CHINESE FENGSHUI LINKS

Feng Shui or fengshui is the ancient Chinese practice of placement and arrangement of space to attempt to achieve harmony with the environment that has its origins from Taoism. The practice is estimated to be more than three thousand years old. Traditional ("classical") feng shui is a Chinese ethnoscience that addresses the design and layout of cities, villages, dwellings, and buildings. The construction of graves and tombs also includes feng shui, but the rules for dwellings differ from those applied to "yin houses" (houses of the dead). Feng shui was labeled geomancy by 19th-century Christian missionaries to China; however, geomancy and feng shui differ widely in their scope, aims, and means. The name Feng Shui literally means "Wind and Water". The Book of Burial says "The Qi disperses with the Wind and collects on the boundaries of Water," hence the name. Traditional feng shui uses a specialized compass called a Luopan, and a comprehensive array of calculations involving mathematical iterations. It has foundation texts, core theories and methods, and an impressive past based on archaeological discoveries and the work of archeoastronomers. Traditional feng shui schools can be segregated in to 2 broad groups: San He (Three Harmonies) and San Yuan (Three Cycles). The former emphasizes the effect of surrounding landforms while the latter gives more weight to the factor of time.

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