Today I am going to talk about feng shui, also known as Chinese geomancy, in the Parliament House, Canberra. From what I am going to say, you can take a glimpse at the past 30 years of development of Australia’s economy since the establishment of the Parliament House. I also wish you could learn something about feng shui and apply the feng shui principles correctly in your own life.

In 1991

I was a columnist for The Tide Chinese Newspaper in Australia, and was invited to write for a column about feng shui. For that reason, I first visited the Parliament House and hoped to use it as an example in my article. However, I was so disappointed by the feng shui I saw there, and wrote afterwards: “No comments for feng shui in the Parliament House.” I also wrote a ragged poem about it, but never gave any further explanation.

According to my observation, there is only one “dragon vein” (an invisible line running down from the sky into the mountains and along the earth) along the east coast of Australia. The “dragon vein” starts from the sea north to Cairns, and goes all the way through Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, and in the end rests in Melbourne. That “dragon vein” configuration is what I first thought about feng shui in Australia. Later, I invited a friend of mine, who did oil paintings, to draw that configuration out.

Take a look at this configuration. The dragon is at first crawling from the north to the south, but at some point turns a little bit to the south-west. That turning point is exactly where Canberra, and thus the Parliament House, is sitting at. Considering the direction of movement of the dragon, the first consideration when practicing feng shui in building the Parliament House is to which direction it should face. You can see that the building is facing north-east, clashing with the earthly ch’i brought by the dragon. That means the overall decision-making of the government might go the other way from the global trend. Plus, the building is built on the top of Capital Hill, without any mountains surrounding it, which symbolizes a lack of support either from local governments or the global society. From a satellite map, Canberra is sitting in a basin to the west of the “dragon vein”, which half close-circuited the entire area. Sitting in a half-closed area, the Parliament House could gather ch’i in the basin, but might find it hard to get more ch’i from other directions.

The location of the Parliament House that I mentioned—sitting on the top of the Capital Hill with no other “dragon veins” to bring ch’i—makes the fact that the government needs to seek support from other countries. Compared with the old Parliament House in Melbourne, the new location is farther away from Port Stephens, which can help build wealth. In that way, the potential of economic development may be limited. If you have been to the Parliament House, you must remember that there was a shallow, circular pond in front of the front door. The depth, as well as the flow direction, of water in that pond is far from enough to accumulate enough wealth for the government. And to give a deeper analysis, let us see beneath the pond, which is known as ming tang (the area closest to the front gate) according to feng shui principles: a huge underground parking lot that allows vehicles to go in and out. In a word, the layout of the ming tang area in front of the architecture suggests that the government might find it hard to build wealth. And the same situation happens to Australia too.

I just explained the first two verses of my poem. And in the next two verses I am talking about two important symbols in Chinese constellations, the Azure Dragon and the White Tiger. Based on feng shui principles, the Azure Dragon on the left is supposed to bear more significance than the White Tiger on the right. As a result, within a certain area, buildings that have more important functions should be built on the left side while buildings that have less important functions should be built on the right. Now, let us apply that principle to our case here. Canberra is the only city in the world that is built after a construction plan had been fully made out. In the construction plan, the “Azure Dragon” area of the Parliament House is used to build embassies, among which the American, the British and the Chinese Embassy are the most prominent ones. And the area behind the embassies is used to build the Black Tower Telstra Tower, the height of which surpasses that of the Capital Hill. All those suggests that Australia may be swayed by the influence of other countries. Moreover, according to the construction plan, all the government buildings have been built in the “White Tiger” area to the right of the Parliament House. This location, lacking support from mountains behind and suppressed by the “Azure Dragon”, could make Australia less influential on the global stage.

Next, the fifth verse of my poem is to analyze the chao shan (what a place faces) of the Parliament House. A place with good feng shui must be one that accumulates ch’i in its ming tang area and faces layers of mountains. The more mountains a country is facing, the more prosperous it will be. The more prosperous the country is, the happier and wealthier its people will be. And the decision-makers of that country will find it easier to govern. What the Parliament House faces can tell the future of the government. Yet it is quite disappointed to see that sitting right there in the chao shan area of the building is a war memorial, a tomb of the past people. What is more peculiar is that the war memorial has the Capital Hill to its back as a strong support, which makes the situation even worse. I have no more comments on that, and I am going to leave it there for your own thinking.

Have a look at these two photos, from which you can understand chao shan more clearly. In the first photo, you can see the war memorial with a dome and the old white Parliament House near the lake. Now, try to imagine that we are standing right in front of the new Parliament House, and using a 200 mm telephoto lens to shoot a photo just like that. Try to feel that distance. And if you want to see more clearly, take a look at the second painting as a reference.

For the eighth and ninth verse of the poem, I want to say something about the door-to-door structure of the architecture, which is very much disliked in feng shui as a symbol of confrontations. But in the case of the Parliament House, the Senate and the House of Representatives are designed to face each other, which means that the upper and lower houses can find it really tricky, or even impossible, to reach consensus on many important issues. And the overall structure of the building with good feng shui should avoid the “small-waist” structures, which exposes the weakness of the building and makes it easier to be threatened. In the case of the Parliament House, which represents the national image, the “small-waist” structure might put the country under the threats of other countries.

From this picture shot from up above, you can see the flags at the center of the building’s roof, the four poles, and the “small-waist” structure. Located right at the waist of the building is the Senate and the House, with white walls and brick red roofs. You can also see the shallow circular pond in front of the building, and the entrance and exits of the parking lot on both sides of the lawn in front of the pond.

The last verse of the poem is about shi in feng shui, meaning that different rooms have different functions, and thus should be decorated in different ways with different furniture. The major halls in the Parliament House (including the Great Hall) are all quite empty, some with only one chair inside. That sole chair, surrounded by almost nothing, echoes perfectly with Australia’s membership in the Commonwealth of Nations. I wrote this poem in 1991 after having a look at the feng shui of the Capital Hill. Later, I also left a note: “I will just leave it to those who really cares.” Today all I said about that poem is to give you an example and remind you of the common yet unnecessary mistakes you may make when applying feng shui principles to your own houses.

The poem is as follows.
Alas! Feng shui in the Parliament House

Confronting a dragon coming from the north-east,
Standing high yet with nothing around as support.
Away from the lake,
Close to the pond.

Leaving the Azure dragon to outsiders,
Its lair located higher than the Capital Hill.
Leaving the White Tiger to the government,
Suppressed by the Dragon.

Facing a tomb,
Stopping good fortune.
Flags flapping,
With no central pillars.

A fancy pond built under the flags,
Taking away all the wealth.
The Senate and the House confronting each other,
An omen of never-ending conflicts.

Wearing a corset,
Weakness exposed.
Emptiness inside,
Ending in emptiness outside.

James Zheng