Feng Shui

Feng Shuǐ [ fɤŋ ʂu̯eɪ̯ ] (Chinese风水/风水, wind and water ') is a Daoist harmony from China. The aim of Feng Shuǐ is the harmonization of man with his environment that is to be achieved by a special design of the living spaces. The older term for Feng Shui is Kan Yu, " watch the sky and the earth " is a short form for the term. According to the traditional conception should with Feng Shui " the spirits of the air and water predisposed " can be.

Areas of application

One of the traditional applications of Feng Shui in China is the planning of burial ( ancestor worship ). In addition, Feng Shui has also influenced the Chinese garden art prevail. The principles of Feng Shui can also be considered in room facilities, house architecture, landscape design and urban planning. The interior design and building design is based on various rules to ensure that so-called " stubborn energies " can not settle in these rooms and the Qi ( other transcription: Chi ) to flow freely.

Feng Shui is based on Chinese philosophy systems, such as the yin and yang theory, the aligned to the cardinal directions eight trigrams and the five- element theory. For several years the teachings of Feng Shui also experienced increasing interest in Western architecture and interior design - it is also a fusion of Western ideas of esotericism with Feng Shui observed.

Basics

The term "Feng Shui " is an abbreviation of a phrase from the Book of Rites by Guo Po ( about 300 AD): "Qi is dispersed by the wind and stops at the border of the water. ", The terms wind / water have since been used for the art with which the Qi is protected from the wind and influences with water.

The doctrine of Qi is the basis for the development of Feng Shui. Qi is in Daoism the invisible life energy that flows everywhere around us, in every being and every cell and animates everything and designed. According to the teachings of Feng Shui Qi can now be accumulated and passed through planned intervention into the architecture. The job of a Feng Shui consultant, it is therefore to recognize the movement of Qi in the environment and in the house, to harmonize and increase. A high accumulation of favorable Qi can lead to positive outcomes in health, harmony and success of the people.

The theory of Yin and Yang: Yang is the qi of mountains and roads, Yin Qi of rest and water. A native of Taoism doctrine promotes the balance between all opposites. In the New Age Feng Shui, the doctrine of yin and yang is applied solely to the apartment, such as the Yang - areas, so the active areas such as work and living room, and the Yin areas, rest areas, such as the bedroom and the meditation room. Each area will match its functionality and designed the layout of the rooms harmoniously.

The theory of the Five Elements: The energy is analyzed and balanced not only two, but at five levels, namely, earth, metal, water, wood and fire. It is considered a major fire, wood as a small Yang, metal as little water as big Yin, and the earth as neutral. Here the knowledge of the impact of color, shape, dimensions and sound to the people was very important. The balance of the place could be carried out by the arrangement and placing of objects, colors or remedies.

The Luan Tou, the landscape school is the oldest school in Feng Shui and still largely unknown in the West. It is rated the positioning of the house in terms of landscape formation.

The Compass Teaching ( Li Qi Pai ): The Luo Pan, the geomancer compass, symbolized by its shape (a circle in a square) the connection of heaven and earth. According to the doctrine, the influence of the stars is manifested in certain formations of nature. By measuring the direction, the energetic quality of the house to be examined can be observed.

(Also called Flying Stars ) The teaching of Flying Stars is a part of Li Qi Pai. It analyzes the influences of nine " stars " and their temporal influences in relation to the landscape, the house or the apartment to humans. The nine "stars" correspond to characteristics and properties of the eight trigrams on which is based the I Ching, plus an additional " Star", which symbolizes the middle. By the time change also the optimal positioning of Yin and Yang in the area of a house changes. Thus, there are favorable and unfavorable influences that by the proper use of the rooms in the house can be met.

Classical Feng Shui

The oldest school in the classical Feng Shui is called Luan Tou in the West " form school". In it, it comes to the optimal selection of a building site, which is protected by the natural landscape formation. Luan Tou was used both for residential as well as for burial, where once dominated time one, sometimes the other application in Chinese history. Li Qi Pai, the " formula school," working with the cardinal points, which are at home with the Lo Pan, a compass bearings taken and transmitted to the House floor plan, as well as the temporal influences. The two most popular directions of this school, the "Flying Star method" and the "Eight Houses " method, both can look back on a long tradition. The " secrets" of the Flying Star method were first presented at the beginning of the 20th century in a book of the Chinese public, after they had already been in use for centuries.

Traditional Feng Shui is considered a philosophy that combines both artistic and scientific related and administrative elements in it. Today's separation of art and science prepares therefore difficulties in understanding the philosophical background. The universal approach represents the people themselves at the center and avoids any abstraction of the object. So it was until the 19th century no defined written instructions, but only empirical rules that have been passed and applied individually. In this way, the disclosure also served as an instrument of power of the imperial elite.

In classical Feng Shui are very few objects are used as a tool for harmonization of places such as amulets, landscape paintings and gourds.

Feng Shui has been banned in China after the Communist Revolution of Mao Zedong. Many Feng Shui writings were destroyed, and the practitioners were forced to abandon the doctrine. Due to the repression in the Chinese heartland, many masters of Feng Shui disciplines were forced to emigrate. After the ban, and the expulsion from the Communist China, the classical Feng Shui has evolved differently depending on origin. The Feng Shui of Hong Kong differs from Feng Shui from Malaysia or Taiwan. It can be there but find a more specific focus on the Chinese classics.

In the People's Republic of China, Taiwan and Hong Kong new buildings are sometimes built (sometimes also complex construction projects such as buildings ) in accordance with the rules of classical Feng Shui.

Western Feng Shui or Neo Feng Shui

In the West, has emerged a new system by the mixing of some traditional Chinese Feng Shui basic ideas with ideas of the New Age and esoteric movement, the Feng Shui applies primarily as a method of harmonization of living spaces. The usual practice in China to consider Feng Shui at the planning stage of architectural sites, found in the West rarely applied. The practiced in the West Neo Feng Shui system has its origin at the founded in California by Lin Yun 1986 "Church of Black ( Hat) Sect Tantric Buddhism ".

Be included, for example, theories of color design and the energetic influence of crystals and fragrances. Using various tools such as wind chimes, crystals, indoor fountains, gold stones, colored fabrics or water posters, the flow of life energy Qi is supposed to be regulated in living rooms.

The Neo Feng Shui or New Age Feng Shui ignored the directions and measures directed towards the house or the apartment entrance door, while classical Feng Shui attempts in China to exert influence even at the construction. One of the most popular methods in the Neo - Feng - Shui, the so-called three - doors - Bagua, can be only very rudimentary traced back to classical sources: In the Shuo Gua, one of the Ten Wings of the I Ching, contains descriptions of the eight trigrams, which can be reinterpreted with a lot of imagination to the meanings used by Neo Feng Shui practitioners. In the Shuo Gua but each trigram is assigned a fixed direction, that direction assignment was left but falling by Lin Yun.

The classical doctrine of Feng Shui avoids any universal version of the meaning. This applies both to the elements and to the " mode of action ". In the modern context of the application in the West a model representation of Qi is similarly discussed a scientific modeling sporadically.

Counter-positions

The theologian Rüdiger Hauth and former Commissioner for sects and philosophical questions of the Westphalian Church notes that feng shui is not scientifically justified; Instead, it is based on a faith that is incompatible with the Christian.

An organization of skeptics movement also criticized that Feng Shui is often brought into service offerings in conjunction with other non- scientific concepts such as electro-smog, dowsing or terrestrial radiation.