Master Shen Zhureng is the author of "Shenshi Xuankong
Xue" or Master Shen's Xuankong Knowledge. Xuankong is,
of course, the style of fengshui that we discuss on
this list. This book is the main source to study
xuankong fengshui. Ray Langley, JN, and others have
translated sections of this book on the
ChineseAstrology list.
Click on the image at the right to see a diagram
of the luopan that Master Shen used. The diagram is from Master Shen's
book, which was published in the 20's, while the loupan is from Master Jiang Dahong.
Born 1848
Master Shen was born Shen Shaoxun (Continued Merit) in
Qiantang, Zhejiang Province, in 1848. Zhureng (Bamboo
Blessing) was his literary name. Qiantang is near
Hangzhou. The Qiantang River empties into Hangzhou
Bay, a short distance southeast of Shanghai.
Shen's father was named Guanzhun, and his literary
name was Zhuping. His birth mother's family name was
Xu. Shen was orphaned when he was three years old, but
he was raised by another wife (family name Chen) of
his father.
The Taiping rebels captured Hangzhou in December of
1861. When Shen, then 13 years old, and his mother
heard the news, they held each other and cried.
The Taiping Rebellion (1845-1864) was a revolt against
the Qing (Manchu) government, began by Hong Xiuquan.
He was a Chinese who had religious visions during an
illness, and later, upon reading a book in Chinese
about the Christian bible, became convinced that he
was the younger brother of Jesus.
Many joined the rebellion because they believed in
Hong. Many joined because they hated the Qing rulers,
who they regarded as foreigners. Many joined because
they could be killed if they did not.
The Taipings were fond of executing those who opposed
them or were not able to live by their rules. For much
of the rebellion, men and women were segregated; even
husband and wife were not allowed to live together.
However, the "Heavenly King" Hong had innumerable
concubines.
The Taipings took over the city of Nanjing and battled
over much of this area of China, including Hangzhou
and Suzhou. Shanghai was one of their targets. This is
the area where Master Shen's family lived.
During this conflict, it is estimated that twenty
million people died from the fighting, or from the
resulting starvation. Master Shen's family were part
of these losses.
This is what happened to Master Shen's family: seven
family members were killed in the conflict in Hangzhou
in 1861. His mother drowned herself in a well out of
fear, grief, or her sense of honor. Anyone else left
alive in this household fled.
Young Master Shen tried to escape. He was captured by
the rebels and forced at knife-point to travel on foot
through the region. He did not know the fate of his
mother at this time.
The rebels had regiments of young boys, and Master
Shen was forced into this service. Sometime during his
captivity, he ran into a woman who had been his
family's wet nurse. She told him that his mother had
died and how it transpired, and he was filled with
grief and desperation. The enemy forced him to keep
marching and he was not allowed to morn.
Eventually, in early 1862, young Shen ended up around
Songjiang, about 75 miles from Hangzhou and thirty
miles from Shanghai. Songjiang had been a rebel
stronghold. Back in July of 1860, Frederick Ward and
the Ever Victorious Army had taken Songjiang from the
rebels and made it his headquarters. The rebels now
wanted to take it back.
Frederick Ward (1831-1862), from Salem, Massachusetts,
was a soldier of fortune who became a Chinese citizen.
He trained troops of Chinese soldiers in Western
methods of war using modern weapons. This was a novel
concept at the time. His Ever Victorious Army became
legendary during that time.
Somehow, Shen Zhureng escaped and was able to meet
Ward, probably in February or March of 1862. Ward was
said to have adopted the boy.
Ward's Chinese wife, a Ms Yao, also took an interest
in Shen. She inquired about his family, and when she
heard the tragic story, she had much sympathy for him.
Ms Yao was also known as Yang Changmei. She was the
beautiful and wealthy daughter of one of Ward's
Chinese financial backers. Ward married her when she
was 21 years old (old by Chinese standards at the
time). She had been considered bad luck by the Chinese
because her first fiancée had died. Because of this, no
other Chinese wanted to marry her. Ward not only did
not care that she was considered bad luck, he also
didn't care about the Western community in Shanghai's
disapproval of a mixed marriage.
Young Master Shen worked in a troop of boys,
practicing Western drills and fighting against the
rebels. He quickly learned the military knowledge.
Ward taught him English, as well as surveying and
mapping. He also studied Chinese subjects with a
Chinese teacher.
Shen participated in many battles during this time,
including Jiading, Qingpu, Ningbo, Jinshan, Wusong,
and Liuhe. All these are towns in the Shanghai and
Zhejiang regions.
On September 21st, 1862, Ward was hit in the abdomen
by a musket ball fired by the Taiping rebels. This was
during a battle for Cixi, on the southern side of the
Hangzhou Bay. Shen carried him off the battlefield on
his back. Ward died the next day. He was taken back to
Songjiang for burial.
Ward's wife, Ms Yao, tried to give some of her
inheritence to Shen, but he declined. Ms Yao died a
year later. It is said she died of grief for her
husband. Young Master Shen was in charge of both of
their funerals.
The Ever Victorious Army had a few commanders after
Ward. On March 23rd, 1863, Captain Charles Gordon of
England was finally put in charge. Captain Gordon
(1833-1885) employed Shen Zhureng to translate
military strategy and to help train new soldiers. When
he was 16, Shen helped Gordon fight to recover Suzhou
from the rebels.
Shen translated "Safe Western Drill Methods" in six
volumes. He also wrote or translated an "Illustrated
Manual of Landmines" in two volumes and an
"Illustrated Manual of Light Artillary" in two
volumes.
At some point, Master Shen saved all his money and
made a trip to his place of birth to look for his
mother's bones, in order to give her a proper burial.
He was unsuccessful in this and felt bitter pain.
Shen's ancestors had lived in Qiantang since the Song
Dynasty (960-1126), but after the chaos of the Taiping
rebellion, Shen only had little knowledge of his
father's ancestors. This was because his family had
been destroyed when he was just a youth. Shen searched
for the graves of his ancestors and his family
history.
For much of his life, Shen had a military career, or
pursued business with the military. His fengshui
career will be discussed in an upcoming email.
As for fengshui, when Shen Zhureng was 16 years old,
after returning to Hangzhou, he studied with some
teachers. His Master Ding had 8,000 volumes of books.
Master Shen is said to have read them all. However,
even though he studied Jiang Dahong's writings about
xuankong fengshui, he did not yet have the key to
understanding. Jiang Dahong was a famous fengshui
master and author who lived in the 17th century.
Shen studied the San He school and believed it to be
correct. The San He school is one of two major
divisions of compass-style fengshui. Xuankong belongs
to San Yuan, the other major division. Shen felt that
even floods or fierce beasts were preferable to Master
Jiang's xuankong teachings. In other words, Shen had
strong feelings against xuankong.
In the winter of 1871, when Shen was 23, he found a
grave site with ren sitting and bing facing, and
completely beautiful forms around it. This was an
uncommonly good site. He gathered the great masters
from south of the Chang Jiang (Yangtze River), except
those from Jiang Dahong's school (xuankong). Eighty
masters inspected the site, and all said that it was
an auspicious place.
An official heard about the site and bought it, for a
very high price. Shen was very disappointed for a long
time that he didn't get the site. The official buried
his parents there. When they dug the grave and opened
the earth, the pattern in the soil looked like the
taiji diagram (the yin-yang symbol), making Shen even
more depressed for missing the opportunity.
The Chinese believe that an auspicious grave site
brings good fortune for three generations. However,
after burying his father, the official lost his job,
and died on the return trip. The family also fell to
poverty. All the masters of Hangzhou were gathered to
reinspect the site. They still said it was an
auspicious place. They could not explain the
disasters.
Some time after this, Master Shen took a trip with his
brother-in-law, Hu Bo'an. He saw that Hu had a book in
his suitcase by Jiang Yao (a disciple of Jiang Dahong
- these two Jiangs are not related, and they have
different characters for their name). The book said
that structures built during Period 1, with ren
sitting and bing facing, or bing sitting and ren
facing are fuyin. Fuyin means that the 5-yellow evil
star is in the central palace, and that it flys in an
ascending pattern. This is always inauspicious and
would explain the grave's disasters, as the burial was
during Period 1. However, the book did not explain the
details of the theory.
Shen bought some wine, and invited more than 30
masters to discuss these findings. None of them could
explain this theory.
In the past, Shen had looked over xuankong theory,
although not carefully. But now he studied Jiang
Dahong's books. However, he still could not understand
the theory. As was the style among fengshui masters,
Jiang wrote in a way that the meaning was not clear
unless a master added some oral instruction or
explanation.
In 1873, when Shen was 25, he went with Hu Bo'an to
visit Zhang Zhongshan's descendants. Zhang was a
famous fengshui master from earlier in the 19th
century, already deceased. Shen and Hu stayed for
several months, but the descendants would not leak
even one character of information to Shen. They
offered a lot of money to borrow the book that Zhang
had written, -Zhai Duan (House Judgement)-. also
known as -Yinyang Erzhai Luyan (Yin Yang Two House
Record of Effective Results)-. This book was said to
reveal the secrets of the Seventh Star Robbery method.
Shen and Hu were allowed to have the book for
twenty-four hours. They copied the whole book and
returned it. Shen spent a year giving the book
painstaking consideration, but still did not
understand.
On day, while studying the Yijing, Shen began to play
with the Luoshu diagram. He suddenly realized that 5
did not have to be in the central palace, the other
numbers could also fly there as well. Shen had found
the key to unlock xuankong fengshui. He was able to
put together what he had read in Jiang Dahong's books,
along with everything else.
Shen took out his brush and wrote -Dili Bianzheng
Jueyao (Fengshui Discriminate the Correct Selection
Essence)-, -Lingcheng Jingyi Jian (Mysterious City
Essence of Righteousness Notes)-, and -Dili Zhushu
Weizheng Kao (Fengshui Various Books Investigation of
the False and the Correct)-.
Shen had come to the conclusion that San He
practitioners did not understand that the center of
the Magic Square could change with the time period,
etc., and could only conceive of having 5 in the
center. This, he felt, was their big mistake.
By July of 1888, Shen had collected more than 1,100
books on the Yijing and his library had more than
1,700 volumes.
It seems that after leaving his military career, Shen
Zhureng was a business man as well as a fengshui
consultant. He had three wives. The first two died,
but the third, a Ms Yuan, gave him two sons and two
daughters. The oldest son was Shen Zumian (literary
name is Diemin). The younger son was Shen Zufen. The
daughter? names are not given.
Master Shen had many students, including his oldest
son, Shen Diemin. Other students include Jiang Zhiyi,
Hu Bo'an ?his brother-in-law. Master Shen had not
finished his manuscript at the time of his death in
1906. Master Shen's book, -Shenshi Xuankong Xue- or
-Master Shen,s Xuankong Knowledge-, was put together
by his son from Shen's manuscript. The book was first
published in 1924 in four volumes. In addition to
Shen's writings, the book includes comments from his
son and students.
Later, Shen Diemin found more information in his
father's papers to add back into the book. He didn't
have time to revise it, so it was given to Wang
Zexian, who compiled the papers, organized them, and
added some explanations. It was republished as
-Zengguang Shenshi Xuankong Xue- or -Expanded Master
Shen's Xuankong Knowledge-, and was much larger than
the original six volumes, published in 1933.
The original manuscript had no punctuation, as was
customary in older Chinese writings. Of course, the
writing is deep and profound, so understanding is
difficult for a modern Chinese speaker, and
translation is even more difficult. However, the
difficulties are NOT because Master Shen tried to
obscure the material, as most previous fengshui
authors had.
I have seen three editions of -Shenshi Xuankong Xue-:
one in one large volume, one in two volumes, and one
in three volumes. At least some of these have further
explanations by modern authors. For example, my three
volume set has explanations by Bai Heming in bold
print.
I wrote this essay for two reasons: One is that I
believe that understanding the life of an author helps
put a clearer perspective on his writings. The other
reason is to help impart an appreciation of this very
special man who transmitted this marvelous knowledge
to us.
When previous fengshui masters wrote, they
would purposefully make the writings obscure. They
would withhold important information or add in errors,
so that only the initiated would be able to understand
and use the techniques. While there are errors in
Master Shen's book, they came from his
misunderstandings, not his withholding
information.
Master Shen never had a teacher, he
rediscovered the xuankong theories through his own
detective work. Master Shen also criticized masters
who made up mysterious lineages for themselves.
Thanks to Wilson Chang (and his friend Michael Chiang), and
others on the ChineseAstrology
list who have previously discussed Master Shen's biography. About the author
Lorraine Wilcox, L.Ac. has studied Feng Shui with Master Lang Sang since 1993.
She is currently his assistant, and a senior instructor at the American Feng Shui
Institute, Monterey Park California. Lorraine helps teach the
Intermediate and Advanced Feng Shui Classes, as well as Day Selection, Life Partner
Selection, Yi Jing, Zi Wei Dou Shu Astrology, Four Pillars Astrology, and some of
the Advanced Feng Shui Case Study Classes.
Lorraine is also an acupuncturist, licensed in California since 1989. She has taught
Chinese medicine, as well as Feng Shui, Yi Jing, and Chinese Astrology at acupuncture
schools in the Los Angeles area.
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