I don't have enough knowledge to say whether feng shui is superstition or science. But to brush off a 3,500-year practice simply because modern architecture theory does not cover it sounds pretty, well, unscientific to me.
Before someone comes to this conclusion, he needs to study the Yangshao and Hongshan cultures where the earliest evidence of feng shui was unearthed. He needs to find out why the Banpo dwellings were aligned in a certain way. He needs to explain why a grave at Puyang is oriented along a north-south axis. And why do all Chinese capital cities follow the rules codified during the Zhou era?
Well, I'm sorry I've gone beyond the 3,500-year mark. But it's just to show feng shui is not rooted in the fantasy world of one person with great imagination. It's in our cultural genes. Like it or not, it influences our daily decisions.
And at least part of it can indeed be explained by modern science. For example, houses sitting close to a curved road are deemed ill-omened because they gather dust from the traffic and a runaway vehicle may crash into them.
This is one of the examples given by Ma Wei, the Wuhan professor who wanted to shed some light on the relation between buildings and whatever outside forces there are that affect them.
I believe there is a logical and practical explanation to many of the feng shui practices. But once couched in esoteric terms, the science part is lost to metaphysics. And many practices become ritualized without leaving room for questioning. So, pushed to extremes, feng shui does smack of the mysterious and superstitious.
When I learn of feng shui masters charging exorbitant prices for their services to people like Donald Trump, it sounds like a scam by someone who knows how to pick a target. Yes, these people can afford to be swindled. But isn't it similar to some government agencies paying big money to get a television personality to deliver a "chicken-soup-for-the-soul" speech on guoxue? Sorry, I digress.
Personally, I do not believe in feng shui and tend to see it in aesthetic terms. If someone put up a mirror in front of their window, I see it as a visual chime, deflecting not qi but a dancing light. I wonder if the inventor of the mirror ball in the disco was inspired by feng shui. It certainly emits lots of beams of light going in all directions. But if they carry a negative force, shouldn't patrons wear special bad-qi-proof vests to keep their good fortune?
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