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 Feng
Shui is the term now used for a technical earth science,
a natural science that was part of a wider scientific and
philosophical system developed in Neolithic (and possibly
Paleolithic) Asia and brought to the height of refinement
by Daoists.
The original
science was Kan Yu, literally rendered by many as
"time theory and geographical theory," or "looking into
the heavens/looking at the earth." Yuan Kong, another
name for the science, literally translates as "space-time."
It is the theory of time and geography in Chinese culture
that forms the basis of what most people call Feng Shui
(fung shoy, fung shui, fung schway), which became the
layman's term for Kan Yu because of a misinterpretation.
The
specific methodology for detecting patterns of terrestrial
energy using movements of wind and water is mentioned in
a Daoist encyclopedia, Huai-nan Zi (c. 100 BCE),
a collaboration between King Lui-an of Huai-nan and various
Daoist scholars invited to his court. The term "Feng Shui"
possibly developed from a discussion by Kuo Pu (267 - 324)
of the Huai-nan Zi in his commentary to an old dictionary,
the Er-ya and a book about geography (Shan hai
Jing). The uneducated trivialized the science as an
observation of wind and water. When white missionaries entered
China and learned of the practice, they associated it with
geomancy, a Latin term literally meaning "earth prophecy,"
which is a method of divination using handfuls of dirt scattered
on the ground or markings made on the earth. Kan Yu is part
of a broad field of study known in Han times as Yuan
xue, which combined Kan Yu with Yi Jing, Zi-wei,
and other disciplines. This combined field of study is what
is generally referred to today as "traditional" or "classical"
Feng Shui.
Westerners
and even some Chinese misinterpret the term on a regular
basis. For many Classical scholars, "Feng Shui" is a term
used by those of low culture. Those of a higher calling
tend to call themselves "practitioners of principles of
the land," that is Di Li Shi or Kan Yu Shi.
The
Book of the Devil Valley Master (c. 400 BCE) and
the Book of Master Han Fei (c. 300 BCE) mention the
antiquity of the "south-pointer" or Si Nan (the lodestone
compass) for establishing direction, and it is known that
the Si Nan was originally used to site buildings and settlements.
Huangdi's reign (2697 - 2597 BCE) supposedly saw the invention
of the compass; but historians believe it was during Zheng
Wang's reign (1115 - 1078 BCE) that the Si Nan came into
use. Archeology and site cosmology make it plain that a
compass was most certainly used before Zheng Wang's time
to site temples and other structures. Longshan culture (2500
- 1900 BCE) suggests early use of Kan Yu in its elaborate
ceremonial and funerary precincts. Mohenjo-daro and certain
Neolithic Chinese settlements laid out in the "magic square"
grid pattern characteristic of Preheaven and Postheaven
Baguas argue for advancing the age of the science beyond
current boundaries. (Interestingly, Huangdi's reign is roughly
concurrent with Wayland's Smithy Phase II in England, while
Zheng Wang's reign is later than Stonehenge.)
Professor
Stephen Field, Dept. of Languages and Literature at Trinity
University, has presented research suggesting that there
was a system of Feng Shui employed before development of
the Five Elements (c. 4th century BCE) and practices that
are known from the time of the Tang Dynasty. Based on his
analysis, an earlier system of divination using the houtian
arrangement of the trigrams common to Kan Yu was available
to practitioners before the Han Dynasty. However, most Western
historians, examining the form of Feng Shui accessible today,
tend to date it during the Warring States Period (480 BCE
- 221 BCE) when it was the province of esoteric scholars,
forecasters, and mystics known as Fang Shi.
Fang
in ancient Chinese dictionaries generally meant "efficacious,"
"formulaic," "correlative," "comparative," "medicinal,"
"spiritual," "esoteric." It also referred to people, places,
and cultures far away from the emperor's court -- to outlying
provinces where most esoteric masters (Fang Shi) were born
and lived. Shi generally referred to a scholar-bureaucrat.
For instance, the "I-Shi" was the Chinese equivalent of
the U.S. Surgeon General, but the term also referred to
a Fang Shi medical practice in the Yellow Emperor tradition.
In Shang times, the esoteric masters read the oracles and
possessed other arcane skills; in later times they would
become part of the scholarly, bureaucratic gentry, but because
of their Daoist practices philosophically opposed to the
entrenched Ju-ist (Confucian) majority.
Fang Shi originally comprised three different disciplines:
- Divination and the invocation of spirits (but not always
in terms of the shamanic)
- Pharmaceutical and hygienic medicine
- Astrology and calendrics
Over
millennia, the pharmaceutical/medical form evolved with
other scientific disciplines into what we now know as Chinese
medicine. Although medicine was a respectable study of Confucian
physicians, due to its associations with pharmacy it was
connected to Fang Shi medical practitioners and Daoist alchemists
and herbalists.
The divination
and astrological/calendrical forms were merged into one
form with many subdisciplines, but many are recognizable
today as part of the science of traditional Feng Shui.
In ancient
China, Fang Shi practitioners preferred to specialize in
one of the three forms. The medical practitioners received
less attention from the historians than the divination experts
because the latter's skills and education were closer to
their own.
NEXT
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Okay,
Duke Zhou: Is that a compass you're pointing, or are you
just glad to see me?
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