- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: University of Hawaii Press (February 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0824826728
- ISBN-13: 978-0824826727
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 522 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,822,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
"'This valuable study will be required reading for scholars of Chinese religion, and makes a valuable contribution to the anthropology of religion.' Joseph Bosco, in East Asia, 2004) 'Offers significant insights into the working of diverse coexisting traditions... [and will] undoubtedly remain an important work in the studies of contemporary China's transformation as well as postcolonial cultural development.' (Yinong Xu, in China Review International, 2004)"
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
Book Description
For well over a century Chinese fengshui, or geomancy, has fascinated Western laymen and scholars. Today hundreds of popular manuals claim to use its principles in their advice on how people can increase their wealth, happiness and longevity. The focus of this academic study is on fengshui's significance in China over the last 150 years, augmented by anthropological fieldwork in rural China. Eschewing Western intellectual preconceptions and penetrating the confused mass of old texts and divergent local practices, the author argues that fengshui serves as an alternative tradition of cosmological knowledge which is used to explain a range of everyday occurrences in rural areas such as disease, mental disorders, accidents and common mischief. Opposing the Chinese collectivist ethos and moralizing from above, fengshui represents an alternative vision of reality, while interpreting essential Chinese values in a way that sanctions selfish motivations and behaviour.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tough Love for the McFengshui Crowd,
By cb "cb" (encino, ca US) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Fengshui in China (Hardcover)
Bruun walks through villages and interviews people and feng shui practitioners about the state of the practise today compared to 150 years ago. This book is bound to be a disappointment for the McFengshui crowd because the people "seeing" feng shui (that is, in Chinese terms, those who practise on behalf of clients) all use compasses. The so-called schools advocated by McFengshui types don't exist (and never existed) in China. But it's also difficult for those who know the traditional material to see what has happened to the state of the art in its birthplace; it's hard to not be moved by what was lost during the turbulent days of the Cultural Revolution, and how many feng shui masters paid dearly for their knowledge.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tough Love for the McFengshui Crowd,
By cb "cb" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Fengshui in China (Hardcover)
Bruun walks through villages and interviews people and feng shui practitioners about the state of the practise today compared to 150 years ago. This book is bound to be a disappointment for the McFengshui crowd because the people "seeing" feng shui (that is, in Chinese terms, those who practise on behalf of clients) all use compasses. The so-called schools advocated by McFengshui types don't exist (and never existed) in China. But it's also difficult for those who know the traditional material to see what has happened to the state of the art in its birthplace; it's hard to not be moved by what was lost during the turbulent days of the Cultural Revolution, and how many feng shui masters paid dearly for their knowledge. |
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