The Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Feng Shui

Chiyang Daoren, Eastern Taoism

Chinese feng shui has continued for thousands of years from ancient times to the present. Whether it is the feng shui of a house, of an office, or of a grave, it has a certain influence on our fortunes. Good feng shui not only brings us psychological comfort but can also bring real benefits in daily life and prevent many misfortunes and calamities. One has to admit that this is the effect of feng shui.

1. What Is Feng Shui?

Feng shui was originally the art of reading the land—a method of examining the geography on site—also called reading the land and anciently known as the art of kanyu (geomancy). Tradition holds that the founder of feng shui was the Mysterious Woman of the Nine Heavens (Jiutian Xuannü), and that a fairly complete body of feng shui learning originated in the Warring States period.

The core idea of feng shui is harmony between humanity and nature. Early feng shui was mainly concerned with the methods and principles for choosing the site, orientation, and construction of palaces, houses, villages, and graves. Its original meaning is a field of learning about choosing suitable places. It is an esoteric art with a long history in China, also called “Qingwu” (the Blue Crow) or “Qingnang” (the Blue Satchel), and its more scholarly name is kanyu. Feng shui is the study of the microscopic substances (air, water, and soil) and the macroscopic environment (heaven and earth) on which human survival and development depend. Zhang Jinhua, a feng shui master and descendant of the Taoist Celestial Masters, has said: “In I Ching feng shui, space lies in feng shui, and time in BaZi.”

2. The Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Feng Shui

1. The Ultimate of Nothingness Gives Rise to the Supreme Ultimate

Eastern Taoism holds that all the phenomena of the universe arose “from nothing into being.” At the chaotic beginning of the universe there was “nothing,” the state of the Ultimate of Nothingness (Wuji). The original state of the universe was without form or image, chaotic and undivided, symbolizing “the infinite” and “emptiness and nothingness.”

The emergence of the Supreme Ultimate (Taiji) from the Ultimate of Nothingness is the basic law by which ancient Chinese philosophy understood how things arise and change. The Supreme Ultimate refers to qi in its material aspect, which has form and image and is the origin of the changes of all things in the universe. The emergence of the Supreme Ultimate from the Ultimate of Nothingness explains how all things in the universe come from nothing into being and are generated and transformed without cease, and shows that all things in the universe are in constant motion of yin and yang waxing and waning. In fact, the waxing and waning of yin and yang is one of the basic forms of their movement. In the initial state after the Ultimate of Nothingness evolves, yin and yang are not yet divided but contain the force of the unity of opposites.

Ancient Chinese feng shui originated in the relationship among the earth, the sun, and the moon, which can be seen and felt. How did the Ultimate of Nothingness change into the Supreme Ultimate? Everyone is guessing; no one can say clearly. After the universe was formed, the ancient Chinese took the earth as the Supreme Ultimate point for the study of feng shui, and from this the Supreme Ultimate arose. That is, the Supreme Ultimate abstractly represents all things and affairs in the world—so great that nothing lies outside it, so small that nothing lies within it.

2. The Supreme Ultimate Gives Rise to the Two Modes

“The Ultimate of Nothingness → the Supreme Ultimate → the Two Modes (yin and yang) → all things” is the complete chain of cosmic evolution. The Ultimate of Nothingness is the metaphysical ultimate source, the extreme of “nothing,” representing potential possibility. The Supreme Ultimate is the physical starting point of generation, the beginning of “being,” representing the state of actual unfolding. The Two Modes are the two basic forces of yin and yang into which the Supreme Ultimate divides. All things are produced in the world through the interaction of yin and yang.

On the philosophical level, the two are not earlier and later in time but a continuous logical differentiation: the Ultimate of Nothingness is the substance (still, formless, the essence of the Tao); the Supreme Ultimate is the function (moving, with form, the expression of the Tao's functioning).

The Two Modes are yin (−) and yang (+). Taking the earth as the Supreme Ultimate point, the earth's fixed magnetic field direction (NS) runs from the south to the north pole; or, put another way, people designate the southernmost and northernmost ends as the earth's South and North Poles (NS), represented by yin (−) and yang (+). The ancients used a complete, most objective, most direct theory of yin and yang as the basis for judging whether feng shui is good or bad.

Yin-yang landform feng shui (also called Form Method feng shui) studies feng shui through the theory of yin and yang, taking mainly the forms of the land, and so is called yin-yang landform feng shui. It comes directly from yin and yang—feng shui research is by nature entirely about yin and yang—so its source is direct and it has changed little in transmission. It needs no tools; one can open one's mouth and judge directly, with a high rate of accuracy. So the first task in reading feng shui is to examine it by the theory of yin and yang; it must accord with the principles of yin and yang and must never go against them. When feng shui masters judge people's feng shui with low accuracy, or arrange feng shui for people with little effect, it is often because they use only Qi Pattern feng shui.

3. The Two Modes Give Rise to the Four Symbols

The Two Modes represent the basic forces of the unity of opposites in the universe, that is, yin and yang. The Four Symbols are the four states or symbols produced by the intersection of the Two Modes of yin and yang, representing four basic forces or states in the universe. Later generations extended the meaning of the Four Symbols: the Four Symbols of the moon are full moon, new moon, first quarter, and last quarter; the Four Symbols of the Earthly Branches are Zi, Wu, Mao, and You; the Four Symbols of direction are east, south, west, and north; the Four Symbols of divine beasts are the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Black Tortoise, and Vermilion Bird.

In feng shui there are two further explanations. One is that the earth's magnetic field (yin and yang), together with the earth's revolution around the sun and its own rotation, alternates black (−) and white (+), yin and yang, and each of the Two Modes, yin and yang, is overlaid again with yin and yang to produce the Four Symbols. The other is that one revolution of the earth around the sun (one year) produces the phenomena of the four seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Both explanations are results of the interaction of the earth and the sun and are consistent with each other.

4. The Four Symbols Give Rise to the Eight Trigrams

The Four Symbols give rise to the eight trigrams: the eight trigrams evolve further from the Four Symbols, and each trigram symbolizes different natural phenomena and principles of life.

The “Great Commentary” (Xici) of the I Ching (Book of Changes) says: “In change there is the Supreme Ultimate, which gives rise to the Two Modes; the Two Modes give rise to the Four Symbols; the Four Symbols give rise to the eight trigrams.” This explains how the eight trigrams were formed at the creation of heaven and earth. The statement that the Two Modes give rise to the Four Symbols shows that the Four Symbols split off from the original Two Modes of heaven and earth, a mode of generation whose principle of evolution is the survival of the fittest. Once the Four Symbols are fixed, the eight trigrams arise of themselves. The Classified Conversations of Master Zhu (Zhuzi Yulei) says: “In the Changes there are only yin and yang, odd and even, and so there are the Four Symbols: spring is lesser yang, summer is greater yang, autumn is lesser yin, and winter is greater yin.” This is the explanation of the Four Symbols inherited since the Han and Tang from Yu Fan, a scholar of the state of Wu in the Three Kingdoms period, which takes the Four Symbols as the four times, the four seasons. The four times are, once the trigrams have been established and drawn, the foundation for developing the trigrams; only thus can going and coming, advancing and retreating, and mutual transformation reach their natural, constant state.

5. The Four Symbols

The Four Symbols first appear in the “Great Commentary” of the I Ching, referring to lesser yang, greater yang, lesser yin, and greater yin, the four different states of the two qi of yin and yang. After the Qin and Han, the Four Symbols gradually took on a new reference: the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise, derived from ancient star beliefs, representing the four directions of east, west, south, and north respectively. Their symbolism includes the seasons: the Azure Dragon stands for lesser yang and governs spring; the White Tiger stands for lesser yin and governs autumn; the Black Tortoise, greater yin, governs winter; and the Vermilion Bird, greater yang, governs summer.

6. The Eight Trigrams

The eight trigrams are generated by the further division of the Four Symbols—that is, from the Four Symbols arise the trigrams Qian, Kan, Gen, Zhen, Xun, Li, Kun, and Dui. Each of the Four Symbols divides in two again, producing new yin and yang. That is, a yang line and a yin line are each added on top of the Four Symbols of greater yang, lesser yin, lesser yang, and greater yin, producing eight new symbols, and these eight new symbols are the eight trigrams.

The names and symbolism of the eight trigrams include the Prior-Heaven Bagua and the Later-Heaven Bagua. The Prior-Heaven Bagua (Fuxi Bagua) was created by Fuxi to represent the order in which heaven, earth, and nature came into being. The Later-Heaven Bagua (King Wen Bagua) was compiled by King Wen of Zhou and expresses the interaction and change of things in reality; it is used in divination, feng shui, and so on. The Later-Heaven Bagua corresponds to directions, seasons, the Five Elements, and so on, and is commonly used in feng shui and divination.

As for the relationship of the eight trigrams to the Five Elements, directions, and seasons, each trigram corresponds to an element, a direction, and a season. For example, Qian corresponds to metal, the northwest, autumn, and the head; Kun to earth, the southwest, the “four seasonal transitions,” and the abdomen; Zhen to wood, the east, spring, and the feet; Xun to wood, the southeast, late spring, and the thighs; Kan to water, the north, winter, the ears, and the kidneys; Li to fire, the south, summer, the eyes, and the heart; Gen to earth, the northeast, late winter, the hands, and the back; and Dui to metal, the west, late autumn, the mouth, and the lungs.

The philosophical principles of the eight trigrams include changeability, the unity of opposites, and systematicity. Changeability means the eight trigrams are not static symbols but dynamically reflect the changes of all things. The unity of opposites means yin and yang are opposed, and the eight trigrams both oppose and depend on one another. Systematicity means more complex changes are derived through “doubling the trigrams” (combining two three-line trigrams one above the other to form the 64 hexagrams).

Examples of the application of the eight trigrams include I Ching divination, feng shui, Chinese medicine, and military affairs and strategy. In I Ching divination, the eight trigrams are doubled in pairs to form the sixty-four hexagrams, used to predict future changes. In feng shui, the directions of a house correspond to the eight trigrams, and the life trigram of the house is matched with the eight trigrams. In Chinese medicine, the meridians, organs, Five Elements, and eight-principle pattern identification correspond to the structure of the eight trigrams. In military affairs and strategy, “the way of the empty and the full” and “the art of movement and stillness” in Sunzi's Art of War can both be interpreted through the eight trigrams.

7. The Prior-Heaven Bagua and the Later-Heaven Bagua

Assigning the natural phenomena of heaven and earth, water and fire, thunder and wind, and mountain and lake to the eight positions of the eight trigrams produces the Bagua of prior heaven, which represents the natural phenomena of the earth and is the substance of the eight trigrams.

Assigning the numbers of the River Chart and Luo Writing to the eight trigrams produces the Later-Heaven Bagua: nine (Li) worn on the head and one (Kan) trodden underfoot, three (Zhen) on the left and seven (Dui) on the right, two (Kun) and four (Xun) as the shoulders, six (Qian) and eight (Gen) as the feet. The Later-Heaven Bagua is the function. There is also the River Chart's pairing of 1 and 6, 2 and 7, 3 and 8, 4 and 9. The above is the whole process by which the Ultimate of Nothingness gives rise to the Supreme Ultimate, the Supreme Ultimate to the Two Modes, the Two Modes to the Four Symbols, the Four Symbols to the eight trigrams, and the eight trigrams establish Qian and Kun.

To reason it out intuitively: the sun's direct rays going back and forth once between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn make one year. The earth moves on without cease, cycle after cycle, year after year, day after day, alternating yin and yang. That is, on the basis of the Four Symbols, yin and yang are added again (4 symbols × 2 (yin and yang) = 8) to form the eight trigrams: Qian, Dui, Li, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Gen, Kun. These are also the eight directions.

The sixty-four hexagrams: as the earth revolves regularly and unceasingly around the sun, it generates the eight basic trigrams, which then stir against one another eight times (8 × 8 = 64) to form the 64 hexagrams. On the basis of the 64 hexagrams were derived three predictive arts—the Zhouyi, Plum Blossom Numerology (Meihua Yishu), and Six Lines divination (Liuyao)—and two schools of Qi Pattern feng shui, the Sanyuan (Three Primes) Xuankong Great Hexagram school and I Ching bagua feng shui.

In sum, the Four Symbols and the eight trigrams are very important concepts in traditional Chinese culture. They not only reflect the ancient Chinese understanding of the laws of change of all things in the universe but are also widely applied in many fields, above all in feng shui.

3. The Five Elements Theory of Chinese Feng Shui

Without the Five Elements, Chinese feng shui could not be applied to regulate yin and yang for people, seek good fortune and avoid misfortune, or perform rites for averting calamity and praying for blessings.

The Five Elements are not five concrete substances—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—but a fivefold classification of all substances according to their properties. Matching the Five Elements to the movements of the sun, moon, and stars: sunlight shining on the earth shows itself on earth in the four forms of spring, summer, autumn, and winter (4 seasons + 1 earth = 5 elements), which are called the Five Elements. In spring all things sprout forth, like wood; summer is hot, like fire; in autumn all things are stripped and killed, like metal; winter is cold, like water. The change of seasons does not come suddenly but has a buffer period, and this buffer is the seasonal earth of the four transitions.

Scholars of the Changes believe the Five Elements theory very likely arose at the same time as the yin-yang theory. The “Discussion of the Trigrams” (Shuogua) of the Zhouyi brings the Five Elements into the system of yin and yang and the eight trigrams, saying: The Lord comes forth in Zhen (“Zhen is the east”), serves in Kun (“Kun is earth”), rejoices in Dui (“Dui is mid-autumn,” the west), battles in Qian (“Qian is metal,” “the trigram of the northwest”), is made even in Xun (“Xun is wood,” “the southeast”), meets in Li (“Li is fire,” “the trigram of the south”), toils in Kan (“Kan is water, the trigram of due north”), and is completed in Gen (“Gen is the trigram of the northeast”). Thus the “Discussion of the Trigrams” brings the Five Elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water), the four directions and four corners (east, south, west, north, southeast, southwest, northeast, northwest), and the four times (spring, summer, autumn, and winter) all into the eight trigrams. When time and space are both merged into yin and yang, the Five Elements, and the eight trigrams, the “Five Elements” are produced.

It is easy to see that direction and season (that is, space and time) are the point at which the yin and yang–Five Elements–eight trigrams system is built. Only after organization and development by successive works on the Changes—the Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqiu Fanlu) of the Han Confucian Dong Zhongshu, the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic (Huangdi Neijing), in which the Changes and medicine are interlinked, The Seal of the Unity of the Three (Cantong Qi) by Wei Boyang of the Eastern Han, and the Han scholarship on the Changes—was the yin and yang–Five Elements–eight trigrams system perfected.

1. Matching the Eight Trigrams with the Five Elements

Qian is yang metal, Kun is yin earth, Kan is water, Li is fire, Zhen is yang wood, Xun is yin wood, Gen is yang earth, and Dui is yin metal.

2. The Eight Trigrams and the Five Elements Are Both Divided into Yin and Yang and Follow the Way of Yin and Yang

For example, Jia and Yi both belong to wood: Jia is yang wood (hard and tall, likened to the trees of a forest) and Yi is yin wood (soft and short, likened to flowers and grass). Bing and Ding both belong to fire: Bing is yang fire (fierce, like the fire of the sun) and Ding is yin fire (gentle, like the flame of an oil lamp). Wu and Ji both belong to earth: Wu is yang earth (high, dry, and facing the sun, called the earth of the great land) and Ji is yin earth (low, damp, and in the shade, called the earth of fields and gardens). Geng and Xin both belong to metal: Geng is yang metal (hard, the metal of axes and halberds) and Xin is yin metal (soft, the metal of jewelry). Ren and Gui both belong to water: Ren is yang water (abundant, the water of the great sea) and Gui is yin water (scant, the water of rain and dew). And so on. As the “Plain Questions” (Suwen) of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic aptly says: “Yin and yang are the guiding principles of all things.”

3. The Characteristics of the Five Elements

Among the Five Elements, “wood” has the character of sprouting forth and flourishing; “fire” of blazing heat and rising upward; “earth” of nourishing growth and transformation; “metal” of clarity and stillness, gathering in, and killing; and “water” of cold and descending. The Five Elements theory uses the method of taking images and comparing categories, simply dividing the things or phenomena to be explained into five classes, assigning things or phenomena with similar properties to each of the Five Elements, and then, on the basis of the properties of the Five Elements, using the laws of the Five Elements to explain and illustrate the connections and changes among things or phenomena.

4. The Generating and Overcoming Relationships Among the Five Elements

The Five Elements theory holds that there are definite connections between things, and that these connections drive the development and change of things. Among the Five Elements there are laws of mutual generation and mutual overcoming, and these laws are the basic view of the Five Elements theory. Mutual generation carries the meaning of nourishing each other and promoting and aiding growth; mutual overcoming carries the meaning of restraining, controlling, and checking each other.

(1) The generating cycle of the Five Elements: wood generates fire, fire generates earth, earth generates metal, metal generates water, and water generates wood.

(2) The overcoming cycle of the Five Elements: wood overcomes earth, earth overcomes water, water overcomes fire, fire overcomes metal, and metal overcomes wood. Mutual generation and mutual overcoming, like yin and yang, constitute the opposition and unity of things. Without generation there would be no arising, development, or change of things; without overcoming there would be no balance or coordination. So under normal circumstances, there must be overcoming within generation and generation within overcoming.

(3) Excess and overbearing among the Five Elements: Excess and overbearing is an abnormal phenomenon. When a thing becomes extremely strong it is excessive, too much. Whenever a thing reaches the extreme of excess it becomes overbearing, the strong bullying the weak; this is called overbearing. A thing that is extremely excessive, too much, is often easily broken, just as jade that is too hard shatters and steel that is too rigid snaps.

(4) Reverse overcoming is insult: that is, the side that is overcome turns around and overcomes. For example, fire normally overcomes metal, but when metal is prosperous and fire weak, metal instead overcomes fire. This reverse overcoming is called reverse insult, and it is an abnormal phenomenon.

5. Prosperous, Strong, Resting, Imprisoned, and Dead: The States of the Five Elements

Over the five seasons of the year (spring, summer, autumn, winter, and the “four seasonal transitions,” the last month of each season), the Five Elements undergo cyclical changes in strength. As a result of mutual generation and overcoming, they appear in five states: Prosperous, Strong, Resting, Imprisoned, and Dead. The mnemonic is: the element in season is Prosperous; the element I generate is Strong; the element that generates me is Resting; the element that overcomes me is Imprisoned; the element I overcome is Dead.

The states of the Five Elements seen by the five seasons:

Spring: wood Prosperous, fire Strong, water Resting, metal Imprisoned, earth Dead

Summer: fire Prosperous, earth Strong, wood Resting, water Imprisoned, metal Dead

Autumn: metal Prosperous, water Strong, earth Resting, fire Imprisoned, wood Dead

Winter: water Prosperous, wood Strong, metal Resting, earth Imprisoned, fire Dead

The “four seasonal transitions”: earth Prosperous, metal Strong, fire Resting, wood Imprisoned, water Dead

From this the states of each of the Five Elements through the five seasons can be summarized:

Wood: Prosperous in spring, Strong in winter, Resting in summer, Imprisoned in the “four seasonal transitions,” Dead in autumn

Fire: Prosperous in summer, Strong in spring, Resting in the “four seasonal transitions,” Imprisoned in autumn, Dead in winter

Earth: Prosperous in the “four seasonal transitions,” Strong in summer, Resting in autumn, Imprisoned in winter, Dead in spring

Metal: Prosperous in autumn, Strong in the “four seasonal transitions,” Resting in winter, Imprisoned in spring, Dead in summer

Water: Prosperous in winter, Strong in autumn, Resting in spring, Imprisoned in summer, Dead in the “four seasonal transitions”

If one uses the seasonal states of the Five Elements to analyze a person's BaZi (Four Pillars of Destiny), one can roughly see whether the person was born in season and at the right time, or out of season. For example, of two people both born in summer, if the Day Master is Ren water, it is Imprisoned and out of season; if the Day Master is Bing fire, it is in season and timely. Then, taking into account the person's living environment, one adjusts the feng shui layout on the principle of “restraining what is strong and supporting what is weak.”

The mutual generation and overcoming of the Five Elements is the inner force that maintains the order and balance of survival, development, and decline among all things in nature, and it is also the basic law that must be followed in putting feng shui into practice.