The Relationship between Environmental Psychology and Feng Shui

On the taboo of ancient geomantic omen from the perspective of environmental psychology

Zhu Wensheng

This paper probes into the relationship between man and environment from the perspective of environmental psychology, and according to the genetic characteristics of genes, explains man's instinctive requirements for living environment with the theory of hierarchy of needs. It shows that the essence of environmental psychological phenomenon is people's response to whether the environment meets individual needs, which is related to cognitive evaluation, psychology, physiology and social behavior. The taboo of ancient geomantic omen is essentially a simple agreement to control the adverse effects of the environment on people's physiology and psychology and maintain a good living and living environment.

Keywords: environmental psychology; Theory of hierarchy of needs; Architectural science; feng shui

I. Introduction

A few years ago, the author moved to a new residential area. The overall style of the community is simple and modern, and everyone likes it. One day, my wife was suddenly worried, saying that the owners of the community were saying that the feng shui in their apartments was not good. The entrance was the living room, and the door was facing the window. The author is helpless and can only comfort his wife, which is a feudal superstition, and advises her not to care.

The theory of "fragrant house" in China's ancient geomantic omen has a history of thousands of years. Although it was classified as witchcraft superstition in the early years of the Republic of China, it still spread among the people. In modern times, due to the increasingly serious international environmental problems, the study of environmental protection and ecology of the earth became popular, and geomantic omen was once again recognized. According to the technical essentials of healthy housing construction in 2004, residential feng shui, as a cultural heritage, has a far-reaching influence on people's consciousness and behavior, including both scientific and superstitious elements. A correct understanding of the consistency and contradiction between residential feng shui and the modern concept of living is conducive to taking its essence and discarding its dross, emphasizing the harmony and unity between man and nature, paying attention to the overall relationship between living and nature and environment, and enriching the ecological, cultural and psychological connotation of healthy housing [1].

Then, how should the scientific and superstitious elements in Feng Shui be distinguished, and are all kinds of Feng Shui taboos really reasonable? The author believes that only by understanding the nature of Feng Shui utility can we understand its practical significance.

Second, Feng Shui and Feng Shui taboos

Feng Shui, formerly known as Feng Shui Theory, is the art of mutual understanding. Ancient geomantic omen was mostly used in the site selection of villages and towns, palace construction, and later developed to find funeral terrain. Its purpose is to investigate the natural environment, effectively use nature, create a good living and living environment, and achieve the goal of harmonious coexistence between man and nature [2].

Ancient geomantic omen is mainly divided into two schools: one is the situation school, which focuses on the situation of mountains and rivers and the external natural environment of buildings; The second is the management style, focusing on the orientation and layout of the building. Situational school pursues the natural aesthetics of mountains and rivers, which has long been popular in ancient upper class. Due to the limitation of early scientific cognition, many taboos are absurd and inappropriate, which are questioned by later generations. In the Tang Dynasty, Lv Cai was ordered by Emperor Taizong to purge hundreds of geomantic omen and abolish the five-tone surname Li. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, officials and people also compiled a series of Feng Shui books, which purged the pseudo-learning miscellaneous art itself [3].

To understand Feng Shui, we must first understand "Qi". The ancients used the word "qi" in many ways, and each usage represented different meanings. The description in the debate of geographical awakening in Qin Dynasty can be understood as "Qi" is intangible, which is another material form that people can't directly perceive, similar to the molecular structure or simple energy state of matter. The so-called "qi" is the "qi" related to life or survival. The author's understanding here is that under certain circumstances, various factors are conducive to the existence and development of individual life.

Guo Pu in the Jin Dynasty said in the Book of Burial: "Burying people is for the benefit of qi. Qi dissipates by the wind, and the boundary water stops. The ancients gathered to make it last forever, and the deeds stopped, so it was called Feng Shui. " This theory is widely quoted in later literature, and Guo Pu is also called the originator of geomantic omen. It can be seen that the ancients believed that the accumulation and dispersion of qi was influenced by geomantic omen, and the ancients studied geomantic omen in order to grasp the accumulation and dispersion and behavior of qi. Geomantic omen is an ancient knowledge, which studies the evaluation and control of various factors in the environment that are conducive to the existence of life.

Feng Shui taboo is the ancient people's judgment and summary of various factors that are not conducive to the existence of life in the environment, such as common anti-bow evil spirits, piercing evil spirits, arrow evil spirits, lack of corners in houses, relative second doors and so on. These summaries often lack scientific basis, mostly subjective feelings and personal experience. From our present point of view, the ancient people's explanation of the taboo of geomantic omen is mostly metaphysical superstition. From the perspective of environmental psychology, the author thinks that some feng shui taboos still have certain scientific basis.

Third, environmental psychology research.

Environmental psychology is a subject that studies the influence of environment on people's psychology and behavior, and the relationship between people's psychology, behavior and environment. The core issues are: the best advantages of people and the environment, and the psychological tendency of people living in complex environments in adapting to and creating the environment. Environment includes natural environment and social environment. The natural environment mainly refers to the space of people's daily life and work, which affects people's senses and stimulates people's psychology. Social environment refers to people's cultural education, customs, ethics and so on. , and also affects people's psychology and behavior [4].

(A) human behavior motivation

All kinds of behaviors made by people have certain reasons, and psychologists use the word "motivation" to describe them. Motivation refers to the tendency to initiate and maintain behavioral activities, and motivation is generated by needs.

Richard Dawkins explained the instinctive motivation of human beings in selfish genes. Individuals and groups of organisms are only temporary carriers of genes, and only genes are eternal. Genes are the basic units of heredity and natural selection. Moreover, genes are selfish in nature, they control all kinds of activities and behaviors of organisms, with the aim of making the genes themselves replicate more and faster. As long as this goal can be achieved, genes can do anything.

The combination of different genes is a kind of mutual utilization between genes, aiming at better replication. Different organisms carry different gene combinations. A good combination can be successfully amplified, and the carried organisms can also multiply, while a bad combination cannot be successfully amplified, and the carried organisms will also decline and die. This is also the process of biological evolution.

The view of "selfish genes" can also explain the behavior of many creatures. Competitive behavior is of course the selfish expression of genes, and even "egoism" and "altruistic behavior" are also selfish genes at work. In the two optional strategies of "self-interest" and "altruism", which can make more genes survive and replicate, the organism will choose which one [5]. The characteristics of genes affect the deepest behavioral motives of human beings.

The basic needs of survival and reproduction determine people's choice of environment, and all factors that do not meet this requirement will be rejected by instinct. The judgment of satisfaction with environmental conditions comes from people's psychological cognition, which may be an objective reflection of the real environment or a subjective imagination of the mimetic environment of media processing.

(B) people's requirements for the environment

In all aspects of human needs, Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory divides needs into five levels, namely, physiological needs, security needs, social needs, respect needs and self-realization needs. People's requirements for the environment have various manifestations in these aspects. Feng shui mainly shows people's requirements for living environment and residential buildings.

People's physiological needs are mainly the requirements of survival and reproduction. People's living environment must meet the basic living conditions, such as space, light, air, water, temperature, sound insulation, food and so on. The site selection of ancient cities in China mostly faces south and faces north, and is close to mountains and rivers, which not only meets the needs of lighting and water supply, but also responds to the intrusion of cold north wind, such as the site selection of Liangzhu Ancient City, the largest prehistoric city site today. "Funeral Book" records that "the method of geomantic omen, water is the best, followed by Tibetan wind." The importance of taking water to avoid the wind in the living environment is emphasized.

Second, security needs include early warning and protection needs. For example, buffer zones, fences and guardrails are set outside buildings. Most of the taboos in geomantic omen come from people's psychological security needs, and the characteristics of being in the middle and occupying the side in geomantic omen pattern are all related to security needs. Most ancient buildings are low-rise, and outsiders and animals can walk in front of the window. When the doors and windows are opened at the same time, the inside and outside of the house are connected, which makes people feel insecure and forms the so-called evil spirit. Modern buildings are mostly high-rise buildings, and there is generally no threat of invasion outside the window. There are also many separate doors outside the door. Usually few people stay, how to talk about it?

Social needs, that is, the emotional needs of people belonging to groups. Ancient city construction was based on clan tribes and village battlements. Residential buildings attach great importance to interpersonal communication and require room for activities at home. For example, the layout of quadrangles in Beijing fully meets people's social requirements. The need for self-esteem is manifested in the ritual system of traditional group buildings in China. The taboo of geomantic omen in the design of camp houses has many requirements for the relationship between houses, such as the height of housing distribution should not exceed the main house, and the height of courtyard wall should not exceed the cornice of housing distribution. This is also mostly a manifestation of hierarchical culture and manners and customs. Self-realization is the spiritual level, which is manifested in the requirements of architectural style, folk culture and artistic aesthetics. Different nationalities, different regions and different periods have different architectural styles.

(C) people's environmental awareness

Lippmann, a famous American political commentator, divided modern society into three "environments" with different public opinion meanings. One is the "real environment" that is not transferred by human will; Second, the "mimicry environment" produced by the choice and processing of mass media; The third is the image of the external environment formed in people's minds, that is, the "subjective environment". In the process of the formation of the mimicry environment presented by the media, the communicator is both the builder and the receiver of the mimicry environment. Because of the existence of mimicry environment, people's cognition and behavior are no longer just responses to the real environment and its changes, but responses to some mimicry environment presented by the media. From this, people form a subjective environment with subjective initiative, which restricts people's cognition and behavior and has an impact on the real environment and mimetic environment [6].

People's cognitive evaluation of the environment may be conscious or subconscious. Jung divided the subconscious into individual subconscious and collective subconscious. Individual's subconscious is mainly composed of individual's emotion and memory complex. The collective subconscious is a kind of psychological content that individuals can't know and doesn't seem to exist. It has a longer source than individuals and reflects the collective experience of human beings in the past historical evolution. In the process of human life and continuous reproduction, the environment is constantly changing. The selfishness of genetic inheritance may not be completely consistent with the real world, and the collective subconscious has a profound influence on people's environmental evaluation and choice tendency. People's likes and dislikes of the environment are ultimately determined by their own "needs", which may include those subconscious needs that have no practical significance.

(d) the impact of the environment on people

In the eyes of the ancients, an environment that meets the requirements of genetic selfishness is also an environment that conforms to Feng Shui and Qi, so it is "auspicious", and vice versa, which is not conducive to people's survival and life. The influence of natural environment on people is both physiological and psychological. People can generally avoid obvious threats in the environment, but sometimes they can't judge some potential harmful factors, such as harmful minerals, germs and microorganisms.

Medical psychological research shows that emotional state and its accompanying physiological reaction directly affect the function of immune system. Positive emotional state will enhance immune function, while negative emotional state will weaken immune function. When the external environment can not meet people's needs at all levels, individuals feel nervous, anxious and other emotions will lead to immune system disorder, and then improve people's susceptibility to diseases [7]. People's psychological barriers can also lead to abnormal behavior and have an impact on social relations. Divination of good and bad luck with the nature of geomantic witchcraft is a solution for people to cope with unknown fears and overcome anxiety. Shading the remains stems from ritual filial piety, which is the belief of China people in ancestors, and is used to calm the mind, stabilize the mood and play a role in spiritual healing.

Social environment has a far-reaching influence on people. Lin, a ethnologist in China, has repeatedly mentioned the influence of Feng Shui on the rise and fall of the family in Golden Wing [8]. This article describes a learned man who praised a place for its good feng shui. "The ridge is like a chicken, and the golden wing stretches out of the house" is bound to be "prosperous". As a result, everyone in the village spread, and the house finally became a well-known "golden wing house", and the owner was really developed. This is a common drinking method in geomantic omen, which has the function of group psychological suggestion. Psychologically, it is called "Rosenthal effect", and people's expectations or predictions based on their perception of a certain situation will make the situation adapt to this expectation or prediction.

Third, the conclusion

Feng shui is an application of ecology, which studies the relationship between biology and environment and its mechanism. Feng Shui pays more attention to life factors in the environment, especially human factors, the best conditions for human survival and reproduction, how people adapt to the environment, how to protect people's physical and mental health and so on. In the process of localization, environmental psychology can fit in with Feng Shui, pay attention to human life science, return to the root of "Qi" and be applied to healthy life fields such as community life, psychological healing, maintenance and rehabilitation.

Nowadays, the application of geomantic omen in the folk is not only limited to the "vitality" of ecology, but also represents a kind of people's pursuit of good luck. Some people talk about the "fortune" feng shui of the business community, the "official luck" feng shui of the officialdom, and the "career" feng shui of the company. These are ultimately related to the influence of environmental psychology. First, people's internal needs create a suitable external environment, adjust the mentality of relevant individuals, establish social expectations, and promote social behavior, so as to achieve the expected results.

Geomantic omen, like Chinese medicine, contains many empirical theories. Scientific and valuable ingredients should be retained and useless superstitious ingredients should be eliminated. Only by correctly understanding the nature of feng shui taboos can we effectively inherit and develop feng shui taboos. Both environmental psychology and geomantic omen study the relationship between environment and human psychology and behavior. Analyzing the practical function of feng shui taboo from the perspective of environmental psychology can deeply understand the core idea of ancient feng shui, understand the basic principles of people's cognitive evaluation and influence control on the environment, and provide practical basis for modern ecological research and environmental psychology application.