jiangxi field course寻龙点穴实地班
Ten days in southern Jiangxi, where the Form School was taught for the first time eleven centuries ago. Classroom first, then the mountain: follow real dragons on foot, read tombs studied for generations, and point a site of your own with the master standing beside you.
Who it is for
- Practitioners trained in compass methods who know the Form School is the piece they are missing
- Serious students of Chinese metaphysics who want the method as it was taught, not a summary of it
- Overseas Chinese who want to understand their own family graves and homes
- Anyone fit enough to walk hills for three to five hours a day, in any weather
What you will be able to do afterwards
- Trace a dragon from the parent mountain to where it stops, on a map and on the ground
- Judge the backing, the two arms, the table hill and the water mouth of any site
- Take a correct bearing with a luopan, read the 24 mountains and the stars over them
- Write a landform assessment a client can act on
- Know what you do not yet know, and where the next ten years of study go
Day by day
Mornings on the mountain, afternoons in review. The order matters: each day uses what the day before taught.
- Day 1Ganzhouarrive, classroomWelcome dinner. Evening session: what the Form School is, what it is not, and how the ten days are built.
- Day 2Ganzhouclassroom and riverbankThe five dragons. Sand, water, the acupoint and the facing. Luopan in hand: the twenty-four mountains, the twenty-four stars above them, and the rings you can ignore. First bearings taken on the Gan River.
- Day 3Xingguo countyfirst walkFollow a ridge from its parent peak to its end. Learn to feel where a dragon is still moving and where it has stopped. Four hours on foot.
- Day 4Xingguo countythe arms and the tableTwo valleys compared. Reading the Green Dragon and White Tiger from inside the site and from across the valley. Where the table hill should be and why distance matters.
- Day 5Xingguo countywaterThe water mouth. Walk the drainage of a valley from top to bottom. Evening: the master reads a clan grave the group walked that morning, step by step.
- Day 6Sanliao villagethe Form School's own gravesThe village where Yang Yunsong's students settled. Graves of the lineage's masters, read on site. Why these families produced feng shui masters for forty generations.
- Day 7Sanliao and Ganzhoufamous sitesTwo sites that have been argued about for centuries. The group reads them first; then the master gives the reading his teacher gave him. Return to Ganzhou.
- Day 8Field siteyour own surveyIn pairs, a valley you have not seen. Survey it, choose a site, take bearings, draw it. No help until evening.
- Day 9Field siteassessmentEach pair defends its site on the ground. The master walks to each one and gives his verdict in front of the group. This is the day people remember.
- Day 10Ganzhoureview, certificate, departureWritten assessment of your survey. What to study next and how. Certificate of completion, a place in the graduate network, and lunch.
Optional extension, three days: Nanjing and the Ming Xiaoling, with the master. Price on application; offered when at least six students join.
Included
- All teaching, ten days, with full English interpretation
- Nine nights in a good hotel in Ganzhou and Xingguo, single room
- All meals from the welcome dinner to the final lunch
- Transport within Jiangxi, including pick-up at Ganzhou airport or station
- A working luopan, yours to keep, and the course manual in English and Chinese
- Travel insurance for the ten days
- Certificate of completion and admission to the graduate network
Not included
- International flights and travel to Ganzhou
- Visa fees, where a visa is needed
- Personal expenses, drinks, laundry
- The Nanjing extension
Bring
- Hiking shoes you have already walked in
- Rain jacket, hat, a small daypack
- A phone with a compass app and plenty of storage for photos
- A notebook. Drawing by hand is part of the method.
Dates and price
Two cohorts a year, in spring and autumn, avoiding the rains and the summer heat. Twelve students at most, so that every site survey is assessed in person.
- Early application, 120 days before the course: US$ 4,400
- Deposit US$ 1,000 to hold a place, balance 60 days before
- Three instalments available
- Graduates of the online foundation course: US$ 300 off
- Shared twin room on request: US$ 600 off
Who teaches
Master Zhang Guanyong
Tianxing school, lineage of Lai Buyi. A field man, not a theorist: he has walked the famous sites of the whole country, and on this course he walks every hill with you and assesses every student's site himself. His story
The interpreter
A graduate of the course who has interpreted for the master since 2024 and knows the terms in both languages. Interpretation is continuous, in the classroom and on the ridge, so nothing waits for a translation.
Online foundation course
Eight modules, finished in about six weeks, with the master's field videos as the textbook. Required before the field course, and useful on its own if you cannot travel yet.
- What the Form School isHow it differs from compass methods and from the interior-design schools taught in the West.
- Reading landforms from mapsSatellite imagery, contour lines, where a ridge starts and where it ends.
- The four guardiansBacking, two arms, table hill. What good ones look like and what missing ones cost.
- WaterComing water, going water, the water mouth. The shapes that gather and the shapes that drain.
- The luopanThe rings that matter, the 24 mountains and the 24 stars over them, taking a bearing you can trust.
- Yin house and yang houseWhat changes when the site is a grave and when it is a home.
- Six sites read in fullThree imperial tombs and three clan graves from the field videos, worked step by step.
- Your assessmentA site assigned to you on satellite imagery. You write the reading; the master marks it.
- About 12 hours of video, English with Chinese terms on screen
- Two live question sessions with the master per cohort
- Marked assessment with written feedback
- Counts US$ 300 toward the field course
After the course
Graduates do not disappear. They become the people we work with where they live.
- Refer15% of the feeRefer a client for a grave, home or business reading.
- Partner30% of the feeAfter a second course, act as the master's local partner: meet the client, photograph the site, take bearings.
- HostA visit to your cityOrganise a regional visit and the master comes to you.
- ReturnKeep studyingAdvanced field course for graduates, monthly online case review, a yearly return to Jiangxi at cost.
Questions
Do I need to speak Chinese?
No. Everything is interpreted, continuously. You will leave knowing the key terms in Chinese because you will have heard them a hundred times on the mountain, but you do not need any to start.
Do I need a visa?
Citizens of many countries can enter China without a visa for short stays. Others need a tourist visa, which is straightforward. We send an invitation letter and a step-by-step note once your deposit is paid. Allow four weeks.
How fit do I need to be?
Days 3 to 9 involve three to five hours of walking on hill paths, some of them steep and muddy. If you can walk for half a day with a daypack, you are fine. If you are unsure, write to us and we will talk it through honestly.
Is there a certificate, and is it recognised?
You receive a certificate of completion signed by the master, and your written assessment. There is no official licence for feng shui in any country, and we do not pretend otherwise. What you can show clients is what you learned and where.
I have done the online course. Do I still start from the beginning?
Days 1 and 2 go quickly for you, but they are where the group learns to work together, and the luopan practice on the riverbank is worth repeating. You also receive US$ 300 off.
Can I bring a partner who is not studying?
Yes, for accommodation and meals at cost. They are welcome on the easier walks and in Sanliao. The field days and the assessment are for students only.
Apply for a place
Tell us a little about yourself. We reply within three days with a short call to make sure the course is right for you, then send the deposit link.