The Feng Shui Dictionary
Lillian Too
Contents
Cover
Title Page
The Harmony of Yin and Yang Energies
Feng Shui means “wind and water.” In the literal sense it refers to the topography of the earth, its mountains, valleys, and waterways, whose shapes and sizes, orientation, and levels are created by the continuous interaction of these two powerful forces of nature.
To people of Chinese origin all over the world, Feng Shui connotes a mystical practice that blends ancient wisdom with cultural superstitions. This broad body of traditional knowledge lays down guidelines for differentiating between auspicious and inauspicious land sites. It also provides instructions on how to orient homes and design room layouts to enhance the quality of life dramatically.
In the family home, well-oriented Feng Shui features work to create harmonious relationships between husband and wife and between children and parents, foster good health, and attract abundance and prosperity. They bring good fortune to the breadwinner, build good reputations, and strengthen descendants’ luck – children who will bring honor and happiness to the family in the future.
In business premises, good Feng Shui creates opportunities for growth, elevates prestige in the community, attracts customers, raises profits, and expands turnover. Employees stay loyal and a pervasive aura of goodwill ensures smooth working relationships.
Good Feng Shui results when the winds and the waters surrounding your home and work space are harmonious and well balanced. Bad Feng Shui, on the other hand, brings illness, disasters, accidents, burglaries, and financial loss. It results in lost opportunities, fading careers, squandered wealth, and collapsed reputations. Above all, bad Feng Shui causes grave unhappiness, and it can sometimes even provoke tragic consequences for the reputation and well-being of the family unit as a whole.
Feng Shui is an exciting component of ancient Chinese wisdom – a science that goes back at least 4,000 years to the days of the emperors and mythical legends. That it has so brilliantly survived the centuries bears testimony to its potency. In recent years there has been an extensive revival of interest in its practice, particularly in the West, where the study of Feng Shui began as a New Age phenomenon, but has now attracted mainstream attention.
The current popularity of Feng Shui stems from the widespread appeal of its simple logic. While its many theories and guidelines are based on the Chinese view of the universe, the fundamentals are easily understood and widely applicable. Its laws and tenets relate to simple basic concepts that advocate living harmoniously with the environment, creating balance in the living space, and blending in with the natural landscapes of the world: the contours of the land, the terrain of the earth, the rivers and waterways of the world, sunlight and moonlight, vegetation, orientations, and directions – in short the winds and waters of the living earth that surrounds us.
Note
Words in bold have their own entries in the dictionary which the reader can refer to for further explanation.
Feng Shui …
… advocates living in harmony with the earth’s environment and energy lines so that there is balance with the forces of nature.
… contends that the environment is crowded with powerful, but invisible energy lines.
… says that some of these energy lines are auspicious, bringing great good fortune, while some are pernicious and hostile, bringing death and the destruction of happiness.
… offers ways of arranging