Feng shui tends to be an important issue for Chinese people when considering interior design or the construction of buildings. The ancient discipline has been passed down for thousands of years and is inherently part of Chinese culture. Although some people today have doubts about the efficacy of Feng shui, many still consider it vitally important.
It was widely rumored that Hong Kong business magnate Li Ka-shing placed importance on feng shui when deciding on the layout of his office buildings and private residences. When former U.S. President Donald Trump converted the Gulf and Western Building in New York City into the Trump International Hotel and Tower in the early 1990s, a huge silver globe was placed in front of the building to alleviate the negative energy from the traffic flowing by. In feng shui, undesirable elements are called “sha qi,” or life-draining energy.
COMMON PRINCIPLES OF FENG SHUI
When it comes to renovations or building a new house, referencing some general Feng shui principles can be helpful, since the same concepts tend to apply to good architectural design: for example, designing a home so that it faces a body of water and has its back to a mountain. When a house is built on relatively higher terrain facing water with mountains behind it, it will have open space in the front. This is also optimal from the perspective of environmental design. Looking out over a wide, open space with good ventilation benefits residents' physical and mental health. Houses positioned according to these basic principles will naturally hold their value, and even appreciate in value.
Take a smaller space as another example. In designing apartments with a small floor space, an architect might put the entrances of the kitchen and bathroom opposite each other. In Feng shui, this is deemed “as incompatible as fire and water” because the kitchen represents fire, and the bathroom represents water. When these two are positioned opposite each other, it will cause conflict, affecting the health of residents and disrupting harmony within the family. This concept is also easily understood in professional design: The kitchen is an essential place for making food and closely connected to the family’s health. On the other hand, bathrooms are for cleansing and are full of bacteria. If these two entrances connect to each other, it would be difficult to stop the air from moving between them, and the bacteria from the bathroom might enter the kitchen. So situations like this should be avoided, both from the perspective of Feng shui and from the perspective of architectural design.
PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS:
EAST AND WEST
Of course, we needn’t strictly adhere to all of the principles of feng shui and unnecessarily burden ourselves. Because of exposed beams in her ceiling, one of my clients worried that her apartment had a problem that is considered taboo in feng shui: “heng liang ya ding” (“horizontal beams pressing from above”). But the Chinese term refers to the beams used in traditional Chinese architecture, which were the main structural component in ancient sloping roofs. A large room usually only had one beam in the center, which was quite large and ran the width of the house. If a bed was placed under this kind of beam, whether the person believed in feng shui or not, the huge beam would cause significant mental pressure. In my client’s case, the beam in her apartment was a common roof beam, not the type used in traditional Chinese architecture.
FENG SHUI AND BLESSINGS
Chinese people have a saying: “Fate first, luck second, feng shui third, accumulating virtue fourth, studying fifth.” Tsai Chu-Hsin, a well-known Tai-wanese architect and I Ching (The Book of Changes) specialist, said: “A lot of people believe good Feng shui is the ‘cause,’ and because they have good Feng shui, they have good luck in life as a ‘result.’ In reality, I believe that people have reversed the relationship between the cause and the result.”
Mr. Tsai believes that finding good Feng shui is the result, not the cause because people who seek good Feng shui must have the good fortune to obtain it. But how do we accumulate the blessing of good fortune? We do so through doing good deeds and cultivating our character. These are factors that we have control over.
Wesley Lim, a famous Feng shui specialist in Singapore, says that people should be righteous; if people do bad deeds, no matter how fabulous the Feng shui is, it won’t help. So rather than being fixated on finding good Feng shui, we could give attention to improving our character, trying our best to follow the Dao of nature, and meriting Heaven’s blessings. These are purer and more reasonable ways to pursue good Feng shui.
We would be wise to align ourselves with Mencius’s philosophy: “Turn inward and examine yourself when you encounter difficulties in life.” The ultimate factor behind having good luck comes from oneself.
華人在進行室內裝修、房屋建設等活動時,風水往往是個繞不開的話題。這一流傳了數千年的古老學科, 儘管在當代社會面臨很多人的質疑, 仍然具有強大的生命力。有一些廣為流傳的名人、名樓的風水故事, 也為當代社會風水概念的活力增添了有趣的註解。
坊間流傳, 華人巨富李嘉誠的辦公樓和私宅布局即涵蓋許多風水的考量。又如紐約著名的川普國際酒店(Trump International Hotel and Tower), 據說是接受了風水師的建議,在大樓前擺放了一個巨大的金屬地球, 用來緩和車流帶來的負面能量, 風水裡叫煞氣,同時把大樓的入口改了方向。筆者也曾遇到一位客戶, 請筆者設計房子的後花園,一上來就直言, 根據風水師的建議, 水池假山必須放在院子的西北角。
當然,也有很多人認為, 風水就是沒有根據的過氣玄學。持不同觀點的人, 有時候會在一個共同的項目上相遇,這就產生了衝突。比如, 修建一棟房屋, 男主人和女主人一個相信風水, 一個不相信, 在房屋的規劃布局上可能就會有分歧; 幾位合夥人裝修一套辦公室, 有的相信風水,有些則不, 就可能在空間規劃上產生矛盾。下文, 筆者將根據自身所學與多年來的實務經驗,從設計專業角度探討空間設計與風水的關聯,並對此提出一些個人見解, 盼能對風水問題有所疑惑的讀者, 有所助益。
常見風水原則
裝修房屋或是建設新房時, 也不妨考慮參照些一般的風水原則。為什麼呢?因為一般的風水原則, 和普通的設計原則,若從用戶的心理和身體健康角度考量, 往往是並行不悖的。比如,人們耳熟能詳的房屋方位原則: 背山面水。有山又有水的地方, 必然是山高水低。水體所在之處,往往是空間更開敞, 光線更充足, 通風更好的。那麼房屋背面靠山, 面對著水, 就是建在較高的地勢上, 面對著開敞的空間。這個方位從建築環境科學的角度分析, 也是極佳的。視野開闊,通風良好, 對生理健康和心理健康都是有益的, 何況水體本身還兼具觀賞和趣味性。如此位置的房屋, 必然在房產保值和升值上更占優勢。
再舉一個小的空間範圍為例。在面積稍小的公寓平面設計中,有時候設計師會不小心把廚房和衛生間的門口設計成對位,這在風水上叫做「水火不容」, 因為廚房是火,衛生間是水, 二者對位就會造成衝突,影響住戶的健康和家庭關係。這個從設計專業上也是很容易理解的:廚房是食物重地, 與人的健康關係密切; 而衛生間是清潔之地, 多有細菌。二者門口相對, 難免空氣互通, 衛生間裡的細菌跑到廚房裡, 沒有誰喜歡這樣。因此這種做法在風水上和在設計專業裡都應當竭力避免。
切合實際 考量中西差異
當然,一些風水原則也不需生硬的套用, 給自己造成精神負擔。筆者曾遇過一位業主, 擔心自己的公寓犯了「橫梁壓頂」的風水忌諱, 因為她的公寓的天花板是暴露的井字梁結構。其實這種擔心就是多餘的了。因為傳統意義上的中國建築的「橫梁」, 是古代坡屋頂木樑柱結構裡的主要結構構件。一個大的空間內往往只有一根橫梁, 位於正中, 與房屋的面寬方向一致, 尺寸都比較大。這樣的建築構件下, 放上一張床, 躺在床上, 信與不信風水的人都會產生巨大的心理壓力。而這位業主家的「梁」, 乃是英文的beam一詞翻譯而來, 與傳統中國意義上的「橫梁」並非是一回事。Beam一詞, 在一些語境中, 反倒翻譯為「柱」, 比如手電筒射出的光,英文叫light beam, 翻譯為「光柱」。因此, 捕風捉影式的聽到一些風水原則, 生硬的套在自己身上, 給自己帶來不必要的心理壓力。
福德相依 風生水起
那麼是不是真的像傳說中的那樣,有了好的風水, 自己的命運就會改變,升官發財接踵而至呢?其實未必。民間有種說法: 一命二運三風水, 四積陰德五讀書。臺灣易經專家、名設計師蔡竺欣表示,這五大要素實際上是輪迴的, 形成一個閉環。「很多人認為,找一個好的風水是『因』, 因為有了這個好風水,所以有了好的人生際遇這個 『果』。事實上, 我認為是『倒因為果』。」他說, 人要能得到一個好的風水,其實是個果而不是因, 因為人要想找到好風水,必須有那個福分。福分怎麼積的? 通過積陰德、讀書修養——這些自己能夠控制的因, 只有做到了這個「因」, 才容易找到一個好的風水, 這是「果」。新加坡風水師林雨生也說,人要正, 要是做壞事的話,風水也幫不了。「我曾經講,大不過因果。就是如果他沒有這個因果去承擔這個好處的話,他的局會破的。」正如《道德經》所言:「天道無親,常與善人。」與其挖空心思,追求完美風水,不妨花時間想辦法提高自己的道德修養,努力順應天道,求得上天佑護,這會比單純的追求風水合理得多。
所以,華人朋友如果家裡有建築活動,家裡一位信風水的要找風水師看看,另一位不信風水的也不用攔著。或是您本來不相信風水,裝修房屋的時候不太放心, 看看一般的風水原則,也不要不好意思。正如蔡竺欣先生所說, 風水是果, 不是因。孟子曰:「行有不得,反求諸己。」為自己帶來真正好運氣的終極良方,還在於您自身。