Foundation theories
The goal of feng shui as practiced today is to situate the human built environment on spots with good qi. The "perfect spot" is a location and an axis in time.
Qi (ch'i)
Qi (roughly pronounced as the sound 'chee' in English) is a movable positive or negative life force which plays an essential role in feng shui.In feng shui as in
Chinese martial arts, it refers to 'energy', in the sense of 'life force' or
élan vital. A traditional explanation of
qi as it relates to feng shui would include the orientation of a structure, its age, and its interaction with the surrounding environment including the local
microclimates, the slope of the land, vegetation, and soil quality.
The Book of Burial says that burial takes advantage of "vital qi." Wu Yuanyin(Qing dynasty) 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.
One use for a
Luopan is to detect the flow of
qi.Magnetic compasses reflect local
geomagnetism which includes
geomagnetically induced currents caused by
space weather. Professor
Max Knoll suggested in a 1951 lecture that
qi is a form of
solar radiation. As space weather changes over time, and the quality of qi rises and falls over time,feng shui with a compass might be considered a form of
divination that assesses the quality of the local environment—including the effects of space weather.
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 Yin Yang Theory and its corollary,
Five Phase Theory (Five Element Theory), have also been linked with astronomical observations of sunspots.
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.