The Chinese have long observed that some surroundings are better then others, and for centuries they have used geomancy to improve the quality of life.

Today, Feng Shui has evolved into a refined art used to enhance luck and well-being through the modifications of layout and orientation of work-places and homes and is gaining popularity in the West.

The aim of Feng Shui is a complete harmony and a deep sensitivity with the natural order. Many aspects of Feng Shui are based on intuition (sixth sense) and commonsense.

Feng shui (traditional Chinese: 風水; simplified Chinese: 风水; pinyin: fēng shuǐ; pronounced /ˌfʌŋˈʃweɪ/ fung-shway or sometimes /ˌfʌŋˈʃwiː/ fung-shwee in English) 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. [1] The original designation for the discipline is Kan Yu (traditional Chinese: 堪輿; simplified Chinese: 堪舆; pinyin: kānyú; literally: heaven and earth).

The words 'feng shui' literally translate as "wind-water"in English. This 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.

Many modern enthusiasts claim that feng shui is the practice of arranging objects (such as furniture) to help people achieve their goals. More traditionally, feng shui is important in choosing a place to live and finding a burial site, along with agricultural planning.

Proponents claim that feng shui has an effect on health, wealth and personal relationships. Critics consider it a pseudoscience, even sorcery.

Archaeology
Currently early Yangshao and Hongshan cultures provide the earliest evidence for Feng Shui. Until the invention of the magnetic compass, apparently Feng Shui relied on astronomy to find correlations between humans and the universe.

In 4000 BCE the doors of Banpo dwellings were aligned to the asterism Yingshi just after the winter solstice -- this sited the homes for solar gain. During the Zhou era, Yingshi was known as Ding and used to indicate the appropriate time to build a capital city, according to the Shijing.

A grave at Puyang (c. 3000 BCE) that contains mosaics of the Dragon and Tiger asterisms and Beidou (the Big Dipper, Ladle or Bushel) is 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 gaitian cosmography (heaven-round, earth-square) was present in Chinese society long before it appeared in the Zhou Bi Suan Jing.

Cosmography that bears a striking resemblance to modern Feng Shui devices and formulas was found on a jade unearthed at Hanshan and dated around 3000 BCE. The design is linked by archaeologist Li Xueqin to the liuren astrolabe, zhinan zhen, and Luopan.

Beginning with structures at Erlitou, 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 (traditional Chinese: 考工記; simplified Chinese: 考工记; "Manual of Crafts"). Rules for builders were codified in the carpenter's manual Lu ban jing (traditional Chinese: 魯班經; simplified Chinese: 鲁班经; "Lu ban's manuscript"). Graves and tombs also followed rules of Feng Shui, from Puyang to Mawangdui and beyond. From the earliest records, it seems that the rules for the structures of the graves and dwellings were the same.

The history of feng shui covers at least 4,000 years before the invention of the magnetic compass. Its origins are in astronomy. Some current techniques can be traced to Neolithic China, while others were added later (most notably the Han dynasty, the Tang, the Song, and the Ming).

The astronomical history of Feng Shui is evident in the development of instruments and techniques. According to the Zhouli the original Feng Shui instrument may have been a gnomon. 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.

The oldest examples of instruments used for feng shui are liuren astrolabes. These consist of a lacquered, two-sided board with astronomical sightlines. Liuren astrolabes have been unearthed from tombs that date between 278 BCE and 209 BCE. They show the cord-hook diagram and some models include the magic square of three. They were commonly used to chart the motion of Taiyi through the nine palaces. The markings are virtually unchanged from the astrolabe to the first magnetic compasses.

The magnetic compass was invented for Feng Shui and has been in use since its invention. Traditional Feng Shui instrumentation consists of the Luopan or the earlier south-pointing spoon (zhinan zhen) -- though a conventional compass could suffice if one understood the differences. A Feng Shui ruler (a later invention) may also be employed.

Qi (ch'i)
Qi is a difficult word to translate and is usually left untranslated. Literally the word means "air". In martial arts qi refers to internal or physical energy.

In New Age interpretations of Feng Shui, "qi" typically is synonymous with "energy" (usually interpreted as willpower and initiative). A more traditional explanation of qi as it relates to Feng Shui would consider a holistic understanding of local microclimates, the orientation of the structure, its age, and its interaction with the surrounding environment from the slope of the land to the vegetation and soil quality.

One use for a Luopan is to detect the flow of qi. 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.

Professor Max Knoll suggested in a 1951 lecture that qi is a form of solar radiation.[18] Compasses reflect local geomagnetism which includes geomagnetically induced currents caused by space weather.

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. There is some evidence that suicide rates in Kirovsk, Russia, fluctuate along with the geomagnetic field. Atmospheric scientists have suggested that space weather creates fluctuations in market prices

Polarity
Polarity is expressed in feng shui as Yin and Yang Theory. Polarity expressed through yin and yang is similar to a bipolar magnetic field. That is, it is of two parts: one creating an exertion and one receiving the exertion. Yang acting and yin receiving could be considered an early understanding of chirality. The development of Yin Yang Theory and its corollary, Five Phase Theory (Five Element Theory), have also been linked with astronomical observations of sunspots.

The so-called "elements" of feng shui (water, wood, fire, earth/soil, metal) are made of yin and yang in precise amounts (Greater wood has less yin than lesser wood, but not as much yin as water, and so forth). Earth is a buffer, or an equilibrium achieved when the polarities cancel each other. This explains why feng shui is said to be about balance.

Bagua (eight symbols)
Two 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.

In 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), α Hydrae

South: the Red Bird (Summer solstice) --- Huo (Fire), α Scorpionis

West: the White Tiger (Autumn equinox) --- Xu (Emptiness, Void), α Aquarii, β Aquarii

North: the Dark (Mysterious) Turtle (Winter solstice) --- Mao (Hair), η Tauri (the Pleiades)

The bagua diagrams are also linked with the sifang (four directions) method of divination used during the Shang dynasty.[29] 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

Modern developments
One of the grievances mentioned when the anti-Western Boxer Rebellion erupted was that Westerners were violating the basic principles of Feng Shui in their construction of railroads and other conspicuous public structures throughout China. At the time, Westerners had little idea of, or interest in, such Chinese traditions. Since Richard Nixon journeyed to The People's Republic of China in 1972, feng shui has become somewhat of an industry.

It has been reinvented by New Age entrepreneurs for Western consumption. Feng shui speaks to the profound role of magic, mystery, and order in American life. The following list does not exhaust the modern varieties.

Black Sect -- also called Black Sect Tantric Buddhist, or BTB Feng Shui) -- incorporated as a US church in 1984, with temples in California and New York. It was invented in the early 1980s by Thomas Lin Yun Rinpoche, who came to the US from Taiwan.

The history of feng shui used by the church doesn't match documentary or archaeological evidence, or what is known of the history of Tantrism in China. It relies on "transcendental" methods, the concept of clutter as metaphor for life circumstances, and the use of affirmations or intentions (what some deride as "happy talk") to achieve results. The BTB bagua was developed by Lin Yun. Each of the eight sectors that were once aligned to compass points now represent a particular area of one's life.

Shen Dao -- invented in the late 1970s by Harrison G. Kyng -- found a home in the UK. Kyng's invention uses Five Element Theory for medical purposes along with building assessment, and is supposed to help someone achieve greater physical and environmental benefits. The compass that Kyng developed incorporates many New Age concepts, including the idea of harmonics.

Magnetic north and the Luopan
In their marketing, some New Age enthusiasts of feng shui make claims about geomagnetism and its relationship to feng shui. These claims have been debunked for lack of scientific accuracy and feng shui knowledge.[37] An overview of the arguments is offered below.

Claim: The stability of Magnetic North is critical for the accuracy of reading your fortune with a compass. In physics the convention is that the end of a dipole magnet where the magnetic field flows out is the "north" pole of the magnet, and the "south" pole of the magnet is where the field flows in. The geomagnetic field flows out of the geographic South Pole, and runs back into the geographic North Pole -- so geomagnetic north is actually at the geographic South Pole. The convention is to call the pole in Canada the North Magnetic Pole. The fact that all geomagnetic poles wander has not prevented compasses from being useful.

All Chinese compasses point to geographic south (thus the literal translations "pointing-south needle" and "pointing-south spoon"). A Luopan is used to determine the orientation of structures or the angle of something in relation to a structure; it is not used to "read your fortune."

Claim: Magnetic North and True North (the Earth’s axis) are not the same. A Luopan compensates for this. On a Luopan the Human Plate Central Needle was added during the Tang dynasty to measure declination and this has been updated as necessary. During the southern Song dynasty the Heaven Plate Seam Needle was added for magnetic deviation and also updated as necessary. The Earth Plate Correct Needle indicates current geomagnetic conditions.

As Joseph Needham remarked in a lecture, "When speaking of magnetism and of the magnetic compass … in China people were worrying about the nature of the declination (why the needle does not usually point exactly to the north) before Europeans had even heard about the polarity." Declination was discovered, says Needham because "geomancers had been attending most carefully to the positions of their needles.”

Criticism
Victorian-era commentators on feng shui were generally ethnocentric, and as such skeptical and derogatory of what they knew of feng shui.

In 1896 at a meeting of the Educational Association of China, Rev. P.W. Pitcher railed at the "rottenness of the whole scheme of Chinese architecture," and urged fellow missionaries "to erect unabashedly Western edifices of several stories and with towering spires in order to destroy nonsense about fung-shuy."

Some modern Christians have a similar opinion of feng shui.

It is entirely inconsistent with Christianity to believe that harmony and balance result from the manipulation and channeling of nonphysical forces or energies, or that such can be done by means of the proper placement of physical objects. Such techniques, in fact, belong to the world of sorcery.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, feng shui has been officially deemed as a "feudalistic superstitious practice" and a "social evil" according to the state's atheistic Communist ideology and discouraged or even outright banned at times. Persecution was the most severe during the Cultural Revolution, when feng shui was classified as a custom under the so-called Four Olds to be wiped out. Feng shui practitioners were beaten and abused by Red Guards and their works burned. After the death of Mao Zedong and the end of the Cultural Revolution, the official attitude became more tolerant but restrictions on feng shui practice are still in place in today's China. It is illegal in the PRC today to register feng shui consultation as a business and similarly advertising feng shui practice is banned, and there have been frequent crackdowns on feng shui practitioners on the grounds of "promoting feudalistic superstitions" such as one in Qingdao in early 2006 when the city's business and industrial administration office shut down an art gallery converted into a feng shui practice. Communist officials who had consulted feng shui were sacked and expelled from the Communist Party.

Partly because of the Cultural Revolution, in today's PRC less than one-third of the population believe in feng shui, and the proportion of believers among young urban PRC Chinese is said to be much less than 5%. Among all the ethnic Chinese communities the PRC has the least number of feng shui believers in proportion to the general population. Learning feng shui is considered taboo in today's China. Nevertheless, it is reported that feng shui has gained adherents among Communist Party officials according to a BBC Chinese news commentary in 2006., and since the beginning of Chinese economic reforms the number of feng shui practitioners are increasing. A number of Chinese academics permitted to research on the subject of feng shui are anthropologists or architects by trade, studying the history of feng shui or historical feng shui theories behind the design of heritage buildings, such as Cao Dafeng, the Vice-President of Fudan University, and Liu Shenghuan of Tongji University.

Feng Shui practitioners have been skeptical of claims and methods in the "cultural supermarket." Mark Johnson made a telling point:

This present state of affairs is ludicrous and confusing. Do we really believe that mirrors and flutes are going to change people's tendencies in any lasting and meaningful way? ... There is a lot of investigation that needs to be done or we will all go down the tubes because of our inability to match our exaggerated claims with lasting changes.

A travelogue-type article from the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry explained feng shui initially as "a commonsense alignment of structures to conform to the shape of the land, an idea shared by any sensible architect in a land fraught with typhoons and torrential rains." However, after reading two books (one by field researcher Ole Bruun), the writer's conclusion was that feng shui "is more of a mystical belief in cosmic harmony."

Penn & Teller did an episode of their television show Bullshit! that featured several Feng Shui practitioners in the US, and was highly critical of the inconsistent (and frequently odd) advice. In the show, the entertainers argue that if Feng Shui is a science (as some claim), it should feature a consistent methodology.

People have reacted skeptically towards the alleged benefits of crystals, wind chimes, table fountains, and mirrored balls, etc., on one's life, finances, and relationships. Often, these claims are dismissed as New Age, pseudoscience, relying on the placebo effect, or even outright fraud.

Current research
 
A modern feng shui fountain at Taipei 101, TaiwanA growing body of research exists on what is now called "traditional" or "classical" feng shui.

Landscape ecologists find traditional feng shui an interesting study. In many cases, the only remaining patches of old forest in Asia are "feng shui woods," which strongly suggests the "healthy homes," sustainability and environmental components of ancient feng shui techniques should not be easily dismissed.

Environmental scientists and landscape architects have researched traditional feng shui and its methodologies.

Architectural schools study the principles as they applied to ancient vernacular architecture.

Geographers have analyzed the techniques and methods to help locate historical sites in Victoria, Canada,[64] and archaeological sites in the American Southwest, concluding that ancient Native Americans considered astronomy and landscape features.

Whether it is data on comparisons to scientific models, or the design and siting of buildings, graduate and undergraduate students have been accumulating solid evidence on what researchers call the "exclusive Chinese cultural achievement and experience in architecture that is feng shui.