page_title: Luopan
section_title: Form and function
hierarchical_section_title: Luopan / Form and function
caption_attribution_description: English: Xiuning County, located in China’s Anhui Province, is a traditional place of manufacture for wooden feng shui compasses, such as this one. This particular compass was brought to Japan during the 19th century. This object is currently housed in the Oxford College Archives of Emory University.
context_page_description: The luopan or geomantic compass is a Chinese magnetic compass, also known as a Feng Shui compass. It is used by a Feng Shui practitioner to determine the precise direction of a structure, place or item. Luo Pan contains many informations and formulas regarding its functions. The needle points towards the south magnetic pole.
  Since the invention of the compass for use in Feng Shui, feng shui audit has required its use.
context_section_description: Like a conventional compass, a luopan is a direction finder. However, a luopan differs from a compass in several important ways. The most obvious difference is the Feng Shui formulas embedded in up to 40 concentric rings on the surface. This is a metal or wooden plate known as the heaven dial. The circular metal or wooden plate typically sits on a wooden base known as the earth plate. The heaven dial rotates freely on the earth plate.
  
  A red wire or thread that crosses the earth plate and heaven dial at 90-degree angles is the Heaven Center Cross Line, or Red Cross Grid Line. This line is used to find the direction and note position on the rings. 
  A conventional compass has markings for four or eight directions, while a luopan typically contains markings for 24 directions. This translates to 15 degrees per direction. The Sun takes approximately 15.2 days to traverse a solar term, a series of 24 points on the ecliptic. Since there are 360 degrees on the luopan and approximately 365.25 days in a mean solar year, each degree on a luopan approximates a terrestrial day.
  Unlike a typical compass, a luopan does not point to the north magnetic pole of Earth. The needle of a luopan points to the south magnetic pole (it does not point to the geographic south pole). The Chinese word for compass translates to “south-pointing needle.”
caption: Small Feng Shui Compass, c. 1800-1894, from the Oxford College Archives of Emory University.
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