What is feng shui? If China Travels has not yet brought you to the Orient, this may be an entirely unfamiliar term. Or, due to inadequate explanation of the subject, many Westerners may be of the belief that feng shui is the art of “rearranging your furniture”. Unfortunately, this belief is inaccurate. Only a small percentage of Westerners have a full understanding of what feng shui is, and those who do not tend to frown upon the practice. If you have not yet seized the opportunity to visit China, book a flight with China Flights and discover feng shui for yourself in itself birthplace.
History
Taoism is an ideology based on the belief that life-force, or qi, animates all the forms of the worlds. So Feng Shui, based on Taoist understanding of nature, is a body of knowledge that when utilized improves the well-being of the inhabitants of a given space. This is done by balancing the positive and negative energies of the space.
Feng shui literally translates to “wind water”, a cultural shorthand taken from a passage of the Book of Burial, Zangshu, by Guo Pu of the Jin Dynasty. “Qi rides the wind and scatters, but is retained when encountering water.”
Wu Xing
Feng shui, along with many other ideologies and ancient bodies of knowledge, was suppressed after the founding of the PRC in 1949. It was deemed a “feudalistic superstitious practice” and a “social evil”. During the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, persecution was especially harsh as feng shui was classified as one of the Four Olds to be eliminated. Even today with all its reforms, China has not reaccepted the practice. As recent as 2006, an art gallery converted into a feng shui site was shut down.
The Basics
Qi – Life-force. The concept of a life-force that animates the world, although known by different names, exists in a number of cultures outside China.
Yin and Yang – Polarity, similar to a magnetic dipole. Chinese medicine attempts to balance yin and yang in the body, and feng shui attempts to align a given space with yin-yang force fields. The development of the yin-yang theory has been linked to astronomical observations of sunspots and magnetic fields.
Bagua map
Bagua – Eight Trigrams. Trigrams consists of three lines, each one representing yin or yang. In modern feng shui, a bagua map is used to survey a location and determine how the different sections correspond to aspects of one’s life. Once areas lacking good qi are found, a feng shui practitioner can rectify them.
Wu Xing – Five Phases. The five elements necessary for life are wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. The phases are associated with colors, seasons and shapes. A practitioner is able to rearrange energy and “treat” his patient based on knowledge of the relationships among these phases.
What are you waiting for? Take a Guilin Tour today and experience some of the natural harmony that inspired the birth of feng shui!
Related posts:
