How Much Do You Know About Feng Shui?

Chinese Traditional Practice: Feng Shui

• Feng shui is an ancient Chinese traditional practice that harmonizes individuals with their surrounding environment using energy forces.

• Feng shui includes astronomical, astrological, architectural, cosmological, geographical and topographical dimensions.

• Historically, feng shui was used to orient buildings and spiritually significant structures such as tombs, as well as dwellings and other structures.

• Feng shui has been reduced to interior design for health and wealth in contemporary Western societies.

• Feng shui has been identified as both non-scientific and pseudoscientific by scientists and philosophers.

• Feng shui originated in Chinese astronomy and relied on astronomy to find correlations between humans and the universe.

• The oldest examples of feng shui instruments used are liuren astrolabes.

• The magnetic compass was invented for feng shui and is still in use.

• The goal of feng shui is to situate the human-built environment on spots with good qi, an imagined form of "energy."

• Feng shui is classified as a pseudoscience since it exhibits classic pseudoscientific aspects that are not amenable to testing with the scientific method.

• Feng shui has several branches, including the Form Branch and the Compass Branch.

• Feng shui has found many uses, including landscape ecology, architecture, and environmental science.Feng Shui: A Traditional Chinese Practice

• Feng Shui is a traditional Chinese practice that involves arranging objects in a way that harmonizes with the environment and promotes positive energy flow.

• The practice is used for various purposes such as healing, guiding businesses, and creating peaceful homes, but there is no empirical evidence of its effectiveness.

• Feng Shui is popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where traditional culture was not suppressed, and is gaining adherents among Communist Party officials in mainland China.

• The practice was officially considered a "feudalistic superstitious practice" and a "social evil" in post-1949 China, and it was discouraged and even banned outright at times.

• During the Cultural Revolution, feng shui was classified as one of the so-called Four Olds that were to be wiped out, and practitioners were beaten and abused by Red Guards.

• Critics charge that evidence for its effectiveness is based primarily upon anecdote and users are often offered conflicting advice from different practitioners.

• Feng shui is criticized by Christians worldwide, who argue that it is inconsistent with Christianity to believe that harmony and balance result from the manipulation and channeling of nonphysical forces or energies.

• In 2005, Hong Kong Disneyland acknowledged feng shui as an important part of Chinese culture by shifting the main gate by twelve degrees in their building plans.

• Professionals including engineers, architects, property agents, and interior designers take courses on feng shui and divination every year, and some become part-time or full-time feng shui consultants.

• Feng shui may require social influence or money because experts, architecture or design changes, and moving from place to place is expensive.

• Less influential or less wealthy people lose faith in feng shui, saying that it is a game only for the wealthy, while others practice less expensive forms of feng shui.

• The American magicians Penn and Teller criticized the acceptance of feng shui in the Western world as science, showing there is no consistency in the professional practice of feng shui.