Feng Shui History
Feng shui history dates back thousands of years. Although the specific year is debatable due to lack of clear cut evidence, it is said to have begun at least 4,000 years ago. The whole theory is based on using the laws of heaven and earth to create positive ‘qi’ or life force. Feng shui literally translates to ‘wind-water’ and can be found in an ancient Chinese scripture stating that “qi rides the wind and scatters, but is retained when encountering water.” There’s this balancing force that is needed in order to create harmony.
Looking at feng shui history, we can see that it has come a long way. It was developed as a way to find locations where groups of inhabitants can enjoy good health, happiness, auspiciousness, prosperity and abundant harvest. How they did this was by studying the formation of the land and the ways of the wind and water. Years of recorded findings led to basic principles that have been passed on from generation to generation. Its origins date back almost 4,000 years, but it wasn’t until around the Tang Dynasty that there has been actual recorded proof. Emperors relied on feng shui to ensure their success and built palaces and tombs in accordance to the principles.
There have been many changes throughout feng shui history, and as a result different schools of feng shui developed. The original is known as the Form School, where landscape is heavily analyzed. By observing your environment and surroundings, you get an understanding of the ‘qi’ of the land based on shape, size and relative position in relation to each other. Recordings of Form School date back to the Tang Dynasty and represents the earliest form in feng shui history, many of these principles are still being used as feng shui basics today.
Compass School was derived shortly after according to feng shui history, it made its mark some time in the Song Dynasty. This school uses a special feng shui compass which incorporates both time and direction and makes use of yin yang and five element theories. The Compass School is broken down into two main sectors, Eight Mansions and Flying Star. Simply put, Eight Mansions uses your date of birth to help calculate directions or areas of your environment that is favorable to you. Flying Star is much more comprehensive and takes the compass, yin yang and the five elements to a whole new level. Practitioners of Flying Star believe that all things are energy and they are in a constant state of change, time and direction reflect that.
The Black Hat Sect is the most recent of these schools in Feng Shui history, it has its origins in Tantric Buddhism and was brought over to the U.S. in the 1970′s. It is very easy to understand and apply, therefore it has been adopted by many people in the western world. There is no need to use a compass, just use the map bagua on a room based on the direction of the door. It’s so easy to implement that people all over the world are using this ancient art of placement in their own homes.
