Liu Sha (六煞) Feng Shui: The Six Killings Direction and Its Remedies

Some energies cost you money, some cost you health, and one costs you peace of mind — the kind of trouble that starts with a sentence and ends with a lawyer. In the Ba Zhai (Eight Mansions) system that direction is Liu Sha, the "Six Killings." It is the second-most-severe of your four inauspicious directions, and it is the one most often mistaken for a personality problem rather than a spatial one.

What Is Liu Sha (六煞)?

Liu Sha (六煞) translates as "Six Killings" or "Six Curses" — 六 for the six, 煞 for malevolent influence. It is governed by the Wen Qu (文曲) star and belongs to the Water element. Wen Qu is the star of words, expression and attraction; when it lands in an inauspicious position, those same qualities turn destructive. The result is trouble that arrives through communication: arguments that escalate, contracts that turn out to be traps, reputations damaged by a phrase, alliances that dissolve into disputes.

Water here is the water of turbulence rather than the calm depth of a lake: it moves, leaks, and takes things with it. That is why Liu Sha is read as the direction of instability — emotional, legal and financial — rather than of a single dramatic loss.

What Liu Sha Affects

• Conflict and quarrelling. Disputes with neighbours, colleagues or relatives that start small and refuse to close.
• Legal and contractual trouble. Letters, claims, disputes over property or money, agreements that are read against you.
• Trouble from words. Rumours, public criticism, misrepresentation, and the damage that follows from being talked about.
• Emotional volatility. Anxiety, mood swings, and households in which the emotional temperature is always slightly too high.
• Complications in relationships. Wen Qu carries romance as well as words, so Liu Sha is traditionally linked to affairs, jealousy and entanglements — attraction that creates problems rather than comfort.
• Dissolution. Partnerships, friendships and arrangements that quietly come apart.

How to Find Your Liu Sha Direction

Liu Sha is fixed by your Ming Gua (Kua) number and never changes. Like the other three inauspicious directions it always falls outside your group: the East group (Kua 1, 3, 4, 9) meets its four bad directions on West, Northwest, Southwest and Northeast; the West group (Kua 2, 6, 7, 8) on North, East, South and Southeast.

If you don't know your Kua number yet, calculate it with our free online calculator.

Liu Sha falls in this direction:

• Kua 1: Northwest
• Kua 2: South
• Kua 3: Northeast
• Kua 4: West
• Kua 6: North
• Kua 7: Southeast
• Kua 8: East
• Kua 9: Southwest

As always, the compass direction has to be located on your actual floor plan before it means anything — the room that occupies the sector is what you are dealing with. The Ba Zhai calculator overlays your directions on the plan and names the rooms for you.

How to Neutralise Liu Sha

Same principle as with every inauspicious direction: do not activate it, and drain its element. Liu Sha is Water, and Water produces Wood in the Five Elements cycle — so Wood is the cure. Plants absorb the turbulence and turn it into growth.

• Add living Wood. Healthy plants are the classical remedy, especially in the sector itself: a plant that is thriving is doing the work continuously. Green tones, wooden furniture and wooden flooring have the same effect at lower intensity.
• Never add Water. Aquariums, fountains, water features, deep blue and black finishes, mirrors used as water substitutes and images of the sea all reinforce the energy you are trying to reduce. A "wealth fountain" placed in Liu Sha is one of the classic own-goals of home Feng Shui.
• Keep it low-activity. Storage, a utility room or a plain bathroom are acceptable uses. What you want to avoid is a room where the family talks, negotiates or argues — a dining room, a shared office, a teenage bedroom in which every conversation becomes a fight.
• Do not let the main door or stove use the direction. If your front door faces Liu Sha, add Wood between the door and the interior and keep the entrance calm and ordered. If the kitchen stove sits in it, place a plant between the stove and the direction of the sector's energy and avoid adding water features nearby.
• Give difficult conversations a better room. If your Liu Sha sector is the living room, hold the conversations that matter somewhere else in the house rather than in the sector where they are most likely to go wrong.

Where Liu Sha Sits Among the Four Inauspicious Directions

1. Huo Hai (祸害) — the mildest: minor accidents, illness, gossip, obstruction.
2. Liu Sha (六煞) — conflict: disputes, legal trouble, emotional instability, trouble from words.
3. Wu Gui (五鬼) — betrayal and theft, trouble from behind your back.
4. Jue Ming (绝命) — the most severe: ruin, grave energy, total loss.

Liu Sha is the direction where remedies are most visible in daily life, because its effects are interpersonal rather than physical. If a household has been arguing for months, the annual afflictions of the current year are worth checking at the same time as the fixed personal directions.

Conclusion

Liu Sha does not ruin anyone. It makes life harder than it needs to be: conversations that should end in agreement end in a fight, and arrangements that should be simple become letters between lawyers. Since the direction is fixed for life by your Kua number, the response is simple and permanent — a plant, a colour palette, and the discipline not to put the family's most important conversations in the one sector that guarantees they go wrong.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Liu Sha mean in Feng Shui?

Liu Sha (六煞) means "Six Killings" and is the second-most-severe of the four inauspicious directions in the Ba Zhai system. Governed by the Wen Qu (文曲) star and the Water element, it is associated with disputes, legal and contractual trouble, rumours, emotional volatility and relationship complications.

How do I find my Liu Sha direction?

From your Kua number: Kua 1 Northwest, Kua 2 South, Kua 3 Northeast, Kua 4 West, Kua 6 North, Kua 7 Southeast, Kua 8 East, Kua 9 Southwest. The Kua calculator gives you the number and the Ba Zhai calculator places the direction on your floor plan.

What is the cure for Liu Sha?

Wood. Liu Sha is Water, and Water produces Wood, so living plants drain the sector: a healthy plant in the Liu Sha area is the classical cure, supported by green tones and wooden furniture. Never add water features, aquariums or deep blue and black finishes, which strengthen it.

Is Liu Sha bad for a bedroom?

It is not the direction to sleep in, especially for a couple, since Wen Qu carries romantic complications as well as conflict. If the bedroom must be there, keep it free of water imagery and electronics, add a plant, and point the bed head toward an auspicious direction — Yan Nian for a couple, Tian Yi if health or sleep is the concern.

Can Liu Sha cause legal problems?

Traditionally yes — it is the direction most associated with disputes, claims and paperwork turned against you. Practically, the advice is to keep the sector calm, avoid conducting negotiations or signing agreements in it, and make sure it is not the sector your main door or dining table occupies. For anything already in progress, the spatial remedy is a support to the legal one, not a substitute.

Is Liu Sha the same every year?

No, it is fixed for life — unlike the yearly Flying Stars and annual afflictions, which occupy specific sectors for a year at a time. Read them together: a fixed inauspicious sector that coincides with an annual affliction in the same year deserves the most attention.