Feng Shui & External Sha (風水沖煞)

 

 

External factors affecting a building

 

 

Feng Shui is comprised of two Han characters: The ‘Feng’ and ‘Shui’. The word ‘Feng’ (風) refers to the location of a building that should be facing the sea and backed by mountain ranges; yet the main door facing south to avoid the cold North wind. While the word ‘Shui’ (水) refers to transportation and water supply.

 

As you can see, Feng Shui is an art and also a science of choosing a location. Although time has changed, Feng Shui remains relevant still until today. However, many people have forgotten this ancient wisdom on choosing a location. Now days, we tend to just walk into a house or an apartment and decide if we should make the purchase without due consideration of the external environments.

 

So, how to go about in choosing a house?

 

According to Feng Shui, all considerations must start with the audit of external environment before we sit down to look at the house. The elder Liao has said the rules clearly:

 

寥公天戒云：

 

第一莫下地留水，立見敗家計。

第二休尋劍脊龍，殺師在其中。

第三最怕凹風吹，決定人丁絕。

 

According to elder Liao’s rules of forbiddance:

 

First: It is forbidden to have underground water; this brings down the whole family.

Second: It is forbidden to see a steep mountain/river/road; it kills the master.

Third: It is forbidden to face with concave wind; destined to cease all in a household.

 

Rule 1:

 

If a house is built on top of a large drainage, underground electrical cables or underground railways; then this will cause the house owner to lose money, in debt or even bankruptcy.

 

Rule 2:

 

If a house is built on a steep mountain range, or the house is built in such a way that it faces the mountain range in close proximity; then who ever stays in this house will not live long. This situation also refers to busy main roads and rivers. It is said that the seriousness is up to such an extent that even the master himself/herself will not be spared.

 

This is also described by the book ‘Precious Mirror Of Heaven’ <都天寶照經>:

 

“水直朝來最不祥，一條直是一條槍。”

“Straight waters are most inauspicious, a straight line is as if a spear.”

Rule 3:

 

On the event that a house is facing a gap between two hills, mountains or even tall buildings; we call it the ‘concave wind sha’ (凹風吹煞). If a house is facing with ‘concave wind’, then no one can stay long in the house.

 

There are many theories about this ‘concave wind’ but the directions from which the winds come from affects different people in a household more than others. This is described in I Ching.

 

Personally, after a house is purchased and the external environment is inauspicious, there is nothing one can do to avert the situation. I have a pal purchased a $500,000 house and spent $500,000 to renovate it. But when I came to audit, I found both the external and internal conditions are equally bad so I just close my compass and walked away. To tell you the truth, it only took 10 minutes to burn a $1M investment. Then and again, there is always a naïve taker due to property market boon.