Sitting Qian facing Xun, and the dragon from the north-west
Sitting Qian facing Xun is an old pairing in the trade: back to the north-west corner, face to the south-east. In south China the big ranges run down from the north-west, so a dragon entering from Qian is often the main branch, not a side spur. It should drop in steps and rise again into a round head before the site. A stone under that head faces the open south-east.
The reverse, sitting Xun facing Qian, puts the door on the north-west. In China that is the winter wind side, and the door needs a hill or wall to break it. Overseas, check where your cold wind comes from.
Tianjiu, the stable, and the Qian group of stars
Qian carries Tianjiu, the Heaven's Stable, the stable of the heavenly horse: carts and horses, stores and supply, keeping things fed. It is a regular star in a strong neighbourhood: Hai, next door, carries Tianhuang, one of the four nobles.
The Tianxing school keeps the two apart. A full-bodied dragon entering on Qian is confirmed by Tianjiu as well supplied; it does not borrow Tianhuang from next door. A peak on Qian is read with the same restraint: a rounded, well stored hill answers the stable, a broken one nothing. We put the plate down after the land has been walked, and the star says yes or says nothing.
What this means on the ground
Stand inside the front door with your back to it, or behind the stone sighting along its face. Hold the luopan flat, read three times a step apart, and keep the middle. Keep gates, cars and phones away, and set a phone compass to magnetic north.
Qian runs from 307.5 to 322.5 and its solid middle is 311 to 319. From 308 to 310 you lean to Xu, Earth; from 320 to 322 to Hai, Water, and the fen jin moves the stone a degree or two back towards 315. Near 315 the Metal of Qian is purest; at the edges it starts to mix.
Common mistakes
The first is to assume north-west on a city map is Qian; the map is true north, the plate magnetic, and the gap can be a whole mountain. The second is to pick sitting Qian facing Xun from a book, then sit the stone with a thin spur behind it and a drop in front.
The third is to lean on Hai's reputation: a reading of 321 is still Qian, carrying Tianjiu, not Tianhuang. The fourth is to measure from the garden instead of the door. The fifth is to forget the wind: a Qian door with nothing to the north-west is draughty, whatever the star says.
Questions people ask
What is Qian on a feng shui compass?
Qian is the north-west corner, 315 degrees, covering 307.5 to 322.5. It is the heaven trigram, Metal, a corner trigram rather than a stem or branch. Its neighbours are Xu and Hai, its opposite is Xun. On our luopan it carries Tianjiu.
Is a house that sits north-west and faces south-east good?
Sitting Qian facing Xun is a sound classical pairing when the ground behind rises to the north-west and the view south-east is open, with water or a road bending in front. It is poor on a slope that falls away behind. Confirm the degree on site.
What does the Qian mountain mean for a grave?
It means the dragon comes in from the north-west and the stone faces Xun. We look for a dragon that steps down and rises into a round head behind the stone, a closed water mouth and a south-east peak. The degree is set last, inside Qian.
Have Master Zhang check whether your north-west sitting answers the land, in a site reading or a Ganzhou field class.