Feng Shui:

Is an ancient Chinese practice believed to utilize the Laws of both Heaven, (astronomy), and Earth, (geography), to help one improve life by receiving positive Qi. The words 'feng shui' literally translates as "wind-water" Qi rides the wind and scatters, but is retained when encountering water. Is the practice of arranging objects, (such as the internal placement of furniture in an environment) To achieve harmony with one's environment. It is also used for choosing a place to live, for plotting a burial site, and still others use it for agricultural planning.

* Feng Shui (traditional Chinese:) pronounced "fung shwee" or ("fung shway"):

Is an ancient Chinese practice believed to utilize the Laws of both Heaven, (astronomy), and Earth, (geography), to help one improve life by receiving positive Qi. The original designation for the discipline is Kan Yu literally: (heaven and earth). The words 'feng shui' literally translates as "wind-water" in English, which is a cultural shorthand taken from the following passage of the Zhangshu (Book of Burial) by Guo Pu of the Jin Dynasty: Qi rides the wind and scatters, but is retained when encountering water. Most of today's feng shui schools teach that it is the practice of arranging objects, (such as the internal placement of furniture in an environment,) to achieve harmony with one's environment. It is also used for choosing a place to live, for plotting a burial site, and still others use it for agricultural planning. Proponents claim that feng shui has an effect on health, wealth and personal relationships; critics consider it a pseudoscience.

Early Feng Shui relied on astronomy to find correlations between humans and the universe and it is inseparable from an understanding of political power in premodern China. Chinese often used the celestial poles determined by the pole stars to determine the north-south axis of settlements. This technique explains why Shang palaces at Xiaotun lie 10° east of due north. In some cases, as Paul Wheatley observed, they bisected the angle between the directions of the rising and setting sun to find north. This technique provided the more precise alignments of the Shang walls at Yanshi and Zhengzhou. Currently Early Yanshao and Hongshan cultures provide the earliest evidence for feng shui. Professor David Pankenier and his associates reviewed astronomical data for the time of the Banpo dwellings (4000 BCE) to show that the asterism Yingshi (Lay out the Hall, in the Warring States period and early Han era) corresponded to the sun's location at this time. Centuries before, the asterism Yingshi was known as Ding. It was used to indicate the appropriate time to build a capital city, according to the Shijing. Apparently an astronomical alignment ensured that Banpo village homes were sited for solar gain.

The grave at Puyang (radiocarbon dated 5,000 BP) that contains mosaics of the Dragon and Tiger constellations and Beidou (Dipper) is similarly oriented along a north-south axis. The presence of both round and square shapes in the Puyang tomb, and at Hongshan culture ceremonial centers, suggests that the gaitian cosmography (heaven-round, earth-square) was present in Chinese society long before it appeared in the Zhou Bu Suan Jing. Cosmography that bears a striking resemblance to modern feng shui compasses (and computations) were found on a jade unearthed at Hanshan (c. 3000 BCE). The design is linked by Li Xueqin to the liuren astrolabe, zhinan zhen, and Luopan. All capital cities of China followed rules of Feng Shui for their design and layout. These rules were codified during the Zhou era in the "Kaogong ji" (Manual of Crafts). Rules for builders were codified in the "Lu ban jing" (Carpenter's Manual). Graves and tombs also followed rules of Feng Shui. From the earliest records, it seems that the rules for the structures of the graves and dwellings were the same.

* Qi (ch'i)Qi:

Is a difficult word to translate and is usually left untranslated. Literally the word means "air". In feng shui, "Qi" means "flow of energy". Max Knoll suggested in a 1951 lecture that qi is a form of solar radiation. "Qi", when used to describe martial arts, refers to internal or physical energy. In Feng Shui, however, the word is used to mean natural energy. A Loupan is used to determine many things. One of those being to detect the direction of the flow of qi. Compasses reflect local geomagnetism which includes geomagnetically induced currents caused by space weather. It could be said that feng shui assesses the quality of the local environment and the effects of space weather that is, Feng Shui is qimancy, or qi divination. Beliefs from the Axial Age, feng shui among them, hold that the heavens influence life on Earth. This seems preposterous to many people, yet space weather exists and can have profound effects on technology (GPS, power grids, pipelines, communication and navigation systems, surveys), and the internal orienting faculties of birds and other creatures. Atmospheric scientists have suggested that space weather creates fluctuations in market prices.

* Bagua (eight symbols):

Wo diagrams known as Bagua (or pa kua) loom large in Feng Shui, and both predate their mentions in the Yijing or I Ching. The Lo (River) Chart (Luoshu, or Later Heaven Sequence) and the River Chart (Hetu, or Early Heaven Sequence) are linked to astronomical events of the sixth millennium BCE, and with the Turtle Calendar from the time of Yao. The Turtle Calendar of Yao (found in the Yaodian section of the Shangshu or 'Book of Documents') dates to 2300 BCE, plus or minus 250 years. It seems clear from many sources that time, in the form of astronomy and calendars, is at the heart of feng shui.

* Yaodian:

The cardinal directions are determined by the marker-stars of the mega-constellations known as the Four Celestial Animals.

* East: the Bluegreen Dragon (Spring equinox)Niao (Bird), Hydrae

* South: the Red Bird (Summer solstice) Huo (Fire), a Scorpionis

* West: the White Tiger (Autumn equinox) Xu (Emptiness, Void), a Aquarii, a Aquarii

* North: the Dark (Mysterious) Turtle (Winter solstice) Mao (Hair), a Tauri (the Pleiades)

The Bagua diagrams are also linked with the sifang (four directions) method of divination used during the Shang dynasty. The sifang is much older, however. It was used at Niuheliang, and figured large in Hongshan culture's astronomy. And it is this area of China that is linked to Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, who allegedly invented the south-pointing spoon.

In traditional Chinese philosophy, natural phenomena can be classified into the Wu Xing (Chinese: wuxing), or the Five Elements, also translated as five phases, five movements or five steps:

* The elements are:

* Metal:(Chinese jin, Vietnamese: kim)

* Wood: (Chinese: mu, Vietnamese: moc)

* Water:(Chinese: shui, Vietnamese: thuy)

* Fire: (Chinese: huo, Vietnamese: hoa)

* Earth (Chinese: tu, Vietnamese: tho)

The system of five elements was used for describing interactions and relationships between phenomena. It was employed in many fields of early Chinese thought, including seemingly disparate fields such as geomancy or Feng shui, astrology, traditional Chinese medicine, music, military strategy and martial arts. The original foundation is based on the concept of the Five Cardinal Points.

Traditional Taijiquan schools relate them to footwork and refer to them as five "steps". The system is still used as a reference in some forms of complementary and alternative medicine and martial arts.

* Cycles:

The doctrine of five phases describes two Cycles of Balance, a generating or creation, sheng) cycle and an overcoming or destruction, kč) cycle of interactions between the phases.

* Generating:

* Wood feeds Fire

* Fire creates Earth (ash)

* Earth bears Metal

* Metal collects Fire and Water

* Water nourishes Wood

* Overcoming:

* Wood parts Earth

* Earth absorbs Water

* Water quenches Fire

* Fire melts Metal and burns Wood

* Metal chops Wood

Interactions of Five Chinese Elements Cycles of Balance and Cycles of Imbalance Interactions of Five Chinese Elements Cycles of Balance and Cycles of Imbalance There are also two Cycles of Imbalance, an overacting cycle (cheng) and an insulting cycle (wu).

Cosmology and feng shui Main article: Feng Shui According to Chinese thought the structure of the cosmos mirror the five elements, and each has a complex series of associations with different aspects of nature, as can be seen in the following table. In the ancient Chinese form of geomancy known as Feng Shui practitioners all based their art and system on the five elements (Wu Xing).

All of these elements are represented within the Bagua. Associated with these elements are colors, seasons and shapes; all of which are interacting with each other. Based on a particular directional energy flow from one element to the next, the interaction can be expansive, destructive, or exhaustive. With proper knowledge of such aspect of energy flow will enable the Feng Shui practitioner to apply certain cures or rearrangement of energy in a beneficial way.

* Chinese Medicine:

Five Chinese Elements Diurnal Cycle Five Chinese Elements Diurnal Cycle Main article: Traditional Chinese medicine According to Chinese medical theory, each organ is associated with one of the Five Phases. It is believed to be more efficacious to treat an organ during a particular time period appropriate to it. The citation order of the Five Phases, i.e., the order in which they are cited in the Bo Hu Tong and other Han dynasty texts, is Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth.

* The organs are most effectively treated: according to theory, in the following four-hour periods throughout the day, beginning with the 3 a.m. to 7 a. m. period:

* Metal organs

* Earth organs

* Fire1 organs

* Water organs

* Fire2

The "non-empirical" Pericardium and Triple Burner organs), and Wood organs, which is the reverse of the citation order (plus an extra use of Fire and the non-empirical organs to take care of the sixth four-hour period of the day). These two orders are further related to the sequence of the planets going outward from the sun (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, or Water, Metal, Fire, Wood, and Earth) by a star diagram similar to the one shown above.