Fu Ling (today known as Dong Ling Park in ShenYang) is where the NuZhen tribal chieftain Nuerhachi and his wife, Empress Yehenala are buried and was the site visited by students of the Mastery Academy as part of the Imperial China Excursion. Fu Ling is considered the first Imperial Mausoleum of the Qing Dynasty and is also known as the East Tomb. The Fu Ling tomb faces the Hun river in the distance, with the mountain in the distance behind the tomb.

After a short walk through the park grounds and a slightly breathless climb up the 108 steps (which Joey reminded the students, has no Feng Shui significance), the students once again broke into their various groups and commenced their audit, taking measurements with their Luo Pans, looking for the now familiar components of the Sar or land embrace, the water mouth, the Bright Hall and applying the knowledge garnered from visits to Yong Ling on the first day and to the Zhao Ling Tomb the day before.

Afterwards, the group met up to discuss their findings with each other, in the midst of the splendour of the surrounding Manchu style buildings and to exchange views. A lively discussion ensued as the students debated their findings and analysis with each other, with Joey moderating the on the spot discussion. Armed with what they had learnt from the two previous days, students were more confident as they put forth their views on whether the Fu Ling Tomb represented good Feng Shui or a less than favourable setting, based on their Luo Pan readings and ‘walking’ the mountains and the area of the tomb.

At Fu Ling, students found a similar example of a Fou Lim burial (above ground burial) but as Joey pointed out to them, Fu Ling is a less superior tomb. What was the reason for this?

Strong gusting winds in the area just in front of the tombs mean that Qi disperses quickly and does not collect well in the area where the tomb is located. With only two Bright Halls, the Qi collected is also lesser. The Sar or embrace around the area was also less than ideal – the formation is known as a Fairy Bow formation(Xian Gong Xue) and is not as tight and encapsulating as the embraces seen at Yong Ling and Zhao Ling. Not only is less Qi collected, but it is also not easily ‘held’ in the area, due to the nature of the embrace.

Joey posited that the Dragon Spot (Long Xue) was most likely lower down the hill and not at the location of the tomb.

What was the lesson that students walked away with at Fu Ling? Clearly, it was that even Emperors can make mistakes with their own Feng Shui. Despite the likelihood of having excellent advisors, Emperors can still chose a poor burial spot.

In the case of Nuerhachi’s tomb, it’s less than favourable Feng Shui resulted in a relatively short reign Shun Zhi, his grandson and son of Huang TaiJi. The comparing and contrasting of the tombs at Zhao Ling with the one at Fu Ling also helped train the students on how to grade Luan Tou structures and to appreciate how important a part a Luen Tou plays in Feng Shui.

At the recap session later in the day back at the hotel, Joey summed up the key pointers for the students, which they would have garnered from their visits to the Early Qing Tombs (Yong Ling, Fu Ling and Zhao Ling) and the ShenYang Imperial Palace (Gu Gong)

“Do you want to face your best direction or be in a location where you have good Qi? If you are already there, then facing your best direction is fine. But if you are in a location where there is nothing useful, is your best direction helpful? Remember the best direction is to receive the Qi. You cannot receive the Qi from nothing!” reminded Joey.

In walking the mountains and visiting the tombs, Joey pointed out to students that this experience should give them a true perspective of the meaning of internal and external Feng Shui: “What is called really external? You have a real river. The fact that you build it in your compound, it is considered within your compound. For simplicity, we say internal and external but what it really means is in the environment.”

Visiting the Early Qing Tombs was designed to give students a sense of perspective about Feng Shui: “Today, there is a lot of change towards water based formulas whilst in the old days, mountains were preferred. This is because Water formulas are faster. Quick in Feng Shui means 12 years. In traditional Feng Shui, the aim is 60 years, 100 years, 300 years – that is what is called traditional Feng Shui” points out Joey.

For more information, please log on to Mastery Academy web site: http://www.masteryacademy.com/

STUDENT EXPERIENCES:

“Today, I think all of us thought that we were going to find perfect examples of Feng Shui and we were going to see how the Chinese master Feng Shui and we were going to learn about this and what we are learning is that masters or supposed masters can make mistakes. We have a saying in Mexico – I am a Mexican and I am not a mariachi (the singers with the big sombreros) so being a Chinese does not mean that you are going to be an automatic Feng Shui master. Joey said it clearly – these sites that we have been visiting were here before these formulas were invented so we have to go back to the time when this places were built and we see that – try to understand why they did it that way and what they did wrong.”
– BRUNO KOPPEL ,MEXICO
 
 
“I learnt we’ve got so much of rubbish to get rid off. Now we’re having to put everything in its correct place. I came here thinking I’m going to find all the Feng Shui – today, I couldn’t even find the embrace – it was one of our team members who found it ! But we found other things – yeah, it’s there. We all make mistakes – maybe they did put the tomb too far back – but if we stick to our basics, stuff we were taught in M1 – keep it simple – simple doesn’t mean that it’s not valid.”
– JAYNE GOODRICK, UNITED KINGDOM


“I learnt to see the mountains from a different perspective. The embrace really puzzled me but what we see today is completely not what we have in paper – for the past few days, when Joey is teaching, this course opens up everything – it makes everything so much easier.” –VIN LEO, SINGAPORE


“ It’s been wonderful the actual landform and I don’t think I can look at anything every again. Flying Stars is probably not even as old – and we’re trying to use something that wasn’t even in existence there. The penny dropped today. The landform has been absolutely amazing – I really enjoyed it and seeing the Flat Land Dragon has been amazing. ”
– DIANE GROBLER , SOUTH AFRICA

Day 1: China Tour May 2004
Day 2: China Tour May 2004
Day 3: China Tour May 2004
Day 4: China Tour May 2004
Day 5: China Tour May 2004
Day 6: China Tour May 2004