Feng Shui History

Feng Shui History (Part I)

Feng Shui is an ancient art and science developed over thousand years ago in China. Feng Shui has a history of many thousands years, some say 2,000 years, some say 5,000 years. It is a complex body of knowledge that reveals how to balance the energies of any given space to assure the health and good fortune for people inhabiting it.

Feng shui was practiced since Tang Dynasty, where we can find early recordings about employing feng shui masters in selecting auspicious sites, as well as about feng shui texts being required reading for imperial exams (court of Emperor Hi Tsang, 888 A.D.)

One of the famous feng shui names recorded in the history of feng shui is Master Yang Yun Sang, who left a legacy of many classical feng shui texts and is considered the founder of the landscape school of feng shui.

Throughout his writing, Master Yang emphasized the importance of selecting an auspicious site that has dragon's energy, or dragon's breath, thus the careful examination of the shape of land formations - mountains, hills, valleys, as well as water formations and specifics. The vital energy, or Chi, contained in specific earth locations was described as finding the dragon and its lair, and natural formation where symbolic of animal shapes and energies, such as green dragon, white tiger, etc.

Three texts form the Master Yang's contribution to the foundations of feng shui, particularly the Form, or Landscape School of Feng Shui:

(i) Han Lung Ching - The Art of Rousing the Dragon
(ii) Ching Hang Ao Chih - Methods of Locating the Dragon's Lair
(iii) I Lung Ching - Canons Approximating Dragons


Feng Shui (Part II)

Almost a hundred years later, the Compass Feng Shui School (another feng shui school) gained strength and popularity. A Feng Shui Master by the name Wang Chih who developed his teachings during the Song Dynasty was the main influence in this feng shui school.

The Compass Feng Shui School calculations are based on the compass directions and the I-Ching trigrams arranged in the octagonal symbol of the BaGua.

Other feng shui theories employed by the Compass Feng Shui School of Thought are the Yin-Yang Theory, The Theory of Five Elements, the Lo-Shu Square, and other. The time dimension was first introduced by The Compass School Practitioners, to define the best timing for best energies in specific places.

Furthermore, the concept of the Kua number was introduced as a way to calculate the directions of most auspicious energies based on the client's date of birth.

In late nineteenth century, after a period of existence as two separate schools, the two feng shui schools (the Landscape or Form Feng Shui School, and the Compass Feng Shui School) merged, thus providing for a body of knowledge of unique depth and wisdom in reading the environmental energy patterns.