Chapter 3

The Great Wall of Knowledge and the Rise of Feng Shui

In This Chapter

Chinese inventions

How nature has influenced science and philosophy

The development of feng shui

Form School and Compass School: the two classic schools of feng shui

Dim sum, the Great Wall, kung fu, the Cultural Revolution, scroll painting, mah jongg, the Forbidden City, rice fields, rickshaws, Chairman Mao, the Silk Road, Beijing, terracotta warriors, Confucius, acupuncture, Daoism …. What comes to mind when you think of China?

No doubt China is an ancient culture whose enduring traditions, colorful symbolism, and systems of government captivate us. Yet, did you know that for 2,000 years, beginning around 500 B.C.E. to 1500 c.e., this Eastern nation’s scientific and technological advances exceeded anything found in the West?

The Chinese have always believed in the oneness of all things. The practice of feng shui was born out of China’s reverence for nature. The Chinese believed if they could reflect the balance of nature’s forces in their daily lives, they could achieve a more harmonious living condition. That assumption was correct. In this chapter, you’ll learn how the Chinese developed a thought process based, in part, on intuitive wisdom, and how they derived mathematical truths from nature.

Made in China

A common misunderstanding among Westerners is that the Chinese lack scientific and technological know-how. The ubiquitous “Made in China” label, stuck to the bottom of practically every inexpensive trinket, probably contributes to this stereotype. But the fact is we have the Chinese to thank for inventing many things that have improved our lives and made them more pleasurable. The wheelbarrow, umbrella, animal harness, stirrups, the game of chess, paper money, fishing reels, matches, and kites are all products of Chinese ingenuity. Also, the Chinese developed the first seismograph and planetarium. They created movable sails, the rudder, and the bulkhead. Iron casting and silk harvesting originated in China.

But, surely, China’s four most important inventions are the developments of papermaking, printing, gunpowder, and the compass. The compass is the tool of the feng shui practitioner. You’ll be learning more about this later.

China’s Greater Nature

The ancient Chinese took what they called “Greater Nature” (Da Zi Ran) very seriously. Its forces inspired, awed, and humbled. It was a favorite subject of artisans. Greater Nature even gave rise to earth sciences like geology, cartography, and chemistry. The Chinese believed they were a product of nature’s forces. They believed these forces determined their fate. To the farmer, gentle winds meant abundant crops, prosperity, and good health. Conversely, harsh winds, floods, and drought meant devastation, misfortune, and illness.

Natural phenomena were important to the emperor, too. Since the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1045 B.C.E.), these semi-divine leaders petitioned Shangdi (their high god who ruled over lesser gods and spirits of the departed) on behalf of their kingdom. If Shangdi approved of his leadership, he blessed the kingdom with favorable weather, thus securing the king’s position. If Shangdi disapproved of the king’s leadership, the lord punished him by sending bad weather and illness. Considered an evil omen, such harsh conditions were a direct communication from above that the king should rectify his poor behavior.

Skywatcher for Hire

When Marco Polo visited China in 1275 C.E., purportedly he described Beijing as a city of 5,000 skywatchers. He was probably right. Some of those skywatchers were astrologers; some were astronomers. Both ran flourishing businesses in interpreting and divulging nature’s secrets.

The Art of Astrology

Astrologers analyze cycles of time. They study the position and movements of the sun, moon, stars, and planets in association with the consistency of human characteristics and the occurrence of human events on Earth. Based on the position of the heavenly bodies at any given point in time, astrologers can then map your fate. In China, the imperial court relied on a stable of learned astrologers to map out the most auspicious and inauspicious time to do just about everything, including the signing of documents, the construction of buildings, travel, military excursions, and marriage.

Astrology is considered an art because its predictions are based on supposition. Although an astrologer can forecast your fate, the conclusions cannot be scientifically proven. Astrology requires you to believe in a force of destiny predetermined by the cosmos. This is not to say that destiny replaces free will. Astrological calculations can foretell only possibilities. The astrologer who foretold accurate possibilities was held in high esteem and paid handsomely. The astrologer who was proven wrong was not so lucky. He was either exiled or executed.

Feng shui derives, in part, from astrological observations. While feng shui studies a building’s fate, a synthesis of heaven (time) and earth (space) luck, methods of Chinese astrology like The Four Pillars of Destiny (Ziping Bazi) and Purple Constellation Fate Computation (Ziwei Doushu) focus on a person’s natal character. You’ll learn about The Four Pillars of Destiny in Part 6.

Master Class

A wide range of divinatory methods was used in China. Besides astrology, the Chinese practiced chronomancy (an astro-calendrical system of determining favorable and unfavorable days), oneiromancy (divination based on dreams), physiognomy (divination based on facial features), scapulimancy and plastromancy (divination based on heating and interpreting the cracks formed on the scapula or shoulder bones of animals and the plastron or bottom shell of turtles), and sortilege (divination by drawing lots). The last method is especially significant to the formulation of the Yijing (The Book of Changes), a book of divination written by King Wen and his son, the Duke of Zhou, about 3,000 years ago.

The Science of Astronomy

Astronomy is based on factual information derived from studying the cosmos. Chinese astronomers dealt with the practical needs of society. They developed almanacs and calendars. Because China’s farmers produced food for every stratum of civilization, it was important for them to know the best times to plant and harvest their crops. According to markings found on a bone fragment some 3,500 years ago, Chinese astronomers understood the year is 365¹⁄₄ days long, a statistic strikingly similar to today’s precise measurement of 365.24219.

Aided by astronomical instruments, the Chinese also observed and recorded a number of celestial events:

They began noting eclipses of the moon in 1361 B.C.E. and eclipses of the sun in 1217 B.C.E.

They recorded a nova (an exploding star) in the area now known as Antares in 1300 B.C.E.

They witnessed Haley’s comet in 467 B.C.E.

They documented a supernova (a really big exploding star) in 1054 C.E. Their accurate observation allowed modern astronomers to establish that the supernova was the origin of the Crab Nebula.

By 400 B.C.E., Chinese skywatchers had recorded 1,464 stars, dividing many of them into the 28 constellations of the Zodiac.

Confucianism and Daoism

Beginning in the sixth and fourth centuries B.C.E., respectively, two main schools of philosophy flourished in China: Confucianism and Daoism.

Confucianism, based on the teachings of Confucius (551–479 B.C.E.), was a system of ethics designed to cultivate moral virtues and social values in humankind. It dealt with practical and earthly affairs. Confucius’s primary interest lay in proper behavior and social harmony. He emphasized rational knowledge and education. Later, obedience to one’s parents became one of the most important virtues of Confucianism. The philosophy became so influential that it was taught in Chinese schools from the advent of the Han reign in 206 B.C.E. to the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

Wise Words

Confucianism, based on the sixth-century B.C.E. teachings of Confucius, is a system of ethics designed to cultivate moral perfection. Daoism is concerned with intuitive knowledge acquired by communicating with nature and being at one with it, the Dao. The founding fathers of Daoism emerged as a group of like-minded persons who lived and taught from the fourth to the second centuries B.C.E.

Daoism (also spelled Taoism), on the other hand, was concerned with intuitive insight and heavenly affairs. One could attain intuitive or true knowledge by communing with nature and being at one with it, the Dao (or what Westerns variously call God, the Sea of Consciousness, the Higher Power). To understand the Dao (also spelled Tao) meant to recognize the inherent unity of all things and live your life accordingly. This meant trusting your intuition, your gut instinct, your sixth sense. The person who could cultivate his or her spirituality and develop this kind of character is following the Dao.

There is great debate about who founded the school of Daoism. Although many steadfastly hold the opinion that Laozi (also spelled Lao Tzu) founded the school, many contemporary scholars disagree. In fact, they maintain that Laozi, whom revered scholar Richard Wilhelm describes as a “shadowy figure,” is not an individual, but a committee of like-minded people, who lived and taught from the fourth to the second centuries B.C.E.

This can be perplexing. What of Laozi’s famous work, the Daode jing (also spelled Tao Teh Ching)? How this legendary figure is connected to the text is a mystery (and not our concern here). However, we do know that the Daode jing was actually written in the Warring States Period (403–221 B.C.E.), at least 200 years after its purported authorship. We know this because the text is commented on and criticized by various people of that era. Furthermore, the Daode jing and another great Daoist work called the Zhuangzi (also spelled Chuang Tzu) was written by an actual person of the same name before the school of Daoism emerged in the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.).

Experience Versus Experiment

To the Daoists, rational thinking and experimentation (hallmarks of the Western mind-set) are totally inadequate methods of understanding nature’s truths. True knowledge extends beyond sensory perception; it can be experienced only in a meditative state of consciousness. The Daoists quiet their minds to let nature’s truths flow into their beings from a supreme force.

The Daoists believe you can’t comprehend the Dao, the unnamed and unknowable, by describing it with words. Words were limited; nature was limitless. Words restricted; they barricaded the self from the universe of truth. This is why the Daoists and other Eastern mystics express their teachings in the form of aphorisms (concise statements of a principle or truth), huatou (paradoxical statements meant to be meditated upon to gain sudden intuitive enlightenment), or illustrations. These short verses showed the inconsistencies with rational communication.

Notable Quotables

Without going out of the door You can know the ways of the world. Without peeping through the window, You can see the Way of Heaven. The farther you go, The less you know. Thus, the sage knows without traveling, Sees without looking, And achieves without ado.

—From the Daode jing

Reversal Is the Movement of the Dao

When anything comes to its extreme, be it on the natural or human plane, a reversal to the other extreme takes place. This idea is central to both the Daoists and the Confucianists. But what does it mean?

It means that everything is cyclical, moving through ceaseless cycles of birth, growth, decay, and death. Everything is in a constant state of flux and change. Everything is interrelated and interconnected. With the extreme of winter comes the beginning of spring and renewal. With the extreme of night comes day. With the extreme of war comes peace. With the extreme of despair comes hope, and so forth.

To achieve anything, the general rule of thumb is to acknowledge its opposite. You need not experience it literally. Noting and respecting its possibility will help to keep you aware of sudden shifts of fortune. For example, being content and humble safeguards the possibility that the opposite nature won’t be reached. If you have wealth, recognize the possibility that you may lose it. This concept has greatly impacted the Chinese to this day. It’s all about balance and harmony.

This polarity of opposites is known as the theory of yin and yang. It is a fundamental principle of feng shui. You’ll learn all about yin and yang in Chapter 5, but we’ll touch on it in the following sections.

Change Is in the Wind

Generally speaking, the philosophy of the Yijing, or Book of Changes, is the first known attempt by the Chinese to formulate a system of knowledge around the interplay of opposites (yin and yang). The Yijing is a deceptively simple yet complex system of understanding the patterns of change in our universe. The Yijing can foretell your present and future prospects made manifest by changes you make in your attitude, actions, and activity. In other words, the Yijing suggests the appropriate change to achieve the desired result.

These patterns of change were recorded symbolically in the form of solid (yang) and broken (yin) lines called trigrams and hexagrams. Although we won’t concern ourselves with the 64 hexagrams (six-tiered configurations of solid and broken lines) comprising the Yijing, the eight fundamental trigrams (three-tiered configurations of solid and broken lines) are central to practicing classical feng shui. Simply, the eight trigrams represent transitional stages of all possible natural and human situations.

The eight fundamental trigrams.

You’ll be learning all about the meaning of these trigrams in Chapter 7.

The Masked Origin of the Yijing

A lot of misinformation has been written about the origin of the Yijing. For the record, here is a short chronology of its origins (part mythical, part historical). For more detailed information, please see our book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the I Ching (Alpha Books, 2002).

Initially, the Yijing was called the Zhouyi, or The Changes of Zhou. Initiated by King Wen and completed by his son, the Duke of Zhou of the Zhou dynasty (1045–221 B.C.E.), the Zhouyi draws on information gained by some of China’s legendary figures. Specifically, the 8 trigrams and 64 hexagrams (composed of 2 trigrams each) are thought to have been devised by Fuxi.

As the story goes, the mythical sage-king Fuxi invented the eight trigrams after observing celestial and terrestrial activity. The idea was to create heaven on earth, to emulate nature’s perfection. Perhaps to reward his efforts, Fuxi received a gift from heaven, a diagram of the perfect world, a world that was motionless, void of change. Sometime later, heaven bestowed a gift on another sage-king, Yu the Great. He also received a diagram, but this one represented the world in motion. Called the Luoshu, this diagram (its parts correlated to the eight trigrams) provides the foundation for a classical method of feng shui called Flying Star, the subject of Part 4.

Returning to the development of the Yijing, sometime during the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.), scholars set about collecting the great texts of their culture. At this time, commentaries, known as the Ten Wings, were attached to the Zhouyi. Basically, the seven essays “philosophized” the oracle by attempting to give meaning to the arrangement of yin and yang lines composing each hexagram and the archaic text. The new compilation was called the Yijing.

Changing Patterns

You might be interested to learn that trigram and hexagram symbols were not part of the Zhouyi text. In the 1970s, Zheng Zhenglang, a Chinese scholar of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, discovered that the symbols were recorded in numeric form, a finding made after examining markings on oracle bones and bronze sacrificial containers dating from 1500–1000 B.C.E. (the late Shang and early Zhou dynastic periods). Zheng’s discovery proved that from the beginning, the Yijing was based on numerological divination. From the preceding chapter, you’ll remember that the Chinese believed their ancestors spoke to them using numbers. In other words, they believed the deceased manipulated the stalks of yarrow (the instruments used in a casting procedure that yields a hexagram, the answer to a question). Over time, the collection and examination of the divinatory records produced a text that matched a question with a numeric answer and an answer with a likely result.

But, although the Chinese believe their forebears were responsible for imparting wisdom and clarity, you might believe the answer is derived from the holistic realm of pure knowledge, a totality that can be analyzed mathematically.

How Does Feng Shui Fit In?

Classical feng shui combines elements of astrology and astronomy, geology, physics, mathematics, philosophy, and intuition—all the stuff you’ve just read about.

Now that you understand feng shui’s components, you can better appreciate what the whole of feng shui means. Feng shui is the art and science of analyzing nature’s forces with the intent of influencing its positive manifestations in you. A balanced environment leads to better health, increased prosperity, and beneficial relationships. And who doesn’t want that?

Neolithic Feng Shui

Feng shui is a lot older than you might think. It predates Daoism, and even the Yijing. So how old do you think feng shui is—2,000, 4,000, or 6,000 years old? If you guessed the latter, you’re right—for the time being, anyway.

In 1988, a Neolithic gravesite was excavated in the Henan province in central China. It revealed that the ancient Chinese were practicing some form of primitive feng shui some 6,000 years ago.

The head of the gravesite is rounded and points toward the south. The grave is squared at the body’s feet, facing north. This arrangement conforms to the Chinese view of the cosmos. Symbolically, the sky is represented as round or domed and the Earth as square or flat. On each side of the remains, and outlined with shells, is a representation of two Chinese constellations—the azure dragon and the white tiger. A representation of the Big Dipper (Beidou) lies in the center. These artifacts testify to the fact that the Neolithic Chinese were already orienting their graves with the revolution of the Big Dipper around the North Star, the polestar (in Ursa Minor) in the northern hemisphere toward which the axis of Earth points.

These ancient coins reflect the Chinese idea of the cosmos. The central square represents the earth; the circular disc, heaven.

(Image © 1998 Photo Disc, Inc.)

The Form School of Feng Shui

The Form School (Xingfa) is the first and oldest school of feng shui officially dating to Qing Wuzi’s (whom many believe is a fictitious figure) late Han (190–220 C.E.) text, the Zangjing or Classic of Burial. Some 100 years later, Guo Pu clarified and expanded upon the Zangjing in his book, the Zangshu or the Book of Burial, the same text from where the term feng shui derives.

Even before Daoism and Confucianism, ancestor worship was an intrinsic and important part of the Chinese belief system. They believed the spirits of the deceased directly affected the well-being of the living. Fortunes could be made or lost depending, in some measure, on the favorable location and orientation of their ancestors’ tombs. If you think this is an outdated custom, think again. Today, feng shui masters run a brisk business selecting the most auspicious gravesites for their clientele.

Wise Words

Form School or Xingfa (“Xing” means form and “fa” means method) is the first and oldest school of feng shui first explained in the late Han (190–220 C.E.) text called the Zangjing (Classic of Burial). The idea was to locate the place on the terrain where qi converges—the place where qi rides the wind (feng) and settles in water (shui).

The orientation of homes is also a part of Form School feng shui. Landforms and waterways were intensely scrutinized to determine the location of the dragon’s lair (long xue), the place on the terrain where qi converges—the place that qi can be carried by the wind (feng) and settle in water (shui). In today’s urbanized world, buildings, fences, and hedges represent terrestrial features, and roadways represent watercourses. You’ll learn more about this in Chapters 9 and 10. The intuitive approach characterized Form School feng shui.

The Compass School of Feng Shui

The term Compass School is a Western invention. In Chinese, the school that uses a compass and analyzes heavenly (time) and earthly (space) forces is called Liqi Pai, Patterns of Qi School. Because the English translation is a mouthful, we’ll conform to the Western vernacular.

Formally dating to the Spring and Autumn Period (722–481 B.C.E.) with a simplistic method called Diagramatic Houses for the Five Families (Tuzhai Wuxing), which is no longer used, the Compass School is an umbrella term encompassing a host of more sophisticated techniques that are still widely used today. Flying Star (Xuankong Feixing), Three Harmonies (Sanhe), Mystical Doors (Qi Men), and Changing Trigrams/Eight House/Eight Mansions/The East West System (Yigua) are examples of Compass School methods. For the record, Life Aspirations and Black Sect techniques are not examples of Compass School methods.

Wise Words

The term Compass School is a misnomer, invented by Westerners. It is called Liqi Pai (Patterns of Qi School) by the Chinese. It is any classical method that studies the effects of time (heavenly forces) and space (earthly forces) on the well-being of an individual. The tool of the trade is the compass.

The Compass School is based on the concept that each of the eight cardinal directions holds a different type of qi. Around this central premise, other factors are added, including astrology and numerology. The Compass School method is very computational, relying on intellect, observation, and experimentation rather than intuitive insights.

Master Class

The ancient Chinese chose to think of a compass needle pointing south because it is the region from which warmth, light, and goodness come; whereas cold, darkness, and barbarian attacks come from the north.

The tool of the trade is, you guessed it, the compass. An early version dating to about 83 C.E. was a two-part, south-pointing instrument—a metal spoon made of magnetic lodestone and a square baseplate called a sinan. This developed into what is now called a luopan compass used by practitioners today. The luopan has anywhere from 4 to 40 concentric rings of information featuring things like the 8 fundamental trigrams, the 28 constellations, the 5 phases of qi, and the 9 stars or numbers of the Luoshu.

But, for your purposes, all you need is a basic protractor compass with clear markings (refer to Chapter 1 for specific guidelines in choosing a compass).

Precursor to the modern luopan compass, this early version dates to about 83 C.E.

(Photo by Val Biktashev)

Feng Shui Today

Today, both Form School and Compass School methods are used to perform an accurate feng shui reading. For the most part, today’s practitioners have combined both schools into one system commonly referred to as classical or traditional feng shui.

In the next chapter, you’ll learn about qi, the physical and metaphysical life force underlying all things.

The Least You Need to Know

For 2,000 years, beginning in 500 B.C.E., the Chinese led the West in scientific and technological advances.

Feng shui was born out of China’s reverence for nature. The practice stems from the Neolithic Chinese.

Form School is a classical method that studies landforms and waterways with the intention of locating the place on the terrain where qi converges.

Compass School, a term invented by Westerners, is called the Patterns of Qi School in China. It studies how time and space impact the livelihood and health of an individual.

Form School and Compass School have merged into one school of thought called classical or traditional feng shui.