A Book Review by Kartar Diamond
Clocking in at 140 pages, this book by Master Sang was published in 2004: ten years after his first book, The Principles of Feng Shui. Knowing Master Sang personally, I can vouch for the fact that he was insanely busy running his school during those ten years in between the books.
This little book got a bad review on Amazon and it gave me pause in terms of whether or not I wanted to re-read it and review it for others. However, I think the reaction that one gets from this book will be very much tied to how much feng shui the reader already knows. The book is wholly unique from other books on a number of accounts.
We get to hear from a modern-day Chinese Feng Shui master who was part of the first wave of teachers in the West circa the late 1980’s through 1990’s. We get to read the words of someone born into the culture from where Feng Shui developed and what his personal grievances are within his own “industry.” We also learn more about Feng Shui through his own stories and experiences. What it is NOT– is a step-by-step guide on how to conduct a feng shui audit from any one particular school.
I was never in a position to ask Master Sang if my own provocative book, Feng Shui for Skeptics: Real Solutions Without Superstition, inspired him to write his own critique of how Feng Shui has been portrayed in the West. His book includes how Feng Shui has also been practiced, as well as abused, in the East. In the first two chapters, Sang admits that there have always been fakers and swindlers, clouding the integrity of Feng Shui, even in his own culture. Chinese scholars and scientists have also scoffed at Feng Shui, because of the charlatans who have added magic, placebos, rituals and other disreputable games to their repertoire.
Sang explains that within the Five Chinese Arts (Medicine, Mountain, Divination, Astrology, and Appraisal by Appearance), that “mountain,” which includes Feng Shui practice, is the most ripe for abuse and fraud. He even states that 85% of the consultants in Hong Kong, and especially the ones interviewed on TV don’t know feng shui on a high level. And of course, he witnessed a lot of baloney when he came to the United States as well.
Whether for the client, or the up-and-coming practitioner, Sang highlights what is required to perform an authentic feng shui reading.
Sang mentions that, like the varied martial arts traditions, there are multiple schools of feng shui. Ba Zhai (Eight Mansion) and Xuan Kong (Flying Star) are the most well-known, and with care they can complement each other. Writes Sang, “fakers are everywhere. They create a total mess by mixing Eastern Culture, customs, and superstitions with burning incense and occult arts, calling this Feng Shui.” Sang mentioned other systems such as Qi Men Dun Jia and 64 Hexagrams, but says they lack theoretical support. Keep in mind, this opinion comes from someone who is known to be an expert on the I-Ching.
Sang continues with blunt comments such as “Ba’ gua mirrors, crystal balls, convex or concave mirrors, elephants, etc. have no meaning in Feng Shui practice.” He then gives examples of how seemingly harmless remedies, applied without knowledge, can cause a lot of damage to the person, as well as to the reputation of Feng Shui as a whole.
Next Sang introduces the 9 stars of Flying Star Feng Shui, using the Pin Yin system in this book. Before employing Flying Star, he says that a Feng Shui expert can also perform a Yi Jing (I-Ching) reading “on the spot” to reveal what type of sickness is affecting the occupants. At this point however, there is no elaborate explanation of the theory behind it. How can something so personal about an individual be pinpointed by a passage from a book? Not many people really understand how the I-Ching works, but maybe we can call it an ancient form of A.I. “divination download.”
Lest you think that Master Sang considers wind chimes to be silly placebos, that is not the case at all. Here he clarifies that as a form of moving metal, when placed haphazardly they can make a person’s situation much worse. They do serve definitive purposes in feng shui practice, but one has to study Flying Star in order to when to use them.
Setting the record straight on fish tanks (or any water feature), Sang also remarks on the pros and cons of using water. Timing and direction combined reveal the appropriateness of water or no water. I don’t know about other cultures, but in American culture there is a popular assumption that “more is better.” We know that cannot be true all the time, however. And in modern science and medicine, we have a knack for extracting what we think are the most potent properties of a substance and macro-dosing on that isolated nutrient.
Only more recently has the pendulum swung back to where many acknowledge the benefit of a more holistic approach. As an example, a vitamin or mineral might be metabolized better with the synergy of the whole food, as opposed to an isolated supplement form. So too, with how we approach “dosage” and “duration” for these various feng shui adjustments.
The author comments further about mirrors and how their use by interior decorators has more to do with good feng shui than the superstitious claims by so-called feng shui masters. A mirror which brings light to a dark area and opens the space up visually is a good thing and in line with the goals of Feng Shui.
Sang also admits that he has no idea how or why crystal balls became almost synonymous with Feng Shui in the West. They may look pretty, exotic, and reflect light, but they have nothing to do with Five Element Theory.
In a section on common misconceptions, Sang tells readers essentially that there are exceptions to every rule, but one has to know more feng shui to understand this. A classic example is the generalization that the house at the end of a T-junction, with the Qi of the street racing toward it in a straight line is highly unfavorable. As he explains in the classroom, if the flying stars at the building’s entrance are very positive, all the Qi rushing toward that structure at the dead-end can actually enhance the house even further.
Sang next tells a story about a client, where he uses both Feng Shui and Zi Wei Dou Shu (astrology), to pinpoint when she would have a problem with her spouse and how it could be resolved with a feng shui adjustment. He explains the hierarchy of Feng Shui, coming in third after other influences like destiny and luck coming first.
This book is filled with “mini” chapters that are just a few pages in length. In Chapter 10, Sang explains that of the Five Chinese Arts, “mountain” includes both Yang House (feng shui) for the living and Yin House (divination of the grave site). Here he emphasizes that the purpose of a good Yin House (grave) is for the benefit of the descendants and not the deceased. His students had the chance back in 2001 to visit several cemeteries and learn the fundamentals of Yin House readings with him.
The course took place just weeks after my own mother passed. Her wishes were to be cremated and I asked Master Sang then what the ramifications were when there is no body to bury. This is because the bones of the deceased still work like a transmitter to the descendants. Master Sang said that when there is cremation and essentially no ability to create a Yin House, that the descendants (up to three generations) will be impatient. I do think of myself as a patient person in general (with others in my life), although I will admit to being impatient with some of my own life lessons. I call myself a melancholy optimist.
I did not notice anything change in that regard after she passed. However, there are parts of my son’s personality that went through a big change a few years later which has endured. His mind churns with anxiety and he struggles with patience.
Sang also tells a story about how a mean-spirited feng shui “master” who intentionally tried to cause harm to a woman and her sons, was overturned by the will of God. This kind of misconduct can also flip back onto the perpetrator. This is a lesson about virtue and how the laws of karma also apply in the realm of Feng Shui. Over the years, I have heard really disappointing stories and have experienced myself, some very dark energy with a few so-called Feng Shui masters. We’re a motley crew: some of the kindest people on the planet mixed with some who latch onto this discipline in order to feed their narcissism. Since feng shui ventures into the spiritual realm and the powers associated with it, some engage with fanaticism and religiosity, wielding undeserved influence over others.
(Not mentioned in this book), Master Sang told his students that when he first came to America, he had alliances and friends who wanted to market him to be a “guru” type. He rejected that offer and joked that if he was portrayed as a guru that he “would have to stop looking at the pretty girls.” Meanwhile, I guess he did not know that being a Guru in the West did not stop many East-Indian yoga teachers from acting inappropriately with their female students.
In this book, Master Sang references Yin House a lot. The divination of grave sites is taken very seriously in Chinese-Feng Shui culture. Chapter 15 recounts something that I was involved in and brought to Master Sang. It had to do with an actual lawsuit in Los Angeles surrounding a fraudulent real estate transaction at a local cemetery. A Chinese man had his deceased wife buried in a plot and he had also reserved the adjacent plot for himself. No doubt he also used Yin House services to select those two plots.
One day, he visited his wife’s grave site, only to find that someone had been buried in the plot that he had purchased for himself. I don’t recall how this man found me, as he was not already a client. However, I was somewhat well-known through many channels. On the surface, we could say that this was just a horrible mistake made by the mortuary, to have sold the same plot to two different families. However, this Chinese man also felt that the generational-Yin House damage was monumental. When he found out that his place to rest right next to his wife had been taken from him, he actually had a heart attack and had to be hospitalized.
In order to impress the judge and jury what a serious violation this was, not just as a real estate blunder, but so much more, he asked that I speak in court about how important Yin House is in Chinese culture. He would not simply accept a different plot that was offered by the mortuary. Nor was he willing to have his wife’s body exhumed and moved to another location where they could be together eventually.
On the one hand, I felt like I could be a competent witness and give a decent presentation in court on behalf of the grieving and ailing man. However, I also felt it would be appropriate to refer this man to Master Sang, whose knowledge and experience was far superior to mine (not even close). After Master Sang was interviewed by the lawyers, he did not need to appear in court. The severity of the situation was made clear and it was settled out of court in favor of the Chinese man who enlisted our help.
Sang gives a few examples of poor Yin House choices made by others and references the Period in which the burial took place as well as the compass reading. In those unfortunate cases, where family members suffered the consequences, the grave sites were classified as the infamous “Reversed” House types. This is one of the Four Major House types discussed in Xuan Kong Fei Xing. For the living, this is the house type described as being bad for the occupants’ health and bad for their financial potential. The same holds true for a Reversed chart in Yin House. It can undermine or ruin the lives of the descendants.
Sang shares a few more stories where he has to do clean up on aisle five after other feng shui masters advised people to their detriment. After studying with Master Sang for many years, I did occasionally find myself on the receiving end of some gossip about him, where a few people insinuated that Master Sang was not in the upper echelon of feng shui masters. In fact, one overly judgmental personality called him a “one ringer.” This refers to the various rings on the feng shui compass, called the luo pan. It is an insult which implies that the “one ringer” only understands or uses the most basic ring on the compass that defines the directions.
Well, I beg to differ as anyone who studied with Master Sang knows that he was very proficient in a number of predictive arts. Those who accompanied him on some of his consults also saw him advise in ways that he did not even share with students. In Chapter 21, Master Sang lists different schools or feng shui techniques, which most in the field have not heard of or have not studied themselves. This includes variations on some techniques which are known:
- “Ziping Si Zhu (Ziping’s Four Pillars)
- Guo Lao Xing Zong (Guo Lao Star Ancestor)
- Tai Yi Shen Shu (Great Yi Miraculous Calculation)
- Tie Ban Shen Shu (Iron Board Miraculous Calculation)
- Qi Men Dun Jia (Extraordinary Gate To Escape Jia)
- Mei Hua Yi Shu (Plum Flower Yi Jing Calculation)
- Liu Ren Shen Shu (Six Ren Miraculous Calculation).”
When it comes to the Iron Board calculations, Sang’s students heard a number of stories about its astonishing accuracy. He had a whole set of the Iron Board books gracing his desk and people would enter his office for a reading with trepidation and awe. I was actually too intimidated to get an Iron Board reading because it can supposedly even predict when someone is going to die. I didn’t want to know that, as most people don’t either. The predictions from the Iron Board reading would routinely tell the person the Chinese Zodiac signs of their parents and siblings, who is actually part of the family as opposed to a step-child or adopted, the zodiac signs of future spouses, (even their last names in some cases) and what kinds of financial fortunes or misfortunes a person would encounter and when. Obviously, this system challenges whether or not we have any Free Will.
While Master Sang said there are a lot of fake feng shui practitioners, the Iron Board calculations and results cannot be fabricated. The reputation for Iron Board readings remain so legendary, no one who is not trained in this technique could produce the expected results and accuracy. Iron Board readings typically tell people about their past, present and future.
Master Sang told one story in a chapter titled Divulging Heaven’s Will and it has to do with delicate matters and how much a master should reveal during a reading. Likewise, if a client withholds information, there may be some inconsistencies in what is communicated. I remember one time I sat down with a client at her dining table and the husband reluctantly joined us. I asked him what he did for a living and he said he was a lawyer. The wife slapped him on the arm and scolded him for lying. He was actually some other profession. But his goal was clear: he wanted to feed me incorrect information as he had no respect for Feng Shui. Feng Shui practitioners know that sometimes we stylize the recommendations based on the occupant’s career, so if we are lied to, they may not get appropriate suggestions. His motivation for lying was not just speculation on my part, as he continued to say derogatory things about Feng Shui. By that time, I had been a consultant for years and I really had no patience for blatant disrespect.
I didn’t need his money, so I suggested that maybe I should leave. And in fact, it was not just that I was insulted. I also felt like I was in the home of someone who did not want me there and it was his house, so I should respect that as well! A Golden Rule is that Feng Shui practitioners should not give advice to those who do not want it. The wife urged me to stay and told her husband to go into another room. Not long afterwards, she began taking classes at Master Sang’s school. We exchanged niceties, but I couldn’t’ help but wonder what kind of verbal abuse and condescension she had to endure from the husband, once she decided to study feng shui herself.
Another time I had a client with many feng shui flaws to her home. I tried to be a diplomat and discuss how each flaw could be managed. With each item I needed to inform her about, her spirits did seem to dampen, so I then focused on all the things about her home that were normal and good.
A month or so passed and I was approached by another fellow feng shui practitioner at one of Master Sang’s monthly Question and Answer classes. This fellow consultant was all-too-happy to say that she came in as a second opinion after me for the client with many flaws to her home. We basically had the same training with Master Sang and came to the same conclusions. However, this fellow consultant felt compelled to tell me that I “missed telling the client that her home was in a locked phase.” It was then that I told the fellow consultant that I had not forgotten, which was the truth; I chose to NOT tell the client because I had already told her a half dozen other unfortunate things about her house and I decided to spare her the final blow. I explained to the fellow consultant, that I didn’t want the client to be even more upset and I knew that I had already given her the recommendation for how to release the lock.
You see, this woman needed water inside and outside her home in several areas and for different reasons. I knew that the sight and sound of circulating water would ALSO take care of the long termed Locked Phase on her home. I didn’t need to pound her on the head with yet another thing to worry about. This is just one example of the sensitive information and delivery that is involved in a feng shui audit. I learned over time that you can’t please all of the people all of the time. And I also learned that a lot of feng shui consultants like to put down other consultants if they think it will boost their own status. Throughout this book, Master Sang reminds us not only what it takes to be a knowledgeable and qualified practitioner, but also how to deal with people.
Sang tells the story behind the naming of another divination art called Plum Flower Yi Jing. As well, he speculates that Mao Zedong (aka Mao Tse-tung) was a private fan of Feng Shui and all the Chinese divination arts, in spite of denouncing or dismissing it publicly. That attitude is certainly going on today in China’s political world, so it is not at all far-fetched.
He explains that Mao Zedong had a great-grandfather who was a renown Feng Shui practitioner and some of the special dates chosen by Mao Zedong were so auspicious that he must have enlisted the help of experts in feng shui or astrology to figure out the best dates and times, to even include the exact ceremonial founding date of the People’s Republic of China.
In the final chapters, Master Sang describes another technique translated as Word Analysis. Based on his description, it appears to be a form of Chinese-character-specific handwriting analysis. It also employs skills related to Five Elements, Yi Jing calculation and symbolism inherent in the words and the environment in which the words are written. In closing pages, Master Sang discusses what it means to be a good feng shui practitioner and he says with certainty that once you achieve a certain level of proficiency, it is expected that you will be challenged with more difficult audits and it continues endlessly.
I can say that I had one peculiar experience after another in my own formidable years in practice. With regularity, I attended special case study classes and literally the following week I would have a client with that particular issue, whether it was a ghost problem, infidelity, and a long list of situational features which I learned how to handle from Master Sang days before, just in the nick of time. Out of many students, I was just one of a hand full who were consulting professionally, so I was acutely aware of how my own learning curve and journey was very destined and intertwined with Master Larry Sang.
Of course, we never called Master Sang “Larry” as that was an English name he chose without any backstory revealed to his Western students. We addressed him as either “Sifu” or Master Sang, out of respect. One time, I had a session with a psychic medium who contacted my father, Louis Diamond, during the session. My father never knew I picked up the study of Feng Shui and he died just a few years later. Through the medium, my father let me know he was aware that I got “advice” from a man named “Larry.”
Feng Shui Facts and Myths is a charming collection of essays and stories from a man who made an indelible mark and contribution to the resurgence Feng Shui in the East and a traditional introduction of Feng Shui to the West. It should be a collector’s item for those who are already very familiar with the topic.
Author: Kartar Diamond
Company: Feng Shui Solutions ®
From The Book Review Blog Series
