vely affected. According to Feng Shui, mountains, hills and other raised areas (even tall buildings) represent yang energy, while valleys, rivers and streams represent yin energy. As a result, earth that is completely flat is said to contain too much yin, and a hilly area with no water or plants contains too much yang energy, both would produce bad ch’i. A gently rolling countryside with a slow flowing stream would represent a good balance of yin and yang. Lillian Too goes so far as to say that the most important rule of Feng Shui when choosing land is "mountain behind water in front" (15). There are two schools of Feng Shui, the Compass School and the Form School.Compass SchoolThrough the development of Feng Shui, some scholars believed that the aspects of Chinese astrology should be incorporated with the basic principles. The Compass School was developed after the Sung dynasty and took into account personal information regarding your astrological sign in order to find the location that will optimize your ch’i (Too 28). These scholars used the tortoise shell that inspired Wu of Hsia to create the pa-kua symbol. This symbol showed all 8 possible combinations of yin and yang. From this symbol they devised a compass that showed where each symbol (i.e. the person who represents that symbol) should be located in the home in order for them to be the most productive, healthy and prosperous. A person’s individual symbol is determined by his or her year of birth. A person born in 1979 is a Chen and, according to the compass should be in the east side of the house, as the Chinese compass has south at its top. From your pa-kua symbol you can then see what element you represent. The five elements are Fire, Earth, Wood, Metal and Water. After determining your element, you then are told which materials you should surround yourself with (Webster 18). Form SchoolThe form school of Feng Shui focuses mainly on the location of the buil...
