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Fu Ling (today known as Dong Ling Park in ShenYang) is where
the NuZhen tribal chieftain Nuerhachi and his wife, Empress
Yehenala are buried and was the site visited by students of
the Mastery Academy as part of the Imperial China Excursion.
Fu Ling is considered the first Imperial Mausoleum of the Qing
Dynasty and is also known as the East Tomb.
The Fu Ling tomb faces the Hun river in the distance, with
the mountain in the distance behind the tomb.
After a short walk through the park grounds and a slightly
breathless climb up the 108 steps (which Joey reminded the
students, has no Feng Shui significance), the students once
again broke into their various groups and commenced their
audit, taking measurements with their Luo Pans, looking for
the now familiar components of the Sar or land embrace, the water mouth, the Bright Hall and applying the knowledge garnered from visits to Yong Ling on the first day and to the Zhao Ling Tomb the day before.
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Afterwards, the group met up to discuss their findings with
each other, in the midst of the splendour of the surrounding
Manchu style buildings and to exchange views. A lively discussion
ensued as the students debated their findings and analysis
with each other, with Joey moderating the on the spot discussion.
Armed with what they had learnt from the two previous days,
students were more confident as they put forth their views
on whether the Fu Ling Tomb represented good Feng Shui or
a less than favourable setting, based on their Luo Pan readings
and ‘walking’ the mountains and the area of the
tomb.
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Click the photo to enlarge.
At Fu Ling, students found a similar example of a Fou Lim
burial (above ground burial) but as Joey pointed out to them,
Fu Ling is a less superior tomb. What was the reason for this?
Strong gusting winds in the area just in front of the tombs
mean that Qi disperses quickly and does not collect well in
the area where the tomb is located. With only two Bright Halls,
the Qi collected is also lesser. The Sar or embrace around
the area was also less than ideal – the formation is
known as a Fairy Bow formation(Xian Gong Xue) and is not as
tight and encapsulating as the embraces seen at Yong Ling
and Zhao Ling. Not only is less Qi collected, but it is also
not easily ‘held’ in the area, due to the nature
of the embrace.
Click the photo to enlarge.
Joey posited that the Dragon Spot (Long Xue) was most likely
lower down the hill and not at the location of the tomb.
What was the lesson that students walked away with at Fu
Ling? Clearly, it was that even Emperors can make mistakes
with their own Feng Shui. Despite the likelihood of having
excellent advisors, Emperors can still chose a poor burial
spot.
In the case of Nuerhachi’s tomb, it’s less than
favourable Feng Shui resulted in a relatively short reign
Shun Zhi, his grandson and son of Huang TaiJi. The comparing
and contrasting of the tombs at Zhao Ling with the one at
Fu Ling also helped train the students on how to grade Luan
Tou structures and to appreciate how important a part a Luen
Tou plays in Feng Shui.
Click the photo to enlarge.
At the recap session later in the day back at the hotel,
Joey summed up the key pointers for the students, which they
would have garnered from their visits to the Early Qing Tombs
(Yong Ling, Fu Ling and Zhao Ling) and the ShenYang Imperial
Palace (Gu Gong)
“Do you want to face your best direction or be in a
location where you have good Qi? If you are already there,
then facing your best direction is fine. But if you are in
a location where there is nothing useful, is your best direction
helpful? Remember the best direction is to receive the Qi.
You cannot receive the Qi from nothing!” reminded Joey.
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In walking the mountains and visiting the tombs, Joey pointed
out to students that this experience should give them a true
perspective of the meaning of internal and external Feng Shui:
“What is called really external? You have a real river.
The fact that you build it in your compound, it is considered
within your compound. For simplicity, we say internal and
external but what it really means is in the environment.”
Visiting the Early Qing Tombs was designed to give students
a sense of perspective about Feng Shui: “Today, there
is a lot of change towards water based formulas whilst in
the old days, mountains were preferred. This is because Water
formulas are faster. Quick in Feng Shui means 12 years. In
traditional Feng Shui, the aim is 60 years, 100 years, 300
years – that is what is called traditional Feng Shui”
points out Joey.
STUDENT EXPERIENCES:
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Today, I think all of us thought that we were going
to find perfect examples of Feng Shui and we were going to
see how the Chinese master Feng Shui and we were going to
learn about this and what we are learning is that masters
or supposed masters can make mistakes. We have a saying in
Mexico – I am a Mexican and I am not a mariachi (the
singers with the big sombreros) so being a Chinese does not
mean that you are going to be an automatic Feng Shui master.
Joey said it clearly – these sites that we have been
visiting were here before these formulas were invented so
we have to go back to the time when this places were built
and we see that – try to understand why they did it that
way and what they did wrong.
BRUNO KOPPEL ,MEXICO
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I learnt we’ve got so much of rubbish to get rid
off. Now we’re having to put everything in its correct
place. I came here thinking I’m going to find all the
Feng Shui – today, I couldn’t even find the embrace
– it was one of our team members who found it ! But we
found other things – yeah, it’s there. We all make
mistakes – maybe they did put the tomb too far back –
but if we stick to our basics, stuff we were taught in M1
– keep it simple – simple doesn’t mean that
it’s not valid.
JAYNE GOODRICK, UNITED KINGDOM
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I learnt to see the mountains from a different perspective.
The embrace really puzzled me but what we see today is completely
not what we have in paper – for the past few days, when
Joey is teaching, this course opens up everything – it
makes everything so much easier. VIN LEO, SINGAPORE
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It’s been wonderful the actual landform and I don’t
think I can look at anything every again. Flying Stars is
probably not even as old – and we’re trying to use
something that wasn’t even in existence there. The penny
dropped today. The landform has been absolutely amazing –
I really enjoyed it and seeing the Flat Land Dragon has been
amazing.
DIANE GROBLER , SOUTH AFRICA
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