ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an outline of fengshui culture and city building in ancient China. It describes that in antiquity (pre-Qin or before 221 BC), fengshui worked for representing imperial power in the siting, planning, and designing of capitals; that in the middle period (up to Sui-Tang 581–907), it became a discourse for interpretation with techniques of visualization; and that in the late stage (after Song 960–1276), it assumed a duality of interpretation and intervention, with growing complexity, often at a more local level. The city of Luoyang in Zhou, Sui, and Jin dynasties is studied to illustrate these three phases.
