History

It is generally believed that Qin fire had all Feng Shui books burned. The most authoritative work is "Qing Nang Jing" given by Huang Shi Gong to Zhang Liang during the late Qin Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, Yang Yun Song and his disciples wrote several books that are considered the most authoritative work by all Feng Shui schools. However, these books were written in cryptic language and knowledge primarily passed down through the oral tradition, but it was also believed to be intuitive and derivable from common sense and our feeling of what is natural. Eitel traces the origins of feng shui as a distinct belief system to Chu Hsi's writings and commentaries from the Song dynasty (1126-1278). Chu Hsi's thought greatly influenced Confucianism and became the foundation of feng shui. But, more broadly speaking, feng shui's roots go back to the origins of Chinese philosophy.


In the 19th century, the Chinese government regularly published almanacs containing all the charts, diagrams, and numerical data used in feng shui practice. At the same time, disputes over the proper application of feng shui were resolved in official courts of law. When rebellious groups arose, an initial governmental response was often to desecrate the graves of the rebels' ancestors (see Use in burials, below).

Early English-speaking settlers in China in the mid-19th century reportedly ran into difficulties sparked by feng shui. Much like modern landowners having problems with building codes, these settlers had trouble in construction and renovation because their proposals did not conform to feng shui principles. Further, when unwanted foreigners tried to purchase land, they would be directed to spots with topographies causing very bad feng shui. This happened, for instance, to the English consul who, when demanding land, was ceded the island of Sha-meen on a mud flat on the Canton river. The houses were overrun by termites.

Early Western commentators on feng shui were often skeptical and derogatory. A typical one in 1885 wrote "if any one wishes to see to what a howling wilderness of erratic dogmatism the human mind can arrive, when speculation usurps the place of science, and theories are reverenced equally with facts, let him endeavour to fathom even the elementary principles of that abyss of insane vagaries, the science of Feng-Shui." Others noted that, while naive as a science, it is more accurate than some Western mythologies.

Some scholars have noted that the general guidelines of feng shui have been followed across times and cultures using different languages and with different justifications.