Foundation Theories

The goal of feng shui as practiced today is to situate the human built environment on spots with good qi. The "perfect spot" is a location and an axis in time.

Qi (ch'i)
Qi is a either a movable positive or negative life force which plays an essential role in Feng Shui. In martial arts Qi refers to internal or physical energy. A traditional explanation of Qi as it relates to Feng Shui would include the orientation of a structure, its age, and its interaction with the surrounding environment including the local microclimates, the slope of the land, vegetation, and soil quality.

According to researcher Stephen L. Field, one use for a Luopan is to detect the flow of Qi. Field views Feng Shui as a form of divination that assesses the quality of the local environment and the effects of space weather, and developed the term qimancy for the concept.

Professor Max Knoll suggested in a 1951 lecture that qi is a form of solar radiation. Compasses reflect local geomagnetism which includes geomagnetically induced currents caused by space weather.

Beliefs from the Axial Age, feng shui among them, hold that the heavens influence life on Earth. This seems preposterous to many people, yet space weather exists and can have profound effects on technology (GPS, power grids, pipelines, communication and navigation systems, surveys), and the internal orienting faculties of birds and other creatures. There is some evidence that suicide rates in Kirovsk, Russia, fluctuate along with the geomagnetic field. Atmospheric scientists have suggested that space weather creates fluctuations in market prices.

Polarity
Polarity is expressed in feng shui as Yin and Yang Theory. Polarity expressed through yin and yang is similar to a bipolar magnetic field. That is, it is of two parts: one creating an exertion and one receiving the exertion. Yang acting and yin receiving could be considered an early understanding of chirality. The development of Yin Yang Theory and its corollary, Five Phase Theory (Five Element Theory), have also been linked with astronomical observations of sunspots.

The "elements" of feng shui (water, wood, fire, earth/soil, metal) are made of yin and yang in precise amounts (Greater wood has less yin than lesser wood, but not as much yin as water, and so forth). Earth is a buffer, or an equilibrium achieved when the polarities cancel each other. While the goal of Chinese medicine is to balance yin and yang in the body, the goal of feng shui has been described as aligning a city, site, building, or object with yin-yang force fields.

Bagua(eight symbols)
Two diagrams known as bagua (or pa kua) loom large in feng shui, and both predate their mentions in the Yijing or I Ching. The Lo (River) Chart (Luoshu, or Later Heaven Sequence) was developed first. The Luoshu and the River Chart (Hetu, or Early Heaven Sequence) are linked to astronomical events of the sixth millennium BCE, and with the Turtle Calendar from the time of Yao. The Turtle Calendar of Yao (found in the Yaodian section of the Shangshu or 'Book of Documents') dates to 2300 BCE, plus or minus 250 years.

Sources indicate that time, in the form of astronomy and calendars, is at the heart of feng shui.

In Yaodian, the cardinal directions are determined by the marker-stars of the mega-constellations known as the Four Celestial Animals.

East: the Green Dragon (Spring equinox) --- Niao (Bird), α Hydrae

South: the Red Phoenix (Summer solstice) --- Huo (Fire), α Scorpionis

West: the White Tiger (Autumn equinox) --- Xu (Emptiness, Void), α Aquarii, β Aquarii

North: the Dark Turtle (Winter solstice) --- Mao (Hair), η Tauri (the Pleiades)

The diagrams are also linked with the sifang (four directions) method of divination used during the Shang dynasty. The sifang is much older, however. It was used at Niuheliang, and figured large in Hongshan culture's astronomy. And it is this area of China that is linked to Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, who allegedly invented the south-pointing spoon.

Source from Wikipedia