DAY 6: Entering the Forbidden City

The final day of the Mastery Academy Imperial China Excursion presented students with two audit conundrums: the famed Forbidden City in Beijing (Beijing Gu Gong) and the Summer Palace, located 30 minutes away from the Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City took 14 years to build and was the home of 24 Emperors. Its last resident was the famous ‘Last Emperor’, Aixin Jueluo PuYi, who despite abdicating in 1912, remained in the Forbidden City for several more years.

Surrounding the Forbidden City is a 4km wide moat and the complex of palaces covers an area of almost 70 hectares.

Despite the allure of the Forbidden City, Mastery Academy students were conscious that they were here to learn and work so in between taking in the breath-taking splendour and majesty of this symbol of Imperial greatness, students were working hard, taking directions with their Luo Pan, observing the Bright Halls and building placements, looking out for clues and hints that would help them judge the quality of Feng Shui in the Forbidden City. (Joey had of course, provided them with a little hint the day before, notably, that the Forbidden City had been burnt down several times).

With a gentle breeze blowing and all of Beijing and the Forbidden City beneath, the discussion on the Feng Shui of the Forbidden City kicked off. There were no Death and Emptiness Lines at the Forbidden City but students noted that it faced South, based on direction taken at various points. The Bright Halls and undulating nature of the courtyards between the main gate and the key Imperial structures were also picked up by students quickly, who were already becoming old hands at recognising key building structure hallmarks for good circulation of Qi and who already were thinking differently and evaluating with an entirely different eye, the building they were assigned to audit.

Students noted the difficulty in getting a good idea of the structure of the buildings when they were walking the inside of the complex, which establishes the importance of seeing a property outside first, rather than inside out. The Forbidden City receives the dragon vein from noted Chastity Star mountains rising from NW. This dragon, when verified along with the water position using Long Men Ba Da Ju formula qualifies as a good incoming dragon. However, good incoming dragon needs to be accompanied with proper ‘tapping’ of Qi mouth.

In his analysis session, Joey pointed out that attempting a Flying Star chart of the Forbidden City would be not just an impossible task but quite useless. Hence, on big properties or big estates, he said, it is landform (Luan Tou) and structure (Ge Ju) of the buildings that is the key. The Forbidden City is an illustration of the Xuan Kong Direct and Indirect Spirit application, albeit, an incorrect application of it. The positions of water in relation to the Direct and Indirect Spirit directions is reversed with regard to the Forbidden City. The six ‘lakes’ which forms Bei Hai and ChongNan Hai form an embracing water dragon around the palace. These water locater were beneficial at certain points during the empire and detrimental at other times.

Certainly, this reversal had a part to play in the downfall of the last Ming Emperor, Emperor ChongZheng, who hung himself on an Elmwood tree on Jinshan Hill as the Qing tore through the outer gates of the Forbidden City. Joey then pointed out to the students that if they calculate the Gua of the Emperor ChongZheng, and combine it with the predictive techniques in Xuan Kong based on a Star Chart of the Forbidden City and relation to the unique water formation, clearly forecasts a death by strangulation or hanging.

The bird’s eye perspective from the top of Jinshan Hill also shows that the internal big structure of the Forbidden City has a slightly greater prominence accorded to the Right (White Tiger) side of the complex. Yet again, was the pattern of a higher or more prominent White Tiger showing up, affirming the course of events that was to unfold during the Qing Dynasty with 6 out of 12 Qing Emperors were dominated or influenced strongly by women, the meddling of the Empress Dowager CiXi being the eventual cause of the decline and ultimate downfall of the Qing, China’s last feudal dynasty.

Once again, Mastery Academy students became the first group of students to witness with their own eyes, how even the greatest symbol of Imperial China and its Emperors, could also be a living monument of Bad Feng Shui and a testament to the folly of the view that Imperial Emperors were most certain to have nothing short of top notch Feng Shui!

White Tiger Overkill: The Summer Palace.

It later became the full time residence of the Dowager Empress CiXi and subsequently, the place where she ruled from behind the screen. The Summer Palace was also the place where the Dowager Empress had her nephew, Emperor GuangXu, imprisoned when he came of age and tried to seize power from the Dowager after trying to push for reform.

Several students braved the agrophobia-inducing climb up the Longevity Hill to the Precious Clouds Pavillion that afforded a bird’s eye view of the entire palace structure. Once again, Joey left students to look around the place, take their own readings, evaluate the structure of the buildings and the landform and of course, take in the beauty of the Palace (which as students were soon to discover, is yet another monument to Qing folly, at least, when it came to Feng Shui).

The discussion opened with a lively exchange on the shores of the Lake Kunming, with some students admitting that they weren’t able to figure the place out (Joey reminded them that it was perfectly okay and shared his own experience of finding ‘nothing’ when he first came many years ago) and some students noting that the embrace of the land seemed to shift depending on which part of the park one was in.

Joey, in his inimitable style, summed up the Feng Shui of the Summer Palace in one word: BAD. The first boo-boo of the Summer Palace was the massive Kunming Lake, which was essentially, placing Water smack in the center of the property, a definite no-no as one never ever disturbs the center. The palace itself was built on the vein of the mountain but unfortunately, the meridian spot has not ‘fah ping’ – or slowed down the flow of Qi. The vein is still rushing and has not coagulated properly.

The structure has no clear Bright Hall either, which essentially meant that EVEN IF the Summer Palace was in a prosperous location or landform setting, it had no means to collect and circulate the favourable Qi around the property.

The Dowager Empress, upon making the Summer Palace her full time residence, began a series of constructions and improvements which in essence, shifted the Facing of the palace and in essence, altered the structure of the complex, creating a one-sided embrace and upsetting the former balanced structure of the Palace. Her shift moved the TaiJi Dian of the building outside and into the water. The protruding Pagoda in the distance, pops up as a clash between Mao and You on the Luo Pan known as “the gate of the sun and moon”, which signifies sexual scandal and sexual disease, a fate that befell Emperor GuangXu’s predecessor, Emperor TongZhi, who was renown for his late night escapades to brothels in the former Red Lantern District of the Forbidden City and who later died of syphilis.

Viewed from certain vantage points, the landform and embrace around the Summer Palace appears to create a strong White Tiger but virtually no Green Dragon at all, supporting the tremendous power the Dowager Empress CiXi wielded ruthlessly over 3 Emperors. The repositioning of the Summer Palace then allows the White Tiger to be seen in a special curling embrace formation.

Given the appalling state of Feng Shui in the Summer Palace, why on earth was it constructed the way it was in the first place? Surely Imperial Feng Shui advisors were not that careless? (although one must remember, if even the great Emperor Qian Long could have his tomb face a Death and Emptiness Line, there would be no limit to how bad Imperial Feng Shui could get!).

The explanation was quite simple. Emperor Qian Long built the Summer Palace simply as pleasure palace – a spot to come and relax, drink wine, perhaps take a sail on the lake and even spend the night with a concubine. It was never intended to be a building for the conduct of business and administrative affairs. This all changed when the Dowager Empress CiXi made it her full time residence in effect, the place where the business of the Imperial Empire was conducted, when she began to no longer rule from behind the screen.

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