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.