A Note on Feng-Shui(beware spoiler)

[Paul M]

Beware spoiler(p134) added onto the end of this...











> 
> This from Gardner's ART THROUGH THE AGES, 10 ed.(Harcourt-Brace, pp. 519-
> 520, V. 1):
> Speaking of a "typcial Chinese temple precinct"--
> "In conformity with the Chinese belief in *fengshui* ('wind and water'),k
> the breath of life, which is scattered by wind, must be stopped by water;
> thus the forces of wind and water must be adjusted in the orientation of
> buildings.  In the layout of building complexes, the conservation of
> breath is expressed in the seclusion of the units and spaces of the 
> enclosure.  The plans are uniformly symmetrical, the building facing each
> other on either side of a central axis, which functions as a path and 
> visual perspective through gateways, towers, halls, and courtyards
> in a sequence of primarily rectilinear units.  The unchanging 
> qualities of symmetry, regularity, uniformity, and secludedness in the layout,
> not only of halls and temple comlexes but of whole cities, express powerfully
> the Chyinese respect for tradition and order, and the enduring influence
> of the philosophy of Confucius."
> 
> [My own guess is that the principles are actually--as in so many things
> Chinese--a blend of Confucian and Taoist principles, often taken to be
> at odds with one another, but in good Taoist fashion actually work at
> complements.]
> 
By chance, I happened across something apropos to this today. 
Apparently the Confucian world view sees in the world as composed of 
two sets of elements namely principles and things ( Bearing in mind 
that Chinese thinking has none of the dualism which so characterises 
western thought.) Things deriving their form and nature from (or at least 
reflecting)  these 'comic' (whoops- cosmic) principles. These principles are assigned 
the qualities of different numbers according to the way the numbers 
reflect or can be divided into things. In this system four has the quality 
of stability so building things with rectilinears forms would 
hopefully ensure a measure of stability acordingly.

The piece I was reading went on futher to explain that ('though 
Confucianism has both imperical and emperical schools) these 
principals, thougha reflection of the eternal could only be discerned 
by humans through thier obsevation in things , that which is divine
 being unknowable. Something which finds curious reflection in 
Maskylenes comments to Mason(p134) -
"For if each star is little more a Mathematickal Point, located upon 
the Hemisphere of Heaven by right Ascension and Declination, then all 
the Stars, taken together, tho' innumerable, must like any other set 
of points, in turn represent some single gigantick Equation, to the 
mind of God, as straitforward as, say, the Equation of a Sphere, - to 
us unreadable, incalcuable."
Perhaps even more so if we consider Mason's suspicions of madness in 
Masleylenes 'Sermons upon the Unknown' ("Maskylene is the pure type of 
one who would transcend the Earth,- making him, for Mason, a walking 
cautionary Tale.") with the Rev'd Cherrycokes description of his own 
'insanity' as "...One of those moments Hindoos and Chinamen are 
ever said to be having"


Paul M.                 tallpaul at hiatus.demon.co.uk
"You have no expectations until you come face to face
with what you're looking at, and then everything about you
says 'I wasn't expecting this' "
Ann E Imbre Spoken In Darkness"