The four shapes: hollow, pincer, breast, protrusion
Sites come in four classic shapes, wo qian ru tu. Wo, the hollow, is a shallow bowl in the slope. Qian, the pincer, is a site held between two short spurs that run down either side of it. Ru, the breast, is a soft rounded swelling that hangs from the slope. Tu, the protrusion, is a small raised mound on low ground. On the two hollow shapes you look for a slight rise inside the hollow. On the two full shapes you look for a slight dip on top. The site is on that small contrary feature, not on the big one.
The faint ring, true sites and false sites
A true site shows a tai ji yun, a faint ring. It is a slight change in the ground around the point: a soft rim of soil, a change in grass colour, a subtle lip where the slope eases. It is rarely obvious. You see it best in low light or after rain, and from a little distance.
A false site, hua jia xue, looks like a site and is not. The slope has a hollow or a mound, but the dragon never reached it, the ring is missing, the soil is loose or stony, and the water in front runs off.
What this means on the ground
Pointing a site is learned by walking, not reading. Students follow a teacher from site to site, stand where he stands, and say where the coffin goes. Most guesses are a few metres off, and a few metres is the whole difference.
For a grave, the point sets the coffin and the headstone; the facing is taken afterwards from the sha and the water. A house follows the same rule: it stands where a grave would go, back against the support, main door on the point. A shop puts its main door or counter there. If no one walks the plot for you, choose the calmest, most sheltered spot, not the one with the view.
Common mistakes
The first mistake is to choose the view. People put the grave or the house on the top of the rise. The site is almost never there. It is lower, tucked in, where the slope eases and the wind drops.
The second is to trust a shape alone. A neat hollow or a round mound is only a candidate. Without a dragon arriving behind it and water held in front, it is a false site.
The third is to let the compass choose. The Tianxing school finds the point on the ground first; the luopan then names the star it sits under and checks the facing against it.
Questions people ask
What is a xue in feng shui?
The one point where the mountain range stops and settles. For a grave, where the coffin lies; for a house, where the building stands. Finding it is called pointing the site.
What are the four types of feng shui site?
Wo, qian, ru and tu: hollow, pincer, breast and protrusion. The first two are hollow forms, the last two full forms. Each is read for a small contrary feature at its centre.
Can a house have a xue like a grave?
Yes. A house stands where a grave would go, back to the support hill, door on the point. The scale is larger, the test is the same.
Pointing a site cannot be learned from a page; if you want to see it done, come to the field course in Ganzhou or ask Master Zhang to walk your plot.