Feng shui

For other uses, see Feng shui (disambiguation).

Overhead photograph of the 177 CE earthenware residential feng shui rectification practice pottery basin with the Seven Stars, Eight Trigrams, vermilion script, and small white specks unearthed in 1983 in Linyi, Shanxi.

Feng shui
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	風水
Simplified Chinese	风水
Literal meaning	"wind-water"
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin fēngshuǐ Bopomofo ㄈㄥ   ㄕㄨㄟˇ Wade–Giles fêng1-shui3 Tongyong Pinyin fongshuěi Yale Romanization fēngshwěi IPA [fə́ŋ.ʂwèɪ] Wu Romanization fon平 sy上 Gan Romanization Fung1 sui3 Hakka Romanization fung24 sui31 Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization fùngséui or fūngséui Jyutping fung1seoi2 IPA [fʊŋ˥˧.sɵɥ˧˥] or [fʊŋ˥.sɵɥ˧˥] Southern Min Hokkien POJ hong-suí Eastern Min Fuzhou BUC hŭng-cūi
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabet	phong thủy
Chữ Hán	風水
Thai name
Thai	ฮวงจุ้ย (Huang chui)
Korean name
Hangul	풍수
Hanja	風水
Transcriptions Revised Romanization pungsu McCune–Reischauer p'ungsu
Japanese name
Kanji	風水
Hiragana	ふうすい
Transcriptions Revised Hepburn fūsui Kunrei-shiki hûsui
Khmer name
Khmer	ហុងស៊ុយ (hŏng sŭy)

Feng shui (/ˈfʌŋˌʃuːi/ or /ˌfʌŋˈʃweɪ/) is a traditional form of geomancy that originated in ancient China. The term feng shui means, literally, "wind-water" (i.e., fluid). From ancient times, landscapes and bodies of water were thought to direct the flow of the universal qi – "cosmic current" or energy – through places and structures. More broadly, feng shui includes astronomical, astrological, architectural, cosmological, geographical, and topographical dimensions.

Historically, and in many parts of the contemporary Chinese world, feng shui has been used to determine the orientation of buildings, dwellings, and spiritually significant structures such as tombs.

Feng shui's global uptake during the modern era has been complex. Its host of modern detractors has been very diverse, ranging from 16th-century Jesuit missionaries to the Chinese communist revolutionaries of the 20th century. Regarding its adoption within contemporary Western societies, one scholar writes that "feng shui tends to be reduced to interior design for health and wealth. It has become increasingly visible through 'feng shui consultants' and corporate architects who charge large sums of money for their analysis, advice and design." In Western philosophy of science, feng shui is generally regarded as non-scientific, while some scientific skeptics have more narrowly classified it as a pseudoscience.