Introduction Feng-Shui Jiri and Koreans

1. Feng-Shui Jiri that reveals the human nature

Where does the word, "Feng-Shui Ji-Ri", originate from?
First of all, they are Korean characters, and each character has a meaning. Feng means the wind, and Shui means the water in Korean, and Jiri, which is composed of two characters, Ji (Land) and Ri (Reason), means, as a whole word, the natural law of the land.
During the ancient times, both wind and water were two of the most important factors, when it comes to building a house or a shelter.  It's because people cannot live with peace of mind in the area where strong winds like the typhoon regularly blows, or where flood or drought frequents. For the people to live with peace of mind, a house has to be located where a soft and warm wind often blows, and where there exists a plenty of clean and potable water. Therefore, it was natural for people to place the wind and the water as two more important factors than others, when it comes to choosing a place to live in. It seems that frequent observation of both wind and water by the people, when considering the location of a house, made the word, Feng-Shui, develop into having a deeper and specialized implication, rather than what it literally says.

On the other hand, there is another theory that "Feng-Shui" is just a short name for "Jang-Feng-Deuk-Shui, which means, ˇ°Blocking of Wind and Gathering of Waterˇ±. The essence of Feng-Shui lies in obtaining of ˇ°Live Chiˇ±, and the essential conditions for creating ˇ°Live Chiˇ± are wind and water, more specifically, ˇ°Blocking of wind and gathering of waterˇ±. Therefore, they say Feng-Shui is just a short version of 4-letter word. However, because the 4-letter word has a comprehensive meaning, it seems the word appeared after Feng-Shui Philosophy had developed quite extensively.

Staying aside from these existing theories, according to what this writer has studied and learned so far, I believe Feng-Shui implies the very essence of human being. In these days of advanced science, the question, "What is the intrinsic nature, or essence of human being?ˇ± will be answered by the scientist as the combination of various elements, such as proteins, fats and others, and the doctors will answer that it is the group of various and different kinds of micro organism. However, these answers would not be sufficient at all to describe the essence of human being. In general, people think man is made of earth, and when he dies, the body returns to be a handful of soil, and the soul goes to the heaven. Also, in some religions, they believe man is made of earth, water, fire, and wind.

This writer has observed many times the tombs being re-excavated in order to move them to other places, during my long period of studying Feng-Shui. My experience says that the man does not become a soil again even long after his death. If man becomes the soil after his death, then there should be some soil left inside the casket, but there weren't any left in all the caskets I have observed. This means that man becomes the wind, not the soil.

In this respect, I believe the essence, or the intrinsic nature of human being is the wind. When a piece of meat or a fish gets rotten, then it dissipates and blown away by the wind. And if the metal, such as knife or sickle, gets rusty, it also eventually dissipates and blown away by the wind. The wind comes from the sky. Therefore the sky is an eternal source of the wind. According the Chinese classic, ˇ°the Book of Changesˇ±, ˇ°a man who follows the law of the sky can live, but one who disobeys the law of the sky will have hard time surviving.ˇ±. Because the wind is directly related to the man's life, the sky means to be the wind, in the aforementioned quotation. An electrical device, such as radio or TV set, works only when electrical power is supplied. It means the life sustaining force for electrical devices is the electricity itself. In same token, man can not go on living, not even for a short while, if air is not supplied to him.

And, the water is also an essential ingredient for the live being creatures, just like the wind. Man's body is made of 70% water, and also in the "Book of Changes", the water is regarded as the most important element among all the materials. From a long time ago, people have studied the nature of water and the ways to live following the flow of the water.
In other words, "Feng-Shui Jiri" was born in the process for people to try to understand the geographical conditions needed to live harmoniously with the wind and the water in every day living.