Feng-shui Model of Place Making and Some Cross-cultural Comparisons

(Reprinted from: Proceedings of 94'c CELA Conference, History and Culture (Clark, J. D. Ed.) . Mississippi State University, USA. pp320-340, 1994)

ABSTRACT: As model of placemaking for the Chinese, Feng-shui builds hierarchies of natural and social order and makes sense of identity, which lead to the hierarchical responsibility coverage of caring for and conserving of the landscape, and the achievement of sustainable environment and communities. Feng-shui has unique models of process, evaluation and representation. It has a "live-within" model of box-within-box, which may inject some fresh air into the Western design theories dominated by the point-line-area model, and may provide a new vocabulary for a more comprehensive understanding of, and a new way of thinking and acting toward, sustainable landscapes.
1. Introduction
The concept and practice of Feng-shui (which literally means wind and water) can be dated back as early as the fourth century BC, and consolidation of the system is believed to have taken place in the third and fourth century AD (Needham, 1956). Until early 1950s, it was widely practiced throughout China by the emperor as well as the masses, the sacred and the profane. Every city, village, house, and tomb in traditional China more or less bore some mark of Feng-shui.. After going underground while officially banned in communist China for nearly four decades, it has begun to appear again (Fig. 1). The practice of Feng-shui flourishes even more in Chinese dominated countries and areas outside mainland China, e.g. Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore (Feuchtwang, 1974; Bennett, 1978; Lip, 1979, 1986; Skinner, 1982; Walters, 1989). Feng-shui has even appeared in Western culture, in New York and Washington DC (Rossbach, 1983).
Fig.1 A landscape design proposed by the author was under the judgment by two geomancers (center) as well as a professor (left) and the client (right) (photo by the author)
Noted and reported by Westerners constantly since Yates (1868) more than one hundred years ago, Feng-shui has been understood and treated differently at different time and from various points of view. With a few exceptions (Johnson ,1881) and Schlegel ,1890), most early colonial administrators and Christian missionaries interpreted Feng-shui as a "black art," "superstition" (Eitel, p.4), or "charlatanism" (De Groot, p.938). It was the greatest obstacle to Christian activities including construction and engineering in the landscape, which were considered to be necessary by the Westerners for the development of the country (Edkins, 1872; Eitel, 1873; Henry, 1885; Dukes, 1914) and it is reported that hundreds of soldiers had to be sent to protect such construction (Henry, 1885, p.150). Extremely negative judgment and hostile attitudes must have been held among the Jesuits in the early seventeenth century , which may be the excuse for the bonfire that led to the loss of many valuable books on Feng-shui (Needham, 1962).
In the twentieth-century Western world, Feng-shui not only has attracted more and more scholars, but has increasingly gained higher status. Needham recognized it for its role in the development of Chinese science and technology (1956, 1962). Michell (1973) maintained that the nature and purpose of Feng-shui has scarcely been recognized in the Western countries, as compared to such other Chinese inventions as gunpowder, the magnetic compass, and the printing press. Because the latter fit easily within the Western value systems of materialism, and declared that it is now time to reverse the western traditional values.
Bennett (1978) suggested the concept of Feng-shui as "astro-ecology" pointing out the importance of the relationship between lives and terrestrial environment in this Chinese concept. He argued that siting (Feng-shui) theories are based on the theme of the proper relationship of human dwellings to the immediate environment as well as the cosmos at large. A similar position was held by Lip (1979, 1986). They gave Feng-shui a modern flavor of ecology and geography and ecological design. Feng-shui model was also used as a location index for archaeological work ( Lai, 1974).
Some researchers attribute the great success of sustainable agriculture in China to Feng-shui (Michell, 1973; Skinner, 1982 ). It is compared to another ancient Chinese miracle, acupuncture, the effectiveness of which has been well recognized in the Western world. The practical tenets of Feng-shui are considered to be universal and can be practiced equally in the West and the East (Skinner, 1982, p. 1982; Xu, 1990). Rossbach (1983) took Feng-shui as a key stone, linking man and his environment, ancient ways and modern life, and argued that it encompasses both the rational and logical, the irrational and illogical. Thus it has advantages over sciences in coping with the reality (Feutchwang, 1978).
It is worth noticing that Westerners' attitude toward Feng-shui parallels their awareness of worldwide ecological and environmental crisis. From the worldwide program of IBP (International Biological Program ) in 1960s, to the MAB (Man and the Biosphere Program) of 1970s, and to 1980s' IGBP (International Geosphere-Biosphere Program), and from the concept of ecosystem to that of THE (total human ecosystem) (Naveh and Lieberman, 1984; Naveh, 1991), the way modern ecologists deal with the relationship of man and nature has been increasingly closer to that of Feng-shui, which held the Chinese ideal that man should live in harmony with nature, and that human activities should be "designed with nature." The same ideal is admired and much striven after by modern environmentalists in general and landscape architects like McHarg (1969) in particular, and is still considered to be the "most important question" for today and in the future for the profession of landscape architecture (e.g. Corner, 1992).
As for the quality of landscape as the result of Feng-shui practice, even the most vociferous scoffers could not but agree that places selected and arranged with Feng-shui were attractive. "There must be poetry in the Chinese soul after all," Storrs Turner gasped in admiration (cited in March, 1969). As at the same time he scorned Feng-shui as superstitious and absurd. Needman seems to be inspired when he accounts that " all through, it embodied, I believe, a marked aesthetic component, which accounts for the great beauty of the siting of so many farms, houses and village throughout China" (1956, p.361). "Anyone who has visited the tomb-temples of the Ming emperors in their group of exquisite valleys north of Peking will know something of what the geomancers, at their best, could do." (1962, p.240)
The ecological and functional effect of Feng-shui landscape have also been noticed, as in trapping sunlight, keeping off wind, avoiding floods and choosing well drained sites while keeping water at convenient reach for daily use and irrigation, etc. (Freedman, 1966; Lip, 1979; Rossbach, 1983; Knapp, l986; 1989; 1992).
In terms of psychological and sociological effects, Feng-shui is deeply woven into the fabric of Chinese society and individual life. It has been noticed that Feng-shui is closely associated with individual and group identity, confidence in life, social and political cooperation and competition, and group and national ideology (Marcel, 1922; Yang, 1970; Freedman, 1966; 1968; Feuchtwang, 1974; Bennett, 1978; Nemeth, 1978).
It has been argued that reality image in Chinese eyes may not be shared by Westerners (Freedman, 1966; Feutchwang, 1974), and that Feng-shui is "a form of knowledge, a way of conceiving and perceiving reality and a way of dealing with reality" for the Chinese people (Feuchtwang, 1974, p.14). This suggests that: (1) on the one hand, Feng-shui can only be understood through the role it plays in Chinese life, because it is beyond the judgment of the Westerners' values and theories; (2) on the other hand, Feng-shui model may reveal a part of reality that goes beyond Westerners' experience, so by its combination with Western models, it may lead us to a more comprehensive understanding of "reality" as it is.
Based on this conception, in this paper, I will analyze Feng-shui as a landscape design model, taking the hypothesis that it provides a way of place making and dwelling for the Chinese people, helps the Chinese people order the natural environment and society, facilitates the need for place identity, and finally enhances the mechanism of responsibility for places. Modern Western professionals may benefit from its unique models of understanding of processes and form in their making of places and attempts to a sustainable environment.
Since Feng-shui can hardly be paralleled by other single disciplines in term of its volume of manuals, although a complete manual has never been translated and published in English, I will basically refer only to the classics of Feng-shui in following discussion , including The Burial Book (Zang Shu, by Guo Pu from fourth century AD) and classics by Yang Yun-Song ( ninth century, AD.). These classics largely defined the "form school" (divination through landscape pattern), which is of more interest and more relevant (compared to the direction school of Feng-shui ) to landscape design. These are most often cited and have been partly translated. (For Chinese sources in libraries in Western countries see Fetchwang, 1974; Walts, 1989; Xu, 1989).
2. Feng-shui as A Design Model
In order to understand the Feng-shui model of design and place making systematically, a framework for inquiry that transcends different theories or models of design is required. The six-level framework of design processes suggested by Steinitz (1990) largely fulfills this need. His first three levels of design inquiry (representation model, process model and evaluation model) and second three levels of inquiry (change models, impact models, and decision models) contribute respectively to what McHarg called "a way of looking and a way of doing" (1969, p.1). It is argued here that the way of looking largely decides the way of doing. Thus my discussion will basically focus on the first three models:
2.1 Qi: The Process Model of Feng-shui
The process across landscape concerned in Feng-shui is the movement and change of Qi ( Ch'i, literally air, gas, breath, etc.). Qi is a philosophical category of Chinese origin, its full implications cannot be adequately described by any single English word--or even a series of words. Several similar (not identical) phrases have been suggested in Western literature, among them are "cosmic breath" (Wheatley, p.419), "vital breath," the modern physical terms of "matter-energy," "emanation" (Needham, 1962), "telluric currents" (Skinner, 1980, p.5) and the Hebrew concept of "breath of life" (Skinner, 1982, p.14). Following the phenomenological approach, the author would suggest the Greek concept of genius loci , or "spirit of place" "the concrete reality man has to face and come to terms with in his daily life" (Norberg-Schultz, 1980, p.1). Qi is the holistic function of a total phenomenon which encounters human experience, which can not be reduced to any individual analytic "scientific" category, such as energy, material, radiation, etc. It is the "oneness" of the earth, the heaven, the divinities and the mortals, that envelops human experience in the lived-world (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2 The process model of Feng-shui: Origin, mechanism and result of Qi
The classic Burial Book uses a logic of "source--mechanism--result" to describe the origin, movement, change and function of Qi .
Source: All things in the heaven, on the earth, originate from Qi of Yin (female) and Yang (male). Ontologically, Qi is elusive and invisible, it fills all over the universe. Man as a creature, a "thing," is also but a form of Qi (Fig. 2). This concept becomes the basis for Feng-shui to express the ideal that man and nature could be and should be in harmony.
Mechanism: Although Qi itself is elusive and invisible when dispersing in the universe, it forms into visible and tangible things when accumulated. Into the heavens, the Yang (male)Qi accumulates into the celestial bodies; and down on earth, the Yin (female)Qi condenses into and moves in the form of landscapes. Between the earth and heaven, Qi thrills in wind, soars in cloud, surges in thunder and falls in rain and snow (The Burial Book). The seasonal and daily cycles are but the flow and change of Qi.. Even the spiritual and moral virtues of a person are considered to be of influence on , and influenced by, the state and flux of Qi (Fig. 2). So the state of Qi is a function of variables in all five dimensions (the four spatial and temporal dimensions plus the spiritual and moral dimension). This function has a set of satisfactory, or optimum, solutions called "living Qi" when all the variables match , i.e. when the heaven, the earth, the spirits and mortals are gathered harmoniously.
Result: When and where living Qi gathers, which means various variables match one another harmoniously in terms of Yin -Yang balance, anything will flourish. Dwellers will be at peace, happy, wealthy and healthy. The ideal of "living in harmony" comes into being (Fig. 2).
Ancestor worship is of central importance in family life. It constitutes the most important religious system in China ( Yang, 1969; Freedman, 1966), and Feng-shui is closely associated with ancestor worship. To the Chinese, death is but the continuation of life, the descendants are but the continuity of their dead ancestors. The dead forebears are thus treated as if they were alive, and the placement of the graves will therefore affect the fate of the descendants. The logic is that all things are but forms of Qi , and the dead and his descendants belong to the same Qi strain (genetic kinship). So the selection and arrangement of the graves are of no less importance than the living settlements, and their aims are the same: follow the natural order, catch and gather the living Qi .
"Make known the virtue of the land, establish the ways of behavior, follow the change and processes, understand the beginning and the end, then reveal the essence of nature (a state of harmony)" (Qingnang Jin, a Feng-shui classic). The process of Qi addressed in Feng-shui , its origin, flow and change, accumulation, and gathering is the process of dwelling elaborated by Heidegger , the process of simple oneness of fourfold of heaven, earth, divinities and mortals (1977), which will be elaborated in later sections.
2.2 Living Qi: The Evaluation Model of Feng-shui
It is believed that Qi disperses with wind and accumulates by water, which is what Feng-shui (wind and water) means (The Burial Book). At places that are windproof and water-retaining, Qi stays. Conceptually, a harmonious site where living Qi gathers should have "Azure (blue) dragon crooking to the left, White Tiger squatting to the right, Red Bird flying at the front and Black Tortoise bending at the back" ( The Burial Book) (Fig. 3): that is places embraced with rolling hills, backed by stretching mountains, welcomed by screening hills in the front, and greeted with flowing water at the foot (Fig.4-5).
Fig. 3 The conceptual model of ideal Feng-shui ;
Fig. 4 The ideal landscape model of Feng-shui
Fig. 5 Good Feng-shui : Tian Tong Temple , Zhejiang Province
For the structural elements that form the ideal landscape pattern, some basic formal and nonfigurative criteria are strengthened in all Feng-shui classics(TABLE 1), plus some resource factors. The resource factors are understandable and actually common sense in terms of agricultural ecology and hygiene, which leads some Westerners to judge Feng-shui either as no more than the complement of common sense (Eitel, 1873) or as a science that is based on rational natural laws (Johnson, 1881, Schlegel, 1890). Spatial criteria seem to be more abstruse, leading to two opposite kinds of judgment on Feng-shui among Westerners: either ridiculous superstition or a transcendent myth that warrants further research. In terms of design these spatial evaluation criteria are worth noticing for their phenomenological quality in the experience and making of places.
TABLE 1 .Structural elements of feng-shui landscape and their evaluation criteria