User:Pldx1/Cast



Feng shui, also known as Chinese geomancy, was initially a traditional practice originating from ancient China, which claims to use energy forces to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment. The term 'feng shui' literally translates as "wind-water" in English, and is a cultural shorthand taken from a passage of the Book of Burial written by Guo Pu.

Historically, feng shui was widely used to orient buildings—often spiritually significant structures such as tombs, but also dwellings and other structures—in an auspicious manner. Depending on the particular style of feng shui being used, an auspicious site could be determined by reference to local features such as bodies of water, stars, or the compass.

=History=

Dubious or obvious

 * Until the invention of the magnetic compass, feng shui relied on astronomy to find correlations between humans and the universe.




 * The history of feng shui covers 3,500+ years before the invention of the magnetic compass. It originated in Chinese 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).

Time line

 * carbon 6700 BC to 5600 BC. Banpo phase of Yangshao; Jiangzhai, east of Xi'an, Yellow River ; disc. 1953


 * 5800 BC to 5400 BC. Dadiwan. Gansu and Shaanxi. 5900 BC to 5200 BC. At the site: Dadiwan (5900–5200 BC), Yangshao (c. 4800–2900 BC), Changshan (c. 2900–2800 BC)


 * c. 5000 BC to 3000 BC. Yangshao culture ; provinces of Henan, Shaanxi and Shanxi, along the Yellow River ; disc. 1921 by Johan Gunnar Andersson (1874–1960).


 * c. 4700 BC to 2900 BC. Hongshan culture (紅山文化) ; Inner Mongolia to Liaoning, along the Liao river ; disc. 1908 by Torii Ryūzō in 1908


 * 1046 BC to 771 BC. Western Zhou (西周)
 * 770 BC to 256 BC. Eastern Zhou (東周)

Origins

 * Yangshao and Hongshan cultures provide the earliest known evidence for the use of feng shui.


 * 4000 BC (date ?), the doors of Banpo dwellings aligned with 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.


 * Dadiwan (c. 3500–3000 BC), a late Yangshao site, includes a palace-like building (F901) at the center. The building faces south and borders a large plaza. It stands on a north–south axis with another building that apparently housed communal activities. Regional communities may have used the complex.


 * Puyang (around 4000 BC). A grave that contains mosaics— actually a Chinese star map 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, at Hongshan ceremonial centers and at the late Longshan settlement at Lutaigang, suggests that gaitian cosmography (heaven-round, earth-square) existed in Chinese society long before it appeared in the Zhoubi Suanjing.


 * Hanshan, around 3000 BC. A Cosmography that bears a striking resemblance to modern feng shui devices and formulas appears on a piece of jade unearthed here. Archaeologist Li Xueqin links the design to the liuren astrolabe, zhinan zhen, and luopan.


 * Beginning with palatial structures at Erlitou, all capital cities of China followed rules of feng shui for their design and layout.


 * During the Zhou era, the Kaogong ji ("Manual of Crafts") codified the rules of feng shui.
 * The carpenter's manual Lu ban jing ("Lu ban's manuscript") codified rules for builders.
 * Graves and tombs also followed rules of feng shui, from Puyang to Mawangdui and beyond.
 * From the earliest records, the structures of the graves and dwellings seem to have followed the same rules.

Early instruments and techniques

 * 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 used circumpolar 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 of the 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.


 * Rituals for using a feng shui instrument required a diviner to examine current sky phenomena to set the device and adjust their position in relation to the device.


 * The oldest examples of instruments used for feng shui are liuren astrolabes, also known as shi. These consist of a lacquered, two-sided board with astronomical sightlines. The earliest examples of liuren astrolabes have been unearthed from tombs that date between 278 BC and 209 BC.


 * Along with divination for Da Liu Ren the boards were commonly used to chart the motion of Taiyi through the nine palaces. The markings on a liuren/shi and the first magnetic compasses are virtually identical.


 * 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 (指南針 zhinan zhen)—though a conventional compass could suffice if one understood the differences.


 * A feng shui ruler (a later invention) may also be employed.

=Foundational concepts=

Definition and classification
Feng shui is one of the Five Arts of Chinese Metaphysics, classified as physiognomy (observation of appearances through formulas and calculations). The feng shui practice discusses architecture in terms of "invisible forces" that bind the universe, earth, and humanity together, known as qi.

The goal of feng shui as practiced today is to situate the human-built environment on spots with good qi, an imagined form of "energy". The "perfect spot" is a location and an axis in time.

Traditional feng shui is inherently a form of ancestor worship. Popular in farming communities for centuries, it was built on the idea that the ghosts of ancestors and other independent, intangible forces, both personal and impersonal, affected the material world, and that these forces needed to be placated through rites and suitable burial places, which the feng shui practitioner would assist with for a fee. The primary underlying value was material success for the living.

According to Stuart Vyse, feng shui is "a very popular superstition." Feng shui is classified as a pseudoscience since it exhibits a number of classic pseudoscientific aspects such as making claims about the functioning of the world which are not amenable to testing with the scientific method.

Qi (ch'i)
Qi (气 (pronounced "chee") is a movable positive or negative life force which plays an essential role in feng shui. The Book of Burial says that burial takes advantage of "vital qi". The Qing dynasty Wu Yuanin  said that vital qi was "congealed qi", which is the state of qi that engenders life. The goal of feng shui is to take advantage of vital qi by appropriate siting of graves and structures. Some people destroyed graveyards of their enemies to weaken their qi. Among them, Wu Zetian  against some rebels (684), Yuan destroying Emperor Lizong's grave, the Tianqi Emperor against Nurhaci (1622), Chiang Kai-shek against Mao Zedong (1930)

Polarity
Polarity is expressed in feng shui as yin and yang theory. Polarity expressed through yin and yang is similar to a magnetic dipole. 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 this theory and its corollary, five phase theory (five element theory), have also been linked with astronomical observations of sunspot.

The Five Elements or Forces (wu xing) – which, according to the Chinese, are metal, earth, fire, water, and wood – are first mentioned in Chinese literature in a chapter of the classic Book of History. They play a very important part in Chinese thought: ‘elements’ meaning generally not so much the actual substances as the forces essential to human life. Earth is a buffer, or an equilibrium achieved when the polarities cancel each other. While the goal of Chinese medicine is to balance yin and yang in the body, the goal of feng shui has been described as aligning a city, site, building, or object with yin-yang force fields.

Bagua (eight trigrams)
Eight 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) was developed first, and is sometimes associated with Later Heaven arrangement of the bagua. This and the Yellow River Chart (Hetu, sometimes associated with the Earlier Heaven bagua) are linked to astronomical events of the sixth millennium BC, 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 BC, plus or minus 250 years.

In Yaodian, the cardinal directions are determined by the marker-stars of the mega-constellations known as the Four Celestial Animals:
 * East: The Azure Dragon (Spring equinox)—Niao (Bird 鳥), α Scorpionis
 * South: The Vermilion Bird (Summer solstice)—Huo (Fire 火), α Hydrae
 * West: The White Tiger (Autumn equinox)—Mǎo (Hair 毛), η Tauri (the Pleiades)
 * North: The Black Tortoise (Winter solstice)—Xū (Emptiness, Void 虛), α Aquarii, β Aquarii

The diagrams are also linked with the sifang (four directions) method of divination used during the Shang dynasty. 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 Yellow Emperor (Huangdi) who allegedly invented the south-pointing spoon (see compass).

=Traditional feng shui= Traditional feng shui is an ancient system based upon the observation of heavenly time and earthly space. Literature, as well as archaeological evidence, provide some idea of the origins and nature of feng shui techniques. Aside from books, there is also a strong oral history. In many cases, masters have passed on their techniques only to selected students or relatives. Modern practitioners of feng shui draw from several branches in their own practices.

Form Branch
The Form Branch is the oldest branch of feng shui. Qing Wuzi in the Han dynasty describes it in the Book of the Tomb and Guo Pu of the Jin dynasty follows up with a more complete description in The Book of Burial.

The Form branch was originally concerned with the location and orientation of tombs (Yin House feng shui), which was of great importance. The branch then progressed to the consideration of homes and other buildings (Yang House feng shui). ****

The "form" in Form branch refers to the shape of the environment, such as mountains, rivers, plateaus, buildings, and general surroundings. It considers the five celestial animals (phoenix, green dragon, white tiger, black turtle, and the yellow snake), the yin-yang concept and the traditional five elements (Wu Xing: wood, fire, earth, metal, and water).

The Form branch analyzes the shape of the land and flow of the wind and water to find a place with ideal qi. It also considers the time of important events such as the birth of the resident and the building of the structure.

Compass Branch
The Compass branch is a collection of more recent feng shui techniques based on the Eight Directions, each of which is said to have unique qi. It uses the Luopan, a disc marked with formulas in concentric rings around a magnetic compass.

The Compass Branch includes techniques such as Flying Star and Eight Mansions.

=List of specific feng shui branches=

Popular Xingshi Pai (形勢派) "forms" methods

 * Luan Tou Pai, 巒頭派, Pinyin: luán tóu pài, (environmental analysis without using a compass)
 * Xing Xiang Pai, 形象派 or 形像派, Pinyin: xíng xiàng pài, (Imaging forms)
 * Xingfa Pai, 形法派, Pinyin: xíng fǎ pài

Popular Liiqi Pai (理气派) "Compass" methods
San Yuan Method, 三元派 (Pinyin: sān yuán pài) San He Method, 三合派 (environmental analysis using a compass)
 * Dragon Gate Eight Formation, 龍門八法 (Pinyin: lóng mén bā fǎ)
 * Xuan Kong, 玄空 (time and space methods)
 * Xuan Kong Fei Xing 玄空飛星 (Flying Stars methods of time and directions)
 * Xuan Kong Da Gua, 玄空大卦 ("Secret Decree" or 64 gua relationships)
 * Xuan Kong Mi Zi, 玄空秘旨 (Mysterious Space Secret Decree)
 * Xuan Kong Liu Fa, 玄空六法 (Mysterious Space Six Techniques)
 * Zi Bai Jue, 紫白訣 (Purple White Scroll)
 * Accessing Dragon Methods
 * Ba Zhai, 八宅 (Eight Mansions)
 * Yang Gong Feng Shui, 楊公風水
 * Water Methods, 河洛水法
 * Local Embrace

Others
 * Yin House Feng Shui, 陰宅風水 (Feng Shui for the deceased)
 * Four Pillars of Destiny, 四柱命理 (a form of hemerology)
 * Zi Wei Dou Shu, 紫微斗數 (Purple Star Astrology)
 * I-Ching, 易經 (Book of Changes)
 * Qi Men Dun Jia, 奇門遁甲 (Mysterious Door Escaping Techniques)
 * Da Liu Ren, 大六壬 (Divination: Big Six Heavenly Yang Water Qi)
 * Tai Yi Shen Shu, 太乙神數 (Divination: Tai Yi Magical Calculation Method)
 * Date Selection, 擇日 (Selection of auspicious dates and times for important events)
 * Chinese Palmistry, 掌相學 (Destiny reading by palm reading)
 * Chinese Face Reading, 面相學 (Destiny reading by face reading)
 * Major & Minor Wandering Stars (Constellations)
 * Five phases, 五行 (relationship of the five phases or wuxing)
 * BTB Black (Hat) Tantric Buddhist Sect (Westernised or Modern methods not based on Classical teachings)
 * Symbolic Feng Shui, (New Age Feng Shui methods that advocate substitution with symbolic (spiritual, appropriate representation of five elements) objects if natural environment or object/s is/are not available or viable)
 * Pierce Method of Feng Shui ( Sometimes Pronounced : Von Shway ) The practice of melding striking with soothing furniture arrangements to promote peace and prosperity

=Contemporary uses of traditional feng shui= Landscape ecologists often find traditional feng shui an interesting study. In many cases, the only remaining patches of Asian old forest are "feng shui woods", associated with cultural heritage, historical continuity, and the preservation of various flora and fauna species. Some researchers interpret the presence of these woods as indicators that the "healthy homes", sustainability and environmental components of traditional feng shui should not be easily dismissed.

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

Architects study feng shui as an Asian architectural tradition.

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

Believers use it for healing purposes though there is no empirical evidence that it is in any way effective, to guide their businesses, or create a peaceful atmosphere in their homes. In particular, they use feng shui in the bedroom, where a number of techniques involving colors and arrangement achieve comfort and peaceful sleep. Some users of feng shui may be trying to gain a sense of security or control, such as by choosing auspicious numbers for their phones or favorable house locations. Their motivation is similar to the reasons that some people consult fortune-tellers.

=Western criticism from the past=

Matteo Ricci (1552–1610), one of the founding fathers of Jesuit China missions, may have been the first European to write about feng shui practices. His account in De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas tells about feng shui masters (geologi, in Latin) studying prospective construction sites or grave sites "with reference to the head and the tail and the feet of the particular dragons which are supposed to dwell beneath that spot". As a Catholic missionary, Ricci strongly criticized the "recondite science" of geomancy along with astrology as yet another superstitio absurdissima of the heathens: "What could be more absurd than their imagining that the safety of a family, honors, and their entire existence must depend upon such trifles as a door being opened from one side or another, as rain falling into a courtyard from the right or from the left, a window opened here or there, or one roof being higher than another?"

At the start of the Boxer Rebellion, Westerners were criticized for purposely violating the basic principles of feng shui in the construction of railroads and other conspicuous public structures throughout China.

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".

=Criticism=

Confirmation bias
Evidence for the effectiveness of feng shui is based primarily upon anecdote, allowing the well known confirmation bias. This bias is illustrated in the following case study (main land China, 1996)
 * When we built this house in 1988 we invited a specialist. But after we moved here the family did not fare well. We were often sick and many of our animals died... I thought I could remedy the situation myself by fetching a large slab of stone in the mountains and placing it in front of the entrance so that money did not flow out of the house so easily. But it didn't help. Then I thought that the stone was too close to the entrance, so I moved it 50 feet down into the garden in front of the house. And since, we have not had any misfortunes and all is well.

The full story is about two failures not followed by a third one. Describing it as a success is typical of the phenomenon.

Critical analysts have described it thus: "Feng shui has always been based upon mere guesswork".

Haruspex haruspicem
The case against divination is not something recent, and the Cicero's remark "mirari quod non rideret haruspex haruspicem cum vidisset" (How Can They Keep from Laughing) is ever actual, even if this remark is more about the diviners themselves than about divination proper. Here are some quotes from some practitioner's sites:
 * ~ They all seek to cash in while misleading the unsuspecting, taking full advantage before the unin-formed consumer wises up and begins to question the myriad inconsistencies.
 * ~ The faux schools of feng shui are often linked with Life Aspirations or Black Hat Sect Tantric Buddhist feng shui theory. Developed during the 1970s and 1980s respectively, these commercialized schools [describe themselves] as “modern” or “Western” schools.
 * ~ 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.

How many larks in this lark pie?
In the West, Feng Shui is advertized as a practice by geomancers trained in the ancient traditions of Chinese wisdom. But more often than not, Feng Shui is written only on the packaging, and what is really sold to the customer is just cheap, “one size fits all” numerology. This can be compared to the well-known Leipziger Lerche (songbird pie): what you got nowadays under this name is a small pie with shortcrust dough, a marzipan filling, and a cross made in the top. But you won’t find any trace of a songbird inside it.

The same occurs for the Ba Zhai (八宅 Eight Mansions) recipe as revisited on Moran's book. It can be summarized as:
 * Let $$X$$ be your year of birth. Use $$n=(x-5) \mod 9$$ if you are a woman, and $$n=(11-x) \mod 9$$ otherwise.
 * Let $$(x,y,z)$$ be the three digits of the $$n$$-th trigram (Luoshu order). Use them to scramble the trigrams of the Eight Directions according to $$\Phi : \left[ \begin {array}{c} x \\ y\\ z\end {array} \right] \mapsto \left[ \begin {array}{cccccccc} 1-x&1-x&x&x&x&1-x&1-x&x

\\ y&1-y&1-y&y&y&y&1-y&1-y\\ z&1-z &1-z&z&1-z&1-z&z&z\end {array} \right] $$ This tells you the directions to live, to work, to sleep, and to avoid. You can even do the same with your house and your significant other. In other words, the real product sold to the consumer is not a 4000 years old wisdom, but an unexplained $$3\times 8$$ matrix.

Some other criticisms

 * Feng shui can turn into a double edged sword. It was said that Zhu Yuanzhang became the first Ming emperor because his father was buried in a feng shui place. After that, Feng Shui became a heart disease for the emperor's dignitaries. Because, if Feng Shui really had such a big effect, there would not be only one piece of Feng Shui treasure land that can be used for the emperor. If others buried their parents in such a treasure land of Feng Shui, shouldn't they be the emperor?


 * The compass branch of feng shui relies upon the compass to give accurate readings. However, critics point out that the compass degrees are often inaccurate as fluctuations caused by solar winds have the ability to greatly disturb the electromagnetic field of the earth. Determining a property or site location based upon Magnetic North will result in inaccuracies because true magnetic north fluctuates.


 * Today, feng shui is practiced not only by the Chinese, but also by Westerners and is still criticized by Christians around the world. Many modern Christians have an opinion of feng shui similar to that of their predecessors:
 * 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.


 * Users are often offered conflicting advice from different practitioners. Feng shui practitioners use these differences as evidence of variations in practice or different branches of thought.


 * The recent attempts to "modernize" feng shui in order to sell it better in the West has been branded as pseudo-science in the West and as "modern-day’s pursuit of easy (or lazy) quick-fixes to happiness has dramatically altered the blueprint of this thousands of years old ancient wisdom, and mutated it into a fashionable fad made for comedy TV" in the East.

=Contemporary practice by country=

Mainland China
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the state's ideology officially considered feng shui as a "feudalistic superstitious practice" and a "social evil". Accordingly, feng shui was discouraged and even banned outright at times.

During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) feng shui was classified as one of the so-called Four Olds that were to be wiped out. Feng shui practitioners were beaten and abused by Red Guards and their works burned.

Nevertheless, after the death of Mao Zedong and the end of the Cultural Revolution, the official attitude became more tolerant, even if restrictions on feng shui practice are still in place in today's China.

As soon as 1996, geomancy was back and flourishing again, at least in rural localities. Feng Shui is used not only about graves and new houses construction, but also regarding to diseases, newborn babies, business affairs, etc. In a case study, Bruun notes that:
 * The liberalization of the health sector meant that medical personnel no longer were assigned to work in rural areas... All doctors in  Longchuan have moved to the cities... the local health clinic has been abandoned. Rural people now have to travel to an urban hospital to see a doctor.
 * Earlier, when health care was publicly provided in villages and treatment was inexpensive, most people were likely to see a doctor first and then a  geomancer only if the cure did not work. Now the sequence has changed,  especially for the lower-income group of peasants.

It remained illegal in the PRC to register feng shui consultation as a business and similarly advertising feng shui practice was banned. Some communist officials who had previously consulted feng shui were terminated and expelled from the Communist Party. Moreover 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. Learning in order to practice feng shui is still somewhat considered taboo in today's China.

Nevertheless, a number of Chinese academics are permitted to research on the subject of feng shui, such as anthropologists or architects by profession, studying the history of feng shui or historical feng shui theories behind the design of heritage buildings, such as Cai Dafeng, the Vice-President of Fudan University.

In 2006, a debate organized by Shandong Qilu Tai on the topic: is Feng Shui a science or a superstition, gave a third for science, while a BBC Chinese news commentary of the same year reported that feng shui has gained adherents among Communist Party officials. In fact, Feng shui practitioners in China find superstitious and corrupt officials easy prey, despite official disapproval. In one instance, in 2009, county officials in Gansu, on the advice of feng shui practitioners, spent $732,000 to haul a 369-ton "spirit rock" to the county seat to ward off "bad luck".

As a result, the number of feng shui practitioners is increasing since the beginning of Chinese economic reforms.

Greater China
Feng shui remained popular in Hong Kong, and also in the Republic of China (Taiwan), where traditional culture was not suppressed.

In 2005,Hong Kong Disneyland acknowledged feng shui by shifting the main gate by twelve degrees in their building plans. This was among actions suggested by the planner of architecture and design at Walt Disney Imagineering, Wing Chao, in an effort to incorporate local culture into the theme park.

At Singapore Polytechnic and other institutions, professionals including engineers, architects, property agents and interior designers, take courses on feng shui and divination every year, a number of them becoming part-time or full-time feng shui consultants.

U.S.A.
After Richard Nixon journeyed to the People's Republic of China in 1972, feng shui became marketable in the United States and has since been reinvented by New Age entrepreneurs for Western consumption. This has resulted into "a multi-billion-dollar industry, affecting millions of people. It has medical, health, architectural, building construction, town planning, interior design, and divination components ref= chap13, p. 1

As summarized by Robert T. Carroll, the product sold ranges in the "bigger-faster-cheaper" category, and "feng shui has become an aspect of interior decorating in the Western world and alleged masters of feng shui now hire themselves out for hefty sums to tell people such as Donald Trump which way his doors and other things should hang. Feng shui has also become another New Age "energy" scam with arrays of metaphysical products...offered for sale to help you improve your health, maximize your potential, and guarantee fulfillment of some fortune cookie philosophy.

Practitioners of "Chinese" forms of feng shui are concerned that with the passage of time much of the theory behind it has been lost in translation, not paid proper consideration, frowned upon, or even scorned. On the contrary, Emmons has described this process as some form of social justice. Many of the higher-level forms of feng shui are not easily practiced without having connections in the community or a certain amount of wealth because hiring an expert, altering architecture or design, and moving from place to place requires a significant financial outlay. This opened the way to less expensive forms of feng shui, including hanging special (but cheap) mirrors, forks, or woks in doorways to deflect negative energy.

Beside of being characterized as "fast-food fengshui", this Western fengshui also encounters a characterization of pseudo-science, since it uses a large set of bogus assertions about modern science. According to Matthews **** to be continued****

In a general context where:
 * ~ In the early 1970s, it was estimated that there were 200,000 practicing astrologers in the United States and reportedly there were 5 million Americans spending $ 200 million per year on astrological consultations (Manolesco, 1973). More recently, a 2016 Gallup poll indicate that 25% of adults in the USA give credence to astrology and variously indulge it
 * ~ A 1995 study of Ohio science teachers found 40% favoured teaching creationism in biology as a genuine alternative to Darwinian theory. A 2008 study found that 13% of US biology teachers reject evolution in favour of creationism . Moreover, the general public opinion was 13% in favor of scientific evolution, 30% in favor of an evolution "guided by God" and around 50% in favor of a direct creation, in the most recent period.
 * ~ A 1995 study at the University of Texas revealed 60% of students believed that communication with the dead was possible. A 2005 US Gallup poll of 1002 citizens (with a sampling error of 3%) showed that 40% of US citizens believed in ESP, 32% believed in ghosts, and 30% believed in telepathy (Musella 2005).

the Five Classics of Feng Shui remained on the bookshelves,

The stage magician duo Penn and Teller dedicated an episode of their Bullshit! television show to criticise the construal of contemporary practice of feng shui in the Western world as science. In this episode, they devised a test in which the same dwelling was visited by five different feng shui consultants, all five producing different opinions about said dwelling, by which means it was attempted to show there is no consistency in the professional practice of feng shui.

More recent forms of feng shui simplify principles that come from the traditional branches, and focus mainly on the use of the bagua. The Eight Life Aspirations style of feng shui is a simple system which coordinates each of the eight cardinal directions with a specific life aspiration or station such as family, wealth, fame, etc., which come from the Bagua government of the eight aspirations. Life Aspirations is not otherwise a geomantic system.

=See also=


 * Bagua
 * Book of Burial
 * Chinese spiritual world concepts
 * Four Symbols
 * Five elements
 * Green Satchel Classic
 * Huoheian
 * Luopan
 * Tung Shing (Chinese almanac)
 * Shigandang
 * Ley line
 * Tajul muluk
 * Vastu shastra

=References=

=Sources=

to be rescued

 * Rescue 1990: chinese title, translation and link are to be found.
 * Rescue 1990: chinese title, translation and link are to be found.


 * Rescue 2900 Chinese title, chinese work, and a link are to be found
 * Rescue 2900 Chinese title, chinese work, and a link are to be found


 * Rescue 2012. Missing author, and an alive link
 * Rescue 2012. Missing author, and an alive link

books from the past

 * , often used by academic sources.




 * , various years, vol I-II-III-IV-V-VI


 * # 87. the Cosmogony (Chinese) article is a must !!!


 * , length=444 pages.
 * Includes translations of Archetypal burial classic of Qing Wu; The inner chapter of the Book of burial rooted in antiquity ; The yellow emperor's classic of house siting; Twenty four difficult problems; The secretly passed down water dragon classic.


 * , length=616 pages ## 71


 * Dover reprint ISBN: 0-486-28092-6

books (recent)







 * , length= 264 pages


















 * pages given could be relative to the 1st ed., not to the 2nd. To be checked.
 * pages given could be relative to the 1st ed., not to the 2nd. To be checked.




 * , lenght=152 p.


 * , length= 256 pages
 * review at https://www.jstor.org/stable/23732097




 * , length=440,
 * review at https://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/1.1445553



Theses






Articles and Chapters

 * http://paulbourguignon.com/writing/Bourguignon%20CV5.htm
 * Bourguignon, E. (2005). Geomancy. In L. Jones, M. Eliade & C Adams (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Religion (p. 513). Detroit, MI: Macmillan. (Reprinted from Death, afterlife and the soul, pp. 191–192, by L. E. Sullivan, (Ed.), 1987, New York, NY: MacMillan)... ???
 * Bourguignon, E. (2005). Geomancy. In L. Jones, M. Eliade & C Adams (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Religion (p. 513). Detroit, MI: Macmillan. (Reprinted from Death, afterlife and the soul, pp. 191–192, by L. E. Sullivan, (Ed.), 1987, New York, NY: MacMillan)... ???


















 * , Sheffield and MIT.































Blogs, columns, etc







 * , rescued from http://culture.people.com.cn/GB/27296/3941393.html











Traditional China







 * +684


 * 1280 rem: 考古(Kaogu)=Archaeology


 * 1622


 * 1627 . The "Ming Sizong robbed Li Zicheng's ancestral grave" section can be read at rem: the 23-feb-2010 capture is still alive


 * 1930

Mainland China

 * 1996


 * 2001


 * 2005


 * 2006


 * 2006


 * 2006


 * 2013



Greater China

 * 2005 . Centered on HK Disney


 * 2009


 * 2010

Old Korea

 * linked at KCI
 * linked at KCI


 * Jorgensen, 451 pages




 * Kim Tak, 313 pages.


 * Yang Seung-mok




 * , length=444 p.

U.S.A





 * quote: Astrology is pre-scientific. It was developed millennia before we knew about the actual fundamental forces in nature, thus it makes no claims to having a basis in any real science. That's good, because appealing to any of the real forces in nature would be implausible;
 * quote: Astrology is pre-scientific. It was developed millennia before we knew about the actual fundamental forces in nature, thus it makes no claims to having a basis in any real science. That's good, because appealing to any of the real forces in nature would be implausible;


 * , length= 336 pages.








 * , length= 220 pages

Haruspex haruspicem



 * practitioner at Portland ME, turned to dowsing.


 * The second part of the article is not reproduced on the new website.
 * The second part of the article is not reproduced on the new website.




 * , length xxii+406 pages


 * , length=150 pages



Amulets and Talismans New Age Movement Pseudoscience

Category:Aesthetics Category:Architectural theory Category:Chinese gardening styles Category:Chinese words and phrases Category:Divination Category:Environmental design Category:Geomancy Category:New Age practices Category:Pseudoscience Category:Superstitions Category:Taoist cosmology Category:Taoist divination Category:Types of garden