I have always adopted an ambivalent
attitude towards Fengshui (風水
– wind-water; study
or practice of Chinese geomancy. Some of my earlier bosses were staunch believers
of Fengshui. One of the practitioners
who used to advise the late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong (of Genting fame) told me that
he was not a believer until he began to study it in depth. He used the term ào-miào (奧妙; mystique) to describe the feeling
that finally converted him to the cause.
It is now a big business.
Lilian Too has published many books to “help” people to practise good Fenghshui. So has Joey Yap and many
others from Hong Kong. And there are dedicated shoplots in malls to sell Fengshui stuff that will help you to
enhance your geomantic future or overcome earlier oversights.
When we Removers[1] of
High School Muar 1961 finally got reconnected after 55 years, I saw that one of
our mates had become an authority on Fengshui
and had been accredited by some top universities in China as a professor in
that study. Isn’t China the home of Fengshui?
We are able to bring ice to Eskimos; fantastic!
Our Fengshui professor
is David Koh. He is better known as Master Xi-I-Tze (虚一子) in the Fengshui circle.
Fengshui is something few mainstream
academics would like to indulge too much in. But whether one likes it or not,
it is a serious matter to many. The rich and famous in East Asia would spare no
efforts in consulting experts in this branch of “metaphysics” if they are
thinking of moving to a new home or office, erecting a new building, or even
recruiting a key executive.
Notwithstanding, many would say it is
nothing but a form of superstition, or at best, “buying insurance”, but David
Koh who has spent more than forty years studying Fengshui says there is really
more to it than what we sceptics think.
David has accepted my invitation to
speak at The HEAD Foundation. More about David below:
David teaches regularly at Shanghai’s
Jiao Tong University and Tongji University. He developed and wrote the Geomancy
Degree syllabus – perhaps the first in China and probably the world - for these universities. He has also lectured,
amongst others, Tsinghua University (Beijing), China University of Designs (Hangzhou),
Shuzhou University (Shuzhou), Jia Xing University (Hangzhou), Universiti Tunku Abdul Rathman (Kuala
Lumpur) and Universiti Technology Malaysia (Johor Bahru).
He has formulated a scientific
system of Fengshui calibration which
he calls the ‘four-step method’ and has devised an English version of the Lopan
(Fengshui compass) incorporating
binary language ‘1’ and ‘0’. He is perhaps the only Chinese Fengshui master who has extensive
knowledge on Muslim geomancy, called Tiang Seri, Tajul Muluk and Ilmu Ramal. He has also given talks on
these subjects.
The first ever Diploma Course in
Environology (Fengshui) that he designed and is now adopted by the Pertubuhan
Arkiteks Malaysia (PAM), which has approved to set the Malaysian Institute of
Environology Studies to conduct scientific research and formulate procedure,
equations, and eventually set standards to regulate practitioners.
David also writes for The Star
and Nang Yang Siang Pao.
His knowledge and experience
comes from more than 45 years of study into this ancient Chinese science of
geomancy and Yi Jing.
David is the founder of the
Malaysian Institute of Geomancy Sciences (MINGS) a society involved in research
and teaching of Fengshui. He is
currently the Honorary Life President of MINGS.
[1] During
that era, many students in Malaysia who had completed their primary education
in Chinese schools had to do an extra year in “Remove Form I Class” before they
were phased into the normal stream in English secondary schools. I was one of
those who had to do this “Remove” class.
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