Feng Shui (Kan Yu) and Architecture: International Conference in Berlin ed. by Florian C. Reiter (review)

Abstract

FLORIAN C. REITER ed., Feng Shui (Kan Yu) and Architecture: International Conference in Berlin. Asien- und Afrika-Studien der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, vol. 38. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2011. viii, 216 pp. J49.80 (pbk). ISBN 978-3-447-06592-4 I have seldom, if ever, read such a peculiar academic book. Like many conference volumes its content is uneven, but in this case it is wildly, almost unmanageably, so. The volume is also marred by a great deal of editorial sloppiness, including unnecessarily different fonts for Chinese characters, a number of grammatical mistakes and misspellings, and inconsistent translations (for example, on p. 85 the title of the Song dynasty work by Cai Yuanding 蔡元定 known as Fawei lun 發微 論 is translated as ‘‘A Discourse on the Exposed and the Abstruse,’’ but in a footnote it appears as ‘‘Discourse on the Gross and the Subtle;’’ neither translation, I might add, is very elegant). Despite these limitations, the book has value. According to the brief Foreword by Florian Reiter, the thirteen essays in the book are designed to ‘‘lift the pall of esotericism’’ (p. vii) hanging over the theory and practice of contemporary fengshui 風水. The ‘‘modern’’ manifestations of this esotericism, we are told, threaten ‘‘to spoil the field [of fengshui studies] for the sinologist and the specialist in architecture’’ (p. vii). We are not told what the sources of this ‘‘modern esotericism’’ are, or how the field might be spoiled, but the mystery seems to be related to the fact that ‘‘geomantic texts’’ are ‘‘difficult to read’’ and ‘‘we lack the indispensable oral instructions of the antique masters’’ (p. vii). What this Foreword seems to suggest is that by working from a variety of analytical and epistemological perspectives, the fengshui and architectural specialists who attended the international conference at Berlin’s Humboldt University in November of 2010 would be able to produce new insights about, and encourage creative applications of, this ancient belief system based on the idea of harmonizing natural forms and human structures. Several of the essays in this volume have a rather speculative ‘‘New Age’’ feel. Reiter’s introductory piece, ‘‘Considerations about the assessment and application of Feng Shui in Berlin,’’ for example, asks whether ‘‘the development of our [German] cities would have been different if Feng Shui had been applied, and furthermore, whether our history would then have taken a different course.’’ This strikes me as a very odd question, even if it is purely rhetorical (and I do not think it was meant to be). After a discursive foray into some basic fengshui concepts (yin 陰, yang 陽, qi 氣, etc.) and descriptions of several different aspects of Berlin’s architecture, Reiter concludes his short essay prescriptively by suggesting that German architects should return, ‘‘whenever possible, to traditional building materials,’’ and that they ‘‘should reconsider the proportions between open and sealed surfaces and design ornamental and deeply structured facades that support the balance of yin and yang’’ (p. 11). He asserts that if such a balance can in fact be achieved, it ‘‘will have a positive bearing on the inhabitants who will sense that the Feng Shui is good’’ (p. 11). Ole Bruun’s ‘‘Feng Shui: a universal mode of thought?’’ also has a New Age flavor. It seeks to show that fengshui is an ‘‘East Asian expression’’ of ways of thinking that have ‘‘taken many shapes and gone by many names’’ (p. 22) in the past, ideas that have manifested themselves ‘‘in all fields of thought from religion over the natural sciences and into the humanities’’ (p. 22). Although Bruun is well 78 BOOK REVIEWS known as a scholar of Chinese fengshui, his focus in this essay is far more general and philosophical. What he argues is that human beings need belief systems such as fengshui—which he characterizes as ‘‘essentially holistic, organic, metaphorical/ analogical, and experiential’’ (p. 22) in its orientation—in order to counter ways of thinking that are more mechanical and less spiritual. Beliefs and practices like fengshui, he says, ‘‘stimulate the cognitive, symbolic, cultural capacity of the mind’’ (p. 24), producing an effect ‘‘very much akin to the current variety of reactions to rationalism, reductionism, the fragmentation of life and the loss of meaning’’ (p. 23...