CASE STUDY - SETIAWALK AND WATER WATER EVERYWHERE

Drop by at Setiawalk recently for a FengShui audit. I cannot keep my eye away from the lush landscape with extensive use of water elements. Indeed coincident to the very notion of water-water everywhere. There are more to meet the eye but I would just disclose a little.

The center boulevard is high with F&B and very happening especially during the evening where pubs come alive and the opposite is observed for the shops facing outward, almost starving. The vibrant side is located along the Yin side of the man-made river and the Yang side takes a longer to peak.

Indeed the design of the river has YinYang almost unseen for an untrained eye. Some of the practitioners I brought along were surprised as all they see was water features and lush landscapes. They had missed the real ingredients besides saying, “Ah… the river is meandering, so it is sentimental water”. Those fans of HHC  should use this life example for their trainings based on his book on SanHe water formula. I must admit it is purely land form befitting into the context of both SanHe and SanYuan methodology. Wonder if it is the work of “JayWhy”?

While you don’t have to do much on each of the F&B outlets but to decide on the location of the main door, the office lots were a little disappointing with many vacant lots desperately to be filled up. Upon visiting, the answer is obvious. The design has not taken FengShui into consideration. Maybe the master’s work does not include such.

Pure Yin, pure Yang  纯阴纯阳 is the polarity of Qi – for example, Yang incoming dragon matching Yang structure, facing Yang direction. A continuously uninterrupted flow of Qi of the same polarity - It tells the mechanism of Qi transfer. It has nothing to do with the same polarity cannot give birth to ShengQi 生气. YinYang intercourse is called CiXiong 雌雄 and it is addressed in another concept called real Yin, real Yang 真阴真阳.

Real Yin, real Yang  真阴真阳 is the interval when Yang produces Yin and vice versa. What it really means is when the old Yang die, the new Yin is born, the real Yin and real Yang principle 真阴真阳 and it also reflects how Qi transformed from one body to another. In SanHe this principle was embedded within the structure of birth, prosperous and death formation to receive ShengQi 生气. Another name is 12 ChangShen 十二长生 or LiuQi 六氣.

ZhangShu states: -

葬书

葬者，藏也，乘生气也。
夫阴阳之气，噫而为风，升而为云，降而为雨，行乎地中，谓之生气。
生气行乎地中，发而生乎万物。人受体于父母，本骸得气，遗体受荫。
盖生者，气之聚。
疑结者成骨，死而独留。
故葬者，反气纳骨，以荫所生之道也。
经云：气盛而应，鬼福及人。
是以铜山西崩，钟灵东应。
木华于春，粟芽于室，气行于地中。
其行也，因地之势。
其聚也，因势之止。
古人聚之使不散，行之使有止，故谓之风水。

Translation: -

In Bury is to Store; is to ride on ShengQi.
YinYang Qi is wind, rises as clouds, descends as rain, and moves underground as ShengQi. ShengQi in underground, grows and gives life to the all things. Man, received their form from their parents, his bones receive Qi, when the remains of the parents are endowed. Life is an accumulation of Qi. Qi forms bones and in death only the bones remained. Therefore to bury is to acquire Qi into the bones and it is the path to benefit the living. The classic says: Qi prosperous and responds. Ancestral fortune benefits man.” It is like when the Copper Mountain collapsed in the West, The bronze bell spiritually responded in the East. Wood prospers in the season of spring, Millet sprouts in the room, Qi moves underground. Its movements is the terrain of the ground. Its accumulation is the cessation of terrain. The ancients regarded this as accumulation without dispersion, Qi movement that has halt is FengShui.

Commentary: -

The first tenet prescribed receiving ShengQi is to bury. Second tenet, ShengQi originates from heaven and sips underground liked water. ShengQi moves underground. Chinese believe that the corpus of Jing Qi Shen 精神气. Jing 精 being the corpus is the result of intercourse between male and female – birth of a child. After death, the carcass is buried underground to receive ShengQi. Energy Qi 气 is preserved as ShengQi benefiting its descendant 神. It is such as the collapse of the Bronze Mountain in the West, toll is the Bronze Bell in the East. This imply that the Qi is transform in a continuous flux.

The Primary and the Secondary of Wind

Riding Wind Will Disperse, Entering the Boundary of Water It Stops”, these are the definition of FengShui, the genesis of the term wind and water from the burial classic. One important keyword is to ride wind and the question is how?

Perhaps reading the same notion as when wind moves, Qi moves, when Qi stops, water coagulates may bring about entirely different meaning… 

First, to receive water, second, is to store wind. These are the two most important aspects of FengShui. Coincidentally this is also the two slices of the same TaiQi. To ride wind, is to first ride Qi. Similar to ride a horse, one has to sit on the horse. The notion of riding could not be possibly be opening the legs and allowing the horse to pass through. By the same token to ride on Qi, the property or grave has to sit on the source of Qi itself. Opening of the door to received Qi is not riding Qi, but of storing Qi. This is one great misconception that had plagued many… 

Receiving Qi is secondary. To receive and to store Qi, the formation must be in placed such as the embraces, Parent Mountain, Table Mountain and bright hall are all coming together. The Chinese term this formation, as the four guardian paying attention. However, this is not necessary or warranted for riding Qi. Imagine, how many places have the four guardian paying attention? Not many indeed and yet within such common places there are still good Qi.

It is true that many well to do personalities do not originate from the so called, premium FengShui vicinity where the guardians are present. Many come from a humble beginning, yet most FengShui theory disseminated to date state otherwise that good FengShui vicinity must only be premium locations where the formations must be present to support the coagulation of Qi. Such is again, another great misconception and should this be the much prized FengShui techniques, the battle would have been half lost.

To store wind is secondary, to ride wind is primary. Yet many modern day advocates propagate the manner of storing wind as primary. The much heard notion of tapping Qi is in fact, storing Qi. To tap Qi, the formation must be present of which the table mountain must be at the correct height, which enable the practitioner to tap his hand against the tip apex of the Table Mountain, in the horizon. This process to tapping is known as to tap Qi. The entire phenomenon of measuring the environment or precisely measuring the embrace and table mountain by means of the human anatomy is to establish the quality of the bright hall. Failure to determine the two slices of the bright hall, any attempt to establish facing to tap Qi will be greatly compromised. 

To ride wind, is to ride internal Qi, to store wind is to receive external Qi. Any property that is build must have a sitting and a facing. The definition of sitting and facing is varied, yet its crust meanings of sitting and facing stem from two more important notions of location and direction. Every entity that is placed on ground has a location as a reference point, datum or in the FengShui term, is a TaiQi spot. This TaiQi spot is independent on its own accord and yet dependent with the rest of the TaiQi spots, to form its centre of the greater TaiQi. In this dependency, the direction comes into play. 

Qi is everywhere and every direction has Qi, similarly every direction has the 5 elements. These 5 elements are not static element. To say East has only wood element is grossly erred. To be précised, East direction refers to the eastern arm of the HeTu has the property of wood and this notion is entirely different from the actual direction of the East which has all the properties of the 5 elements in transition and motion… 

To ride wind is to locate a spot that will receive internal Qi. Such is called establishing the sitting. The term to sit is corresponding to a seat. A seat is a location on the ground extracting the internal Qi and is called a Xue. Because there are 5 elemental internal Qi, there are only 5 types of Xue of wood, water, earth, fire and metal. Riding Qi is to establish these 5 types of Xue. This is primary. 

To store wind is to face towards the external environment to receive external Qi. Such is called the establishing of the facing. The term to face is corresponding to a view. A view is a vector derived from the rebounding Qi of the environment inwards. The key of receiving such external Qi greatly depends on the quality of the bright hall. The interstices of the two slices will marry in the bright hall.

There is a saying that bright hall eliminates killing Qi. This may not be true if the quality of the bright hall is bad, as one may be swallowed by the bright hall. Such constituency of bright hall and the environment is called external structure. Because there are only 4 structures of external rebounding Qi, there are only four structures of wood, water, fire and metal. Storing Qi is to establish the correct facing in corresponding to the spot. This is secondary. 

Because the nature of external Qi is rebounding, it takes time to tap into rebounding Qi and could be greatly weakened. Therefore, it becomes secondary. Otherwise it will be wiser to tap directly into the internal Qi. This is primary. So, next time when one decide to move along SanHe or XuanKong, asked oneself which has the primary and which has not. 

This is FengShui…

Conclusion: -

In SanHe, to accumulate ShengQi without dispersion is to conform to pure Yin, pure Yang 纯阴纯阳 and to ride ShengQi is to bury in where real Yin, real Yang 真阴真阳 is formed in CiXiong 雌雄.