What Is Feng Shui – A Science or Belief?
Article by Joey Yap









More than the years, I have put forth the view that Classical Feng Shui is a scientific practice. Now, I have espoused that view of Feng Shui all more than the globe, when I teach Feng Shui, BaZi and Mian Xiang at seminars. So I was very pleasantly surprised to come across out that my comments had produced a buzzing debate over the question of what creature Feng Shui is – is it scientific practice? Pseudo-science? Or purely belief? Hence, I thought I would address this issue in more depth and explore the scientific side of Classical Feng Shui.
You have to Think in Feng Shui, so it’s not science.
Wait a minute – you also have to think in your physician, before you go and see him or her. You also have to believe in your lawyer just before you appoint him to defend you in a case. Does that mean that the whole body of medical science is not valid if you don’t think your doctor’s diagnosis? Of course not.
When folks exhort that Feng Shui is not a science or not scientific, the difficulty is, people might not realize what science is to begin with. The word ‘science’ comes from the Latin word scientia, which signifies information. According to Wikipedia, science can be defined just as “any systematic field of study or the understanding gained from it”. So, how does Feng Shui measure up against this definition?
There is no doubt that Classical Feng Shui is a systematic field of study: by systematic I mean it has simple models, simple principles, empirical evidence and most importantly, documented observation. It is not made up. It is not this today, that tomorrow. It is not without logical explanation.
How do scientists arrive at scientific conclusions? They conduct experiments, observe the outcomes, repeat those experiments if necessary to guarantee a consistent outcome and then document their observations. Feng Shui has simple models and principles: the 5 Elements, Yin and Yang, the He Tu, the Lo Shu, the principle of Cosmic Trinity are examples of principles at the core of Feng Shui and many Chinese Metaphysical practices. What about empirical evidence? This has been accumulating because the Tang Dynasty! Ancient classics include not only descriptions of landform and the principles of Qi, but drawings of mountains and water.
New books and new theories on Feng Shui, adjusted to the modern world that we live in, are constantly published and written in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The study, and the body of expertise, is constantly growing, not unlike scientific practices like medicine and engineering.
In any science, a vital component is observation. Feng Shui is a component of Physiognomy, which is 1 of the Chinese Five Arts. It is recognized as a science of observation of the environment. Several of the principles in Feng Shui are the result of observation by practitioners given that the Tang Dynasty, which are then documented into classics like Qing Nang Jing (Green Satchel), Ru Di Yan (Entering Earth Eye) and Zi Bai Jue (Purple White Verse). Some of the classics that form the basis of Feng Shui study are not original classics that propound new suggestions, but weed out the observations that did not pan out and the ones that did. Feng Shui till the early 1900s was exclusively for Imperial use only. So the research was typically carried out from one generation to another, with no breakage or pause. This enabled observation of what worked and what did not, more than the span of numerous hundred years.
These days, whilst not all Feng Shui masters can claim affiliation to lineages, those that do, document their cases extensively and thoroughly, so that the body of expertise collected throughout their lifetime, can be passed on to the subsequent generation of the lineage, so that they could continue to observe the outcomes, and grow the body of understanding.
Science is not just physics, chemistry and biology. That is an very narrow minded perception of science. Science encompasses amongst other points, social sciences like anthropology and sociology, earth sciences like geography (traditionally perceived as an ‘arts’ topic in Malaysia) and applied sciences such as engineering, laptop or computer science and psychology.
You can’t touch it, you can’t see it, how do you measure it?
Many folks also point out that it is hard to accept Feng Shui as a science since it is not achievable to measure Qi. Once more, that is a flawed perception.
Just before Michael Faraday (1831-79), electricity and magnetic forces couldn’t be measured. Does that mean that until Faraday’s time, electricity and magnetic forces did not exist? Electron microscopes helped pioneer the field of virology or the study of viruses. But does that mean just before that, viruses did not exist? Quasars and blackholes cannot but be actually measured but no 1 disbelieves Stephen Hawking when he talks about the wormholes in the universe, even if no 1 has actually observed 1 to know how it works, except on Star Trek.
Can you measure blood pressure with a stethoscope? Of course not. We tend to assume that all things in our globe and universe are measurable by rulers, test tubes and electronic devices that we read about or have heard about. But if that had been the case, then there would be no need to have to style unique tools for measurement or observation in new fields like space exploration or quantum mechanics. Until the Hubble telescope, man studied the stars and the universe by means of observation only. We had to construct the Hubble. Just like to explore space, we had to construct the rocket.
So, when we speak about measuring Qi, we ought to ask: what is the device for this specific kind of practice? Are we not able to measure it due to the fact we are not making use of the appropriate device?
The Chinese already had devices to measure Qi. The Solar and Lunar calendar, the Luo Pan and observation capabilities – employing one’s eyes to study the environment. Of course, nowadays, some of us use Google Earth. And you can acquire an electronic Luo Pan. And plotting Flying Star or Da Gua calculations (a approach for quantifying and identifying varieties of Qi) can be completed electronically with a computer these days, or even a Palm program. So who says that Qi is not measurable? It is simply that Qi is not measurable via the devices or indicates in which people assume are utilised to measure every little thing in this universe, from gases to insects. You do not use a stethoscope to measure blood pressure soon after all, correct?
Art in every science
The other debate over Feng Shui is regardless of whether it is an art or a science. Let me throw out a potentially bold suggestion: In every science, there is art. I think if you ask a physician or a dentist, they will most surely tell you that there is an art, to the science that they practice. This art is judgment. It is subtle elements that come with expertise and application of expertise in distinct cases. Even in the purest science, the Queen of Science, Mathematics, there is beauty and aesthetics!
Science only affords us the pure application. Art is what enables a individual trained in a scientific practice to make a choice as to which method to apply, and in what instances a method can or can’t be employed. This is true in Classical Feng Shui as nicely. There are universal principles in Feng Shui, and formulas. This is the science. But selecting the appropriate instance to apply the interpretation, or qualifying the instances when a formula can be used, this is the art behind the science. Similarly, environmental formations, mountains and water, are distinctive in each and every environment. So even though they will conform to certain fundamental rules (for example, mountains usually cease at water) and fall inside a clutch of a lot more sophisticated rules, how the Qi is greatest tapped and utilised, based on the structure (property, office constructing, resort) is the art.
It makes sense if you consider this all within the Yin and Yang context that is a bedrock principle of Feng Shui and all Chinese Metaphysics. Yin and Yang symbolises balance, perfection. Inside science, that which is grounded in strict principle, there is room for interpretation, or artistic application. Yin and Yang.
Thinking Metaphysical
Metaphysics today is at times associated with kook practices like the occult but this ignores the really venerable history of metaphysics in the Western world. Aristotle was one of the famous thinkers associated with Metaphysics, as was Rene Descartes and Albert Einstein. Western metaphysics is very a brain cracker and I do not profess to be an expert in Western metaphysics. But a cursory search on the Internet will reveal that metaphysicians are interested in questions of existence (why are we here?), the study of Gods or the divine, along with understanding causality (why issues happen), relationships and the universe. It combines reasoning and logic, with philosophical concepts.
Classical Feng Shui and the Chinese 5 Arts had been usually recognised as metaphysical subjects by the Chinese – in other words, scientific practices with philosophical existential problems to it. Metaphysics is a far more accurate indicates to describe Feng Shui, BaZi and Mian Xiang (though this does not detract from its scientific nature) because these scientific practices originated out of a desire by the Chinese to fully grasp problems of destiny, the universe, fate, existence and identity, which are essentially metaphysical or philosophical concerns. Feng Shui, BaZi and Mian Xiang have philosophical connotations to their scientific findings because they essentially are sciences in which to fully grasp a person’s life.
Now, I’m a Feng Shui practitioner and trainer. I’m not a philosopher and I’m surely not an expert on metaphysics or sciences. My objective in this post has been to give you an inkling of how I have arrived at my conclusion of Feng Shui as a scientific practice. I do not expect folks to quickly be convinced of my viewpoint but I believe that finding to the truth is never ever about what 1 person thinks, but about opening our minds to possibilities prior to we arrive at conclusions. Stimulating debate, opening the door to discussion and putting out option perspectives is part of the way in which new tips can be accepted.
For the longest time, people believed Feng Shui was about superstition, cultural beliefs (symbols and trinkets) or religion. Less and much less men and women think that nowadays. Just like thousands of years ago, individuals thought the globe was flat. Folks may possibly not be convinced that Feng Shui is a science or scientific practice, but if they open their thoughts to the possibility, just like Galileo opened minds to the possibility that the earth was round, I have completed my job!


About the Author
Joey Yap is the founder of the Mastery Academy of Chinese Metaphysics, a global organization devoted to the teaching of Feng Shui, BaZi, Face Reading and other Chinese Metaphysics subjects. Courses on these subjects can be found on http://www.MasteryAcademy.com
He is also the bestselling author of more than 30 books on Feng Shui, Chinese Astrology, Face Reading and Yi Jing, several of which have topped the Malaysian and Singaporean MPH bookstores’ bestseller lists. Check out his books here.










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