Today, there are two classical schools of Feng Shui: the Form-Force School and the Structure-Qi School, and the New Age Feng Shui School, which has been developed in Western culture and is mixed with esotericism.
Shapes Force School
The Form Power School (chi: xíng shì pài 形勢派 ) is the older classical school and has received various names. In Europe, the school is also known as landscape school and in China as li xíng pài (派). Because mainly methods of mountain/hill assessment are applied, it is also called luán tóu pài (巒頭派 deu: mountain top school).
The first beginnings of the landscape school are found in the work “Zhang Shu “1 (deu: Book of Tombs) by Guo Pu (276-324) in the Jin Dynasty (265-420, at which time the Yin-Yang school prevailed.) It involves the assessment of the visible landscape and was developed in roughly the mountainous southeastern province of Jiangxi. As can be seen from the title, Feng Shui was applied to Yin, graves, so that the ancestors have a good place, are happy and support the descendants favorably. Yang Yunsong (834-900) in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) first named the Form Power School (Landscape School).1
In the classical school, the xíng shì (形勢 deu: topographical features of a place) is studied. The methods of Yin and Yang, the five phases of transformation, the four animals are used to analyze the flow of Qi. The 5 planet method describes 5 mountain forms, which are assigned to the 5 phases of transformation and the planets: Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus and Mercury. Of course, the water kites (waters, roads) are also judged in the form school. Mentioning the more detailed methods for mountains and water is beyond the scope of this article.
The feng shui expert Yang Yunsong (834-900) of the Tang period first named the Form Power School as such.
Structure Qi School
At the time of the Song dynasty (960-1279), the Structure Qi school emerged as a counterpart, better complement to the Forms-Force-School.2 The politically turbulent period of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), with the capital retreating to Hangzou (on the eastern coast, bordering the plain to the east and the hilly terrain to the south), probably encouraged the development of the new school.
The structure qi school (chi: lǐ qì pài 氣理派 ), also called compass school, mainly uses the techniques of the directional system sān hé (三合) and the time system sān yuán (三元) and is mainly applied in yang – feng shui (houses and apartments).
During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the branches of “flying stars” (chi: fēixing eng: Flying Star) and “mysterious void” (chi: xuangkong ) developed massively. The “flying stars” are a method of the San Yuan and thus belong to the Compass School.
New Age Feng School
The evolution to the New Age Feng Shui school actually began during the Qing Dynasty. In this period, in addition to the serious feng shui experts, there were some superficial feng shui consultants to charlatans. In the 20th century, Lin Yun developed, among other things, the three-door bagua. The methods of New Age Feng Shui can be derived only rudimentarily from the classical methods of the Compass School. With various guidebooks of the last 30 years, this, from my point of view, superficial method spread.
For serious Feng Shui consultants in Europe it is therefore all the more difficult to acquire the methods of classical Feng Shui. There are only a handful of well-trained Feng Shui masters in German-speaking countries.
- the only surviving “book of tombs” [Kubny: Feng Shui p.118/9].
- 2008 Kubny, Manfred Dr.: “Feng Shui: The Structure of the World” p.121
Related links
Sources
For the Chinese terms and characters I used the glossary of M. Kubny(Wikipedia: Manfred Kubny): “Feng Shui: Structure “2 and leo.org.
- Timetable https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeittafel_China
- 2008 Kubny, Manfred Dr.: “Feng Shui: The Structure of the World“.
- 2006 Skinner, Stephen: “Feng Shui” deu, Parragon Books, Ltd, Bath UK. 978-1405455343
Links
- Felix Niakamal: Yi Feng Shui: Feng Shui Misconceptions: Feng Shui is not a Superstition
