Fengshui of the Royal Family Series 2 (Returning Dragon Protects the Master)

In 1997, Hong Kong was returned to Mainland China. China wants Hong Kong's development to reach another climax, thus the country came up with a feng shui plan, "Returning Dragon Protects the Master", together with Hong Kong's authorities. In this plan, a convention and exhibition centre that resembles a big tortoise (although the designer explained that it was "a flying seagull") was built on Hong Kong's "Lion Fire Land". This building served as the site of the Hong Kong handover ceremony. China hopes that the two countries will look after each other. However, the Hongkongers who are used to the democratic lifestyle appears to be very worried about China's communism.

Other than that, a Tian Tan Buddha was built on the "Lotus Land" of Lantau Island. The Buddha faces North, but his hand faces Northeast, which is the direction where Hong Kong and Taiwan are located. Ever since the Buddha was sanctified, Taiwan has been attacked by typhoons rapidly and this has caused discontent among the people. No one knows whether this is the will of Heaven or a coincidence. In my opinion, to ensure peace in Taiwan and for the country to submit willingly, it is best to construct a Bu Dai (bag made of cloth) Monk. The bag he carries bears double meaning, one is to gather the power emitted from the Buddha's hands, the other is to make the country submit willingly.

The above mentioned is the modern version of "Returning Dragon Protects the Master". Government officials are advised to visit Hong Kong frequently and they are likely to get promoted when their heart is inclined towards their motherland.

It is said that Ming Chengzu (Zhudi) wanted to strengthen the royal family, thus he sent the official in charge of astronomical phenomena to the South to search for a land with excellent feng shui-it must possess Dragon, Fire, Tortoise and a Dragon that will return to protect its Master. At last, the official found Wudang Mountain and Wuduo Mountain. Wuduo Mountain is a "Phoenix Land", which looks like a standing Phoenix topographically. Some feng shui masters call it the "Five Dragons Land", but my beloved teacher, Reverend Min Zhi Ting, had inspected the feng shui of the grave sites several times and concluded that it was a "Phoenix Land". There is a saying that goes, "Wudang in the South and Wuduo in the North". However, Wuduo Mountain is not open to public access, thus few know about it. In fact, Wuduo is truly the land with excellent royal feng shui. Many famous priests in Wudang, such as Sun Si Miao, Chen Chuan and Zhang San Feng, had trained there before. The land was later classed as a prohibited land of the royal family, thus few know about it.

Kaifeng Hall

Kaifeng is the ancient capital of the six dynasties and enjoys equal fame as Luoyang. When one travels to Henan, the places that one must definitely visit are Luoyang, Kaifeng and the Shaolin Temple. However, I always missed out Luoyang in my past trips.

Kaifeng (kai-开 means open, feng-封 means close) has a meaning of "rise and fall". 400 years had passed and the prosperous scene on the drawing of "Riverside Scene on the Qing Ming Festival"（清明上河图）had ceased to exist. Even Justice Bao who was famous due to Kaifeng, also paled in significance. In the past, Kaifeng's Justice Bao Shrine was used to display the great achievements of Justice Bao. Later, the local government built the Kaifeng Hall, which was far bigger than the Justice Bao Shrine. The Kaifeng Hall has even become a tourist attraction. The current Kaifeng Hall was built according to the design of the Kaifeng Hall in the Song Dynasty. But the original location was flooded, thus another place was chosen for the new building.

You must reach the Kaifeng Hall by 9am, in order to watch Justice Bao open the door to welcome the guests and receive the decree scroll. During the ceremony, Qin Xiang Lian suddenly came forward with two children and wanted to sue Chen Shi Mei, who abandoned his wife and children to become the emperor's son-in-law. Thereafter, Qin Xiang Lian was brought into the hall and the court began to hear the case. We continued to follow the tour guide, so as to know more about the rise and fall of Kaifeng. Coincidentally, we bump into the actress who acted as Qin Xiang Lian. She was squatting by the roadside, chatting with her friends. She quickly covered her face with her hands when she discovered we were snapping photos of her.

Actually, Qin Xiang Lian could have chosen a better way out. She could just take the money and raise her children to nurture another top scholar. However, for the sake of love and justice, she ruined the future of Chen Shi Mei and caused his death. Perhaps, she never thought that a moment of persistence was enough to cost Chen Shi Mei his life. Of course, if she had let him off, we would not have such a nice show to watch now.

For Qin Xiang Lian, the most unforgivable thing about Chen Shi Mei was not his heartlessness but his ruthlessness. From this example, we can see that over-persistence will sometimes arouse the tendency for others to commit wrongdoings.

Nowadays, freedom is the concept of marriage. However, there are still occurrences of incidents where couples kill each other. Is it worth to exchange love for life or to exchange life for love? I am a rational and optimistic person. In my opinion, romance only occupies part of one's life. Besides romance, there are many other things that one can use their heart to complete. Living for love and dying for love---it is better that we leave these to history.

I spent 100 Chinese yuan to let the tour members have a photo taken with Justice Bao. The extra income that Justice Bao received should be higher than his salary then, no wonder he was so enthusiastic!

Kaifeng Hall, we shall meet again!

The Origin of Yellow Crane Tower's Fengshui

Yellow Crane Tower is situated in Wuhan (capital of Hubei province), at the junction of Han River and Yangtze River. Swift currents that changed their direction of flow frequently had caused Wuhan and Wuchang to suffer badly due to the floods. This caused headache for the rulers of all dynasties. In the end, the flow of direction of Han River was changed. Wuhan was divided into three cities, forming Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang, which were separated by rivers.

Wuhan had been the key water passage for generations, it was important for both commercial and strategic plans. In order to grasp the traffic situation of the river, a watching tower was built---Yellow Crane Tower. However, since the Han Dynasty, the tower was destroyed and rebuilt repeatedly due to wars. The battle between warlords destructed the Yellow Crane Tower in Qing Dynasty. It was only until 1984 that an exact-looking Yellow Crane Tower was built at the current location. And, this is the fate of the Yellow Crane Tower.

The third storey of the tower holds an exhibition of the models of towers in the past generations. Due to their different functions, the style of the buildings also differed widely. Restoration of the original look of this historical building is due to fengshui considerations and also to retain the culture.

The basis of the Yellow Crane Tower is the "Eight Trigrams". From the appearance, it seems to have only five (五) storeys but it is actually nine (九)-storey high, which symbolises the power and authority of the emperor (九五至尊). The fengshui of the current location is better than the original, because the tower is built on a "Tortoise Land" surrounded by snakes. Suppression of the tortoises and snakes will prevent them from stirring up waves and reduce the occurrence of floods. Legend has it that the tortoises and snakes were the stomach and intestines of the Xuan Tian deity. In order to turn over a new leaf, Xuan Tian deity put his stomach and intestines into the Yangtze River for cleansing. This move of him touched the Heaven and Earth and he became a celestial being upon attaining immortality. However, the stomach and intestines turned into tortoises and snakes, creating trouble in the seas. Thus, Xuan Tian deity had to send two celestial cranes to subdue the animals. As time goes by, the cranes became the symbol of the Yellow Crane Tower.

I have been to the Yellow Crane Tower in 1994. At that time, not only can I overlook the Tortoise Mountain and Snake Mountain of Wuhan, the magnificent view of the convergence of the three rivers can also be seen. But now, high-rise buildings are everywhere and the beautiful scenery has ceased to exist. Of course, the fengshui is also affected.

Today, Yellow Crane Tower sits at Southeast (Chen-辰) and faces Northwest (Xu-戌). The tower faces the Yangtze River Bridge and the convergence area of the three rivers. In front of it is a sarira pagoda, and the Millennium Bell stands behind the tower. Besides strengthening the fengshui, the two structures also helps to enhance the luck of the devotees.

Fengshui of the Royal Family Series 1 (Phoenix returns to its nest)

The main aim of this Fengshui Tour is to explore the design and layout of the fengshui of the royal family.

Ri (日) and yue (月) [these two words formed ming (明)] are of the "Fire" element. The family name of the emperors in the Ming Dynasty was zhu (朱), which is also "Fire". Thus, the royal family kept searching for a land of "Fire" to enhance the fengshui of the empire, in hope of an everlasting Ming Dynasty. If we look at the replacements of the past dynasties, the Song Dynasty ("Wood") was taken over by the Yuan Dynasty ("Metal") and the latter was replaced by the Ming Dynasty ("Fire"). Being the "Wood" element, Song Dynasty can create "Fire". During the Ming Dynasty, the capital was actually Kaifeng ("Land of Swallows in Forest"). But, floods were too frequent and the energy of "Water" was too intense in Kaifeng. This caused Ming Taizu to be worried about his empire, so he sent the advisor, Liu Bowen, to search for a dry land with "Fire". In addition, the land must be of strategic importance with excellent fengshui and able to let the throne be passed down for generations. At last, Liu Bowen found the "Phoenix Land" in Beijing. However, the third emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhudi, was still worried. Thus, he started on the long journey to implement the project of "Returning Dragon Protects the Master", so as to further stabilise his throne.

"In the skies, it is a phenomenon. On the ground, it takes shape". This is the emphasis in the study of fengshui. Thus, the founder, Liu Bowen, planned the design and layout of Beijing according to the Zi Wei Enclosure in the skies. Traces of this plan can still be seen at the Palace Museum and some other ancient buildings now. The Ming Mausoleum is located at Tianshou Mountain, which is the area of Dragon pulse in the Northwest of Beijing. The fengshui layout of this area is unique on earth, but it was destructed by the Qing Dynasty ("Water").

In 1994, I had done an analysis of Beijing’s fengshui formation at the Peking University. At that time, most scholars thought that Beijing was a "Dragon Land". I was the only one who opposed this view and insisted that it was a "Phoenix Land", this is because my ancestors had participated in the design project of Beijing. I said with certainty that, if a bird nest, a bird egg and a bird bowl appear in Beijing, it will prove that it is a "Phoenix Land". Indeed, Beijing now possesses Bird Nest (Beijing National Stadium), Bird Bowl (The Water Cube) and Bird Egg (Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts). Later, Bird Head (Olympic Torch Tower) and Bird Feet (new CCTV building) are also added, creating a fengshui formation of "Phoenix returns to its nest". When the "Phoenix" arrives in Beijing, it is the time when the city will be well-known to the whole world. The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games certainly impressed everybody.

Look out for the next issue - Wudang Mountain and Wuduo Mountain.