风水
fēng shuǐ · HSK 7
feng shui
🌬️💧 风 (wind) + 水 (water) = the Chinese art of harmonizing space
风 means wind and 水 means water — the two flowing forces whose balance, per ancient Chinese geomancy, shapes how energy moves through a place. Borrowed into English as feng shui.
风 — 几 (table) + 虫 (insect)
Originally written 鳳 (phoenix), later simplified. The traditional form 風 contains 虫 (insect), reflecting an old belief that wind brought insects or that creatures stirred with the wind. The modern simplified 风 keeps 几 as an outer frame around 㐅.
水 — pictograph of flowing water
水 is a pictograph depicting a stream of flowing water, with the central line representing the main current and the side strokes showing splashing droplets or ripples. In oracle bone script it was drawn even more clearly as a wavy vertical line with branches. It retains its original meaning of 'water' and also serves as a radical, often appearing in the compressed form 氵.