Opinion | How feng shui can inspire China’s quest for environmental justice
China’s efforts to mitigate climate change and protect nature reveal a modern commitment to principles embodied by an ancient discipline
Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Tristan Brown’s book Laws of the Land: Fengshui and the State in Qing Dynasty China won the American Historical Association’s John King Fairbank Prize this year. The prize is awarded annually for outstanding scholarship in East Asian history.
As Brown’s book shows, the earliest evidence of feng shui as an English word dates back to the 1790s in the encyclopaedia Britannica. In the 19th century, Western missionaries and merchants in China grappled with feng shui disputes over concerns about how building projects might affect the natural landscape. Even German sociologist Max Weber wrote about how feng shui was invoked to oppose railway construction.
Brown argues that feng shui embodies an understanding that the overexploitation of natural resources disrupts the balance of nature and undermines social welfare. Industrial projects, mining, railways and telegraph lines were evaluated and debated to balance the needs of modernisation with environmental well-being and people’s livelihoods.
He highlights how China’s rich history of public-minded citizens and communities used feng shui to advocate against profit-driven projects that harmed the ecosystem. This bottom-up approach provided a form of empowerment to those in the lower strata of society.
