The Chinese refer to two different calendars, the Solar and the Lunar. The start of the lunar calendar is derived from the moon cycle which brings a new start date every year. The lunar calendar is used for festivities and marks the beginning with Chinese New Year Celebrations. The Solar calendar begins on the 4th of February each year and is used for crops and agriculture as it is based on the seasonal changes. (some years have a slight variance and must be looked up in the 10,000 year calendar for more accuracy.) It is the Solar Calendar that is used for Feng Shui calculations.


The Chinese divide the years into 20 year blocks called Periods, each period is given a number to represent it. This number coincides with a "Star number" or type of Qi. It is this number that shows what type of Qi is able to give the best benefit. e.g. 2004 - 2024 is period 8, this means that 8 Qi is the best Qi to tap this period. "8" is then referred to as being "In Period" or "Timely". It is currently known as Wang Qi.

There are 9 periods in total and I have listed them below:

I like to think of each Star Number representing an Emperor. So imagine that every twenty years, one Emperor gets his chance to rule. The others have to wait their turn. The one’s waiting can be nice about it or they can be angry or mischievous. This is one way of looking at how the qualities of the star numbers change.

When a house is built the energy of the space is captured inside it. To find out what period your home belongs to, you need to know the year it was built. For e.g. 1975 we look up the chart to see where 1975 falls and it is star 6 so the period will be Period 6.
What if your house was built in 1984? You then need to know if it was built before February 4th or after.
If it was before February 4th the house is period 6, if after February 4th the house will be period 7.
We use the time that the house was finished rather than started as it is the marriage between Heaven (the roof), Earth (the floor) and Man (the occupant) that encapsulates the space and time.