Shantou Luhe Hakka people's "Feng Shui"

"Feng Shui", also known as "geomancy", is a very broad and complex theory of ancient China.

"Dictionary" of "Feng Shui" is explained this way: Feng Shui, also known as geomancy. A superstition in old China. That residential base or grave around the wind and water flow and other situations, can lead to the occupants of a family of misfortune, but also refers to do residential, phase of the tomb and burial method.

The Dictionary explains "Feng Shui" as follows: "The core content of Feng Shui is a kind of study for people to choose and deal with the living environment, and its scope includes the aspects of residence, palace, mausoleum, village, and city, which involves mausoleums known as yin mansion, and involves other aspects known as Yang mansion. Yang residence."

China's feng shui consciousness arises very early. As noted in the existing information, the method of the phase of the origin of the original settlement. To the Yin Zhou period, has begun to have written records of the activities of the phase of the earth. After the Zhou destroyed the Shang, in order to pacify the East, began to build the East Zhou Luoyi. Before the construction of Luoyi, the area was surveyed and divined before it was finalized. The process of setting the capital was recorded in detail in "Shangshu-Zhoushu-Zhaohao" (The Book of the Zhou). It can be said that Yin and Zhou are the breeding period of Feng Shui.

Spring and Autumn and Warring States period, social and political changes are occurring rapidly, the idea of unprecedented activity, Confucianism, law, Taoism, ink, yin and yang, gossip, the five elements and other doctrines and claims to compete, arguing with each other, the formation of a hundred schools of thought situation. At the same time, the seven warring states, feudalism, competing to build cities. This period appeared "Zhou Li", "tube", "Kao Gong Ji" and other works, summarized the experience of urban construction and site selection theory. These results laid the theoretical and practical foundation for the formation of Feng Shui.

The Qin and Han dynasties are the period of formation of Feng Shui. During this period, the large-scale construction of palaces created the material preconditions for the formation of Feng Shui, and Dong Zhongshu's doctrine of yin and yang and the five elements and the Yi Theory of Meng Xi and Jing Fang provided the theory and method for Feng Shui. Especially in the Eastern Han Dynasty, under the influence of theology, various taboos and superstitions prevailed in construction. For example, "choose the day to build a house", "can't move the earth on the head of the year of the tiger" has become the rule in the construction of the yang house. At this time, the theory of Feng Shui yin house is also gradually formed, "the dead to the Yin, the living to the Yang" understanding, the burial of people not only to choose the feng shui treasure, but also to choose the concept of auspicious days, has prevailed, become the content of Feng Shui. According to Sima Qian's "Records of the Grand Historian", the geomancers at that time (that is, the later generation of Feng Shui) are almost all full-time. In this period of time, the monographs about feng shui are "Geomancy Jin Gui", "Palace Topography", "Zhou Gong Bu Bu House Jing", "Figure House Art", "Funeral Calendar", etc. The Qin and Han Dynasties, Feng Shui had already been practiced in the Qin and Han Dynasties. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, Feng Shui has completed the process of formation from practice to theory, and thus can be called Feng Shui.

The period of Wei, Jin and North and South Dynasties was a stage of rapid development of Feng Shui. This period, political darkness, frequent wars, people generally find it difficult to grasp their own destiny, so the concept of feng shui to take advantage of the void, the Three Kingdoms when the famous Wei warrior tube chariot, divination, physiognomy, phase leapfrog known in the world. Another example is Tao Yuanming's grandfather Tao Kan in the Jin Dynasty, once believed that the words of the tomb, buried his father in the crouching cow land. During this period, the northern and southern cultures and foreign cultures were in a state of great fusion, and the flourishing of metaphysics and the development of landscape aesthetics pushed the theory of feng shui a great step forward. This period produced a large number of feng shui works, such as Wei Guan's "Guan Dai Geography refers to the Meng", the North and South Dynasties Wang Zheng's "Huang Di House Jing" and so on.

Feng Shui, as a part of traditional Chinese culture, occurred, formed and developed in the Central Plains. Before the Sui and Tang dynasties, he mainly spread with the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River basin and the areas on both sides of the Yangtze River. The present Hakka region was in a relatively closed state at that time, and Feng Shui had not yet spread here.

The reproduction and development of Feng Shui in Fujian, Guangdong and Gan

Feng Shui was practiced with the Hakka forefathers who moved into the Gan and Fujian border areas. After the lifting of the prohibition of the sea, Feng Shui with the Hakka people migrated to overseas to Southeast Asia Hakka ancestors away from the war in the Central Plains, came to the remote, difficult transportation, sparsely populated, dense forests, wild elephants, crocodiles, miasma, insects and snakes infested the mountainous areas of Fujian, Guangdong and Gan life. To survive and develop in such a harsh environment, in addition to the need to bear hardships and stand hard work, the courage to open up the spirit, but also have some ways to adapt to the environment, which is a primary issue to settle down. But Fujian, Guangdong and Gan mountainous areas with complex terrain, streams and rivers, and more snakes and beasts, choose a good place to build a house and home, obviously more complex than the plains of the Central Plains. Because feng shui in the theory of Yang House is the purpose of the pursuit of housing building site layout and the surrounding environment of nature's coordination and unity, in order to ensure that people's physiological health and psychological peace, the so-called "people because of the house and the house, house because of the people to be saved, people and house to help each other, the sense of the sky and earth." At that time, there were many Feng Shui masters with high cultural qualities, they were educated and mastered a certain degree of scientific knowledge, know astronomy and geography, use the compass, good at observing the landforms, the quality of water. At that time, Feng Shui played an active role in guiding the Hakka forefathers in their settlement life and later in their struggle to develop the mountainous areas. Under the subliminal consciousness of seeking peace and blessing for future generations, the feng shui culture of the north took root, sprouted and bore fruits in the new Hakka areas. This is also the inevitable result of the spread of Central Plains culture to the south.

From the word-of-mouth information passed down from generation to generation by Hakka fengshui practitioners, it is known that the main person who brought fengshui into the Hakka region was Yang Yunsong. Yang Yunsong belonged to the end of the Tang Dynasty to avoid the chaos of the Hakka ancestors moved south. After he came to Gannan from Chang'an, he lived here, searched for the dragon and traced the veins, engaged in the practice of feng shui, and taught his disciples to pass on the art, so that the art of feng shui was spread in Gannan. About Yang Kwan-song's people and their affairs, "Tang Book" no biography, the Song Dynasty Chen Zhensun "Zhi Zhai book to solve the problem" in the name of his family, "Song History - Arts and Letters" is known as the Yang save the poor, but also detailed its beginnings and end, but the family's mouth and ears and the sporadic records of the Square Zhi. Yang Kwan-sung inherited and developed the theory of form in Feng Shui and founded the Jiangxi Situation School (actually Gannan School). Its theory is characterized by the main situation, orientation, emphasizing the cooperation of dragon, point, sand and water. In fact, it is to adapt to the local conditions, choose according to the shape, observe the ins and outs, pursue the beautiful mood, and pay special attention to analyzing the ground surface, terrain, ground field, ground qi, soil and direction, as far as possible, to make the house based on the mountain spirit and water show place.

According to experts and scholars, Yang Kwan-sung himself did not create a lot of feng shui writings, "Song Dynasty History - Arts and Letters" contains the Yang Save the Poor "Dragon Scriptures" book. Since Yang Yunsong in Gannan after teaching apprenticeships, Feng Shui has become the Hakka region of the occupation of generations, Yang Yunsong has become a Feng Shui practitioners *** with the respect of the ancestors.

This period the situation of the school of Feng Shui theoretical works emerged in large numbers. With the development of the Hakka people, the situation of Feng Shui also rapidly to the vast Hakka region. In Gannan and other places, there were a lot of famous feng shui masters, these feng shui masters not only looked at feng shui in the local area, but also spread far and wide, and they were asked to look at feng shui in other places. In the "Ancient and Modern Books - Geomancy Department", the Song Dynasty Jiangxi School celebrities were very accomplished in both theory and practice. Liu Qian, a native of Nankang, wrote "Geography of the sayings". Fu Botong Bong was once sent by the emperor to see if Hangzhou was suitable as a capital city.

By the time of the Southern Song Dynasty, a new school of thought, the Rifa School, had emerged from the Situation School. It was founded by Wang He and others. Wang and failed in the imperial examinations, abandoned his family and traveled to the rivers and lakes, and then lived in Fujian Ning, using his feng shui techniques to survey the yang and yin houses for the locals, known as the Fujian School. Rifa Feng Shui "take five-star gossip, to determine the reason for the birth of grams", that is, gossip, twelve branches, the stars, five elements, for the four outlines, pay attention to the direction, especially the importance of compass orientation, Yang Yang to the mountain, Yin Yin to the mountain, no misbehavior in order to determine the birth of grams.

In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Situation School and the Rifa School completed the process of merging. Since then, the Hakka region of Feng Shui practitioners are both manipulation of the compass in order to direct the location, but also attach importance to the dragon acupuncture point Sha Shui with, there is no longer any difference between the Situation School and the Rifa School.

While the art of feng shui has been prevalent in our feudal society for thousands of years, it has been criticized by thinkers throughout the ages. As early as in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the great thinker Wang Chong fiercely criticized the superstitious ideas in Feng Shui. Zhang Juzheng, a famous thinker in the Ming Dynasty, was against the superstitious idea of "the burial site can be the cause of one's misfortunes" propagated by the art of Feng Shui. He quoted the I Ching, "A family that accumulates good deeds will have a surplus of good fortune. A family that accumulates good deeds will have more blessings, while a family that accumulates bad deeds will have more calamities. Words to criticize the superstitious ideas in Feng Shui, explaining that "people's good fortune and bad luck, are all my own so as to invoke". Since ancient times, do not believe in feng shui enlightened people are many, they in their writings and speech to criticize the superstitious thinking of feng shui.

The influence of feng shui on the Hakka people

Because feng shui, an ancient Chinese traditional culture, has its own inheritance. Since the Tang and Song dynasties, the art of Feng Shui has become more and more popular, and people from the emperor to the common people have attached great importance to the selection of yang and yin houses.

Before the Hakka ancestors moved into the Guangdong, Fujian and Jiangxi triangular area, the original inhabitants of this area were the descendants of the ancient Yue ethnic group - the She Yao minority, who believed in the "witch culture". They believed in the "Wu culture", and when they integrated with the Han Chinese who came from the north, they were bound to mix the factors of the "Wu culture" into the Hakka culture. This "witch culture" and the superstitious component of Feng Shui completely in tune, the two complement each other, **** with the development. So the Ming and Qing period of feng shui, by the Song and Ming Dynasty and the Hakka region "witch culture", religious culture, and cloaked in a strong color of superstition. Hakka Feng Shui has both scientific components and strong superstitious colors. It has accumulated the traditional qualities of the Hakka people and become a part of the Hakka culture. Because of its inherited and persistent nature, this is the main reason why Feng Shui thrives in the Hakka region.

The Hakka ancestors who migrated from the central plains to the south were fascinated by "Feng Shui theory", and it has a deep historical root. "Feng Shui theory", the first "reverence for heaven and earth," the idea of perfection. "Shung Heaven": the residence set up a special incense altar, on New Year's Day, the first day of the month, the fifteenth day of the month, burning incense to worship Buddha most le: help incense will be the wishes of the people on the "extinction" and the ancestors of the sky, the empty mass of superstitious people's psychological factors. "Shangdi": "cast all the land, blessed rice long grains and cereals, food and clothing, burn want to come true. In short, "feng shui theory" is to help people rationally choose to build a house, realize "feng shui, coordination * * * life" pour good intentions.

Old Hakka area people, superstitious belief in ghosts and gods believe in feng shui. City and countryside around the general construction of temples, and even some places more temples than the school, the countryside everywhere, what the king, sand officials, wells head of Bogong, tree head of Bogong, and so on. Believe in feng shui more and more people, every wedding and funeral, the size of the building, we have to ask Mr. Feng Shui to investigate the geographical location, choose the auspicious day, since ancient times has flourished. Hakka area people, often in order to seek a good site or grave, at the expense of long-term support geomancy division, to the rich and beautiful food and wine hospitality. This creates a suitable cultural atmosphere for Mr. Li, in such a cultural atmosphere, some do not understand the relationship between human survival and the ecological environment of the Feng Shui, by reciting a few "geography mnemonic" to deceive those who sincerely hope to get a suitable place of rest and recuperation, seriously affecting people's lives and the spiritual world.

Along with the Hakka folk system in Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi border areas as a whole molding, the Ming and Qing dynasties Feng Shui in the Hakka region is very popular.

Checking the literature: Chen Zhensun in the Song Dynasty in < "Zhi Zhai Shulu Lu solution to the question" in the cloud: "Jiangxi has the science of feng shui, and often people have the road." According to Wu Lanxiu's "South Han Zhi": five generations of South Han Emperor Liu Yan in Qianheng six years (945 AD), listen to the words of feng shui practitioners, come to Cheng Township Songkou (i.e., today's Meizhou City, Meixian District, Songkou Township) to avoid disasters. Qing Dynasty Wang Zhizheng edited "Jiaying State Records" recorded: "(Jiaying counties) sense of feng shui, there are decades not buried, buried decades will be opened to see, stored in a jar ...... or even listen to the belief in geomancy, camping auspicious points. Invade the grave and steal the burial, litigation and prison, bankruptcy to fight feet. The vulgarity of the stupidity, there is nothing worse." "Cantonese custom this Shang geomancy, Jiaying in the feng shui, especially sticking to and do not understand. Often because of a hole in the ground, the smallest is to waste time and unemployment, after years and years, the largest is to cause human life, family bankruptcy." According to the "Meizhou Legend" book contained in the Qing dynasty during the Qianlong period, Jiaying state (now Meizhou) governor Wang Zhifu in office, proficient in geomancy has been in Meizhou around the survey of feng shui. Here we can also see the Hakka region at that time the prosperity of the art of feng shui.

Some Hakka Feng Shui activities are related to the competition for survival resources and economic benefits. In some places, Feng Shui was used as a strategy for clan and group struggles. Some people take advantage of the fact that people worship their ancestors and use the construction of ancestral tombs as a means of public opinion to provoke conflicts and struggles between clans and clans, to the detriment of the community. One of the characteristics of the Hakka society is that the clan organization is well developed and has a long tradition. All clans, that is, kinship organizations based on the same family name and having *** the same ancestor's blood, are historical products of Chinese feudal society, in which it is an informal power organization at the end of the society. The Hakka region is dominated by domestic production, and paddy fields and mountains and forests are indispensable basic living resources for the Hakka people. These basic living resources, together with residential land and cemeteries, became the objects of inter-clan competition. From these present object description, shows the Hakka people's "feng shui" faith, but also "feng shui" faith results.

Ancient people not only for the reproduction of the living to choose the geographical environment of the building meaning feng shui residence, but also pay close attention to the dead is to choose the burial place. In the view of many people are living in the ancestors of the dead spirit fart protection under the survival. So do everything possible to find a good burial place for the ancestors, it seems that the ancestors of the body soul to the burial of Feng Shui good place, his children and grandchildren will be able to benefit from it forever, those buried in the ground of the bones will be able to bless his children and grandchildren in the event of bad luck, good fortune and longevity. This feudal superstition "ghost culture" under the influence of the "divination and burial" this feudal superstition activities prevailed for thousands of years the important reason.

Song Dynasty is the peak of the history of feng shui in China. Song Mingxiology idealism ontology and Feng Shui in the theory of yinzhuang idealism in the origins of the same place, in essence, is the same. This provides a rounded set of explanations for the basic premise of the theory of yinzhai fengshui - that the location of the cemetery can determine one's good fortune or bad fortune - and thus promotes the flourishing of fengshui in this period.

The superstitious "feng shui theory" of the Yin House has long poisoned people's spiritual world. Such as feng shui gentleman for your ancestors to choose the yin house. If you predicted that your family will be a scholar, people will take it as a "spiritual support". Parents and relatives will have high expectations of you, and your attitude towards education will become positive. However, there are many successful people who do not feel grateful to people and society after they have succeeded in their endeavors, but only thank their "ancestors for feng shui". The loser also does not hate the society, he only attributes the reason for his failure to the "bad feng shui of his ancestors" and dies. People treat "feng shui" as a kind of "spiritual power", which is a kind of fatalistic way of thinking.

We in the Hakka folk field research, before the founding of the State of Meizhou city and countryside are full-time feng shui, some of them are feng shui Mr. high cultural standards. After the founding of the PRC, the art of Feng Shui and Mr. Feng Shui gradually lost its market in the Hakka area, and the Feng Shui gentlemen did not dare to engage in public activities during this period. However, the influence of Feng Shui has not been completely eliminated, especially in the remote and backward mountain villages and villages, there is no lack of people who are superstitious about Feng Shui. Some people would ask someone to read the feng shui when they build a house, and they would also ask someone to see where a suitable place is for burying the dead. During the Cultural Revolution, Feng Shui activities were banned, and Feng Shui practitioners could only operate in the dark. After the reform and opening up, the living standard of Hakka people in urban and rural areas in China improved, and farmers generally built new houses, so Feng Shui activities resumed after more than 20 years of silence. In these years, Feng Shui culture flourished for a while, and the bookstores and bookstalls in towns and cities were filled with Feng Shui books. A new generation of feng shui masters came into being, and they were engaged in activities such as selecting sites and setting up rooms for people to build yang and yin houses. These Feng Shui practitioners are full-time or part-time, and some of them are highly educated. Some of them also deal with complicated cases with the help of computer information, and even construct multidisciplinary and all-around feng shui theoretical models, so as to make feng shui art develop in the direction of popularization and scientificization. Thus, the art of Feng Shui has more widely and y influenced the cultural life and spiritual world of the people in the Hakka region.

The influence of feng shui theory in architecture on the spiritual world

Meizhou has become the second base of Hakka people in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which is a place of humanistic abundance, and Wenfeng Pagoda and Shuikou Pagoda are commonly built all over the world.

Wenfeng Pagoda was built near the town to pray for the prosperity of culture and education, and the development of science and government. ShuiKou Pagoda built in the river bend or confluence, to town floods. Hakka places also have stories and legends about the ancestral houses and tombs of some families being Feng Shui treasures.

In the Hakka region, feng shui is commonly used in residential architecture.

Feng shui forests cultivated in front of the pond and behind the house of the Weilong house in Meizhou, and the layout of the halls and patios inside the house, for example. In the Hakka region, Feng Shui is commonly used in residential architecture. Residence should not only be able to combine the natural geographic features, but also has to take into account the climatic conditions of the environmental characteristics of the local conditions to make the best use of the situation. Such as "in the mountains can touch dip mountain forest luck, near the water can receive aquatic wealth," which is probably the Hakka people to create a "people-oriented" living environment car to create a combination of conditions of a typical. There is also a "negative yin and hold the sun" theory, the core of which is the human environment is seen as a complex of yin and yin embracing, such as the mountainous areas of the Hakka residential, to "back to the sun (blocked with or open to the sunny side)" as a good crucible, that there is a quiet leaning (mountain) and the essence of the sun and moon's benefits; plains to The plains have the advantage of "having a back with a support and a field in front", which can form a spatial situation combining motion and static. Village dwellings are typically surrounded by dragon (square or semi-circular) house, house dwellings and through the hall (road) connection, forming a circular airflow system to ensure fresh air circulation in the living room; the size of the courtyard zero to undertake the sun roll rain, sun and moon essence, there is an outline of the ventilation of the back of the circular flow layer. The "Habitat Center" courtyard small world, and with the surrounding and even the vastness of heaven and earth: yin and yang embrace each other and get ounces, in line with nature and the industry of the home, after several generations of wind and rain to this day, according to the visible. Such as the Hakka homes in front of the unping sun grain, annual festival lion dance meal popularity; ping before the fishpond fish: year after year good omen, while regulating the climate to prevent fires; ping in front of the aisle or a well, life is convenient to take; the back of the house of Zugongshan forests and trees, including the cultivation of Dietrichson's soil, and even more clan symbols of prosperity, and so on. Since ancient times, the "Zhou Yi" of the "unity of man and nature" and the living environment of the feng shui theory prevails in the world, the Hakka houses, a major feature of folklore.

Applying the perspective of "cultural geography" to analyze. The construction of the pagoda can add artificial scenery to the local area, change the natural landscape of a place, and also satisfy the psychological needs of the people. Wenfeng Pagoda and the Hakka ancestral home in front of the merit lintel rod (in the old days, where the examination on the Xiu Cai, Jurchen, Jinsi, Hanlin or more than four officials can be erected in front of their ancestral home lintel rod, due to the degree, the official position of the different specifications are also different) similar to motivate the people of the literacy of the spirit of enterprise, so that the local community to become a culture of respect for education and humanities of the talented people show area. Thus, it also shows that a person, you can change their own living environment, to meet his personal needs, change the spirit of the people, in order to stimulate the vitality of the people, after their own efforts to help the success of the cause.