The North/South Debate

SUMMARY

The 'Southern' School can be regarded as false for the following reasons.

1. The climate argument does not apply to all climates of a given hemisphere.

2. The seasonal associations of the Ba Gua are only coincidental for temperate zones in the Northern Hemisphere. They must therefore be regarded as incidental and associative, not causal.

3. The altered Ba Gua places Li in the position of magnetic and celestial north, which is directly contrary to their traditional meaning.

4. The traditional associations remain valid when considered globally.

5. The 'Southern' School contains logical absurdities and unresolved dilemmas.

6. No conclusive proof has been offered to validate the different 'Southern' theories. They therefore remain mere hearsay.

7. The advocates of the 'Southern' School have not provided a consensus system. Each advocate has their own variation, some of which seriously contradict each other.

Until these points are answered convention dictates that the traditional method is the only ethically valid system and therefore the only one that should be promoted and used publicly.

CONCLUSION

The intention of this paper was to examine the issue in some detail. It was also to challenge the practitioners of the 'Southern' School to prove it, to answer their critics in detail.

The second reason for writing was to inform interested readers, to give them material with which to question the 'Southern' School.

I hope this stirs the pot. The present situation of conflicting systems is quite absurd. I hope advocates of the 'Southern' School respond with a detailed defence.

NOTES TO MAIN ARTICLE

1 Richard Wilhelm, ‘I ching’, Penguin Arkana, pg 320

2 Eva Wong, ‘Feng Shui’, Shamballa

3 Derek Walters, Chinese Astrology, Aquarian

4 Ibid

5 Lindy Baxter and Roger Green

6 Master Feng Yu Gui, statement made at the Melbourne Feng Shui Conference, 19/1/97

7 Master Joseph Yu. Comments on his Internet page. Master Liu of Melbourne. Both make very minor and conditional changes. Both disagree with the need for substantial changes.

8 Hermann von Essen, Golden Age Magazine, Issue 34

9 Stanislas Klossowski de Rola, ‘Alchemy’, Avon, 1973

10 Nathan Sivin, “Chinese Alchemy and the Manipulation of Time.”

11 Beinfield and Korngold, ‘Between Heaven and Earth. A guide to Chinese Medicine’. Ballantine. Pg 30

12 Research by Baron Von Reichenbach. Dr Albert Davis and Walter Rawls.

13 Richard Wilhelm, op cit, pg 304

14 Eva Wong, ‘Feng Shui’, Shamballa

15 Wolfram Eberhard, ‘A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols’. Routledge

16 Encyclopaedia Britannica, under ‘Climate’

17 Ibid

18 A. Aveni, ‘Empires of Time’, Basic Books, NY

19 Encarta, op cit

20 Ibid

21 Ibid

22 The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Earth Sciences

23 Ibid

24 I have had contact with Aline Lopes Mendes of Brazil. She has started practising in Rio de Janiero and has had contact with advocates of the ‘Southern’ School.

25 Lindy Baxter, ‘Argument for the Southern Model of Feng Shui’, 1998

26 A. Aveni, op cit

27 Walters, op cit

28 Ibid

29 Encyclopaedia Britannica

30 Ibid

31 Ibid, under ‘Arctic’

32 Master Raymond Lo, Master Yap Cheng Hai and Lillian Too have all be adamant that the Ba Gua does not change. Master Yap Cheng Hai is quoted as saying, ‘Even Jesus Christ and Buddha cannot change the magnetic North to South’. Feng Shui for Modern Living, Issue 2, pg 79. Argument for the Southern Hemisphere Model of Feng Shui