Page 154 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A-Z 147

The gecko as one of the five noxious creatures

Geomancy

feng-shui

For two thousand years geomancy was the science of ‘Wind and Water’ (feng-shui).
No one would build a house or select a burial spot without consulting the geomancer
beforehand. In dire necessity, one could make do without advice from the astrologer
or from the adept at interpreting oracles; but the feng-shui expert – who today might
be described as an ecologist – could not be ignored.
‘Ensure harmony in the Middle’, we are told in the ‘Book of Rites’ (Li-ji),
‘and heaven and earth take their rightful places and all things flourish.’
What mattered was so to channel and organise natural forces that these would exercise as
favourable an influence as possible: so houses, bridges, walls, copses, etc., had to be
planned and sited with extreme care. Feng-shui required knowledge of the earth’s surface
(di-li, which is the modern term for ‘geography’), the study of yin and yang and
mastery of a specific technology. For example, it was for the geomancer to align the
angle of a door, which was often set askew to the house if the whole house could not be
built at the angle recommended by geomancy. For similar reasons, all the houses in a
village street had to be the same height: those in front must not obscure those behind.
‘Even outside the village no high building could be put up on the right-hand side (i.e. on
the west side facing south), nor could a high tree remain. This was in accordance with the
instructions of the white tiger which lived at the right-hand side of every village. The
green dragon, however, which lived at the left-hand side of the village, did not
object’ (W. Oehler, Popular Religion in China).