The Debate

Some regard the Tang Feng Shui text Xue Xin Fu, Snow Heart Poem, as the most important Luan Tou document. It is a pity that practitioners do not read or understand this valuable over 1,000 years old ancient Feng Shui text.

I had completed a deep exciting research study of the Tang Feng Shui text Xue Xin Fu, Snow Heart Poem, when a particular passage in the poem creates a nagging thought which kept throbbing in my mind. At this time, I had also studied several other ancient Feng Shui texts, e.g. Han Lung Jing, Yi Lung Jing, Tian Yu Jing, Tu Tien Bao Chou Jing, Rui Di Yen, Qing Nang Jing, Qing Nang Xu, Qing Nang Aow Yi, Tsih King, Zhangshu, Huang Di Nei Ching. Of course, long ago I had already studied the Confucian and Huai Nan Zi classics.

I am aware that many Feng Shui masters had came away from these classics, bewildered at their difficulties at penetrating the meanings of the ancient texts. One well known Feng Shui master rightly said that only a person with good knowledge of Chinese culture and history can hope to unravel the age old secrets.

The thought had taken shape through a few years. It is the recognition that modern Feng Shui practitioners are unaware that it was Confucius who penned down the first Feng Shui texts! The modern Feng Shui practitioners are also unaware that the writers of the scattered ancient Feng Shui texts were actually commenting on what Confucius had written about Feng Shui.

The remarkable thing is that the writer of Xue Xin Fu, Snow Heart Poem, stated that much of what are in Xue Xin Fu, Snow Heart Poem, actually originated from Confucius! The pivotal passage is:

• Even though calling water, how to get with water.
  Who know sage Confucius' heart?
  To the greatest extend, double (alternative) book being inferior to no book.
  Some more, want to leave sharp vision.
  Xue Xin Fu 440-441 (Book 4, Chapter 4).

The passage above is profound and full of significant serious implications for modern Feng Shui.

XUE XIN FU, SNOW HEART POEM: GREAT SECRETS OF LUAN TOU LANDSCAPE FENG SHUI This Tang document is regarded by some as the most important Luan Tou Feng Shui text. Read and study it to know the original Feng Shui of Sung and Tang dynasties periods. Read its astonishing condemnation of Compass schools methods! Xue Xin Fu warns that many Compass methods are incorrect and will bring about misfortune.

Phrase 1: "Even though calling water, how to get with water."

The first line shows the subject matter concerns the search for suitable water patterns. All Feng Shui should be emphasising the presence of water flows which converge to a "gathering point" in the front portion of the hsueh or "Dragon Cave". Without this collection of flowing water to a frontal central location there will be no auspiciousness for the site, and there will be no hsueh. Yang Yun Sung termed this frontal central location the resting place of the "Jin Lung", the Golden Dragon.

• Qing Nang Aow Yi 3.29, 3.30: Recognise the Jin Lung (Golden Dragon), the book and text have endless meanings to them

  
  Just how many modern Feng Shui masters advise the presence of real flowing waters in the premises? Many had passed off areas with hardly any drop of water as auspicious. These masters have violated the first cardinal principle of Feng Shui: which is that there must be flowing waters! It must be real water and not imitation paintings.

  Many did not even visit the site. The Xuan Kong schools are fond of conjuring up complicated numbers purporting to tell whether a site is auspicious and how the auspiciousness is distributed in the site. They often ended up with saying that many urban areas are auspicious.

The ancient Sung and Tang Feng Shui texts are predominantly Luan Tou Landscape Feng Shui texts. They have major passages describing how to examine the physical terrain to evaluate the water flow patterns. The master must physically visit the site, otherwise it is all nonsense!

SEARCH FOR AUSPICIOUS SITE KNOWN AS HSUEH OR "DRAGON CAVE" The auspiciousness of a site can be determined only through Luan Tou methods. San Yuan practitioners have been fooling people with use of Compass methods to determine the hsueh.

This second phrase raises the question of whether you know what was in the sage Confucius' heart". It means that Confucius knew the secrets of how to examine the physical terrain to evaluate the water flows patterns.

• This is the great secret! Confucius knew Feng Shui and what are the correct water flows patterns which identify the auspicious hsueh or "Dragon Cave"!

What is especially significant is that the phrase is drawing attention to that Xue Xin Fu , Snow Heart Poem, is based on what Confucius taught. Somewhere in the Confucian texts are the great secrets of Confucius' Feng Shui, which were used by the writer to write Xue Xin Fu.

It would be the Confucians who are more likely to enjoy the benefits of Feng Shui, as one commentator noted:

• Confucian sages and man of virtue enjoy mountain enjoy water's true heart means.

The traditional armchair or horseshoe shaped hsueh as the auspicious site of the "Dragon Cave" Its frontage is always at the South

Confucius wrote much about the hsueh or Ming Tang in his writings. Find out more from us!

Phrase 3: "To the greatest extend, double (alternative) book being inferior to no book."

This phrase shows that during the time when Xue Xin Fu was written, there were two "books", i.e. two sets of doctrines. Evidently, one book, that the "double or alternative book" was considered inferior to the other book

In the context of the passage, this other book was one belonging to the traditions of Confucius and has the correct principles of how to evaluate the water flows. In contrast, the "double or alternative book" taught a different contradictory method. The teachings of this "double or alternative book" were so bad that it would have been better if there was no book.

Phrase 4: "Some more, want to leave sharp vision."

The last fourth phrase indicates that those following the "double alternative book" do not have "sharp vision". That is, these practitioners are blind and incorrect.

Confucius had always been regarded as a person with "sharp vision" even during his time. The phrase therefore reinforces that the followers of the "double alternative book" are what Yang Yun Sung would label as "idiot masters":

• 161. Big Lung big valley hundred and ten trips, precious hall (valley mouth slightly flat is hall) Lung tower going innumerable.
  162. Suddenly the footsteps are very ingenious to enter into the long city (star). Ten of thousand feet (one foot = 6 feet 4 inches) not surrounding you do not look (care) for.
  163. Idiot masters secretly peeping by the side eye, those who are knowing are keeping quiet and pretending he never saw anything. Han Ling Jing 161-163

Yang Yun Sung was also talking of the pattern of the Lung i.e. the water flow. Those who wrongly evaluate the water flow patterns can get the wrong diagnosis of whether a site is auspicious or not.

Louyang, Land of the Mowtan. The hsueh is always a well watered green lush area. There will be wildlife and songbirds. Compass masters are bluffing people about barren sites. By resorting to dubious calculation methods, the Compass masters would incorrectly claim as auspicious various buildings which are nothing more than concrete jungles. It is time to call their bluff.