Laws of the Land: Feng Shui in Chinese History

Barbarians at the Gate

In this episode, hosts Jeremiah Jenne and David Moser speak with MIT professor Tristan Brown about his award-winning book Laws of the Land: Feng Shui and the State in Qing Dynasty China. Brown reveals how Feng Shui was far more than just the art of furniture arrangement or grave placement - it was a sophisticated system of environmental management and social control in imperial China.

Drawing from rare county archives in Sichuan province, Brown shows how Feng Shui served multiple functions: regulating urban development, managing environmental resources, and mediating social conflicts. Through fascinating examples, he explains how both elite families and common people used Feng Shui in legal disputes, from establishing ancestral claims through strategic grave placement to fighting against disruptive mining operations.

Brown's book challenges common Western misconceptions about Feng Shui, presenting it instead as a complex system of environmental regulation and social organization that shaped Chinese society for centuries. It's a fascinating look at how cosmological beliefs, environmental management, and state power intersected in imperial China.

Topics Covered

• The Power of Archives: Using rare Qing dynasty court records from Sichuan to uncover how Feng Shui shaped legal and social life
• Graves and Identity: How burial sites and ancient trees established claims to belonging
• Environmental Management: Feng Shui as an early system of zoning and environmental protection
• Foreign Architecture: The clash between traditional Chinese urban planning and Western religious buildings

Notable Quotes

"Legal cases involving feng shui could be completely nakedly self-interested... or it could be something that's really talking about environmental ethics. It hugs that whole spectrum, which is why it's real, which is why the state had to engage with it." — Tristan Brown on Feng Shui's dual nature

"It's not the number of relatives you have living there. It's the number of relatives you have in the local graveyard that ties you to a place." — On the importance of graves in establishing local identity

"The thing about gravesites... what is the element of the landscape that you can't lie about? The trees. Old trees are legitimately old. Everyone knows it." — On how families proved their ancestral claims

Brown reveals how Feng Shui served as more than just spiritual practice – it was a sophisticated system of environmental management and social control. From regulating building heights to controlling industrial development, Feng Shui provided the legal framework for managing space in imperial China.

The discussion illuminates how different groups engaged with these practices: elite families used them to establish ancestral claims, poor families adapted them for survival, and foreign religious groups either successfully navigated them (like Sufi Muslims) or created conflict by ignoring them (like Christian missionaries).