February 10, 2015 • 40 mins
Feng Shui is an Asian concept that strives to unlock your chi by how your home or office is arranged. Or at least that's the simplified "Western" version. It's a little more complicated than that in reality. We'll unlock your chi by explaining how feng shui works in today's episode.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff Works
dot com. Hey, I'm welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark.
There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, uh, and Jerry's over there.
So it's the stuff you should know. Our chi is flowing,
baby chee or key. Yeah. There's a lot of different
(00:24):
pronunciations that are gonna happen today. Well supposedly. Um, it's
just the different spellings the same pronunciation. Q i and
h i are both cheap. Yeah, um, unless they're saying
kai for c h i, in which kids it's something
totally different. Yeah, that's that would be the Greek letter correct. Um,
that means energy. Are we going to pronounce this fung shui?
(00:47):
I usually say fung chui fui, but it could go
either way. I mean, it depends. If it's Mandarin that
we're speaking, Chuck, Yeah, we should say fong shui fun.
I guess I usually say it in Mandarin fun chui.
If we're speaking in Cantonese, we would say fung suite. Okay,
(01:10):
So I guess we're gonna go with the Mandarin. Alright, great,
okay with you. Yeah, and Uh I even looked up
because I've always said Tao is um um. Yeah, that's right, right. Well,
a lot of people say there's been some confusion. So
I actually looked it up and this author, Derrek Lynn,
had a nice little thing. The first the misconception, he says,
(01:30):
is that the first letter in t a o daw
is an approximation of a Chinese sound that does not
have an exact English equivalent, because apparently in England, I
think they say Taoism. But he says that's actually not true.
There is an equivalent, and it is a d And
he said the misconception was created by an author who
had no understanding of Chinese and that was spread around.
(01:53):
He did not name the author, but apparently as he
had high academic standing, Jonathan Franz, and so he said
it is Daoism if you're speaking in English, and that
this author has uh spread a mistruth that there is
no real translation. Nice. There you go. That was the
(02:17):
glossary of this episode pretty much. So, uh, well, let's
talk about she first man, because fun is the the
practice of allowing ch to flow in the best possible way,
and she is the Chinese concept of the energy that
(02:37):
pervades and permeates the universe, including us, and it is
linked to Taoism and goes all the way back to
sixth century BC. And um, like you said, it's uh,
it's supposedly something that can't even be described in language.
But you did a pretty good job, I think for
someone who uh supposedly is not supposed to be able
(02:59):
to do that. The thing is, well, I'm obviously an
incredible person. The thing is, um, this ch this energy
can be blocked, it can fall out of balance. There's
it's not self correcting necessarily. Sometimes it needs help, that's right.
And so when we inhabit an area, build a home,
(03:21):
a community, palace, what have you, we need to build
it in such a way that it's not going to
block this chi or it's not going to um throw
things out of balance, because we will be impacted negatively
if it if that happens, that's right. Because in the
East there is a long held belief that the space
(03:42):
we inhabit is not just the space we live in,
but we are actually connected to that uh spiritually and
with our energy. And um that the way you lay
out your home and the way you build like even
where you play your home on your property and the
way you align it with the surrounding nature. It's actually
(04:06):
very important part of it. Um. That is functual, which
is translated literally as wind and water. Right, pretty neat. Um.
A lot of people in the West have jumped on
this train since the nineteen eighties. It's very uh popular
thing to do. Um, often misguided attempts. Um. As far
as traditional functuation, Well, it's like a completely different school. Yeah, basically, um,
(04:31):
not basically entirely, but um. A lot of people in
the West also will poopoo this, and a lot of
people in the East poopoo it. Now apparently only about
a third of people in modern China even believe it
is a thing. Um. Well, Chairman Mao rooted it out
during the Cultural Revolution. Yeah, I mean it is. It is.
It's not illegal to practice it. It is illegal though,
(04:51):
to start a business in China modern China where you
say that you're doing functually. Um, But they can't really like, well,
I guess you could allow the practice. They outlaw lots
of stuff from what I've been told. But um, apparently
the younger generation it's even less than a third. It's
just kind of going the way of the Dodo. But hey,
(05:11):
we picked up on it in California and then ran
with it. Yeah, you know, especially in the eighties. Yeah, sure, man,
that was a super eighties thing. But a lot of
people poopoo it though, as they do a lot of
things in the ease and saying this is just a
bunch of superstitious gobbadygook. There's no such thing as an
energy flowing through your house or your body that needs
to be aligned. So we're not here to uh, we're
(05:34):
just gonna explain it to you exactly, So just save
your emails people. So, um, what's interesting about fung hui
initially is that not not just China but also India
lay claim to its origins. Actually, that's right, um, And
remember I think you you did a pretty good job
defining it. But which it's they're saying again, funcui is
(05:56):
this practice of arranging your in have, your your abode,
your life, your workspace, um in a way that allows
che to flow freely. That's right, okay, um. And there
was there's evidence I think back three thousand years ago,
(06:17):
no sorry years ago, so about BC there is evidence
of what the Indians call Vastu Shastra, which is basically
a translation of building science, which is that you should
follow certain practices, use certain geometries to allow energy to
(06:37):
flow so that you can prosper and not be harmed negatively. Yeah,
and uh, this is um been seeing many times. I've
read a great article in UH, I think it was
history today by guy named Anthony Evini called bringing the
Sky down to Earth, with basically the idea that many
many cities through history have been built with this concept
(06:59):
in my and that the gods bringing the gods down
to your city, Like you know, he's a stonehenge, Beijing, Washington,
d c Uh and m this place in Mexico that
I will pronounce as Theo t Hua Kan. I don't
know if that's right. It's like a Mayan ancient Mayan city,
(07:22):
and they all have the same um philosophy of mine,
which is apparently if you go to Beijing, it's very
famous for its layout. As his d c. You can
stand in Tienamen Square and you can draw a straight
line up the bell and drum towers, straight through to
the monument to the People's Heroes, to the Masoli liam
(07:42):
of Mao z Dong on a perfect north south axis,
like everything is planned out. And this is I'm not
saying Washington, d C. Was necessarily fung swid Fun said,
and I know that you shouldn't use that as a verb,
but I'm going to It works. But it's it's the
idea like Stonehenge, that the it's the cities are aligned
(08:04):
cosmically somehow with the stars in mind. And it can
be as simple as um the entrance to the dwelling
or the city, or the burial mound or temple or Stonehenge,
whatever is aligned so that the sun comes right up
through it on the winter solstice or thing. That that
(08:25):
is the basis of fung hui, and it does show
up in other cultures across time. Yeah. One of the
one of the famous cities that was laid out according
to um, this Indian version of it, Vastu Shastra as
um ankor Watt in Cambodia, very famous temple. Those were
(08:47):
built and I think the thirteenth century CE. So it's
not evidence that the Indians were first, but there is
evidence elsewhere that that there were Indian cities and buildings
planned out according to these and the idea was is
that a couple of thousand years later, some Indian monks,
Hindu monks made their way into maybe to bed or
(09:09):
Mongolia or China and started spreading the vast Shastra. And
that's when China got their hands on it and turned
it into what we now recognize this functually. That's one
interpretation of the origin of the whole thing. Yeah, and
and either way, what both of them are doing is
looking and taking into accounts, uh the five elements earth, water, fire, air,
(09:32):
and space and how they affect uh, your your pad
and um or your city, like you said, our community
or temple um. And some people might say, well, this
is you know, you might want to call it functual.
But I'm just building a house and I think we've
got this lovely mountain view, and I like the sunrise
(09:52):
to come up through my kitchen because I like a
bright kitchen. So that's how I'm going to build my house.
People that practice function, I would say, brother, that's function,
that's a t s. You know, it's just how I
like to build my house. And you know that. Yeah,
And then they fight, that's right, They leg wrestle for domination.
So that though, would be more Western functuation. And we'll
(10:15):
get into it. But Basically, the distinction between Western functional
eighties function and Classic Functui UM is the amount of
scientific formulae put into it, the amount of calculations at
least that are put into it, the amount of thought.
It's like Western function is Functui light and not even
(10:38):
l I G h T like l I T E
like that kind of eighties light. Yeah, well, we might
as well talk about the schools. Then it's a great
before we do. Though, sorry to interrupt the segua because
it was pretty good. We should say that UM. Most
historians now believe that it was actually China that came
up with Yeah, just the evidence is is just earlier
(11:01):
for the idea that it originated with burials in China,
Like you buried people a certain way and you built
the burial grounds in a certain way, according to Functual.
So what you're saying is they leg wrestled and he
won the leg wrestle. Very good. Uh So the different
schools UM, there are a lot of variations, but the
three main categories are the form school, which was from
(11:26):
southern China, and that is heavily based on the environment.
Like we were talking about Classic Functual, it's the oldest
form and that's when you're talking about and back then
it was practical because what they were trying to do
is build a safe place for your house to be. Um.
So maybe you uh set your house up with the
wind block at the mountains, with that landscape that slopes,
(11:51):
or you know, the water flowing down to you is
super important, so you may want to open your house
up to that. But it was it was practical though,
right exactly. Um. And another practical way of um figuring
out where to put your house is found in the
compass school. That one just forget about it. That's that's
the one I understand the most. This one makes the
(12:11):
most sense to me. Yeah, because it's math and you're
like weird like that, well a little maybe a little bit.
But basically what this says is it's kind of like
the form school where you're looking for different features of
the landscape to to most benefit where to build your house.
But this is this is using that same kind of
(12:32):
thought process but aligning it with magnetism and the stars
to write right, well, you're using the stars to determine magnetism,
like which way is north and south and that kind
of thing. But it does combine some math, Chinese astrology,
and then fun sui together and you get what's called
(12:52):
the compass school, which is also very frequently known as
traditional Functui, and it includes a lot of detail old
research to figure out exactly what you're supposed to do
where your house is supposed to be facing, if it
is facing a certain way, of what you can do
to kind of correct it. There's just a ton of
thought and calculation put into what we'll learn later is
(13:14):
called the Bogwa map. So that's that's mostly the traditional
school is the compass school, and it's based on the
idea that magnetism dictates which way your whole jam should
be facing and oriented. And I think to the north
is the right way. That's the right way, where as
far as your entry way, yes, okay uh. And then
(13:36):
we have um what the Westerners have latched onto um
the Black Hat sect or that's nomina it does or
the Black sect Esoteric Buddhism Functional which was UM founded
by Professor Thomas Lynn Jun who was known UM and
believed to be an enlightened man and Um he basically
(14:01):
came to the West and founded this sect of functual
and it blew up and Um, Westerners, I love this
one because it's the one that most easily translates to
an h G TV show, right, you know, like put
this plant there, put a fountain there, put your door
here and painted this color, and and you're going to
be wealthy and successful. Don't put this there, don't put
(14:23):
that there. It's it's a lot of object placement. So
it's easy for us dummies over here to understand it's
basically interior design pretty much. So we'll talk a little
more about the distinction and then what some of the
commonalities they have are right after this, so chuck the
(15:03):
black Hat school. It's hilarious to me, like, why would
you call it that? I don't know. I'm sure there
was a great reason I couldn't find it anywhere. What
I found instead is that most people call it Western function,
and a lot of functual practitioners pooh pooh Western. They're
like this this is some like perversion of an interpretation
(15:29):
of functui. Yeah, it's it's americanized, um, and it's taught
by people who don't even necessarily aren't functual masters, even
though just if they can set up a website and say,
pay me a thousand dollars, I'll come and tell you
where to put your plants exactly. But Thomas lynn Un
and his followers say, no, we had we had the basics, Like, yeah, definitely,
(15:50):
traditional functual is very detailed, very um mathematically oriented. But
we're still getting the same point across, coming to the
same conclusions and just an easier corner cutting way. That's right.
Why go to all the trouble if you can get
the same results. What's more Western than that? Good point? Uh?
(16:12):
So should we talk about um the five elements a
little bit? I guess yes. UM, Like I said, there
is earth, fire, metal, water, and wood, and these are
the phases through which the energy or the g or
the key moves. And UM, I think this article said
it very well. It's like a sort of a game
of rock paper scissors. If you look at a creative
(16:33):
or productive UM way in which these elements can interact, uh,
you have would producing fire, Uh, fire produces earth av
as an ash, Earth produces metal, UM, metal produces water,
water produces wood, metal producing water. Don't get that one,
(16:55):
mm hmm, all the rest of them like yeah, made sense, Lie,
refrigerator's metal and it has a water dispenser in the day. Yeah. Uh.
And then you have the destructive. This is when it's
bad chi. And if you look at the little illustration
on how stuff works on the on the first one,
you have this great circle of arrows and it's just lovely,
(17:15):
and this other one has a a nasty bunch of
arrows just laying all over one another, and it's just
a big mess. Yeah, like um would burdens earth. Yeah,
nobody wants that. Water douses fire. That's a clear one. Sure,
um metal chops would, Yes, it does, it does. There's
there's uh. So the the interaction between these elements in
(17:38):
your house, or the way you arrange your house will
determine whether these phases of CHI are destructive or productive
in their interactions together. And if you have too much
of one thing, you need to balance it out with
something else productively exactly the other two for destructive. Our
fire melts metal and earth blocks water like a damn.
(18:01):
You don't want a damn. You want the water flowing. Baby.
You know you forgot hulk smash? Is that the other one? Yea,
the final one, and then uh, the yin yang. We
can't go any further. Without mentioning that. No, it's basically
a really clever conception of chi. Yeah, opposite states of cheek,
(18:23):
light and dark, night and day, young and old man woman. Sure,
and there there's actually a way that it's supposed to
be properly represented. The white is supposed to be on
top because the white represents in part heat, and the
idea is that heat rises, but they're they're both constantly
in motion. But if you ever see a yin and
(18:44):
yang symbol displayed, though, the lighter one should be on top,
that's right, and not only heat for the white, but
masculinity and spirit and hardness and activity where it's yang
by the way, Yeah, oh yeah, we didn't point that out,
and it's not yang yang by the way. We I
used to say it that way. I think everybody did it,
(19:05):
sure at some point, and yeah, I quipped in my
early forties, Um, it's yes. Uh. The yen h is femininity, femininity, matter, nighttime, coldness, softness, passivity,
and as long as you want those things balanced and
the way they just fit together in that little circle. Man,
(19:27):
it's just like it's pleasing to the eye. And I
think that's kind of says it all. You know, it
just looks nice. It's not jagged. It's like it's like
two people just cuddling up, you know, in the form
of a tattoo you wish you hadn't gotten. That's right
with some maybe Chinese characters that you don't know what
they mean any longer. Uh there, Um, well, I guess
(19:50):
we're the bagua right, Yeah, so this has made sense
to me. Right. Um, Remember what we're dealing with here
is she. She flows through the five elements, and you
deal with the five elements in your house. To figure
out where in your house you need a little more
of one element than another, you have to construct a
Bogua map. Yeah, like this is where the rubber meets
(20:13):
the road. We've been talking in esoteric terms. But if
you're like, great, dudes, what does this mean for my
freaking living room? This is what it means for your
freaking living room. Yeah. And the Bogua map is based
on boxes squares. They're the basic units of um of
Functionali nine squares three by three. Uh. And you take
(20:36):
those squares and somehow this is really clever too. But
even though there's nine squares, you can take them and
turn them into a hexagon. If you take the center
square and convert that into well as center, and then
the eight boxes around it become eight sides of a hexagon.
If you shave off a little here or there, and
(20:59):
all of a sudden you have are is a bogwa. Yeah,
and they can represent color as well as um these
elements as well as for the actual map that you're
going to use UM for laying out your home aspects
of your life, like you know, career and wealth and uh,
(21:21):
prosperity and love and marriage and things like that. Right,
So there's multiple meanings. And it also is if you've
seen the TV show Lost, they totally ripped it off
with the dharma collective symbol. It is just that is
nothing more than the bogwa grid with the yin yang
in the center right, and the yin yang is frequently
(21:41):
represented in the center is yellow correct, yep. Yellow is
the center of the Bogua map, which is actually the
center of this nine squared box called the low shoe
square UM. And in each of the different boxes there
is a static representation. So this is this is what
you need to know about the Bagua map. It is
hexagon that the placement is always the same what you
(22:06):
do is you take your Bagua map and you oriented
a certain way over your house, over your your actual
house or the room in your house or something like that,
and that's what changes. So if you look at the
Bogwa square, the yellow is always center and then black,
which represents water and career um is always at the bottom. Okay,
(22:27):
yeah a k A supposed to be the entrance to
that room or your home, Okay, exactly, So yeah, it's
not necessarily always at the bottom, it's always at the entrance. Well,
you placed the bottom at the entrance, so if I
were to walk into my house, you can either visualize
it or you can literally draw this uh square. You
(22:48):
want the bottom which is uh the bottom, center is
career or water. Bottom right is helpful people in travel,
bottom left is knowledge and self cultivation. You just want
to find out where your front door is. In my case,
mine is pretty much in the center of my home,
which would be career, but it could fall if your
(23:10):
doors on your left, it would fall under knowledge and
self cultivation. So it's it's not like you move the
map over to to to help yourself out. Like where
your door is is where it is. You can move
it if you want, Yeah, you could move your door.
But basically the map is just supposed to be static, okay.
So and it's static, like you said, it's oriented um
(23:32):
with the black on the entrance, right, no matter where
the entrance is, the black is on the the black
is there. So when you orient your your black box
onto your entrance, what you're doing then is using your
Bogwa map to show you how you need to change
your house in order to maximize the flow of chee
(23:54):
through it. Yeah, it's basically And by the way, you
shouldn't supposedly use any additions build you should do those separately. Okay.
So if you if you're living room has a big
new addition to the lefty like, you shouldn't even include that.
So basically you're what you're doing is you're you're dividing
your space up into zones according to this grid. And
(24:15):
so if you were to look at my house according
to the low shoe square, uh, my TV would be
in the wealth and prosperity corner, which is probably not good.
You're gonna make money on TV. That didn't exactly happen. Uh,
My couch is the knowledge and self cultivation. I'm not
(24:36):
sure what that means. And then my sun room would
be helpful people in travel, that's what that means either.
And in the center is my coffee table. The if
I wanted to have good cheat to have a yellow
rug there, Yeah, but I don't, but you should. We
have some nice tile squares of varying colors, so you
can do that, chuck for every room of your house.
(24:57):
And you're supposed to like, like you just said, well,
now I know where I should put a yellow rug
in my in my house, Like you would want to
put that in the center of where the Bogua map
falls over that room, right, Um you might also so
for example, um, if you just kind of had a
dead space where the red boxes which is for fame
(25:18):
and reputation, and you want to foster that kind of thing, man,
there's a dead space there. Um, you would put something
like awards there, animal related items, maybe a stuff jackalopet
or something would be a good spot for that or
a good thing for that spot. Um. And so you
basically what you're doing is using the Bogua map to
(25:39):
say you're just cross referencing spots of your house. And
when you add these things and basically do interior decorating. Um,
you can maximize a floachi. Yeah, if you look at
my master bedroom and bathroom, I have a bad functuation
because right in that top left corner wealth and prosperity
(26:01):
is my toilet. Oh yeah, so supposedly you're flushing it
all down the toilet. They say you should not put
your bathroom or your toilet specifically in your wealth grid
right square. So what we've just described is what a
Western practitioner would do, because again, Western functionali has a
(26:22):
lot to do with interior decorating, and so too does
to an extent um, traditional functional. But a traditional functional practitioner, Um,
if they came to your house and they used the
Bogua map over your house, they would they wouldn't just
align it to an entrance. They would align it to
(26:43):
a magnetic direction. I'm pretty sure it's north. I think
I think you're right. But the black the black um
square in the Bogua map would be oriented in that direction,
so it wouldn't necessarily be facing your entrance. And so
there's this kind of It reveals this really big distinct
action between Western functual and traditional functual. Whereas with Western
(27:04):
functually it's like, oh, we'll just line it up to
the entrance, and maybe you've got a problem with your
toilet flushing, your your fame away in your bathroom, or
your money away in your bathroom. With traditional functual, there's
no getting around it. It's once it lays over your house.
According to Magnetic North, what it gives you a really
(27:25):
clear picture of what you're gonna have to do, and
you may have to tear down your house and start
over and rebuild facing the right way. Um. It could
reveal a lot of real problems with your house. Um,
and you may have to fill in more areas than others.
Whereas if you're just orienting each room based on its
entrance like in Western functual, there's um, you're not gonna
(27:47):
find quite as many problems in a lot more easy solutions.
That makes sense also with a traditional functional consultant who
um is basically telling you what you need to do
with your house, they're gonna do research on your else
itself too. They're gonna find out when it was built,
when the roof wasn't closed. That's a big one too.
And then they're going to also create this Baguo map
(28:08):
and a chart based on Chinese astrology as well, because
time factors in a lot with traditional functual way more
than Western. Again, Western is very um, quick to the
point and just put some stuff here. Like another example
that people criticize Western functual and kind of point like
it's just basically um. Interior design is plaid is considered
(28:33):
a form of the wood element. So if you have
too much plaid, like a plague couch in a room,
you might need to encounter that with like a little
fountain or something like that. But where where did the
idea that plaid was would come from? It's definitely not
traditional Chinese. I don't think so. I don't think they
have plaid in China, do they? I don't think so.
But that raises another thing to another criticism of Western
(28:56):
functual is that very frequently um functual consultants in the
West will be like, oh, you just need to add
a food dog, you know, like that kind of lion
looking dog. So you need to add some you've seen
a million times. Is it like a little statue or
something you need to add like some Chinese pottery jagon
mural or something. Yea, and traditional functual practitioners are like, yeah,
(29:20):
art counts, but um, it doesn't have to be Chinese. Right,
So if you're consultant is selling you Chinese, aren't. This
is right, this is essential. Yeah, that's not that's not
correct with the red flag. Yeah alright, well we have
some more um uh tips from funcui experts that will
(29:40):
get to right after this. All right, so we're talking
(30:05):
the Bagua grid. Like we said, it's all represented with
the different colors. Those colors also correspond to numbers, and
they also correspond to aspects of your life or chi
sounds confusing, it kind of is. Yeah, let's just say it.
But here are some things that functual practitioners say will
(30:26):
help unlock that chi um black, which is your career. Uh.
They say a fountain or a mirror might be a
good thing to have. Their blue, which is skills and wisdom.
Maybe that's where you put your computer workstation or your
library okay yeah books, yeah, books green your family Maybe
(30:47):
that's where you want to put your family photos and
you want to arrange them nicely too. Yeah. Supposedly, if
you have your family photos out of order in your
green section, um, you're gonna have misbehaving kids. Yeah, actually
that's the white zone. That's children. Oh sorry, that's okay,
but yeah, that's that's that's what they say. If you
want good kids, keep those photos nice. I'm not sure
(31:10):
about that one. Uh, purple is your prosperity zone, and
that's where you want to have it, says healthy plants.
Don't put your dying plants there, or sailing ships. I
guess that's just um sailing towards prosperity. I guess maybe
don't don't put a painting of a sinking ship. No,
(31:31):
that that's that is western function there. Yeah, sure that
you don't like that. That whole kind of psychology would
be detrimental to the health of the area. Yeah, why
would you want that anyway though? Like good paints is
sinking ship? Yeah? Um, a depressed sea captain probably would be.
(31:51):
My guess. Red is famine reputation. That's where you want
to put your various awards. Um, so yeah, we got
a couple of those, and your jackalope head your jackalope yeah,
animal animal related things. You're right, we should lay out
our next studio, like according to funk dude, we totally should.
You know, I just noticed is red supposedly is what
(32:13):
you want to put on the back of your chair
to block a bad cheek. And we've got a huge
red foam thing in between us and Jerry. Oh wow,
so we gotta get rid of that. Oh I was
gonna say that explains why I've been able to put
up with her cheek for so long. Now, Jerry, she
is the good flow our way, So we need to
open that up in our new place. Um. Pink love
(32:35):
and relationships, that's where you want to put maybe photos
of your family or paired items. Again with the family photos, yeah,
I don't have that many family photos. Paradig items that's cute,
that makes sense, like book ends, salt and pepper shakers. Uh.
Boxing gloves, Um, that's where you hang your boxing gloves. Um.
(33:00):
Remember Joe Garden from The Onion with those giant boxing
gloves he had. Yeah, those were so much fun. He
had a thing where he just wanted to get as
many people to pose with those as possible and take
a swing at him. Uh. White what we already mentioned
with children or creativity, that's where you might want to
put some art or pictures of your little brats, um,
gray travel um or helpful people but you're souvenirs from
(33:24):
Disneyland there and not just Disneyland any trip you've taken.
Sure the Disney company wants you to just put Disney
souvenirs there though. Uh. And yellow Finally, health um pottery
and stone objects will help unlock your chee there. Yeah.
But speaking of Disney Hong Kong, Disneyland, they apparently had
a functuated expert consulted and uh they made some changes
(33:46):
because of that consultation. Yeah. Probably that was probably a
nice paying gig. The yeah, you know, because someone was
like catchy yea or they were saying e jing anyway a.
The the open on September twelfth, because they were told
that was a lucky day according to the astrological chart.
(34:06):
Their consultant drew up. They changed the entrance by twelve
degrees obviously it was a traditional um functui practitioner uh,
and added some boulders. Apparently one of the restaurants has
a projection of a fire, which to me that wouldn't count,
but maybe it does. That seems pretty Western to me
(34:29):
because one of the big bases of Western function is psychology.
If traditional function is based on magnetism and astrology. Western
functui is based on psychology, and it is as simple
as you don't put a painting of a sinking ship
in the office of a business that's struggling to stay
(34:50):
afloat because the mind makes those kind of associations and
it messes up your cheek. That's right, um, And a
lot of this stuff as well. Like we said, UM,
I think, like you just mentioned maybe like it just
seems like common sense. Um, like a horseshoe shaped building
that opens up into a courtyard, it's gonna feel good,
(35:11):
it's pleasing. Um. Functual practitioners say that's energy. Or hey,
don't don't build a house on a dead end street, um,
because it blocks the GI I had a friend who
lived at a dead end street and it just felt
like every time I went over there, I felt closed
in and sort of weird. Did he end up killing
his whole family? He did not. He did move though. Um.
(35:33):
They were saved. They were thanks to him moving. Um
your office A lot a lot of times these days
people will um their new offices. They will take this
into account. Some very famous people like Richard Branson and
Donald Trump, who enlisted the help of punctual experts to
design their offices because they want that Chi and ergo
(35:55):
money flowing. Yeah, you don't have to be a Richard
Branson or Donald Trump to arrange or office, whether it's
a cubicle or what have you. UM, so that you
can maximize the flow of chief, you want to do
a little messing around. Supposedly, the one one one thing
that you want to ensure as much as possible is
that you're facing the entrance to your office. UM. That way,
(36:19):
the chief flows correctly towards you, not towards your back.
You don't want the chea at your back. No, remember
the Southern China um, the Southern China Functui placement, the
form school UM. Like you you put your the entrance
of your house is facing away from a hill, so
(36:39):
the back of your house backs up to a hill.
So the chief flows correctly. Same thing. You want the
entrance to your office to be flowing towards you, facing
it if you If you can't do that, then you
just put up a mirror so you can reflect the
chief towards you. Yeah, that makes sense. Like you said,
you want to put something red on the back of
your chair to block the chief from your back. Yeah,
(36:59):
I see now that they think about it, this isn't
so bad in here because the the red is to
our side. It's coming in that door and bouncing off
of that right on to us. So Jerry's really the
one is getting the short end of the cheese stick here,
really short short into the cheese stick. Um. What else
can you do? You can put a fountain or a plant. Um, honestly,
water and wood. Uh. And they said even the picture
(37:22):
of a waterfall in your cubicle could help your chi
your workplace. Che Again, there's a lot of disagreement about
what works and what doesn't with traditional function. It's like
you need to know where magnetic north is and you
need to orient your building according to that, and whatever
you do inside is almost irrelevant. Yeah, get rid of
(37:44):
those fluorescent lights though they all agree on that. Sure
know anything about cheat to know that fluorescent lights are
terrible for you? Agreed? Do you anything else? No? U,
this is it's pretty good overview, I think, right, sure,
you feel good about it. I feel better than I expected.
How's your g It's fine? Yeah, all right, it's it's
(38:06):
not out of balance, it's not jumping for joy. It's
just it is today got you. Uh. If you want
to know more about chi or fung shui or any
stuff like that, you can type those words in the
search bart how stuff works. And since I said that
it's time for a listener mail, I'm gonna call this
(38:26):
g e D success story. Hey, guys, got my g
E D way back in so I could attend college.
Back then, the University of Illinois Chicago co Flames allowed
you and as a freshman, if you graduated high school
and had a pulse, they called the student body. After
the first year, though you didn't perform, you're out. I
did reasonably well there and ultimately ended up at the
(38:47):
University of Cambridge in England, got my pH d in
archaeology there and worked in the field for a few years. Um.
I am now a stay at home dad of three boys, five,
three and one living in uh Karl's Rule, Germany. One
of the things I love most about the American education
system is that a guy who dropped out of high
school at seventeen still have the opportunity to attend college
(39:08):
and ultimately end up with a PhD from one of
the greatest universities in the world. Thanks for another great episode.
Guys's been listening since two thousand eight and actually remember
the before Chuck days. Uh and that is from Chris,
So way to go, Chris, Way to go, Chris. That
is pretty awesome story. G D archaeologists stay at home
(39:30):
dad five three in one sounds like he's doing it right.
Nice job, Chris. If you want to let us know
about your personal success story, we love hearing about those.
You can tweet to us at s Y s K podcast.
You can join us on Facebook dot com, slash stuff
you Should Know. You can send us an email to
Stuff Podcast at house Stuff Works dot com, and as always,
join us at our home on the web, Stuff you
(39:51):
Should Know dot com for more on this and thousands
of other topics because our Stuff Works dot com. M
Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from house Stuff Works
dot com. Hey, I'm welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark.
There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, uh, and Jerry's over there.
So it's the stuff you should know. Our chi is flowing,
baby chee or key. Yeah. There's a lot of different
(00:24):
pronunciations that are gonna happen today. Well supposedly. Um, it's
just the different spellings the same pronunciation. Q i and
h i are both cheap. Yeah, um, unless they're saying
kai for c h i, in which kids it's something
totally different. Yeah, that's that would be the Greek letter correct. Um,
that means energy. Are we going to pronounce this fung shui?
(00:47):
I usually say fung chui fui, but it could go
either way. I mean, it depends. If it's Mandarin that
we're speaking, Chuck, Yeah, we should say fong shui fun.
I guess I usually say it in Mandarin fun chui.
If we're speaking in Cantonese, we would say fung suite. Okay,
(01:10):
So I guess we're gonna go with the Mandarin. Alright, great,
okay with you. Yeah, and Uh I even looked up
because I've always said Tao is um um. Yeah, that's right, right. Well,
a lot of people say there's been some confusion. So
I actually looked it up and this author, Derrek Lynn,
had a nice little thing. The first the misconception, he says,
(01:30):
is that the first letter in t a o daw
is an approximation of a Chinese sound that does not
have an exact English equivalent, because apparently in England, I
think they say Taoism. But he says that's actually not true.
There is an equivalent, and it is a d And
he said the misconception was created by an author who
had no understanding of Chinese and that was spread around.
(01:53):
He did not name the author, but apparently as he
had high academic standing, Jonathan Franz, and so he said
it is Daoism if you're speaking in English, and that
this author has uh spread a mistruth that there is
no real translation. Nice. There you go. That was the
(02:17):
glossary of this episode pretty much. So, uh, well, let's
talk about she first man, because fun is the the
practice of allowing ch to flow in the best possible way,
and she is the Chinese concept of the energy that
(02:37):
pervades and permeates the universe, including us, and it is
linked to Taoism and goes all the way back to
sixth century BC. And um, like you said, it's uh,
it's supposedly something that can't even be described in language.
But you did a pretty good job, I think for
someone who uh supposedly is not supposed to be able
(02:59):
to do that. The thing is, well, I'm obviously an
incredible person. The thing is, um, this ch this energy
can be blocked, it can fall out of balance. There's
it's not self correcting necessarily. Sometimes it needs help, that's right.
And so when we inhabit an area, build a home,
(03:21):
a community, palace, what have you, we need to build
it in such a way that it's not going to
block this chi or it's not going to um throw
things out of balance, because we will be impacted negatively
if it if that happens, that's right. Because in the
East there is a long held belief that the space
(03:42):
we inhabit is not just the space we live in,
but we are actually connected to that uh spiritually and
with our energy. And um that the way you lay
out your home and the way you build like even
where you play your home on your property and the
way you align it with the surrounding nature. It's actually
(04:06):
very important part of it. Um. That is functual, which
is translated literally as wind and water. Right, pretty neat. Um.
A lot of people in the West have jumped on
this train since the nineteen eighties. It's very uh popular
thing to do. Um, often misguided attempts. Um. As far
as traditional functuation, Well, it's like a completely different school. Yeah, basically, um,
(04:31):
not basically entirely, but um. A lot of people in
the West also will poopoo this, and a lot of
people in the East poopoo it. Now apparently only about
a third of people in modern China even believe it
is a thing. Um. Well, Chairman Mao rooted it out
during the Cultural Revolution. Yeah, I mean it is. It is.
It's not illegal to practice it. It is illegal though,
(04:51):
to start a business in China modern China where you
say that you're doing functually. Um, But they can't really like, well,
I guess you could allow the practice. They outlaw lots
of stuff from what I've been told. But um, apparently
the younger generation it's even less than a third. It's
just kind of going the way of the Dodo. But hey,
(05:11):
we picked up on it in California and then ran
with it. Yeah, you know, especially in the eighties. Yeah, sure, man,
that was a super eighties thing. But a lot of
people poopoo it though, as they do a lot of
things in the ease and saying this is just a
bunch of superstitious gobbadygook. There's no such thing as an
energy flowing through your house or your body that needs
to be aligned. So we're not here to uh, we're
(05:34):
just gonna explain it to you exactly, So just save
your emails people. So, um, what's interesting about fung hui
initially is that not not just China but also India
lay claim to its origins. Actually, that's right, um, And
remember I think you you did a pretty good job
defining it. But which it's they're saying again, funcui is
(05:56):
this practice of arranging your in have, your your abode,
your life, your workspace, um in a way that allows
che to flow freely. That's right, okay, um. And there
was there's evidence I think back three thousand years ago,
(06:17):
no sorry years ago, so about BC there is evidence
of what the Indians call Vastu Shastra, which is basically
a translation of building science, which is that you should
follow certain practices, use certain geometries to allow energy to
(06:37):
flow so that you can prosper and not be harmed negatively. Yeah,
and uh, this is um been seeing many times. I've
read a great article in UH, I think it was
history today by guy named Anthony Evini called bringing the
Sky down to Earth, with basically the idea that many
many cities through history have been built with this concept
(06:59):
in my and that the gods bringing the gods down
to your city, Like you know, he's a stonehenge, Beijing, Washington,
d c Uh and m this place in Mexico that
I will pronounce as Theo t Hua Kan. I don't
know if that's right. It's like a Mayan ancient Mayan city,
(07:22):
and they all have the same um philosophy of mine,
which is apparently if you go to Beijing, it's very
famous for its layout. As his d c. You can
stand in Tienamen Square and you can draw a straight
line up the bell and drum towers, straight through to
the monument to the People's Heroes, to the Masoli liam
(07:42):
of Mao z Dong on a perfect north south axis,
like everything is planned out. And this is I'm not
saying Washington, d C. Was necessarily fung swid Fun said,
and I know that you shouldn't use that as a verb,
but I'm going to It works. But it's it's the
idea like Stonehenge, that the it's the cities are aligned
(08:04):
cosmically somehow with the stars in mind. And it can
be as simple as um the entrance to the dwelling
or the city, or the burial mound or temple or Stonehenge,
whatever is aligned so that the sun comes right up
through it on the winter solstice or thing. That that
(08:25):
is the basis of fung hui, and it does show
up in other cultures across time. Yeah. One of the
one of the famous cities that was laid out according
to um, this Indian version of it, Vastu Shastra as
um ankor Watt in Cambodia, very famous temple. Those were
(08:47):
built and I think the thirteenth century CE. So it's
not evidence that the Indians were first, but there is
evidence elsewhere that that there were Indian cities and buildings
planned out according to these and the idea was is
that a couple of thousand years later, some Indian monks,
Hindu monks made their way into maybe to bed or
(09:09):
Mongolia or China and started spreading the vast Shastra. And
that's when China got their hands on it and turned
it into what we now recognize this functually. That's one
interpretation of the origin of the whole thing. Yeah, and
and either way, what both of them are doing is
looking and taking into accounts, uh the five elements earth, water, fire, air,
(09:32):
and space and how they affect uh, your your pad
and um or your city, like you said, our community
or temple um. And some people might say, well, this
is you know, you might want to call it functual.
But I'm just building a house and I think we've
got this lovely mountain view, and I like the sunrise
(09:52):
to come up through my kitchen because I like a
bright kitchen. So that's how I'm going to build my house.
People that practice function, I would say, brother, that's function,
that's a t s. You know, it's just how I
like to build my house. And you know that. Yeah,
And then they fight, that's right, They leg wrestle for domination.
So that though, would be more Western functuation. And we'll
(10:15):
get into it. But Basically, the distinction between Western functional
eighties function and Classic Functui UM is the amount of
scientific formulae put into it, the amount of calculations at
least that are put into it, the amount of thought.
It's like Western function is Functui light and not even
(10:38):
l I G h T like l I T E
like that kind of eighties light. Yeah, well, we might
as well talk about the schools. Then it's a great
before we do. Though, sorry to interrupt the segua because
it was pretty good. We should say that UM. Most
historians now believe that it was actually China that came
up with Yeah, just the evidence is is just earlier
(11:01):
for the idea that it originated with burials in China,
Like you buried people a certain way and you built
the burial grounds in a certain way, according to Functual.
So what you're saying is they leg wrestled and he
won the leg wrestle. Very good. Uh So the different
schools UM, there are a lot of variations, but the
three main categories are the form school, which was from
(11:26):
southern China, and that is heavily based on the environment.
Like we were talking about Classic Functual, it's the oldest
form and that's when you're talking about and back then
it was practical because what they were trying to do
is build a safe place for your house to be. Um.
So maybe you uh set your house up with the
wind block at the mountains, with that landscape that slopes,
(11:51):
or you know, the water flowing down to you is
super important, so you may want to open your house
up to that. But it was it was practical though,
right exactly. Um. And another practical way of um figuring
out where to put your house is found in the
compass school. That one just forget about it. That's that's
the one I understand the most. This one makes the
(12:11):
most sense to me. Yeah, because it's math and you're
like weird like that, well a little maybe a little bit.
But basically what this says is it's kind of like
the form school where you're looking for different features of
the landscape to to most benefit where to build your house.
But this is this is using that same kind of
(12:32):
thought process but aligning it with magnetism and the stars
to write right, well, you're using the stars to determine magnetism,
like which way is north and south and that kind
of thing. But it does combine some math, Chinese astrology,
and then fun sui together and you get what's called
(12:52):
the compass school, which is also very frequently known as
traditional Functui, and it includes a lot of detail old
research to figure out exactly what you're supposed to do
where your house is supposed to be facing, if it
is facing a certain way, of what you can do
to kind of correct it. There's just a ton of
thought and calculation put into what we'll learn later is
(13:14):
called the Bogwa map. So that's that's mostly the traditional
school is the compass school, and it's based on the
idea that magnetism dictates which way your whole jam should
be facing and oriented. And I think to the north
is the right way. That's the right way, where as
far as your entry way, yes, okay uh. And then
(13:36):
we have um what the Westerners have latched onto um
the Black Hat sect or that's nomina it does or
the Black sect Esoteric Buddhism Functional which was UM founded
by Professor Thomas Lynn Jun who was known UM and
believed to be an enlightened man and Um he basically
(14:01):
came to the West and founded this sect of functual
and it blew up and Um, Westerners, I love this
one because it's the one that most easily translates to
an h G TV show, right, you know, like put
this plant there, put a fountain there, put your door
here and painted this color, and and you're going to
be wealthy and successful. Don't put this there, don't put
(14:23):
that there. It's it's a lot of object placement. So
it's easy for us dummies over here to understand it's
basically interior design pretty much. So we'll talk a little
more about the distinction and then what some of the
commonalities they have are right after this, so chuck the
(15:03):
black Hat school. It's hilarious to me, like, why would
you call it that? I don't know. I'm sure there
was a great reason I couldn't find it anywhere. What
I found instead is that most people call it Western function,
and a lot of functual practitioners pooh pooh Western. They're
like this this is some like perversion of an interpretation
(15:29):
of functui. Yeah, it's it's americanized, um, and it's taught
by people who don't even necessarily aren't functual masters, even
though just if they can set up a website and say,
pay me a thousand dollars, I'll come and tell you
where to put your plants exactly. But Thomas lynn Un
and his followers say, no, we had we had the basics, Like, yeah, definitely,
(15:50):
traditional functual is very detailed, very um mathematically oriented. But
we're still getting the same point across, coming to the
same conclusions and just an easier corner cutting way. That's right.
Why go to all the trouble if you can get
the same results. What's more Western than that? Good point? Uh?
(16:12):
So should we talk about um the five elements a
little bit? I guess yes. UM, Like I said, there
is earth, fire, metal, water, and wood, and these are
the phases through which the energy or the g or
the key moves. And UM, I think this article said
it very well. It's like a sort of a game
of rock paper scissors. If you look at a creative
(16:33):
or productive UM way in which these elements can interact, uh,
you have would producing fire, Uh, fire produces earth av
as an ash, Earth produces metal, UM, metal produces water,
water produces wood, metal producing water. Don't get that one,
(16:55):
mm hmm, all the rest of them like yeah, made sense, Lie,
refrigerator's metal and it has a water dispenser in the day. Yeah. Uh.
And then you have the destructive. This is when it's
bad chi. And if you look at the little illustration
on how stuff works on the on the first one,
you have this great circle of arrows and it's just lovely,
(17:15):
and this other one has a a nasty bunch of
arrows just laying all over one another, and it's just
a big mess. Yeah, like um would burdens earth. Yeah,
nobody wants that. Water douses fire. That's a clear one. Sure,
um metal chops would, Yes, it does, it does. There's
there's uh. So the the interaction between these elements in
(17:38):
your house, or the way you arrange your house will
determine whether these phases of CHI are destructive or productive
in their interactions together. And if you have too much
of one thing, you need to balance it out with
something else productively exactly the other two for destructive. Our
fire melts metal and earth blocks water like a damn.
(18:01):
You don't want a damn. You want the water flowing. Baby.
You know you forgot hulk smash? Is that the other one? Yea,
the final one, and then uh, the yin yang. We
can't go any further. Without mentioning that. No, it's basically
a really clever conception of chi. Yeah, opposite states of cheek,
(18:23):
light and dark, night and day, young and old man woman. Sure,
and there there's actually a way that it's supposed to
be properly represented. The white is supposed to be on
top because the white represents in part heat, and the
idea is that heat rises, but they're they're both constantly
in motion. But if you ever see a yin and
(18:44):
yang symbol displayed, though, the lighter one should be on top,
that's right, and not only heat for the white, but
masculinity and spirit and hardness and activity where it's yang
by the way, Yeah, oh yeah, we didn't point that out,
and it's not yang yang by the way. We I
used to say it that way. I think everybody did it,
(19:05):
sure at some point, and yeah, I quipped in my
early forties, Um, it's yes. Uh. The yen h is femininity, femininity, matter, nighttime, coldness, softness, passivity,
and as long as you want those things balanced and
the way they just fit together in that little circle. Man,
(19:27):
it's just like it's pleasing to the eye. And I
think that's kind of says it all. You know, it
just looks nice. It's not jagged. It's like it's like
two people just cuddling up, you know, in the form
of a tattoo you wish you hadn't gotten. That's right
with some maybe Chinese characters that you don't know what
they mean any longer. Uh there, Um, well, I guess
(19:50):
we're the bagua right, Yeah, so this has made sense
to me. Right. Um, Remember what we're dealing with here
is she. She flows through the five elements, and you
deal with the five elements in your house. To figure
out where in your house you need a little more
of one element than another, you have to construct a
Bogua map. Yeah, like this is where the rubber meets
(20:13):
the road. We've been talking in esoteric terms. But if
you're like, great, dudes, what does this mean for my
freaking living room? This is what it means for your
freaking living room. Yeah. And the Bogua map is based
on boxes squares. They're the basic units of um of
Functionali nine squares three by three. Uh. And you take
(20:36):
those squares and somehow this is really clever too. But
even though there's nine squares, you can take them and
turn them into a hexagon. If you take the center
square and convert that into well as center, and then
the eight boxes around it become eight sides of a hexagon.
If you shave off a little here or there, and
(20:59):
all of a sudden you have are is a bogwa. Yeah,
and they can represent color as well as um these
elements as well as for the actual map that you're
going to use UM for laying out your home aspects
of your life, like you know, career and wealth and uh,
(21:21):
prosperity and love and marriage and things like that. Right,
So there's multiple meanings. And it also is if you've
seen the TV show Lost, they totally ripped it off
with the dharma collective symbol. It is just that is
nothing more than the bogwa grid with the yin yang
in the center right, and the yin yang is frequently
(21:41):
represented in the center is yellow correct, yep. Yellow is
the center of the Bogua map, which is actually the
center of this nine squared box called the low shoe
square UM. And in each of the different boxes there
is a static representation. So this is this is what
you need to know about the Bagua map. It is
hexagon that the placement is always the same what you
(22:06):
do is you take your Bagua map and you oriented
a certain way over your house, over your your actual
house or the room in your house or something like that,
and that's what changes. So if you look at the
Bogwa square, the yellow is always center and then black,
which represents water and career um is always at the bottom. Okay,
(22:27):
yeah a k A supposed to be the entrance to
that room or your home, Okay, exactly, So yeah, it's
not necessarily always at the bottom, it's always at the entrance. Well,
you placed the bottom at the entrance, so if I
were to walk into my house, you can either visualize
it or you can literally draw this uh square. You
(22:48):
want the bottom which is uh the bottom, center is
career or water. Bottom right is helpful people in travel,
bottom left is knowledge and self cultivation. You just want
to find out where your front door is. In my case,
mine is pretty much in the center of my home,
which would be career, but it could fall if your
(23:10):
doors on your left, it would fall under knowledge and
self cultivation. So it's it's not like you move the
map over to to to help yourself out. Like where
your door is is where it is. You can move
it if you want, Yeah, you could move your door.
But basically the map is just supposed to be static, okay.
So and it's static, like you said, it's oriented um
(23:32):
with the black on the entrance, right, no matter where
the entrance is, the black is on the the black
is there. So when you orient your your black box
onto your entrance, what you're doing then is using your
Bogwa map to show you how you need to change
your house in order to maximize the flow of chee
(23:54):
through it. Yeah, it's basically And by the way, you
shouldn't supposedly use any additions build you should do those separately. Okay.
So if you if you're living room has a big
new addition to the lefty like, you shouldn't even include that.
So basically you're what you're doing is you're you're dividing
your space up into zones according to this grid. And
(24:15):
so if you were to look at my house according
to the low shoe square, uh, my TV would be
in the wealth and prosperity corner, which is probably not good.
You're gonna make money on TV. That didn't exactly happen. Uh,
My couch is the knowledge and self cultivation. I'm not
(24:36):
sure what that means. And then my sun room would
be helpful people in travel, that's what that means either.
And in the center is my coffee table. The if
I wanted to have good cheat to have a yellow
rug there, Yeah, but I don't, but you should. We
have some nice tile squares of varying colors, so you
can do that, chuck for every room of your house.
(24:57):
And you're supposed to like, like you just said, well,
now I know where I should put a yellow rug
in my in my house, Like you would want to
put that in the center of where the Bogua map
falls over that room, right, Um you might also so
for example, um, if you just kind of had a
dead space where the red boxes which is for fame
(25:18):
and reputation, and you want to foster that kind of thing, man,
there's a dead space there. Um, you would put something
like awards there, animal related items, maybe a stuff jackalopet
or something would be a good spot for that or
a good thing for that spot. Um. And so you
basically what you're doing is using the Bogua map to
(25:39):
say you're just cross referencing spots of your house. And
when you add these things and basically do interior decorating. Um,
you can maximize a floachi. Yeah, if you look at
my master bedroom and bathroom, I have a bad functuation
because right in that top left corner wealth and prosperity
(26:01):
is my toilet. Oh yeah, so supposedly you're flushing it
all down the toilet. They say you should not put
your bathroom or your toilet specifically in your wealth grid
right square. So what we've just described is what a
Western practitioner would do, because again, Western functionali has a
(26:22):
lot to do with interior decorating, and so too does
to an extent um, traditional functional. But a traditional functional practitioner, Um,
if they came to your house and they used the
Bogua map over your house, they would they wouldn't just
align it to an entrance. They would align it to
(26:43):
a magnetic direction. I'm pretty sure it's north. I think
I think you're right. But the black the black um
square in the Bogua map would be oriented in that direction,
so it wouldn't necessarily be facing your entrance. And so
there's this kind of It reveals this really big distinct
action between Western functual and traditional functual. Whereas with Western
(27:04):
functually it's like, oh, we'll just line it up to
the entrance, and maybe you've got a problem with your
toilet flushing, your your fame away in your bathroom, or
your money away in your bathroom. With traditional functual, there's
no getting around it. It's once it lays over your house.
According to Magnetic North, what it gives you a really
(27:25):
clear picture of what you're gonna have to do, and
you may have to tear down your house and start
over and rebuild facing the right way. Um. It could
reveal a lot of real problems with your house. Um,
and you may have to fill in more areas than others.
Whereas if you're just orienting each room based on its
entrance like in Western functual, there's um, you're not gonna
(27:47):
find quite as many problems in a lot more easy solutions.
That makes sense also with a traditional functional consultant who
um is basically telling you what you need to do
with your house, they're gonna do research on your else
itself too. They're gonna find out when it was built,
when the roof wasn't closed. That's a big one too.
And then they're going to also create this Baguo map
(28:08):
and a chart based on Chinese astrology as well, because
time factors in a lot with traditional functual way more
than Western. Again, Western is very um, quick to the
point and just put some stuff here. Like another example
that people criticize Western functual and kind of point like
it's just basically um. Interior design is plaid is considered
(28:33):
a form of the wood element. So if you have
too much plaid, like a plague couch in a room,
you might need to encounter that with like a little
fountain or something like that. But where where did the
idea that plaid was would come from? It's definitely not
traditional Chinese. I don't think so. I don't think they
have plaid in China, do they? I don't think so.
But that raises another thing to another criticism of Western
(28:56):
functual is that very frequently um functual consultants in the
West will be like, oh, you just need to add
a food dog, you know, like that kind of lion
looking dog. So you need to add some you've seen
a million times. Is it like a little statue or
something you need to add like some Chinese pottery jagon
mural or something. Yea, and traditional functual practitioners are like, yeah,
(29:20):
art counts, but um, it doesn't have to be Chinese. Right,
So if you're consultant is selling you Chinese, aren't. This
is right, this is essential. Yeah, that's not that's not
correct with the red flag. Yeah alright, well we have
some more um uh tips from funcui experts that will
(29:40):
get to right after this. All right, so we're talking
(30:05):
the Bagua grid. Like we said, it's all represented with
the different colors. Those colors also correspond to numbers, and
they also correspond to aspects of your life or chi
sounds confusing, it kind of is. Yeah, let's just say it.
But here are some things that functual practitioners say will
(30:26):
help unlock that chi um black, which is your career. Uh.
They say a fountain or a mirror might be a
good thing to have. Their blue, which is skills and wisdom.
Maybe that's where you put your computer workstation or your
library okay yeah books, yeah, books green your family Maybe
(30:47):
that's where you want to put your family photos and
you want to arrange them nicely too. Yeah. Supposedly, if
you have your family photos out of order in your
green section, um, you're gonna have misbehaving kids. Yeah, actually
that's the white zone. That's children. Oh sorry, that's okay,
but yeah, that's that's that's what they say. If you
want good kids, keep those photos nice. I'm not sure
(31:10):
about that one. Uh, purple is your prosperity zone, and
that's where you want to have it, says healthy plants.
Don't put your dying plants there, or sailing ships. I
guess that's just um sailing towards prosperity. I guess maybe
don't don't put a painting of a sinking ship. No,
(31:31):
that that's that is western function there. Yeah, sure that
you don't like that. That whole kind of psychology would
be detrimental to the health of the area. Yeah, why
would you want that anyway though? Like good paints is
sinking ship? Yeah? Um, a depressed sea captain probably would be.
(31:51):
My guess. Red is famine reputation. That's where you want
to put your various awards. Um, so yeah, we got
a couple of those, and your jackalope head your jackalope yeah,
animal animal related things. You're right, we should lay out
our next studio, like according to funk dude, we totally should.
You know, I just noticed is red supposedly is what
(32:13):
you want to put on the back of your chair
to block a bad cheek. And we've got a huge
red foam thing in between us and Jerry. Oh wow,
so we gotta get rid of that. Oh I was
gonna say that explains why I've been able to put
up with her cheek for so long. Now, Jerry, she
is the good flow our way, So we need to
open that up in our new place. Um. Pink love
(32:35):
and relationships, that's where you want to put maybe photos
of your family or paired items. Again with the family photos, yeah,
I don't have that many family photos. Paradig items that's cute,
that makes sense, like book ends, salt and pepper shakers. Uh.
Boxing gloves, Um, that's where you hang your boxing gloves. Um.
(33:00):
Remember Joe Garden from The Onion with those giant boxing
gloves he had. Yeah, those were so much fun. He
had a thing where he just wanted to get as
many people to pose with those as possible and take
a swing at him. Uh. White what we already mentioned
with children or creativity, that's where you might want to
put some art or pictures of your little brats, um,
gray travel um or helpful people but you're souvenirs from
(33:24):
Disneyland there and not just Disneyland any trip you've taken.
Sure the Disney company wants you to just put Disney
souvenirs there though. Uh. And yellow Finally, health um pottery
and stone objects will help unlock your chee there. Yeah.
But speaking of Disney Hong Kong, Disneyland, they apparently had
a functuated expert consulted and uh they made some changes
(33:46):
because of that consultation. Yeah. Probably that was probably a
nice paying gig. The yeah, you know, because someone was
like catchy yea or they were saying e jing anyway a.
The the open on September twelfth, because they were told
that was a lucky day according to the astrological chart.
(34:06):
Their consultant drew up. They changed the entrance by twelve
degrees obviously it was a traditional um functui practitioner uh,
and added some boulders. Apparently one of the restaurants has
a projection of a fire, which to me that wouldn't count,
but maybe it does. That seems pretty Western to me
(34:29):
because one of the big bases of Western function is psychology.
If traditional function is based on magnetism and astrology. Western
functui is based on psychology, and it is as simple
as you don't put a painting of a sinking ship
in the office of a business that's struggling to stay
(34:50):
afloat because the mind makes those kind of associations and
it messes up your cheek. That's right, um, And a
lot of this stuff as well. Like we said, UM,
I think, like you just mentioned maybe like it just
seems like common sense. Um, like a horseshoe shaped building
that opens up into a courtyard, it's gonna feel good,
(35:11):
it's pleasing. Um. Functual practitioners say that's energy. Or hey,
don't don't build a house on a dead end street, um,
because it blocks the GI I had a friend who
lived at a dead end street and it just felt
like every time I went over there, I felt closed
in and sort of weird. Did he end up killing
his whole family? He did not. He did move though. Um.
(35:33):
They were saved. They were thanks to him moving. Um
your office A lot a lot of times these days
people will um their new offices. They will take this
into account. Some very famous people like Richard Branson and
Donald Trump, who enlisted the help of punctual experts to
design their offices because they want that Chi and ergo
(35:55):
money flowing. Yeah, you don't have to be a Richard
Branson or Donald Trump to arrange or office, whether it's
a cubicle or what have you. UM, so that you
can maximize the flow of chief, you want to do
a little messing around. Supposedly, the one one one thing
that you want to ensure as much as possible is
that you're facing the entrance to your office. UM. That way,
(36:19):
the chief flows correctly towards you, not towards your back.
You don't want the chea at your back. No, remember
the Southern China um, the Southern China Functui placement, the
form school UM. Like you you put your the entrance
of your house is facing away from a hill, so
(36:39):
the back of your house backs up to a hill.
So the chief flows correctly. Same thing. You want the
entrance to your office to be flowing towards you, facing
it if you If you can't do that, then you
just put up a mirror so you can reflect the
chief towards you. Yeah, that makes sense. Like you said,
you want to put something red on the back of
your chair to block the chief from your back. Yeah,
(36:59):
I see now that they think about it, this isn't
so bad in here because the the red is to
our side. It's coming in that door and bouncing off
of that right on to us. So Jerry's really the
one is getting the short end of the cheese stick here,
really short short into the cheese stick. Um. What else
can you do? You can put a fountain or a plant. Um, honestly,
water and wood. Uh. And they said even the picture
(37:22):
of a waterfall in your cubicle could help your chi
your workplace. Che Again, there's a lot of disagreement about
what works and what doesn't with traditional function. It's like
you need to know where magnetic north is and you
need to orient your building according to that, and whatever
you do inside is almost irrelevant. Yeah, get rid of
(37:44):
those fluorescent lights though they all agree on that. Sure
know anything about cheat to know that fluorescent lights are
terrible for you? Agreed? Do you anything else? No? U,
this is it's pretty good overview, I think, right, sure,
you feel good about it. I feel better than I expected.
How's your g It's fine? Yeah, all right, it's it's
(38:06):
not out of balance, it's not jumping for joy. It's
just it is today got you. Uh. If you want
to know more about chi or fung shui or any
stuff like that, you can type those words in the
search bart how stuff works. And since I said that
it's time for a listener mail, I'm gonna call this
(38:26):
g e D success story. Hey, guys, got my g
E D way back in so I could attend college.
Back then, the University of Illinois Chicago co Flames allowed
you and as a freshman, if you graduated high school
and had a pulse, they called the student body. After
the first year, though you didn't perform, you're out. I
did reasonably well there and ultimately ended up at the
(38:47):
University of Cambridge in England, got my pH d in
archaeology there and worked in the field for a few years. Um.
I am now a stay at home dad of three boys, five,
three and one living in uh Karl's Rule, Germany. One
of the things I love most about the American education
system is that a guy who dropped out of high
school at seventeen still have the opportunity to attend college
(39:08):
and ultimately end up with a PhD from one of
the greatest universities in the world. Thanks for another great episode.
Guys's been listening since two thousand eight and actually remember
the before Chuck days. Uh and that is from Chris,
So way to go, Chris, Way to go, Chris. That
is pretty awesome story. G D archaeologists stay at home
(39:30):
dad five three in one sounds like he's doing it right.
Nice job, Chris. If you want to let us know
about your personal success story, we love hearing about those.
You can tweet to us at s Y s K podcast.
You can join us on Facebook dot com, slash stuff
you Should Know. You can send us an email to
Stuff Podcast at house Stuff Works dot com, and as always,
join us at our home on the web, Stuff you
(39:51):
Should Know dot com for more on this and thousands
of other topics because our Stuff Works dot com. M
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