Old and New

In this article, I compare the Feng Shui applications in the ancient palace and today’s modern architecture. The Forbidden City in Beijing was the loyal palace that is once inaccessible to the public. The magnificent architectures and the enormous occupation of the land demonstrate the wealth and the dignity of the loyal family. The use of Feng Shui of the construction was comprehensive. Today, Feng Shui is still largely applied in the field of architecture. One good example of the modern use of Feng Shui would be the construction of commercial buildings since they have indirect relation with the wealth, which is the main concern of the practice of Feng Shui.

The Forbidden City

The layout of the Forbidden City obeyed the concept of urban planning in an ancient Chinese book, State Building Standards. It was essential to place the ancestor worship hall on the left and the shrine for deity of earth on the right. The most important building had to be placed on the central axial line with the public palace in the front and the private ones at the back. The Forbidden City is based on a symmetrical plan with enclosed wall that reflects a style of Si He Yuan. Facing the south, the city was divided into four parts, the north part, the south part, the east part and the west part. The East is the element Wood, which is auspicious for the founding year of Qing dynasty. Thus, all the palaces built during Qing dynasty were situated in the East. Fire represented the South that is supreme Yang. Since Yang embodies the powerful, the three main public administration palaces were position in the South, which is also the frond of the city. The empress and concubines’ palaces were placed in the west, which is the Yin element Gold that signifies the sunset and autumn. All the members of the loyal family were located according to the element of their birthday. At the North of the city, is a coal Hill to reduce the negative energy since the North stands for the element of Water, another Yin element.

The Commercial Buildings

Inside Plan

Commercial Buildings with good Feng Shui would attracts customers. Thus the inside layout must be well planned according to the rule of Feng Shui. The office should be above the street level. Therefore the rain will not flow into the room. However it should not be too much above for customers to approach it. The regular shape of the office is more preferable than the irregular one. The front door must wide, letting people feel welcoming. And it is essential to have a front door and a back door at the same time for the reason that the back door serves as a private access for people to through out garbage. The two doors should not be lined up on a straight line. As the head of the company, The CEOs should have a private and comfortable space for their offices. Hence, the office should be at the back of the building. There should not be the bathroom that faces the office, passageway behind CEO’s chair, or mirror in front of the desk. All the furniture should be placed parallel to one of the walls with the desk and chair being on the right side of the room. For other departments, the placement of the room is also important. For examples, the accounting department should be situated at the front, since people in that department deal with the customer service and billings. The Finance departments as well as the personnel departments need to be in the middle and close to the CEO’s office since they keep the vital information of the company. Furthermore, the color scheme is taken in to the consideration of construction the office. 

Fire- Red: promote Earth

Wood- Green: promotes Fire

Water- Black: nourishes Wood

Metal- White: generates Water

Earth- Yellow: generates Metal

The elements and the business of company should share the same nature. Accordingly, red and green is auspicious for restaurants and bakeries. Green and black is favorable for furniture stores. Black and white is positive for fishing businesses. White and yellow promote the hardware and jewelry stores. Yellow and red benefit the real estates company.  

Exterior Features


Destructive Features

Buildings with Sharp Edges:

The knifelike edges are treats to its target buildings. It causes economic disaster to the target ones.

Buildings with object of destruction:

Having the objects that shaped like weapons, threatening the target buildings.

The most famous examples are the Bank of China tower and the HSBC bank in Hong Kong. With a bladelike edge, the Bank of China tower was believed to harm the business of the target banks. Thus HSBC bank constructed a cannon shaped structures on top of its building to fight back to the Bank of China.

The Bank of China Tower

 HSBC Bank

Buildings with reflective glass windows:

These building sent negative energy to the nearby building, and causes economic disaster to them.

Buildings with irregular shape:

The irregular shape would trap the energy and disturb it flowing in neighborhood.

Buildings with sharp and pointed structures:

They prick everything in their path, sabotaging business.

Benevolent Features


Parks and Gardens:
The open space of parks and gardens gather energy and transform it in to gentle positive force. And the plants breathe life in to the site. Moreover, buildings with glasses and concrete structure diffuse the destructive force in the neighborhood. 


Waterfalls and Fountains:
Water helps to carry the malevolent energy. If waterfalls and fountains are situated in a garden or park, the effect would be enhanced.

Plazas:
The open space of plazas diffuse destructive energy. A circular structure works the best to absorb positive energy. 

Round Buildings:
The round shape could transmit positive Qi and diffuse negative Qi. It also serves as a protection against sharp-edge buildings.

Feng Shui on Site

The Practice and Application

Sichuan, China

The site of the fieldwork is in Long Quan Yi, a small town at the southeast of Chengdu (the capital of Sichuan province). The translation of Long Quan into English is Dragon Spring, which is an auspicious name. Long Quan Yi has varied topography, hills and basin. The town was poor during turbulent years in China during the 20^th century. However, after the economic revitalization after 1979, the town benefits from the urban fruit market. The good soil of Long Quan improved the living standard of the whole town. Long Quan Yi is a typical representative of the modern Chinese rural area. The rural industrialization around 1992 made this field contain traits of both the old and the new. In 1990s, there were about 10 full-time Feng Shui masters around this area. About 5600 households would consult a Feng Shui master at least once every year. They normally asked about the date of marriage and funerals, the structure of new house, and the ornaments and furnishings in the house. After 1949, there was little construction of new house at Long Quan Yi due to the communist’s political manifestation of equality. The boost of private constructions emerged in 1990s. In order to prevent the good Feng Shui of the original layout of the town, villagers would search for an auspicious site at the outskirt of the town. Whenever a new house was to be built, the owner would ask Feng Shui master to supervise the construction. The master would give instruction about the position of the foundation, the direction of the entrance, the layout of the interior. Instead of the traditional wooden house, the modern rural house utilized concrete as the primary material. And a two-story style replaced the traditional one-floor house. The doors of the house should not face each other. And kitchens should be placed in a separate space from the rest of the building since it is believed that having chimney in the house will have bad influence. If providing a scientific explanation to these, I believed that the direction of the doors protected the privacy of the owner, and the placement of the kitchen was to prevent the living space from the smoke. The two-story style was not only the reference from the western style, but also an inclination of the owner to show their wealth. The Feng Shui’s role here is an interrelation between good Qi (energy) and wealth: good Qi would bring the wealth, and wealth would absorb good Qi. Thus, the villagers would like to build the two-story house as big as their economic condition allowed.

Jiangsu, China

Jiangsu province is the hometown for the Orientation school (compass school). The site is at the Bao Hua town, 30 kilometers north of Nanjing. This town has the similar topography as Long Quan Yi, with both the flat land and the mountains. The town enjoyed an economic boom after the turbulent years around 1960s. There were grains, cotton, rape, and tea growing at this land. People without big land did silk production instead. Some household may raise pigs and chickens. Bao Hua town had better traffic system compared with Long Quan Yi. There are railroad and high passing through the town connecting Nanjing and Shanghai, which accelerate the industrial development. The establishing of industries here also created new jobs and wealth to the local residents. There were 15 villages at Bao Hua town. All the villagers had a strong sense of lineage identity. Usually, each village shared the same surname that was different from the other villages. In order to keep the village identity, some of the village disobeyed certain policies that government made, showing that their group was distinguished from the others, such as the one-child policy. The local residents enjoyed auspicious Qi since Bao Hua town had water and mountain at the same time, which met the criteria for good Feng Shui. The development of the Bao Hua industrial zone started around 1991. The economic broom at Bao Hua has attracted a lot of investors. And the investors would come with the Feng Shui specialist to exam the site. Having good Feng Shui was a prerequisite of getting wealthy. As the town thrived, all villages were willing to transfer their land for industrial zone. The families who benefited from this modernization would build their new house under the instruction of the Feng Shui master. Similar as the condition in Sichuan, those families wanted their “western-style”, concrete house as big as possible to show their wealth and grasp the positive Qi around the area. However, the success of the modern industrialization has brought good medical cares and knowledge of science into the villages. Thus, for the villagers, the disease and the suffering would no longer be the consequence of unhappy ancestors. The reliance of Feng Shui’s metaphysical use decreased. Yet the application of physical Feng Shui survived. For example, people would no longer hire a Feng Shui master when someone was sick, while they still consulted Feng Shui specialist for the building of new house. 

Feng Shui Practice and Policies from Late Qing Dynasty to Modern Chinese Society

When talking about Feng Shui, usually people would pay attention to the technical practice. However, I am also interested in the social aspect of it, such as how people practice it and what the government’s policies are towards it. My discussion only covers the period from 1850 to the 21^st century. However before I start, let’s divide the development of Feng Shui into several time intervals. According to Henry Lin, the author of The Art and Science of Feng Shui, the development of Feng Shui in China can be parted into 5 periods:

1. Formative Period:

Dated from 4600 years ago, under the reign of the Yellow Emperor, to the Jin dynasty (256-420). Feng Shui was believed to be the derivate of the Taoist theory of Yin (negative) and Yang (positive). During this early period, Feng Shui practice was limited to the loyalties and wealth people.

2. Heyday Period:

From Tang dynasty (618-907) to Song dynasty (960-1179), this 600 years periods was prominent for the literature boost and academic freedom in the Chinese history. Feng Shui practice in this period became more mature. And the division of two schools occurred. One is the Direction School (Compass School) originated in Fujian province; the other is the Situation School (Form School) from Jiangxi province.

3. Follow-up Period:

From Yuan dynasty (1270-1368) to Qing dynasty (1644-1911), another 600-year period, in which instead of the original development was a widespread Feng Shui practice in previous methods.

4. Declining Period:

This period covered around 150 years, from late Qing dynasty t0 1970s. This is the most turbulent stage in the modern Chinese history with wars and disasters. Feng Shui was threated by the upheavals and government’s political policies. 

5. Resurgent Period:

This recent period started in 1980s. The revival of Feng Shui at this time was a response to the western interest towards everything traditionally Chinese: Kongfu, Taiji… And modern scientific explanation and tools were applied to the application of Feng Shui. 

As in these five periods, Feng Shui experienced the transformations of the society, which leads to the change of the civilian’s attitudes and government’ policies towards it. During the late Qing dynasty, because of the intensifying of the destitution of peasantry and the continuous rebellions, Feng Shui became a tool for people to impetrate for the good life. However, in order to solidify the political power of the Qing state, the ruler differentiated Feng Shui from the orthodoxy, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. They claimed Feng Shui as a superstition that deluded the people.

Nevertheless, the complicated situation of this time period has changed the ruling class’ policies on Feng Shui practice. This time period was full of the clashes not only with in but also from the outside. Followed by the coming of western missionaries and sojourners, the western invasion has expanded in China. The culture conflict worsened the relationship between local people and foreigners, which leaded to several anti-religious movements that targeted the Christianity. As the foreign power grew under the eyes of Qing government, the rulers felt a huge threat to their authority. The western enterprise requested the building of railroad, industries, the permission of exploiting coal and mine. In order to refuse these proposals without displeasing the powerful invader, the weak Qing government used Feng Shui as an excuse. They claimed that the construction on the sites would ruin the Feng Shui of those places, thus destroy the positive Qi, bringing the bad luck to the country. Realizing Feng Shui could serve as a weapon that helped the government to struggle against the foreign invasion, the authoritative started to promote the practice of Feng Shui all over the country. They believed that the promotion of Feng Shui practice was a protection of the Chinese culture from the western religion. Moreover, the legitimation of the Feng Shui practice became an obstacle against the foreign penetration.

After Qing government collapsed, Nationalist government came into power. With the appearance of a large number of the western educated urban elite, Chinese society encountered a transformation from the religion-centered pattern into pursuing of science and democracy. Thus, a series of new culture and renaissance movements emerged. The Feng Shui practice shifted its center to rural areas. In 1949, when the Communist defeated the Nationalist and found the People’s Republic of China, they first showed their approval of religious freedom. In fact, Mao was brought up with strong Buddhist influence. And he has visited rural diviner in his early life. However, in the search for modernization, the modern science and international politics supersede religions. Later, the Communist referred religions as a symbol of feudalism, especially accused Feng Shui as superstition. There were attacks to Buddhism temples, removals of Buddha images, and destruction of ancestral halls. The Great Leap Forward started in 1958 put the burial ceremony to the end and required the public to adopt cemetery and cremation. Therefore, the application of Feng Shui in choosing the burial site and the ancestor worship ceremony declined. Throughout the Great Leap Forward, the following Cultural Revolution, the government banned Feng Shui practice. The Feng Shui masters were no longer able to work in public. And anyone who was caught practicing Feng Shui would be arrested. In some severe circumstances, they were beaten to death. During these years, Feng Shui, as well as other religions, literatures, and economic system, was undergoing a darkest phase in the Chinese modern history.

In 1979, Deng Xiaoping has made the Open Door Policy to optimize the economic reform. Thereafter, people’s living standard was improved. People studied modern science in colleges, and received medical treatment in hospitals. Thus, the practice of Feng Shui declined. And at this time, the publication of Feng Shui was still banned. In 1990, the first book of Feng Shui was published. Since then, more publication of Feng Shui could be found in the bookstores. However, in 1999, after the Fa Lun Gong incident at the Tian An Men Square, the Feng Shui was considered again as one of the superstition and magazines and journals of Feng Shui were cleared out at all the boostores. Nowadays, if people would like to find information about Feng Shui, they can still find it on the Internet. 

Chinese Temples

The application of Feng Shui could be found in almost all the ancient Chinese architectures, especially Chinese Temples. We have to remember that Feng Shui is not a kind of religion. Thus the use of Feng Shui in constructions was not conflicting with the religions practiced in temples. In the contrary, it was actually important that the construction of religious temples adopted the rules of Feng Shui, in order to have auspicious environment for their deities and pilgrims. 

Chinese Temples can be classified into five main category: Si寺, Gong宫, Miao庙, Ci祠and An庵.

Si: The largest kind of temple for Buddhism.

Miao: Smaller than Si, used for sacrificing to ancestor.

Gong: Taoist temples, the size is smaller than Miao.

Ci: Built to respect the ancestor and Confucius.

An: nunneries for Female Buddhists.

The structural system of temples adopted the typical beam-framed system, which were widely used in the construction of palatial buildings. The roof form included hipped roof, gabled roof, half-hipped half gabled style roof and so on. The more ornaments the roof has, the more important the temple is. And the use of color obeyed the Five Elements scheme of Feng Shui to achieve the balance of Yin (negative) and Yang (positive). Roof ridges and ornaments both outside and inside the temple were also created to conform the Feng Shui. Moreover, since odd number represents Yang, the number of steps of the staircase had be a Yang number. Last but not least, the site choosing must follow the instruction of Feng Shui.

The Temple of Heaven

The main structure of The Temple of Heaven is Qi Nian Dian. Situated on a podium of three marble terraces, Qi Nian Dian is covered with three circular roofs. The number “three” here is Yang number that stands for power and dynamic. The blue tiles on the roof symbolize the heavenly bless. 

The interior has two concentric circles of columns. Each circles contains twelve columns that represents the twelve months of year. The ceiling is generously ornate, indicating the significance of this royal temple.

Wo Fo Si

Situated in Beijing, Wo Fo Si was built in Tang dynasty. The impressive masonry gateway was the first thing that catches people’s eyes. With three brick archways, the red gate was richly ornamented with green and yellow glazed tiles.

Bi Yun Si

Built in Yuan dynasty, the style of Bi Yun Si was influenced by the India and the Lamaism. The surrounding woods, hills and springs uplift the temple from the mountain.