Gaoqian ancient village, like other existing traditional villages in Xianju, was built in a natural geographical environment surrounded by mountains and water, with flat and open terrain. The situation of the original settlement was skillfully planned in association with features of the surrounding environment. From the existing layout of many ancient village sites, we can see a main consideration is the orientation of the relevant mountain and the direction of the water flow, so that the village is built either adapting to the slope of the land or in integration with the aspect of mountains and rivers, to bring village and the natural landscape together. This kind of village layout, uses other characteristics of the natural environment as well, for example, taking into account the prevailing direction of the wind, the wind-force, sunshine, temperature, humidity and so on, in order to create as pleasant and comfortable a living environment as possible.
Feng Shui Ideology: A place with “Black Dragon on the left, White Tiger on the right, Zhuque in the front, Xuanwu at the back”
Traditional feng shui thinking plays a decisive role in selecting the site of ancient villages. It is widely believed that good or bad feng shui is not only related to how the villagers flourish and are productive but is also tied directly to the rise and fall of the village and clan as a whole. The Huangdi House Classic says “A House is the foundation of the human. The human takes a house as their home, therefore perfect housing will make your family and descendant prosperous. If it is not safe, the family will decline.” On the choice of Yang Zhai(阳宅), “Yang Zhai Integrity” tells that the pithy formula is: “One must choose the terrain to build house. A house with mountain at the back and water in the front makes one feel delightful. Dragon with hair up comes out of the mountain. The house must be surrounded by ring like water. It is a blessing to have a spacious hall. The water inlet collects millions of treasures. There should be no barriers blocking the front doors (Guan Sha). Brightness and broadness brings the family prosperous. “In feng shui, A place with “Black Dragon on the left, White Tiger on the right, Zhuque in the front, Xuanwu at the back is regarded as the best place to live.
Gaoqian Village has Dragon Mountain in the east, Gaoqian Creek in the west, Shenxianju Scenic Area in the south, Yongan Creek in the north, and Dapan Mountain in the northwest. Verdant mountains surround the village and clear water flows. The ancients said: “Where there is flowing water on the left side of the house, it is called the black dragon house; where there is a long path on the right, it is called the white tiger house; where there is land before the house, it is called the Zhuque; where there is mountain behind, it is called Xuanwu. That is the most precious.” Gao Qian ancient village has such conditions, so it can be called feng shui treasure-house. As described in the record of Zhong Qiao Wu's ancestral shrine, “In front of it, there is Jingxing Rock stacked up for ten thousand feet, next to it, there is waterfall looking like wave of clouds, behind it, the mountain looking looks like a pen-holder lying to embrace it with flags, and the two waters of Liao Creek and Lake Creek run through.....
According to legend, the twenty-third generation grandsons of the Wu family, Wu Shitan and Wu Shizheng lived in Shangwu and Xiawu respectively in Gao Qian villiage. Wu Shizheng had four sons, named Wu Baiyan, Wu Cangyan, Wu Yingyan and Wu Jianyan and it is said that one night, Baiyan and Yingyan dreamed the same dream. A white-bearded immortal was pointing to the south of their village where the moon was surrounded by seven stars indicating that here, there was a strong underground dragon vein (an important feng shui phenomenon). They took the dream to mean that this land was highly auspicious in terms of feng shui, with the promise of abundant fertility and other kinds of rich possibility. The next day when the brothers said they had both had the same dream, people were convinced that this was the correct interpretation. So, the brothers chose the foundation and built a stone house here. And their children and grandchildren continued to flourish and the family to expand, until the era of the Republic of China. They built a grand total of 27 four-sided gable (somewhat like Siheyuan四合院) houses. Of the 13 ancient houses in Xiawu Village, except for two that were destroyed by fire during the period of the first Republic of China, the remaining 11 are basically still intact. It is rare in China, to find such a large-scale collection of well-preserved ancient buildings.
Feng Shui pattern: “Big Dipper” layout
Diverting Baishui creek from the south into the village, with the east-west flow of Yuelu River as the boundary, the ancient village of Gaoqian is divided into two major groups of buildings, the upper house (Shangwu) and the lower house (Xiawu). According to the “Wu's Genealogy”, Wu Benhui, a member of the Wu family of Gaoqian, was instructed by an immortal in a dream that “the seven stars in the sky surround the moon, and the underground dragon veins are strong and healthy, so it is a Feng Shui treasure land.” So he moved and settled here, and gradually formed the village, which was originally named “Gaoqian(高阡)”, meaning “crisscross paths” and “fertile field”, and later renamed “Gaoqian(高迁)”, meaning “water flows downward, people go upward”.
However, the ancestors of Gaoqian village chose the land to build the village but did not fully achieve the ideal place of residence as depicted by Feng Shui thought. Specifically, the ancient village of Gaoqian faces north with its back to the south, although the terrain is high in the south and low in the north, and there are no high mountains nearby to back onto and no water to the front. What is more, the pen-holder mountain the village faces, is to the south, and Shamaoyan that symbolizes the official position is in the north. In order to make up for the lack of a proper topographical Feng Shui configuration according to the guidance of Feng Shui masters, the ancestors dug a pond to collect water, planted trees and piled up soil into mounds, to make up for the shortage of mountains, building seven mounds according to the constellation now sometimes called the Big Dipper. To the south of the Yuelu River they dug seven ponds in front of Qiganli and Bafentou of the upper house village, calling them the “Seven Star Ponds”. To the north of Yuelu River, in the lower house village, again, according to the constellation of the Big Dipper, they planted trees and piled up soil into seven mounds, which they called the “Seven Stars Mounds”. The Yuelu River is like a crescent moon lake, so the whole arrangement is called “seven stars accompany the moon”. The “Seven Stars Mounds” and “Seven Star Ponds” are distributed among residential houses, which are all connected to the river and the drainage system, integrating flood prevention, drought relief, irrigation, and domestic water supply. The ancestors of the Wu family designed the site by carefully diverting water, digging ponds, piling soil and planting trees to create a Feng Shui model “surrounded by mountains and girdled by a river makes the place prosperous both in family and wealth”, which created the best site for the settlement of Gaoqian Village.
Why should the settlement be arranged to reflect the constellation of the Big Dipper? perhaps this is related to the ancient worship of the stars. In traditional Chinese culture, the worship of the stars, including the Big Dipper, has a long history. Lord Laozi says that the North Star is the pivot of creation, and the stars twinkle around it. He is the Lord of all gods and humans, who declares his authority over the three worlds and governs all spirits. From the perspective of ancient Feng Shui, personal fortune and misfortune is often predicted according to astrological changes. In “Tianguan Shu天官书” (Treatise on the Celestial Offices) of Shiji 史记 (The Records of the Historian), it is said “The seven stars of the Big Dipper, the so-called xuan旋, ji玑, yuheng玉衡, are used to observe the seven affairs on earth ... The Big Dipper is like the emperor's chariot, which travels across the central part of heaven and oversees the four parts of heaven. It is the operation of the Big Dipper that divides the yin and yang, establishes four seasons, distributes five phases, controls the shift of time and festivals, and decides the calender.” The so-called “seven affairs” refer to spring, summer, autumn, winter, astronomy, geography and humanity. That is to say, the Big Dipper determines the operation of heaven and earth, the four seasons and the five elements, as well as all affairs on earth. According to “Hetudilanxi河图帝览嬉”:”The seven stars of the Big Dipper, the ruler of wealth and prosperity, are positioned next to two stars which govern rank and wealth, as one of the seven stars governs life and death. The Big Dipper rules the abundance and deficiency of the year.”
The first to the fourth stars of the Big Dipper are called Kui, the fifth to the seventh are called Biao, and the seven stars together are called Dou.” Kui Xing is revered in Taoism as the god who rules over literary fortune and serves as the god of the Emperor Wen Chang. The belief in Kui Xing flourished in the Song Dynasty, and it has endured since then, Kui Xing becoming the most revered god among ancient scholars.
In addition, the ancients believed that the stars of the Big Dipper were effective in warding off evil spirits, and that in this form, it could “gather Qi气”, and that with Qi, would be all things, signaling the prosperity of all generations.
In fact, the ancestors of the Gaoqian Wu family combined the situation of the mountains and rivers with the utilitarian needs and aesthetic interests of people, transforming natural environmental elements such as buildings, trees, water bodies and mountains into ideal living elements, and giving the environment symbolic functions through rational planning and transformation to express the aesthetic ideal of “unity of heaven and man” pursued by the villagers.