Preface to geomantic culture in China

Feng Shui Bagua Feng Shui Bagua1993101On October 22nd, at the invitation of Mr. Su Jingping, deputy director of the news station of Beijing People's Broadcasting Station and the host of Life Hotline, Gao talked with the audience about Feng Shui in the live broadcast room of this station. The following text was compiled according to the recording at that time, and the title was added by the editor. An appendix is attached here for your reference. Sue: Dear friends, I'm Su Jingping, the host of the program. Today, during the day, I walked around the bookstall on the street to see what new books were available. Unexpectedly, I haven't seen you for a few days, and there is a feeling of changing the dynasty. This reflects the prosperity of the book market. However, I think some books are like the elders of several dynasties. Although the name has changed, the content has a permanent charm. In particular, books reflecting China's unique culture, such as Qigong, Yijing and Feng Shui, have been attracting many readers. Of course, we also introduced Qigong Yijing before the program. Today, we are going to talk about Feng Shui again. It is said that after the 1970s, the so-called "Feng Shui fever" appeared abroad. In our country, until now, there are still people who treat Feng Shui and superstition equally. However, what is more thought-provoking is that I have come into contact with many serious scientists. They have always regarded Feng Shui as a culture and an art, and studied the relationship between man and nature. Of course, on the other hand, I also see people holding gossip in the street divination booth now, showing people the so-called feng shui, saying that they can make a fortune and turn fortune into fortune. So, what do you think of SARS among them? Tonight, we are honored to invite Mr. Gao from the Institute of Urban and Rural Construction Economics of the Ministry of Construction, and invite him to our live broadcast room to talk about Feng Shui and life with you. ..... Mr. Gao, according to your understanding, how did Feng Shui come to the pavilion? G: Speaking of "Feng Shui", people can easily associate it with superstition. However, if you go deeper, you will find that there is no equal sign between the two. Before studying Feng Shui, I also felt that Feng Shui was no different from other superstitions in the past. But after years of research, I found that although in form and appearance, it seems that there are many superstitious elements in Feng Shui. But in fact, its content and essence have many reasonable points. First, there is a frame of reference. In the past, we regarded Feng Shui as superstition, mainly because we took western natural science as the frame of reference. But the problem is that China's geomantic omen is a traditional culture that grows and develops on the land of China. It not only contains scientific elements, but more importantly, it is an art of dealing with orientation. Therefore, when we look at Feng Shui, we can't just start from a scientific point of view, and sometimes we need to analyze it from an artistic point of view. Because, if we only take science as the frame of reference, some things are really difficult to understand, but if we look at Feng Shui from the perspective of psychology, aesthetics and art in another frame of reference, we will find that Feng Shui still contains many aesthetic art contents, which are exactly ignored by western architecture in the past and urgently needed to be supplemented by today's architecture. Sue: Does it also include some ancient philosophical thoughts? G: yes! Isn't one of the main features of China's traditional culture "the unity of man and nature"? Feng Shui is just a science to study and deal with the relationship between man and nature. Because of this, the idea of "harmony between man and nature" is particularly prominent in Feng Shui. Sue: OK, now the audience has called the hotline. Let's have a dialogue and answer the questions of the audience. Do you think it's so treacherous? Audience: Now there are stalls all over the street. Do they really know Feng Shui? G: Just like the Jianghu artists in those days, there are some folk people who only make a living by geomantic omen. This is just an ignorant question. However, some people do know Feng Shui, and they can also watch Feng Shui. In this regard, we should be different and should not generalize. Audience: Miss Gao: Please explain the meaning of "Feng Shui". G: Regarding the origin of "Feng Shui", let's not talk about the symbolic significance of these two words as symbols in cultural studies. From a functional point of view, there are also "the theory of storing wind" and "the theory of obtaining water" in Feng Shui, which require that the homestead should be located in a sheltered place and close to the water source. "Feng Shui" is a combination of the two. Of course, in order to meet the functions of "hiding wind" and "getting water", geomantic omen generally requires that the homestead should be structurally backed by mountains and water. This is not only a beautiful scenery, but also a very convenient life. Sue: Mr. Gao, Feng Shui culture is not only very rich in connotation, but also has a long history. Please give a brief introduction. Gao: Feng Shui is an art of orientation and space bred by thousands of years of traditional culture in China. In ancient Chinese architectural affairs, geomantic omen theory is the main theory of building site selection. Therefore, the history of ancient architecture in China, which was not written by geomantic theory in the past, must be an incomplete architectural history. Because of this, it is naturally of theoretical value to understand the development of geomantic omen in order to fill the knowledge gap in China's architectural history. Get down to business. The original record of Feng Shui is The Book of Songs Gong Liu. This poem is about the process of Gong Liu, the ancestor of Zhou people, choosing a tribal gathering place for Zhou people. By the Han Dynasty, the theory of geomantic omen had begun to take shape, and two geomantic omen monographs were produced, namely "Terrain of Palace" and "Synopsis of Golden Chamber". These two books have been lost since then. Later, after the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Tang Dynasty, the theory of geomantic omen became more complete, and it was clearly divided into two groups: situation and regulating qi. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the development of Feng Shui theory reached its peak, and all the Feng Shui works we can see now were basically written during this period. This is a simple vein of the development of Feng Shui theory. Sue: People call Mr. Feng Shui Mr. Yin Yang. You just talked about the problem of Yang Zhai, so please talk about the problem of Yin Zhai again. Gao: Although Feng Shui theory is divided into Yang Zhai theory and Yin Zhai theory, the principles are similar. It is also possible to use the land of feng shui as a ghost house, and vice versa. For example, Jinling in Fangshan County, Beijing, its predecessor is a temple, and another example is the Ming Tombs, whose predecessor is also a temple. It can be seen that the principle of yin house and yang house is the same, but the difference is only in capacity: generally speaking, the environmental capacity of yin house is small, while that of yang house is large, that's all. This involves the problem of "the concept of human death". Because our agricultural nationalities generally have the concept of "coming back from the dead", the concept of "human death" of the Han nationality is essentially equivalent to "outlook on life". Therefore, when the ancients dealt with the problem of death, they often arranged it according to the wishes of strangers, so the underworld is often a representation of the world between the dead and the dead. Because there is no big difference in function, there is no essential difference in structure between Yin Zhai Feng Shui and Yang Zhai Feng Shui. In terms of material relations, the ancestral ghost house is good or bad, of course, it will not have a practical impact on the deceased himself or his descendants. However, people are emotional animals after all, and funerals are more meaningful and important to the living than the dead. As a symbol of mourning for the living and a material place, haunted houses always play a certain role in suggesting the psychology of survivors-is the future boundless or bleak? Is the official career prosperous or unlucky? Is it financially strong, or is it all lost? Are people rich or childless? ..... In a word, whether you admit it or not, the quality of a ghost house will always have one kind or another influence on future generations conceptually and psychologically. Because of this, it is unreasonable for the ancients to "be cautious and push far" to choose a good place. Aren't we contemporary atheists also building cemeteries for the dead and the dead? Sue: There is a question, that is, does Feng Shui also have an impact on our contemporary psychology? How great will the impact be? I'd like to ask Mr. Gao to talk to you about this problem. Gao: Feng Shui is a factor that affects people's lives. Food, clothing, housing and transportation, feng shui belongs to one aspect of "house" This dress is not satisfactory. You can exchange it. The food is not delicious, you can eat something else. Only housing, because of the large investment and huge cost, is difficult to give up or replace even if it is not satisfied. Therefore, if the housing conditions (including geomantic omen) are not good, it will cause lasting psychological pressure on the residents. After a long time, some physical and mental diseases may appear. However, how relevant it is remains to be quantitatively studied in the future.