The Luo Pan is the Chinese compass or Feng Shui compass, a complex and beautiful instrument used to measure directional energy. It is the quintessential and most complex tool of a classical Feng Shui practitioner.
If your Feng Shui consultant doesn’t show up at your front door with a Chinese compass, you are not going to experience genuine, classical, scientific Feng Shui.
The Chinese compass, also known as “The Universe on a Plate”, is a square wooden base with a rotating metal disc with 5 to 42 rings, a needle magnetized to the North, and 2 red nylon strings which cross in 90* angles and give a precise compass reading. The square part represents the Earth and the round one the Heaven.
Legend says that when Huang-Di became Emperor, around 2600-2500 BC, the evil clan wizard, Chi Yu, prepared a plan to dethrone him. Huang Di learned of the treason, Chi Yu escaped and war started. Huang Di moved his army to the South-Eastern plains where the troops got confused and lost in the misty and foggy marshes. The Warrior Goddess of the Nine Heavens wanted the Emperor to win the war and gave him a charm in the form of a compass to help him find his way out and thus, prevailed over the rebellious warlord Chi Yu. For years after, the compass was known as “The South Pointer to Dispel the Fog.”