Note 312 — CLI. FÊNG-SHUI.[312]

Literally, “wind and water,” or that which cannot be seen and that which cannot be grasped. I have explained the term in my Chinese Sketches, p. 143, as “a system of geomancy, by the science of which it is possible to determine the desirability of sites,—whether of tombs, houses, or cities, from the configuration of such natural objects as rivers, trees, and hills, and to foretell with certainty the fortunes of any family, community, or individual, according to the spot selected; by the art of which it is in the power of the geomancer to counteract evil influences by good ones, to transform straight and noxious outlines into undulating and propitious curves, and rescue whole districts from the devastations of flood or pestilence.” return to text