What’s Fengshui?
Fengshui, translated in English as “geomancy,” literally means “wind and water” in Chinese. This refers to traditional Chinese theories and practices concerning the proper positioning or arrangement of houses, furniture, etc., in harmony with their environments. According to this belief system, a dynamic energy flows continuously through all things in the world, which positively or negatively affect the fate of human beings. Those whose establishments and belongs are well-aligned with nature will benefit from this flow of energy and consequently prosper; those whose creations and belongings are at odds with their environs will suffer as result.
Whereas from a modern point of view much of fengshui theorization is no more than superstition, many fengshui principles actually make good sense. In others words, their mystical explanations notwithstanding, some of the fengshui measures reflect ancient Chinese people’s understanding of nature’s impact on human life and they are good experience and wisdom distilled over time. In that sense, Chinese fengshui was environmental studies of its days. For instance, among common fengshui beliefs are the ideas that a house should be built facing south, that behind the house there ought to be hills and in front of it ideally a river flows across. All these suggestions make good practical sense. Temperature in North China can drop steeply in winter times, and warm sunshine beaming into the house through windows and doors is much needed and welcome. Similarly, hills out in the back of the house form a natural barrier that prevents the northerly cold wind from storming direct onto the dwelling. And how inconvenient and unhealthy it would have been for a home to have no flowing water nearby, at a time when there were no pipes, no drains.
Those have visited the Forbidden City in Beijing may have noticed that the great imperial complex was laid out by the principles described above. A stream, known as the River of Gold Water, flows in front of the compound, which empties into a few interconnected, man-made lakes. (Today the area around these lakes is where the Chinese Communist Party’s headquarters are located) Beijing was built on flat land, so there were no hills to situate the imperial city against. This proved to be no problem for the imperial architects and engineers - they gathered the dirt that came out of the man-made lakes mentioned above and created what came to be know as Jingshan, “the Hill with a View,” immediately north of the Forbidden City.
For real hills and mountains, one has to get out of Beijing and travel north. Some miles away in that direction there lies the Yan mountain range, on which part of the Great Wall stands.
Back to China Notes and News
|
