Izvori temeljnih principov vede fengshui skozi pojem korelativne kozmologije

Abstract

In the following article I discuss fengshui, or the art of “wind and water” 风水, which developed side by side with specifically Chinese technical-magical practices. Western technical sources written on this topic, which deal only with the geomantic aspects, are inadequate for my research. Throughout this article I maintain that literary works on fengshui are a better insight into its culture than the plain technical (and often also Eurocentric) assessments of this art. The latter often neglect the specifically Chinese origins of this art, do not recognize its significance in Chinese culture, and thus also tend to obscure the true nature of fengshui. I deal with the classical Chinese cosmological views of fengshui, which were prevalent from the Han Dynasty onward. At that time, following the principles of Chinese correlative cosmology, fengshui’s predecessor, known as kanyu 堪舆, was widely practiced among the educated elites. It was in the millennial span of the Six Dynasties, through the Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties, that fengshui was also employed as a practice among many Confucian scholars, and thus slowly gained prominence among the Chinese people and within Chinese culture.