To be perfectly fair, I cannot even called myself a novice in Feng Shui. I do not have any knowledge whatsoever on this field, so when I came across Ulrich Wilhelm Lippelt’s book titled Feng Shui Demystified, it tickles my curiosity and I read it.
Truthfully, I do not understand the various concepts described there but the section that explains why the colour red is an auspicious colour in Feng Shui delights my fancy. I always like the “why” behind everything. Considering that the Chinese has had such a sophisticated thinking system from thousand of years ago, they must have a good reason on singling out the colour red right?
Extract from Lippelt’s book:In Chinese tradition, the colour red is a symbol of prosperity and happiness. It is therefore not surprising that the colour red is used as a general enhancer when
Earth Base, Facing and Mountain Stars in a palace are benevolent in nature.
Lippelt prescribed that benevolent stars are 1, 4, 6 and 8. This is based on the Earlier Heaven arrangement where the part from the South to the North West is reckoned to be yang dominated part of the arrangement and so 6, 4, 1 and 8 has the maximum yang energy, which is good.
The star number itself, however, are derived from Lo Shu numbering system, which I believe, come from Later Heaven arrangement, a bit confusing really…. then again may just me with my zilch understanding. Please refer to Lippelt’s book for full description.
The first reason why red is a general enhancer is that it completes the Five Element for the benevolent stars. As we know: 1 =
water, 4 =
wood, 6 =
metal and 8 = earth (remember 1, 4, 6, and 8 are all benevolent stars) and so red, which is the
fire element will complete them.
The second reason is a bit complex. I will try my best to describe it. If we consider the interaction of Base, Facing and Mountain Stars, all having benevolent numbers, there will be 24 combinations possible, i.e. 3 stars x 4 benevolent x 2 sequence. Out of these 24 possible combinations:
1. 6 combinations will rightly benefit from the colour red as enhancer. For example 1/8/4: 1 water is controlled by 8 earth; 8 earth is controlled by 4 wood, so fire is introduced to controlled 4 wood and fire in turn is controlled by 1 water. A perfect compliment.
2. 12 combinations will benefit if red is used as an enhancer to establish harmony. For example: 1/4/8: 1 water produces 4 wood; 4 wood controls 8 earth, so fire is introduced to controls 4 wood and produces 8 earth.
3. 2 combinations will benefit if red is used an enhancer but it will disturb the harmony. For example 6/1/4: 6 metal produces 1 water; 1 water produces 4 wood. The situation is already in harmony; the introduction of fire will disturb the harmony and will not do much harm because the nature 4 wood produces fire.
4. 4 combinations will not benefit from red as general enhancer and will harm by it. For example: 6/4/8: 6 metal controls 4 wood; 4 wood controls 8 earth. The introduction of fire will deplete 4 wood, which is not desirable.
So,
when all 3 stars in a palace are benevolent, using red as general enhancer is correct in 75% (18 combinations) of all possible combination of benevolent stars. This ensures a very high rate of success when applied. Real harm can be caused only in 4 combinations (16.66%) of all possible cases.
It is said that when a lay men asked for a cure, the master(s) will prescribed red in 75% of the cases and hence the lay men who do not understand the principle behind it, think that red is the most auspicious colour of all. Luckily, my favourite colour is red…. among others
Topic: Why Red is an auspicious colour for the Chinese? (Read 140 times)
April 03, 2009, 10:02:39 PM
