Feng-Shui the Science of Sacred Landscape in Old China: The Science of Sacred Landscape in Old China. This item is unavailable.Feng-Shui the Science of Sacred Landscape in Old China: The Science of Sacred Landscape in Old China

The reissue of this book first published in 1873 is no indulgence in curiosities. Feng-shui is the science of sacred landscape as known in Old Chinese traditions but as John Michell points our in his commentary it addresses some of the same problems that concern us today in town planning and thedevelopment of sites. John Mitchell is an English investigator of landscape both ancient and modern and his Introduction makes the necessary links between China and the west and between past and present. A sacred landscape is one which transcends both nature and function giving shape to the capacity for experience which human beings may enjoy. The master of feng-shui takes a given site and `develops' it - but in a way hardly known today. By selection and precise manipulation he brings out characteristics which otherwise would remain latent. Feng-shui is a method of synergy combining the best elements in a situation finding the best locations for additional structures and creating something new in a balanced harmonious way. It is a method of design and management from which there are lessons to be learned. Here is a chance to find a new perspective on the urgent problems of landscape in the contemporary world and to make contact with Chinese thought and cultural tradition.

Pointing to ways in which Feng-Shui may help us live in greater communion with the land, Ernest Eitel's 1873 guidebook to the Chinese art is hailed as both original and definitive. Modern concerns about the threat to the earth's continued life and prosperity are highlighted; the book aims to promote Feng-Shui's ideal of co-operation between human and nature by providing both historical perspective and practical advice. In an age when more architects and interior designers are using Feng-Shui in the planning of their buildings, it is believed that the principled but highly flexible code offered by this reference book will be relevant to all matters of architecture, city planning and interior design.