A pasture beside the Pleiades: what the name Tianyuan holds
On the sky charts Tianyuan is a long loop of stars south of the Pleiades, read as the imperial grazing ground. The school takes from it what the name gives: animals kept, enough to go round, something raised with care, and adds nothing about riches.
Jia is a stem mountain, a short step of 15 degrees just before Mao, the east. The pasture image wants soft ground: a slope that comes down in grassy folds, a hill low and fleshed rather than bony, open ground in front where water can lie. Bare rock on Jia, or a stripped and scarred slope, gives the name nothing to hold.
Nurture, not grade: where Tianyuan stands in the school's method
The school's order is fixed: dragon, sand, water, cave, facing, read with the eye first, then the 24 stars to confirm. Tianyuan rides behind the eye. If the incoming range enters on Jia, the master looks for a dragon that arrives broad and gentle, with soft knuckles rather than sharp; that is what the star confirms. A thin, rushing Jia range gets no help from the name.
A peak on Jia is read as a nourishing hill, best low and round. Water from Jia should spread and linger, as in a watered meadow. The Cuiguan Pian answers dragon, cave, sand and water each with a star; on Jia it is Tianyuan, which confirms and does not raise.
What this means on the ground
On the Tianxing ring of the school's luopan, Tianyuan sits under Jia, the last step before Tianming on Mao. From a grave, sight from behind the stone along its face; from a house or shop, from inside the door out. Three readings, steel and phones away from the plate.
Sight each hill and the water mouth and keep anything between 67.5° and 82.5°. That is Jia, and Tianyuan. In a town the pasture face on that bearing is a park, a playing field, low houses with gardens, a school yard; a quarry, a multi storey car park or a blank concrete wall is not, and the star does not pretend it is.
Common mistakes
The first mistake is to hear park and expect plenty. The name describes a kind of ground; it is not a forecast. The second is to let Mao next door pull the reading: Mao is a three auspicious mountain, and a peak at 80° is still on Jia, not on Mao, so it is Tianyuan, not Tianming.
The third is the compass. A phone on true north can be ten degrees off overseas, and ten degrees here is a different star. The fourth is reading from a satellite picture, which shows a green patch but not whether the slope is soft or stony. Walk it.
Questions people ask
What star is on Jia mountain?
In the Tianxing school, Jia mountain at 75° east north east carries Tianyuan, Heaven's Park, an ordinary star named for the sky's pasture near the Pleiades. The name means livestock, plenty and nurture.
Is Tianyuan good for a house that faces east?
Tianyuan is read on the hills, buildings and water on 67.5° to 82.5° from the seat, not on the facing alone. Soft, open, green ground there with a gentle range behind reads as nurturing; a hard or scarred slope reads as poor, and the star changes nothing.
What is the difference between Tianyuan and Tianming?
Tianyuan sits on Jia, 67.5° to 82.5°, an ordinary star. Tianming sits on Mao, 82.5° to 97.5°, and Mao is one of the three auspicious mountains. The boundary at 82.5° decides which star a peak falls on.
To have the eastern hills of your site sighted on the Tianxing ring, book Master Zhang for a site reading or join the field course in Ganzhou.