Lesson 3 - Conformity
The Principle of the Golden Mean * is the most important philosophical idea in China. This can be applied to houses. It simply requires your house to be of more or less the same size as your neighbors'. If your house is exceptionally tall, it is subjected to the attack of winds from all directions. If it is exceptionally tiny, it is being suppressed like a small child being intimidated by older kids. In the former case the house is vulnerable to the attack of sha chi. In the latter case it is difficult for the house to admit sheng chi. You may ask, "Is it not that a much taller house is easier to receive sheng chi because it is not blocked by its neighbors?" Sheng chi comes in a meandering path. An over exposed building is subjected to direct impact with the chi that flows from all directions. If chi is not guided, it tends to flow in a straight line and is more likely sha chi than sheng chi.
Internally, the size and amount of furniture must also conform with the house. For a small house to have large furniture the chi cannot flow without obstruction to all parts of the house. On the other hand, for a large house to have small sized furniture the house is too "empty" and the chi cannot be retained. Likewise a large house is not suitable to be the home of a small family of one or two persons. The house lacks the warmth of human chi. On the other hand, too many people living in a small house will generate conflict and thus sha chi.
The Principle of Conformity is true universally at all times.
* The Principle of the Golden Mean is the core of Confucianism. It has nothing to do with the geometric golden section 0.618, one of the wonderful numbers in Mathematics.
