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Some Stories About 'Feng Shui' & Chinese Divination

王泥喜法介 said:
Dear all, have you heard some stories about "Feng Shui" or some other Chinese divination? I suppose they are intriguing and I wish to share some here.
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I would certainly like to hear them.

I've never met a genuine Feng Shui practitioner, only Westerners who adopt the title after doing an online course or with no training at all.

Would Feng Shui practitioners in China go through an apprenticeship?
 
I wish I can post several stories here per week.

Today, I would like to present a story I heard from my friends.

A few years ago, my friend lived in a remote village. A three-people family lived near him. The daughter of that family was pretty lovely, and a young man living in another village usually visited the girl. It is clear that the young man wished to be the girl's boyfriend while the girl's parents refused this. Even so, that young man did not stop doing so. Finally, the parents of the girl felt their life was heavily disturbed by him. One day, the father of that girl called his brothers to beat the young man. Since then, the young man never came again.

A few months later, a fortune teller visited that village. Most civilians there asked the fortune teller some general questions, like "when I can make much money？", "what should I do next year?". The family also wanted to access to some information from that fortune tellers. However, the fortune teller refused to present even a word. That family was confused, "why you do not tell me anything?" That fortune teller spoke a few words at last "Watch your dog!"

After saying this, this fortune teller stood up and left that village. Some people wondered why this fortune teller left so quickly. Observing the family went home, the fortune teller said "the three people of that family will die soon. If they accept my suggestion, perhaps they can avoid this disaster."

Next day, the three people, the parents and that girl, were killed in the dream by the young man. The villagers were confused because that family kept a dog. If a stranger approached the house, the dog would shout therefore the three would probably wake up. However, the villagers could not find the dog of that family. Perhaps that family did not believe that fortune teller and that behaviour resulted in this tragedy.
 
ramonmercado said:
I would certainly like to hear them.

I've never met a genuine Feng Shui practitioner, only Westerners who adopt the title after doing an online course or with no training at all.

Would Feng Shui practitioners in China go through an apprenticeship?
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In fact, you can find various Feng Shui masters in China. However, they seldom named themselves Feng Shui master on the table because such a skill is so sensitive.
 
ramonmercado said:
I've never met a genuine Feng Shui practitioner, only Westerners who adopt the title after doing an online course or with no training at all. Would Feng Shui practitioners in China go through an apprenticeship?
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While I am a westerner, I do have a delightful female friend who is from a lineage of Taiwanese Feng Shui practitioners. She did undergo an apprenticeship of sorts, until she started routinely surpassing her teacher in skill and he told her he had nothing more to teach her, gave her his certification, and started prying into how she did a couple of things. As such, she is well worth the time to converse with on such topics.

One of her recent fascinations has been a mountain near my city where she believes the local community is badly cursed, possibly due to crimes committed there in the past, but she maintains that the location is a focus for what she terms a "spirit gate". I quizzed her about this as it isn't in the classic location for a spirit gate (North East or South West) of my city, to which she laughed and pointed out that everywhere is North East or South West of somewhere, and in this case, it wasn't my home city that was the issue or had the issue, in fact the problem completely bypassed my city. What was notable was the quiet of the pine forests there. I had often visited the area for the sheer quiet eeriness of the place (and to go mushroom picking nom nom nom), but it hadn't occurred to me that there might be a "haunting" going on. When I did a bit more digging, I discovered that the area indeed had an abnormally high instance of violent crimes, statistically speaking, for a town that is effectively a satellite suburb of a major city. I calculated it as 12.1 per 100,000, which is nearly double the global average. Interestingly the town is south west of a "mystery spot" anomaly where stationary cars put in neutral apparently roll uphill, which sounds a bit like a fucked up "demon gate". It also has a water reservoir in the SW that is named after a place with distinct Freemasonic connections, but it was only built in the 1970s, which is well after the Freemasons were de-fanged by television. The investigation is ongoing, especially during mushroom season.
 
I'm British but have lived in Hong Kong most of my life. We recently moved to a village house with 3 floors. My wife is Chinese and about 3 months after moving, she announced that she had employed a well-recommended "master" attached to the Wong Tai Sin temple to come and survey the house for its Feng Shui. It's not cheap, about 1,500 UK pounds.

I was a bit disappointed when he arrived as he was in normal western clothes when I was expecting a robe clad, shaved head monkish type. He didn't speak a word of English so my wife was the one to work with him. He is either a genuine psychic or a brilliant cold-reader because he knew all about our situation.

He went from room to room, making statements about what needs to change or what needs to be added to each room. My teenage son was, apparently, affected by his bedroom and we need to get a red wall hanging to counter its effect so he won't sleep in so much. I had to turn my desk 90 degrees to face away from a window. An armchair downstairs had to swap its position with the sofa. Lots of things like that. There was also a big list of things to buy and install in each room (all available at the temple shop). We got a money plant for the downstairs along with small statues of Fuk Luk Sau (Chinese Three Wise Men) and, oddly, an oil painting of a fully rigged sailing ship at sea. I needed a money frog, a statue of a boy holding a lotus leaf over a girl and a 5-storied pagoda statue for my desk while my son needed a 7-storied one. We also had to put a monkey statue downstairs, but a soft toy would do just as well, so that's what we have now.

It was an interesting experience. I can't say I have noticed any difference in the ether but we have more oriental statues and things now and I like the sailing ship painting.
 
Walker99 said:
I'm British but have lived in Hong Kong most of my life. We recently moved to a village house with 3 floors. My wife is Chinese and about 3 months after moving, she announced that she had employed a well-recommended "master" attached to the Wong Tai Sin temple to come and survey the house for its Feng Shui. It's not cheap, about 1,500 UK pounds.

I was a bit disappointed when he arrived as he was in normal western clothes when I was expecting a robe clad, shaved head monkish type. He didn't speak a word of English so my wife was the one to work with him. He is either a genuine psychic or a brilliant cold-reader because he knew all about our situation.

He went from room to room, making statements about what needs to change or what needs to be added to each room. My teenage son was, apparently, affected by his bedroom and we need to get a red wall hanging to counter its effect so he won't sleep in so much. I had to turn my desk 90 degrees to face away from a window. An armchair downstairs had to swap its position with the sofa. Lots of things like that. There was also a big list of things to buy and install in each room (all available at the temple shop). We got a money plant for the downstairs along with small statues of Fuk Luk Sau (Chinese Three Wise Men) and, oddly, an oil painting of a fully rigged sailing ship at sea. I needed a money frog, a statue of a boy holding a lotus leaf over a girl and a 5-storied pagoda statue for my desk while my son needed a 7-storied one. We also had to put a monkey statue downstairs, but a soft toy would do just as well, so that's what we have now.

It was an interesting experience. I can't say I have noticed any difference in the ether but we have more oriental statues and things now and I like the sailing ship painting.
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Pay 1,500 UK pounds to be told you need to buy stuff from their shop. Yeah, riiight.
 
Walker99 said:
I'm British but have lived in Hong Kong most of my life. We recently moved to a village house with 3 floors. My wife is Chinese and about 3 months after moving, she announced that she had employed a well-recommended "master" attached to the Wong Tai Sin temple to come and survey the house for its Feng Shui. It's not cheap, about 1,500 UK pounds.

I was a bit disappointed when he arrived as he was in normal western clothes when I was expecting a robe clad, shaved head monkish type. He didn't speak a word of English so my wife was the one to work with him. He is either a genuine psychic or a brilliant cold-reader because he knew all about our situation.

He went from room to room, making statements about what needs to change or what needs to be added to each room. My teenage son was, apparently, affected by his bedroom and we need to get a red wall hanging to counter its effect so he won't sleep in so much. I had to turn my desk 90 degrees to face away from a window. An armchair downstairs had to swap its position with the sofa. Lots of things like that. There was also a big list of things to buy and install in each room (all available at the temple shop). We got a money plant for the downstairs along with small statues of Fuk Luk Sau (Chinese Three Wise Men) and, oddly, an oil painting of a fully rigged sailing ship at sea. I needed a money frog, a statue of a boy holding a lotus leaf over a girl and a 5-storied pagoda statue for my desk while my son needed a 7-storied one. We also had to put a monkey statue downstairs, but a soft toy would do just as well, so that's what we have now.

It was an interesting experience. I can't say I have noticed any difference in the ether but we have more oriental statues and things now and I like the sailing ship painting.
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Hello from another Hong Kong based poster! I had an ex who was told to get a painting of exactly nine carp for similar reasons, can't say we ever found one.

On a related note, did you have to do any kind of ceremony when moving in, to placate the ghosts?
 
James_H said:
Hello from another Hong Kong based poster! I had an ex who was told to get a painting of exactly nine carp for similar reasons, can't say we ever found one.

On a related note, did you have to do any kind of ceremony when moving in, to placate the ghosts?
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HI James. Yes there were moving-in ceremonies too. My wife and her family did one with plates of Chinese food offerings around the house with joss-sticks stuck in them. A Muslim friend who helped with the moving also did his one, which involved scattering salt crystals and peppercorns all over the house. I am still finding the odd peppercorn month's later. All in all it was an interesting cross-cultural experience.
 
When I moved into a small flat in Hong Kong (on Lantau island actually) with a Chinese partner we did the whole ritual appeasing the spirits thing.
Five candles and sets of incense were pushed into pieces of carrot (gold coloured food) and placed in the four corners and centre of the space. Piles of paper ghost money (and clothes) were burnt at the five points. We also had small pieces of meat placed in the centre (when it was explained to the butcher what the meat was for she nodded sagely and reminded us that we had to gather and dispose of all the burnt remains before actually moving our stuff in otherwise it wouldn't really work)

The relationship was a disaster from start to finish but being with a local meant that I had an insight into Hong Kong culture that many people don't experience.
 
I'm currently fascinated by Hong Kong feng shui master Master So, who couldn't look more like an evil wizard if he tried:

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He was on TV last night saying yes, people with bushier eyebrows are more perverted, along with other pearls of wisdom.
 
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