Chinese ancestors aware of the existence of the life or natural forces which is called “氣 [qi]”. They believe that this “qi” flows around us and influences the prosperity and harmony of the human lives. By manipulating this energy, we can enhance our career, relationship, health and even our business. This is what feng shui is all about – an ancient art which deals with the placement of buildings or other objects to accentuate the auspicious positive energies and to minimize those which are negative. This knowledge has been shaped through several centuries, but its principles are still relevant today.

The term feng shui literally means “wind 風 [feng] and water 水 [shui].” This knowledge originated at least 4,000 years ago. This knowledge expanded from the accumulated experience and observation of primitive people in finding a good living space which is safe from severe weather and convenient in obtaining food and water, up to study of more abstract things like the stars and time influence, and the directions of a living place.

Feng shui was first called as “Kan Yu” – meaning observing the heaven and earth. This practice is common used by the Chinese ancestors in selecting a living place or palace as well as selecting a good place for burying. A lot of feng shui masters were key advisors to the emperor for so many generations to maintain their power and reign.

Feng shui practice has gained booming interest in the Western world lately, and because of that, many people are easily confused or misled by numerous schools of feng shui practice. That is why it is difficult to find a truly traditional and authentic form of Chinese Feng Shui master nowadays.

Feng shui is a science of the environment that helps us to tap and manage the energies in our surrounding to enhance our prosperity and harmony. We call feng shui as a “science” because actually the authentic feng shui or classical feng shui can be explained by logic and sound principles. The science’s roots are traceable to the I-Ching (the book of Changes).

Inside feng shui theory, there is a concept of what they called as the Cosmic Trinity (that explain the influenced of three lucks: Heaven 天 [tian], Earth 地 [di] and Man 人 [ren] on human lives). Heaven Luck can be explained in an easy term “destiny” or “Heaven’s will”. It is something given and we don’t have the power to make a choice, like for example the date and place of birth, our innate characters, our parents, our countries. In order to optimizing this Heaven Luck, we pray.

Man Luck is the human aspects which include our hard work, formal or informal education, perseverance, management and so forth. We can control this aspect which depends on our decision in our lives. We can utilize further informal educational training as for an example to improve our Man Luck.

Earth Luck is where Feng Shui comes in. We frequently forget about this aspect. By utilizing the qi of our environment, we can promote prosperity, vitality and harmony of our lives. Our lives will become comprehensive if we optimize these three aspects of Luck.

The first important literature on formal feng shui practice is considered to be “The Book of Burial”. This book is about picking the best landscape to bury ancestors for long term prosperity of future generations. There is an important sentence in this book: “The energy of the dragon will be dispersed by wind, and will stop at the boundary of water.” It is believed that the term Feng Shui is originated from this sentence.

There are 2 main categories of feng shui studies used when evaluating the feng shui of a place, "Form School" and "Compass School". "Form School" refers to the form and shape in the environment (mountain, pond, tree, table, furniture). "Compass School" refers to the flow, qualities, direction, and influence of the natural forces or "qi". As the natural forces associate with time and space, compass school also count this factor in when evaluating the feng shui of a place. These 2 main categories can be compared to the hardware and software in computer science.