Feng shui (pronounced “fung shway”) has come to the United States and other Western countries riding on the wave of interest, since the 1960s, in all things Eastern. Donald Trump uses feng shui, as does Merrill Lynch.1 At the Whitney Museum of American Art’s biennial exhibit, an artist selling two stone lions chose the buyer based on applications that explained potential buyers’ feng shui problems.
Feng shui is used on a regular basis in China, Tibet, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines,3 and increasingly by those from Asian cultures living in the West. In early 2001, Hong Kong billionaire businessman Eric Hotung decided to sell the house he had bought for $6 million from Senator Ted Kennedy in 1997 because he thought that the house “suffer[ed] from bad fengshui.”
Feng shui, however, is not just for the rich and famous. Business people, merchants, home builders, real estate brokers, interior designers, corporate managers, regular home buyers, and others are paying high fees for feng shui consultants.5 In addition to an increasing number of books that reveal its popularity, an Internet search discloses the existence of the International Feng Shui Guild, the Feng Shui Society, The American Feng Shui Institute, the Feng Shui Network, and various courses on feng shui offered through Web sites and universities.
What is feng shui? Many believe it to be just another decorating concept. One Web site promoting feng shui says it is “about balance, comfort and harmony. Feng shui is not a religion or a mystical belief. Rather, it is a science that offers the ability to create a balance in your dwelling or place of work.” One “how to” book says, “This Chinese art of harmonious placement is largely common sense and good design.”7 Beneath the veneer of this ancient art, however, are concepts that go far beyond common sense decorating advice.
Feng (“wind”) shui (“water”) originated within the context of Chinese Taoism. It is an intricate system designed to harness the flow of an invisible universal force called chi (pronounced “chee,” also spelled qi, ki, or ch’i) in order to maximize its benefits. The chi in one’s physical surroundings, in concert with yin and yang energies and the five elements (earth, water, fire, metal, and wood), is thought to be affected by the characteristics and placement of physical objects: “The skill of a Feng Shui consultant lies in recognising where chi is flowing freely, where it is trapped and stagnant, or where it may be excessive. The work of an occupier is to create space for chi to flow and activate the opportunities that may be frustrated by obstacles.”
Another definition calls feng shui an “ancient and complex Chinese art that combines mysticism, science, and superstition to determine health, luck, and prosperity according to natural landscapes and the placement of dwellings, buildings, and graves.…Its fundamental concept is that in order to be healthy and prosper, one must be in harmony with the earth and receive the benefit of ch’i, the universal life principle, which exists in all things and flows through the earth and nature.”
Other definitions also indicate its basis in Taoist philosophy: “Feng Shui is the science of divining Yin and Yang in one’s immediate environment.”10 Feng shui is “terrestrial divination,” used to “discover how energy flows in the land and to live in harmony with it”; it is the oldest form of Taoist divination.