History holds a wealth of knowledge. Even about wealth. Feng Shui has been around for at least 3,000 years or even more. But who had access to it? The wealthy, of course. So important was this knowledge to the emperor and other nobility that it was illegal – under pain of death- to share this knowledge with the common people. Feng Shui was such a closely guarded secret that it was only passed down from father to son (with a few exceptions here and there for a special daughter or apprentice), and, to insure this, it was mostly kept to an oral tradition.
But you can’t keep the truth or a good man down – and in 907 BC, Feng Shui master Jun-Sung Yang escaped from the emperor’s court and traveled the land to spread the word about Feng Shui. So important and risky an act was this that Jun-Sung became revered and honored with the name “Yang, Save the Poor.”
It is difficult for us to comprehend what this act meant to the Chinese culture and how it may have changed the history of China. We just don’t really get it- and perhaps it is because we don’t really get how powerful Feng Shui is. But it is it – Chairman Mao outlawed Feng Shui so these masters and practitioners were forced to flee or be killed. What is it that was so important about Feng Shui that the emperors and rulers did not want to share with the common man? There had to be something there. The emperors strongly believed in it; so did Mao, who had ancestors who were FS masters. He apparently wanted to keep the Feng Shui for himself. And this makes sense- because good Feng Shui can last for 180 years. The Emperors wanted their dynasties to last – and so did Chairman Mao. (This type of Feng Shui is ‘yin Feng Shui’, the burial for the ancestors. It lasts 180 years as there is a powerful 180 year trigram cycle …but I digress…)
When we talk about Feng Shui it is usually yang Feng Shui – Feng Shui for the living. After taking care of the ancestors, the emperors and dictators concerned themselves with yang Feng Shui. Yang the Poor thought it so important to share this information that he was ready to risk his life. It makes one think –
When people tell me that their house is “not good enough to be Feng Shui-ed” or “once we move,” they will get a Feng Shui consultation – I wonder what Yang Save the Poor would have to say.