Thursday, February 28, 2008

Feng Shui War (or who own Feng Shui?)

There is a Feng Shui war going on between the "netizens" of China and South Korea on the worldwide web.

Here is the Chinese link with English text (page-down to see the English)
http://www.fengshui-chinese.com/discuz/viewthread.php?tid=65736

The message accuses South Korea trying to hijack "Feng Shui" as its own "Intangible Cultural Heritage" (ICH, of UNESCO). At the beginning of the message, the writer claims that South Korea had already "stolen" China's "Dragon Boat Festival" as its own ICH from UNESCO.

However, when I search UNESCO website, I could not find proof of the "Dragon Boat" claim.
http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?cp=KR&topic=mp

Anyway, regardless of the authenticity of the message, it provokes the indignation of other netizens. They run a "poll" to ask members to "vote" for the country which they think "Feng Shui" should belong to. Then they will send the result to UNESCO to "counter" South Korea's claim.

The irony is that the Chinese government (PRC) considers Feng Shui superstitution and does not really care. Chinese Feng Shui enthusiasts are very unhappy about the "news".

The original message may even be a hoax too.

Incidentally, the 8-mansion Feng Shui system (Bazhai) was originally written for the Koreans! The legend was: During the Tang Dynasty (618- 906 AD), a Korean King, seeing the prosperous Tang empire, had requested China to teach his scholars Feng Shui. Tang emperor did not want his neighbor become powerful using Feng Shui. He had summoned Monk Yi-xing (一行僧)to write up a Feng Shui system that works sometimes but not all the time-- hence the birth of 8-Mansion system. Problem was, the system is so good and appealing, it was re-exported back to China!

In practical uses, 8-Mansion system has its strength and weakness. It also takes longer to have effect than Flying Star system.


Ken Lai

"Practical Imperial Qi-men-Dun-Jia" w/ 10 hr. video
"Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui & Blessing" w/ 12 hr video
"Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth" w/ 3 hr. video
"4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp" with 12 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com/
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