I was in Johor, Malaysia to assess a piece of land for cluster housing and was reminded of this phrase:
made famous by the work of destitute refugee turned famous politician, Wu Zixu 伍子胥 of Spring and Autmn Era (722 BC – 481 BC).
[Wu Zixu was appointed to a high ranking government position and lead the design and building of a "Great City" that evolved into the SuZhou (蘇州) of today. His city planning was said to have incorporated the environmental harmony between earth and water and the cosmic balance between celestial and terrestrial forces. - Wikipedia]
In Landform Feng Shui, Water and Earth (native soil) are the basic ingredients of good land to store Qi. There are many Feng Shui literature both classics and contemporary on Water(ways) in Feng Shui. However, little is written on the role of soil in Feng Shui. Much less is taught in contemporary Feng Shui classes on this important subject.
While Feng Shui practitioners are not civil engineers or pedologists, we do need to assess at pre-building stage the readiness of soil to retain and generate Earth Qi.
Colour, moisture, and bulk density are part of Land Physionomy 相地 in Feng Shui.
The colour of the native soil tells us about the type, ancestry and quality of Mountain Dragon. It porousness, moisture and density of the native soil gives away its readiness for building / occupancy, and, ability to hold and generate Qi. It is also important to observe the inherent attributes of native soil.
Often, a little research on the information of native soil prevalent in the location goes a long way in Landform assessment. For example, I notice a marked difference in colour and texture of the soil in a section of this land I was assessing. On query, our group realised that it was formerly a small Chinese cabbage farm land and has been topped up with new soil 客土(guest soil) of 2meters deep. The developer plans to build half of a 4-level apartment block on it.
Given a choice, this should not be recommended from Feng Shui perspective. Such depth of guest soil will not help in Qi regeneration. The rule of thumb for guest soil above 6 feet to settle in with native soil is minimum 7 years.
If the developer proceeds with the original plan, the whole apartment block would be affected as its Heavenly Heart 天心 would be too fragile to sustain Qi even when the other half of the block is built on native soil.
Fortunately, the development is at its planning stage, and, it is still possible to re-configure the whole estate. Given the luxury of the land size, the said apartment will be located at least 8meters away from the guest soil.
There are many necessary details in Feng Shui for practitioners to study before coming up with Feng Shui formations and layouts. Such details are why D.I.Y. Feng Shui for laypersons arm only with general information and formula should not be encouraged.
