Secrets of Chinese Craftsmen Magic 厌胜术

Traditional Chinese carpenters

In ancient China, craftsmen like carpenters, masons, tailors and etc., had practiced mysterious practices of putting certain control objects/ symbols (镇物) or magical objects/ symbols (法物) into their crafts based on how their clients treat them fairly or not.   This mysterious practice is called Yan Sheng Shu (YSS, 厌胜术).

Yan Sheng Shu is a branch out of Daoist magical practice.  It is divided into "black YSS" and "white YSS".  Black YSS will bring misfortune and disasters to the client's family.  This usually was practiced as revenges when the craftsmen felt that they were treated unfairly by their clients.  White YSS will bring good fortune and luck to the client's family.

YSS can be classified in three major schools:

1. Magic through imagery:  This is based on imagery of an object can exert energy related to that object.  For example, Chinese carpenter can secretly draw a bird (representing phoenix which also means success) on the main beam of a house.  If the beak is drawn facing indoor, it will bring client good wealth luck.  If the beak facing outside the house will bring client wealth-losing luck.
2. Magic through 5-elements colors:  This method put minerals/ rocks of different colors or actual metal (copper, gold, silver) in certain location of the foundation of the house to enhance or hurt the luck of the client's family.  For example, cinnabar represents fire energy put in certain location of house foundation to enhance or hurt certain member of client's family.
3. Magic through 8-directions (palace representations):  In Feng Shui, each direction is represented by a "palace" or one of the 8 trigrams in Bagua.  Each palace also represents a family member of a house.  For example, NW or Qian palace represents the oldest male and SW the oldest female.   By placing auspicious or inauspicious object in certain palace, the craftsman can play trick on the fortune of certain member of the client's family.

The "magic through imagery" school is pretty common across cultures, like the voodoo doll witchcraft.  "Magic through colors" is also quite common in magical rituals of other cultures.  "Magic through 8 directions" is uniquely Chinese.

Of course, there are also "anti-YSS" magic, but that is another story.


Ken Lai
© 2018 Ken Lai, all rights reserved.

Video Correspondence Courses: (click for details)   
“Advanced Visual Form Feng Shui” w/23 hr. HD video
“Visual Form Feng Shui” w/13 hr. HD video
“Applied Bazi: Sickness Forecasting and Management” w/33 hr. HD video 
“Destiny/Luck Mgmt. 1: Forecasting and Decision Support” w/32 hr. HD video
“Destiny/Luck Mgmt. 2: Basic Bazi Therapy w/18 hr. HD video
“Destiny/Luck Mgmt. 3 w/ Advanced Bazi Therapy w/18 hr. HD video
“Feng Shui Toolbox: Sha-qi, Health/Wealth and Career” w/ 7 hr. HD video
“Period 7/8 FS Toolkit w/ Advanced Flying Star techniques” w/ 6 hr. HD video
“Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 12 hr. video
“Practical Imperial Qi-Men-Dun-Jia 4G” w/ 12 hr. video
“Professional Imperial QMDJ 4G” w/ 21 hr. video
“EZ QMDJ series: Astrology, Date/Task Selection, Annual Luck/ FS”w/ 3 hr. HD
“EZ QMDJ Advanced Feng Shui” with 4 hr. HD video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui/Blessing” w/ 24 hr video
“Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth” w/ 3 hr. video
“4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp+ 2017 edition” with 18 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com

Fa-Qi-Men-Dun-Jia or Spiritual Qi-Men-Dun-Jia

In the last few years, some people market courses which they claim are Fa-Qi-Men-Dun-Jia or "Spiritual QMDJ".  My students have asked me if they are "real" or "not too real".

I could not judge if these spiritual QMDJ materials are "real" or "not real" because I have not seen the materials.  But from the approach that these materials are marketed, we can make some "educated" deductions.

Unlike traditional Chinese metaphysics subjects like Bazi and Feng Shui, which do not require supernatural power and/ or divine authorizations, both Spiritual QMDJ and Daoist Miao-Shan techniques involve numerous chants, offerings, incenses, ritual papers, ritual declarations/ summons/ contracts, talismans, hand gestures and steps or walk formations.  These chants are mostly ancient and are difficult to translate into modern Chinese (even more difficult to translate into English if the translator is not well-versed in classical Chinese!).   These practices are likely requiring spiritual membership and vows in that particular sect or school. Unauthorized practices of these rituals or techniques may bring misfortune or even mental illness to the users.

Spiritual QMDJ is more susceptible to marketing fraud as it is not difficult to mix Daoist Mao-Shan magical rituals into QMDJ.  Mao-Shan Fa-shu 茅山法术 is well-known for its magical rituals, but it is not QMDJ.  There are over 3600 of this so-called Spiritual QMDJ practices in the Chinese-speaking market which are more Mao-Shan magical rituals than QMDJ.

A simple way to spot out "not so real Spiritual QMDJ" is that teachers of authentic spiritual QMDJ will NOT automatically take in any student unseen even if the later pays a large sum of "tuition".  For teachers of spiritual subjects, taking in a student or disciple is like choosing a marriage partner.  They are more concerned with the Bazi chart and moral character of the potential disciple.  This is to keep the likelihood of misusing spiritual knowledge to a minimum and protecting the reputation of the teacher.  Any abuses of spiritual knowledge like spiritual QMDJ by students will be counted towards the karma credit account of their teachers.  This is the major rationale behind of not taking everyone who pays as a Spiritual QMDJ student.

According to traditional belief, people who use spiritual or magical practices to hurt others or for unfair advantages or illegal gains will be subjected to karmic retribution or punishment. Selling or marketing divine or deity power is a taboo in traditional Chinese metaphysics.  The common karmic retributions are:

• desolate 孤
• premature death 夭
• poverty 贫
• disability 残

For more details:
http://kenlaifengshui.blogspot.com/search?q=Fa+QMDJ  

Any "master" who takes in a few hundred spiritual QMDJ students at a time does not match the profile of a traditional spiritual QMDJ master but a successful marketeer.  The question of whether these spiritual QMDJ courses are real or not real does not really matter if the transmitter of spiritual knowledge does not follow traditional practices.  In this scenario, even the "real thing" is rendered into "not so real".

Ken Lai

© 2017 Ken Lai, all rights reserved.

Video Correspondence Courses: (click for details)
“Advanced Visual Form Feng Shui” w/23 hr. HD video
“Visual Form Feng Shui” w/13 hr. HD video
“Destiny/Luck Mgmt. 1: Forecasting and Decision Support” w/32 hr. HD video
“Destiny/Luck Mgmt. 2: Basic Bazi Therapy w/18 hr. HD video
“Destiny/Luck Mgmt. 3 w/ Advanced Bazi Therapy w/18 hr. HD video
“Feng Shui Toolbox: Sha-qi, Health/Wealth and Career” w/ 7 hr. HD video
“Period 7/8 FS Toolkit w/ Advanced Flying Star techniques” w/ 6 hr. HD video
“Practical Date-Selection Methods (incl. XKDG) w/ 12 hr. video
“Practical Imperial Qi-Men-Dun-Jia 4G” w/ 12 hr. video
“Professional Imperial QMDJ 4G” w/ 21 hr. video
“EZ QMDJ series: Astrology, Date/Task Selection, Annual Luck/ FS”w/ 3 hr. HD
“EZ QMDJ Advanced Feng Shui” with 4 hr. HD video
“Daoist Talismans for Feng Shui/Blessing” w/ 24 hr video
“Practical Door Feng Shui for Wealth” w/ 3 hr. video
“4-Pillars Forecasting Bootcamp+ 2017 edition” with 18 hr. video

http://www.kenlaifengshui.com