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50 free Feng Shui trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This feng shui trivia quiz covers the Chinese art of placement from Neolithic house doors to Hong Kong bank towers. The easy questions are ones anyone with a passing interest could answer: what the two words mean, the energy it seeks to direct, the pair of opposing forces at its heart, and the five elements. The harder end is for students of Chinese culture, architects and sceptics alike: the Neolithic village whose doors were aligned to a star, the Jin dynasty scholar who wrote the Book of Burial and was executed for the wrong omen, the geomantic compass with up to 40 rings, the four celestial animals of the directions, the magic square carried on a turtle's shell, the two arrangements of the eight trigrams, the artificial hill north of the Forbidden City, the Cultural Revolution's Four Olds, why Hong Kong Disneyland shifted its gate twelve degrees, the tower nicknamed the vertical knife, and the Jesuit who first described dragons under building sites. Penn and Teller, Donald Trump and the luopan get questions too. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for the practice, its texts and its famous buildings before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Chinese culture, architecture and Hong Kong quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What do the two words feng shui literally mean?
Wind-water
The idea was that landscapes and water direct the flow of qi through places and structures.
Q 02What is the name of the cosmic current or energy that feng shui seeks to direct?
Qi
More broadly the practice takes in astronomy, astrology, architecture and topography.
Q 03Feng shui is traditionally described as a form of what?
Geomancy
Historically it fixed the orientation of buildings, dwellings and tombs.
Q 04Which two Neolithic cultures give the earliest known evidence for feng shui?
Yangshao and Hongshan
Before the magnetic compass, feng shui relied on astronomy.
Q 05The doors of dwellings at which Neolithic village were aligned with the asterism Yingshi around 4000 BC?
Banpo
The alignment, just after the winter solstice, sited the homes for solar gain.
Q 06Near which modern city is that Neolithic site of aligned doorways?
Xi'an
It was discovered in 1953 and belongs to the Yangshao culture.
Q 07According to the Zhouli, what may the original feng shui instrument have been?
A gnomon
The Chinese used circumpolar stars to fix the north–south axis of settlements.
Q 08What are the oldest known feng shui instruments, lacquered two-sided boards with sightlines, called?
Liuren astrolabes
Examples come from tombs dated between 278 BC and 209 BC.
Q 09What is the traditional feng shui compass called?
Luopan
Its needle points to the south magnetic pole.
Q 10How many concentric rings of formulas can the feng shui compass carry?
Up to 40
The rotating plate is called the heaven dial and it sits on an earth plate.
Q 11Which Jin dynasty scholar wrote the Book of Burial, the first authoritative feng shui text?
Guo Pu
He is often called the Father of Feng Shui in modern China.
Q 12Why was the Book of Burial's author executed in 324?
He failed to produce a favourable omen
The warlord Wang Dun wanted backing for his planned usurpation.
Q 13What does the Book of Burial say burial takes advantage of?
Vital qi
Qing Wuzi's Book of the Tomb in the Han dynasty preceded it.
Q 21Which fifth celestial animal joins the usual four in some feng shui schemes?
The yellow snake
It joins the phoenix, dragon, tiger and turtle.
Q 22Which Zhou-era text codified the feng shui rules for laying out capital cities?
Kaogong ji
The carpenters' manual Lu ban jing did the same for builders.
Q 23Which imperial bureau employed feng shui specialists at its Ming and Qing peak?
Qintianjian
The Imperial Astronomical Bureau also housed astronomers and calendar-makers.
Which artificial mound was placed north of the Forbidden City in line with feng shui convention?
Q 14What are the five elements, or wuxing, of Chinese thought?
Metal, earth, fire, water, wood
They are first mentioned in a chapter of the classic Book of History.
Q 15What was the original meaning of yin and yang?
The shady and sunny sides of a hill
Yin was the northerly shaded slope, yang the bright southerly aspect.
Q 16How many trigrams make up the bagua?
Eight
Each trigram has three lines, broken for yin or unbroken for yang.
Q 17Which two arrangements of the bagua are commonly encountered?
Earlier Heaven and Later Heaven
The Earlier Heaven order is named for the legendary Fuxi.
Q 18On what did the magic-square Lo Shu pattern appear, according to legend?
A turtle's shell
The turtle emerged from the Luo River bearing the numbers one to nine in a three-by-three grid.
Q 19Which celestial animal guards the east in Chinese cosmology?
Azure Dragon
The Vermilion Bird takes the south and the White Tiger the west.
Q 20Which mega-constellation marks the north and the winter solstice in the Yaodian?
Black Tortoise
Its marker stars are alpha and beta Aquarii.
Jingshan
The whole complex sits on a north–south axis.
Q 25How many Ming and Qing emperors lived in the Forbidden City?
24
It was the centre of power from 1420 to 1924.
Q 26How many rooms does the Forbidden City traditionally claim to have?
9,999
Experts have counted 8,886.
Q 27What are the two main branches of feng shui?
Form and Compass
The Compass branch includes Flying Star and other techniques.
Q 28How long is a grand cycle of nine periods in Flying Star feng shui?
180 years
Each period lasts twenty years.
Q 29During the Cultural Revolution, feng shui was classed as one of what?
The Four Olds
It remained popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where traditional culture was not suppressed.
Q 30In 2010s mainland China, what was the legal status of a feng shui consultancy business?
Illegal to register or advertise
Crackdowns cited the promotion of feudalistic superstitions.