Feng-shui is an ancient Chinese school of thought, branching into aesthetics believed to use the laws of both Heaven and Earth to help one improve life by receiving positive life force, qi (or chi) by organizing and creating external forms that receive the positive forces and block the negative ones.
The name Feng-shui literally translates as "wind-water" in English. This is a cultural shorthand taken from the following passage of the Zangshu (Book of Burial) by Guo Pu of the Jin Dynasty.
Feng-shui has its western counterparts - for example the Ancient monuments around the globe are well-known to be aligned by principles similar to Feng-shui; for instance, the Pyramids of the Giza plateau form an enormous and very exact map of the belt of Orion. The ley lines of the English country-side link important sites from one end of the island to the other were no doubt influenced by pre-Christian Druid ideas. Some also believe that the strange layout of the streets of Washington DC have an arcane Masonic significance that is similar to Feng-shui.
Historically, Feng-shui was widely used to orient buildings—often spiritually significant structures such as tombs, but also dwellings and other structures—in an auspicious manner. Depending on the particular style of Feng-shui being used, an auspicious site could be determined by reference to local features such as bodies of water, stars, or a compass.
It is said that often colonies of ants were dug up and planted to a certain building site, if the ants stayed the site was kept, but if the ants decided to migrate away, the construction was scrapped and search for new building site was resumed.