The Alternative Feng Shui

Feng Shui
started in Southern China in the ninth century AD. It began with an essay titled 'Wind-Water' which was a treatise on where to build a settlement.

The essay said to build a settlement close to a slow flowing river. Slow enough for livestock to drink safely, but fast enough not to become stagnant. Build the settlement on rising ground with the back to the wind and the front facing the sun. The settlement should built far enough up the slope so that if the river flooded it did not plod the settlement, but not so high that it was not protected from the winds by the hill or mountain behind.

Practically this meant building the settlement part way up a South facing slope on the North side of a river with hills or mountains protecting the settlement from the North Winds. One of the mistranslations in 'modern' Feng Shui is that the original said 'facing the sun' which in China is translated as South, and 'back to the wind' translated in China to mean North. That is perfectly acceptable for the Northern hemisphere, but in the Southern hemisphere is back to front. Today this style of Feng Shui is known as the 'intuitive' or 'Taoist' school of Feng Shui.

About one hundred years later the Confucians took the basic Feng Shui and added there superstitions about the compass and it became what most people today think of as Feng Shui. Also added were Chinese superstitions in general and many of the ideas form the 'I Ching.' Confucianist Feng Shui also created a whole new profession. The Feng Shui masters.

Typically the sons of middle class Chinese who sat the public service exams and failed became Feng Shui masters. It became a respected profession and entered into the realm of superstition.

The two systems of Feng Shui are totally different. One is built on eco-friendly passive solar principals (intuitive Feng Shui) and the other built on Chinese superstition surrounding the compass (Confucianist Feng Shui). One of the sayings in the intuitive school is 'The only compass you need is the human heart.'

If you only know the Confucianist version try looking up intuitive Feng Shui for a completely different perspective on the subject.