This article helps students understand Chinese culture feng-shui better. If you want to learn the most standard Chinese language and learn Chinese culture as the same time, learning Chinese at Keats is the best choice.

Security first
The goal of feng-shui is to pursue benefits and avoid hazards, and avoiding hazards comes before pursuing benefits because people want a sense of security. The basin landscape which is treated as the ideal place, is explained in feng-shui theories as advantageous of storing wind and preserving qi, actually it is the embodiment of an embrace. The “precious land of good feng-shui” in the Chinese people’s opinion takes the shape of a mother’s open arms. It is people’s natural instinct to find a shelter in the arms of the Mother Earth. The upper torso of Mother Earth is the mountain in the back (north) of the site, the arms are the Azure Dragon and the White Tiger, and the bosom is the “bright space”. This is the feng-shui that everybody inderstands. The moment people enter such a space of “storing wind and preserving qi”, they will be granted a sense of security. This natural landscape is imitated in many artificial structures, such as ramparts, walls, screens, canopied beds and the ‘feng-shui forests” used as feng-shui improvements; all these structures are employed for the purpose of protection against outside hazards.

Complying with the laws of nature
The feng-shui theories are based on the concept of “the common origin of human beings and Heaven” and established a rule that all the buildings, regardless of their architectural styles, must comply with the laws of nature. Artificial structures must be adjusted to natural environment and local conditions, and the principle of “peaceful coexistence with nature” must be applied to the construction of cities, homes, gardens and tombs. The action of “destroying the dragon vein” will damage the ecological balance and must be prohibited. It is created as if through the invisible hands of nature instead of being made artificially with human labor.

The Chinese Feng-shui which combines land, space and time into a unity, proposes a principle of integrating human structures into the surrounding natural environment and provides some valuable experience for the practice of “returning to nature”. In this context, the Chinese fneg-shui arouses the interests of the Western people and they plan to introduce the feng-shui ideas into the sciences of ecological architecture, landscape architecture and environmental architecture. However, it is hard to find an equivalent for feng-shui in English and many people refer to it as “geomancy”.

The balance between yin and yang & the interaction of the Five Elements
For the foreigners, the most distinctive feature of traditional Chinese buildings is the exact symmetry upon a central axis, which ascribes to the ethic code of the feudal dynasties as well as the feng-shui considerations. According to the principles of “balance between yin and yang” in “Brief Points on Yang House” and “mutual benefit of square and circle” in “Mr. Guan’s Introduction to Geography”, a house, whether a young house or a yin house, must be symmetrical and square. If there are more rooms on one side than on the other side or if all the rooms are on one side, the house will bring bad luck. Therefore, a typical Chinese mansion usually has an odd number of rooms, because there are a central hall in the center and the equal number of rooms at both sides. Additionally, the main room in the center is usually larger than the rooms at the wings, and a 5-ridge hip roof is higher in importance than a saddle roof. The Chinese Forbidden City in Beijing is a perfect example for the balance of yin and yang in Chinese architectures.

Also, the design of the Forbidden City provides a good example of how the concept of the Five Elements (metal, wood, water, fire and earth) is applied in the traditional Chinese architectural planning.

Beauty in curves and zigzaga
Squareness and symmetry are the basic requirements of the traditional Chinese architecture, also there are the curves and zigzags to liven things up. The traditional Chinese architecture alsp features the beauty of curved lines and zigzagging contours. When inspecting the mountains and searching for the dragon vein, the feng-shui masters usually value the winding qualities of the terrain features:

“Watch the dragon’s posture and the lair’s condition. The spirit of the dragon lies in its posture and the condition of the intended site is shown in its shape. Therefore, the dragon vein should originate from a wall of hills, pass through valleys in cascades and travel in an undulating and winding path.” (On Shapes and Postures)

There are similar considerations for observing the watercourses and searching for the dragon vein.

“The flow of water, no matter coming or going, should be winding around the intended site and have a handful of twists and turns, as if it is reluctant to leave.” (On the Directions of Watercourses)

It is worth noting that the feng-shui theories compare the twists and turns of both the mountain “dragon” and the water “dragon” to the human emotions. The presence of the curves sets off the houses made mainly of squares and straight lines and helps to create the ideal sites of good feng-shui that can store wind and preserve qi.

The harmony in spatial order
The traditional Chinese architecture has won worldwide fame for its unique style. Many historical sites are now popular tourist attractions, such as the Chendde Summer Resort in Hebei Province, the Summer Palace in Beijing and so on. It is suggested that the traditional Chinese architecture may have a knack in spatial arrangement and overall planning. They testify to the consideration of “harmony in spatial order” in the feng-shui theories at the same time. Judging by this standard, some measures to develop tourism in certain parts of China seem far from appropriate. For example, several high-rise hotels, a broad and straight highway. In terms of beauty, the careless addition of modern facilities only detracts from the beauty of the tourist attraction. Similar phenomena of “breaking the harmony” exist in urban housing design, residential area planning and interior decoration. Additionally, there are a wide range of feng-shui considerations on construction models, home designs and landscape art. For example, the house should be built on a flat and accessible land and feature a vibrant yet orderly design; the space should guarantee a view of the surrounding landscape, and the functions should be centered on practicality.