Feng Shui has been known in the West for the last 150 years but has mostly been regarded as a primitive superstition. During the modern period successive regimes in China have suppressed its practice. However, in the last few decades Feng Shui has become a global spiritual movement with professional associations, thousands of titles published on the subject, countless websites devoted to it and millions of users. In this book Ole Bruun explains Feng Shui's Chinese origins and meanings as well as its more recent Western interpretations and global appeal. Unlike the abundance of popular manuals, his Introduction treats Chinese Feng Shui as an academic subject, bridging religion, history and sociology. Individual chapters explain the Chinese religious-philosophical background, Chinese uses in rural and urban areas, the history of Feng Shui's reinterpretation in the West, and environmental perspectives and other issues.
By:
Ole Bruun
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 235mm,
Width: 155mm,
Spine: 15mm
Weight: 480g
ISBN: 9780521863520
ISBN 10: 052186352X
Series: Introduction to Religion
Pages: 220
Publication Date: 04 December 2008
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
Undergraduate
,
Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
1. Introduction; 2. A brief history of Feng Shui; 3. Feng Shui in the context of Chinese popular religion; 4. Feng Shui research; 5. Cosmological principles, schools of interpretation, and the Feng Shui compass; 6. Feng Shui in the Chinese cityscape: China proper and overseas; 7. Modern Feng Shui interpretations and uses; 8. Environmental concerns; 9. Feng Shui as cultural globalization; Bibliography; Index.
Ole Bruun is Associate Professor at the Institute for Society and Globalisation, Roskilde University, Denmark. He is author of Fengshui in China: Geomantic Divination Between State Orthodoxy and Popular Religion (2003) and editor with Michael Jacobsen of Human Rights and Asian Values: Contested Identities and Cultural Representations in Asia (2000).
Reviews for An Introduction to Feng Shui
...deeply insightful book. ...important for any student of Chinese culture. Useful for Chinese studies, religious studies, and anthropology. Highly recommended. --Choice
- Winner of Choice Magazine Outstanding Reference/Academic Book Award 2009
- Winner of Choice Magazine Outstanding Reference/Academic Book Award 2009.
- Winner of Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2009
