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Mediation often fails because disputants scheme, lie, and become emotionally untethered. Productive mediation requires cooperation, self-possession, and a degree of sincerity among disputants. Improving the capacity of disputants to engage harmoniously to achieve resolution is essential, as discussed in the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (the Singapore Mediation Convention). Confucius believed that ritualized mediation most effectively settled public disputes. Confucian rituals transmit norms and expectations, manifest sincerity, promote self-control, and unite disputants for harmonious resolutions, which can significantly improve modern mediation. This has implications for settlement satisfaction, mediator precision, mediation integrity, social harmony, and savings in time, money, and effort that would otherwise be allocated to litigation. Candidate rituals include calming words and actions during mediation when parties become overly competitive or heated, traditional tea ceremonies, feng shui (風水) influenced mediation environments, and traditional music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Chinese culture, Feng Shui, meaning wind and water, represents the two primary forces of nature. It is an ancient body of knowledge and teachings that has been passed down through thousands of years of observation and accumulation. At the heart of Feng Shui lies the study of humans, space, and the heavens to harness the energies of the universe and nature, to live in harmony, to properly channel and activate energy, and to guard against negative influences. Chinese philosophy, known as Feng Shui, combines art and science to analyze information from disciplines like Chinese astrology, geology, mathematics, and natural and social sciences. It provides recommendations and interacts with professions focusing on humans, such as urban and regional planning, landscape architecture, architecture, and interior design, in the areas of environment, architecture, people, and time. The study aims to highlight that Feng Shui, often seen as a form of interior decoration involving elements such as accessories or colors in modern culture, is essentially a system rooted in analysis and serves as a guide for implementing steps. In the study, research has been conducted to determine the factors to consider in selecting the environment, land, structures, and interior design when applying Feng Shui. Qualitative analysis and observation methods were utilized. As a result, Feng Shui 4 Main Factor Control Table, Feng Shui Interior Criteria Control Table, and Time Factor Control Table were developed. Feng Shui control tables are utilized for analyzing sample environments, land selection, residential, and commercial spaces. It is anticipated that adhering to specific steps is crucial for users to achieve effective results in interdisciplinary applications, and that accurate practices grounded in analysis offer beneficial contributions to users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: There is a wealth of value hidden in regional cultural heritage, but its preservation status is not optimistic. This study introduces a method that focuses on the inherent cultural value of regional cultural heritage to preserve it by value construction and release. Design/methodology/approach: Based on the great value of regional cultural heritage due to spatial adjacency and temporal continuity, this paper focuses on its inherent cultural value to explore the preservation path and chooses Shichahai cultural heritage digital resources for a case study. This paper draws lessons from the narrative method of ancient Chinese historiography, constructs a cultural space and tells cultural stories. A linked data organization model for digital resources is created to construct a conceptual cultural space. Then, the space is materialized by linked dataset creation. The authors tell cultural stories discovered from the space, which are presented by various user interfaces using visualization technologies. Findings: A cultural space promotes the development of a fine-grained description of regional cultural heritage and aids in relationship discovery to enhance the value construction ability. Additionally, storytelling via interactive user interfaces is helpful in the utilization and dissemination of knowledge extracted from a cultural space and enhances the value release of regional cultural heritage. In this way, a path with the inherent cultural value of regional cultural heritage as the core is established, and preservation is achieved. Originality/value: This study focuses on the inherent cultural value of regional cultural heritage and proposes a new path to preserve these resources. This approach will enrich research on the preservation of regional cultural heritage and contribute to the construction and release of its cultural value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In a global effort to design better hospital buildings for people and organizations, some design principles are still surrounded by great mystery. The aim of this online study was to compare anxiety in an existing single-bed inpatient hospital room with three redesigns of this room in accordance with the principles of Golden Ratio, Feng Shui, and Evidence-Based Design. Methods: In this online multi-arm parallel-group randomized trial participants were randomly assigned (1:1:1:1) to one of four conditions, namely Golden Ratio condition, Feng Shui condition, Evidence-Based Design condition, or the control condition. The primary outcomes were anxiety, sense of control, social support, positive distraction, and pleasantness of the room. Findings: Between June 24, 2022, and August 22, 2022, 558 individuals were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions, 137 participants to the control condition, 138 participants to the Golden Ratio condition, 140 participants to the Feng Shui condition, and 143 participants to the Evidence-Based Design condition. Compared with baseline, participants assigned to the Evidence-Based Design condition experienced less anxiety (mean difference -1.35, 95% CI -2.15 to -0.55, Cohen's d = 0.40, p < 0.001). Results also showed a significant indirect effect of the Feng Shui condition on anxiety through the pleasantness of the room (B = -0.85, CI = -1.29 to -0.45) and social support (B = -0.33, CI = -0.56 to -0.13). Pleasantness of the room and social support were mediators of change in anxiety in the Evidence-Based Design and Feng Shui conditions. In contrast, application of the design principle Golden Ratio showed no effect on anxiety and remains a myth. Interpretation: To our knowledge, this is the first randomized controlled trial linking design principles directly to anxiety in hospital rooms. The findings of our study suggest that Feng Shui and Evidence-Based Design hospital rooms can mitigate anxiety by creating a pleasant looking hospital room that fosters access to social support. Clinical trial registration: The trial is registered with ISRCTN, ISRCTN10480033. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China does not have a unified and consistent ethical understanding. Ethics have to be mostly conceived and applied in personal terms. At the negotiation table, parties bring their own moral principles and values from their cultural background, education, and experience. Justice principles anchored in Chinese moral philosophy clearly take precedence over legal justice principles. For a Chinese negotiator, striking a deal is a process of balancing between two contradictory sets of values: Confucius' notions of rightness, and those of modern distributive (and procedural) justice. Now, distributive justice implies a whole range of criteria, such as rewards according to efforts, merits, and contribution, as well as need. Equality is still not on the Chinese justice agenda. Fairness has to find its own way between guanxi requirements, traditional nepotism, the influence of symbols, propitious numbers, references to ancestors, feng shui, and astrology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Joseon Dynasty, the construction process of Hanyang (漢陽) underwent multiple cycles of suspension and resumption. While previous studies have often interpreted Hanyang as a city shaped by geographical specificity influenced by Confucianism and feng shui order, this study emphasizes how the initial urban plans diverged during the latter phases, highlighting how the trajectory of city planning evolved based on changing circumstances and conditions. This study employs an analytical approach to trace the evolution and adoption of the purpose behind the urban planning of Hanyang during the early Joseon Dynasty, focusing on the fact that facilities embodying the ideology and purpose of urban development are placed within the city center. Consequently, symbolic centers such as Gyeongbokgung Palace (景福宮), Jongmyo Shrine(宗廟), and Sajik Alter (社稷壇) were established following “Joorye (周禮),” “Gogonggi (考工記),” and feng shui order in Hanyang. However, geographical influences led to partial alterations in the plans, resulting in a curved and modified north-south axis. The development of Hanyang initially prioritized major internal facilities and roads; then it focused on the expansion of the city’s external territorial boundaries. This process, however, resulted in a lack of connection between the city center and its external boundaries. Subsequently, adjustments were made to the urban structure and connectivity by closing and relocating certain city gates. The construction of the Fortress Wall of Hanyang further fortified internal solidarity. The (former) Jongru Bell Tower was positioned at the center, surrounded by a market to enhance visual and spatial centrality. Following the reorganization of the road structures upon King Taejo’s reign, the Jongru Bell Tower’s location shifted to the intersection of the main arterial roads. This adjustment aimed to combine both mobile and spatial centrality. The Jongru Intersection, featuring a large pavilion, was constructed to reinforce its function as an intersection; citizens of Hanyang could thereby recognize this as its city center. The city center of Hanyang underwent transformations over different periods, considering its symbolism, geography, and transportation. In sum, Hanyang was initially constructed in adherence to feng shui and Confucian thought; then, urban development placed a focus on geographical centrality once the city territory was confirmed. Later, as roads were reorganized, centrality shifted towards crucial transportation points.

Spatial morphology is an important part of traditional settlement and an important carrier of settlement formation and evolution. As a unique military defense and royal tombs settlement in history, Baiyangcheng Village, Liucun Town, Changping District, Beijing, has a unique spatial morphology of settlement, but there is no relevant research in the academic field, which is not conducive to scientific cognition of the value and characteristics of traditional Beijing settlements represented by this village. Therefore, through literature review and field investigation, a systematic study on the historical evolution and spatial form of the village is made by using research methods of history, human geography and architecture. It is found that the spatial form of the settlement in the historical development is continuously affected by various factors such as deep terrain environment, defense needs, feng shui site selection, tomb construction and so on, and the characteristics of dynamic evolution is presented. Based on this, the value of the village is evaluated and suggestions for future protection and development are put forward, hoping to be helpful to the protection, utilization, inheritance and development of similar settlements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic generation of Chinese classical poetry is still a challenging problem in artificial intelligence. Recently, Encoder-Decoder models have provided a few viable methods for poetry generation. However, by reviewing the prior methods, two major issues still need to be settled: 1) most of them are one-stage generation methods without further polishing; 2) they rarely take into consideration the restrictions of poetry, such as tone and rhyme. Intuitively, some ancient Chinese poets tended first to write a coarse poem underlying aesthetics and then deliberated its semantics; while others first create a semantic poem and then refine its aesthetics. On this basis, in order to better imitate the human creation procedure of poems, we propose a two-stage method (i.e., restricted polishing generation method) of which each stage focuses on the different aspects of poems (i.e., semantics and aesthetics), which can produce a higher quality of generated poems. In this way, the two-stage method develops into two symmetrical generation methods, the aesthetics-to-semantics method and the semantics-to-aesthetics method. In particular, we design a sampling method and a gate to formulate the tone and rhyme restrictions, which can further improve the rhythm of the generated poems. Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of our proposed two-stage method in both automatic evaluation metrics and human evaluation metrics compared with baselines, especially in yielding consistent improvements in tone and rhyme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Change and persistence are often richly entangled facets of landscapes. While many studies use land use/land cover (depicted as polygons) to illustrate landscape evolution, this paper draws on approaches from landscape archaeology to investigate how lines and points can also be used to examine landscape morphologies. The study uses three distinct spatial elements: points (graves), lines (field boundaries), and polygons (land use) to represent landscape transformations and reflect time depth in the landscape. The paper aims to identify the most enduring landscape elements within the region and uncover the underlying mechanisms of persistence. It is suggested that the time depth exhibited in field boundaries surpasses that of land use in this case. Field boundaries provide a useful way to examine agricultural intensification, whereas land use is more sensitive to agricultural commercialization and urbanization. In addition, the Chinese Feng Shui funeral culture emerges as a stabilizing force that encourages landscape persistence. This cultural driver ensures the persistence of field patterns surrounding graves, making these fields the most ancient plots within the study area. In conclusion, representing the time depth of landscapes through linear features and points can serve as an important supplement to the study of landscape change based on land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As socio-ecological systems of high conservation value, sacred groves are subject to intense competing interests worldwide. Hong Kong's fung shui woodlands (FSW) are an ancient form of sacred grove derived from old-growth forest fragments protected for geomantic beliefs relating to their proximity to traditional villages and subsequently modified through planting, exploitation, and natural succession. Today, they contain approximately 30% of the territory's native flora and are the only remaining localities for many rare plants, but inconsistent government policy and declining community involvement have led to mismatched expectations whereby biodiversity suffers by default. To identify common ground for better management, we interviewed residents of nine villages to quantify self-stated degree of connectedness and the relative importance of five shared social values in relation to the FSW at each location. One-third of respondents claimed no knowledge of the FSW in their village and more than two-thirds had never even visited it, but most expressed positive attachment particularly with respect to perceived health/social and historical/cultural value. Connectedness was a strong predictor of importance attributed to all values and was correlated with gender, education level, and protected status: women were significantly less connected with FSW than men, more educated respondents exhibited greater FSW connectedness, and residents at protected sites expressed greater connectedness than those at unprotected ones. Importance varied significantly with indigeneity and age group, but not species richness or conservation value. We infer that biodiversity could benefit from nuanced policy that promotes connectedness through emphasis of wider societal values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ancient Chinese civilization was deeply rooted in a profound understanding of the environment. This understanding formed the primitive worship and unique culture of mountains and rivers, which found expression in both official and folk contexts. This essay delves into the significant influence of mountains and rivers on the site selection, positioning, and composition of ancient Chinese settlements. Through an in-depth analysis of cases, this study demonstrates that iconic mountain and river elements served as the foundation for determining the spatial locations of ancient Chinese settlements and the core references for designed landscapes. The settlement and surrounding mountains and rivers form a well-conceived integrated spatial composition, which threads the whole planning and construction process. As the determining factors for the spatial axes and forms of settlements, mountains and rivers also became the central objects of the feng shui theory. Therefore, the human geography of ancient China is not only a reflection of functions but also the result of the builders' diligent pursuit of spatial and cultural layouts. The study of the cultural genes allows for a deeper understanding of the cultural landscape of ancient China, leading to a commitment to protecting traditional settlements and their intact environmental systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the influence of negative Feng-shui features on the prices of foreclosures (the houses subject to court-enforced auction) in Taiwan using the Google Street View function. The research objectives are threefold. Firstly, the study aims to compare whether foreclosed houses with negative Feng-shui features have longer auction times and higher discount rates compared to those without such features. Secondly, it seeks to explore the impact of negative Feng-shui features on investors in the foreclosed house market. Lastly, the study aims to assess the varying degrees of influence of different negative Feng-shui features on foreclosure prices. The findings of this study indicate that in the metropolitan area of Taiwan, foreclosures with more negative Feng-shui features tend to have longer auction times and higher discount rates compared to those without such features. Negative Feng-shui features may cause delays in investor bidding. Among the 12 negative Feng-shui features analyzed, only the presence of "facing-temple" is found to have a negative effect on foreclosure prices. This suggests that foreclosures with the "facing-temple" feature tend to have lower prices and potentially higher discount rates. The other 11 negative Feng-shui features do not have significant effects on auction pricing. This study discovered that the "facing-temple" was a significant negative Feng-shui feature in foreclosures in Taiwan against the traditional perspective. And it provides investors' concerns toward foreclosures and their tendency in prices of foreclosures in Taiwan. Plain Language Summary: The Study of Features of Uncomfortable Houses from Culture Perspective This study investigates how negative Feng-shui characteristics impact the prices of foreclosed properties in Taiwan. Using Google Street View, we analyze the influence of these features on auction times, discount rates, and investor behavior. We find that foreclosures with more negative Feng-shui characteristics tend to have longer auction times and higher discount rates. Specifically, the presence of a "facing-temple" feature leads to lower prices and potentially higher discounts. However, the other 11 negative Feng-shui characteristics do not significantly affect auction pricing. This study challenges the traditional perspective by highlighting the significance of the "facing-temple" feature in foreclosures and provides insights into investor concerns and price trends in the Taiwan foreclosure market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last centuries of the Ryukyu Kingdom (?–1879; modern-day Okinawa, Japan) were a crucial era in the political ecology of the islands, during which the court instituted new bureaucratic offices to manage agricultural land, forests, and craft production. This essay examines the knowledge practices that underpinned the land redistribution and afforestation projects of the eighteenth century: Confucian statecraft and fengshui (lit. "wind" "water"), or Chinese geomancy. Contrary to its modern depiction as superstition or pseudo-science, fengshui constituted a systematic body of knowledge about the natural world, which shaped landscape and resource management. Forest recovery efforts were aimed at increasing the general productivity of the islands, but in a manner that was consistent with the fengshui view of human–environment relations, as well as the ideals of Confucian statecraft. Focusing on forest management, this essay explores how eighteenth-century Ryukyu bureaucrats adapted fengshui techniques to managing the land and to governing the kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China does not have a unified and consistent ethical understanding. Ethics have to be mostly conceived and applied in personal terms. At the negotiation table, parties bring their own moral principles and values from their cultural background, education, and experience. Justice principles anchored in Chinese moral philosophy clearly take precedence over legal justice principles. For a Chinese negotiator, striking a deal is a process of balancing between two contradictory sets of values: Confucius' notions of rightness, and those of modern distributive (and procedural) justice. Now, distributive justice implies a whole range of criteria, such as rewards according to efforts, merits, and contribution, as well as need. Equality is still not on the Chinese justice agenda. Fairness has to find its own way between guanxi requirements, traditional nepotism, the influence of symbols, propitious numbers, references to ancestors, feng shui, and astrology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents the long history of feng shui belief and practice in Chinese culture, and its spread worldwide in the past half century. It shows that commitment to the peculiar qi or chi entity is central to feng shui and more generally to traditional Chinese writings on medicine, astrology, philosophy, politics, literature, natural philosophy and science. Despite their centrality and omnipresence, chi claims have rarely been scientifically appraised. This is, in part, because they are stated so vaguely and mysteriously that no definite test is possible. This paper examines, and refutes, the claims of one rare but well-credentialled, multi-university-based research programme affirming the reality of chi. The paper shows that the cost of seriously endorsing a chi-based explanation of any putative effect is a rejection of the entire ontological, epistemological and methodological edifice of modern science. Chi explanations are incompatible with both a methodological and an ontological naturalist understanding of science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Site selection adaptability of traditional villages along rivers can be summarized as the local ecological wisdom accumulated and preserved by generations of villagers. The site selection and distribution pattern of traditional villages is closely related to the river. In this research, 97 traditional villages along the Yellow River in Shanxi and Shaanxi were selected as the research objects. Kernel density analysis, Area density analysis, River buffer zone and a self‐designed river location function (RLF) were used to explore, calculate, and evaluate the spatial distribution and site selection adaptation mechanism of traditional villages along the Yellow River. Most traditional villages are located within 15 km buffer area. Villages are densely distributed in one high‐density aggregation area and one middle‐density aggregation area. The aggregation areas also represent a highest area density of river. The results of RLF show that there are six villages with a value between 1.8 and 2.2, which is consistent with the results of kernel density and river buffer zone analyses. It is concluded that site selection adaptation factors are composed of area density of river, distance from river, river width and bank form. At the same time, it is found that traditional villages are clustered on convex banks, which reflects the scientific value of ancient Chinese feng shuitheory. Our findings improve the understanding of the overall environment and pattern of traditional villages, provide a quantitative basis for the study of site selection adaptability, and offer operational technical guidance for current and future efforts for village renewal, planning, and construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In ancient Chinese architecture, Feng Shui was a prevalent practice used to enhance the built environment. This study utilized computer simulation techniques to assess the effectiveness of Long–Hu Sand layout Feng Shui in the Bailudong Academy complex in Jiangxi, China, compared to a layout without Feng Shui principles. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were employed to simulate the winter courtyard wind environment, and the resulting simulations were used to analyze the winter courtyard ventilation of both layouts. The findings indicate that the Feng Shui layout provided better wind speed and pressure ratios in the winter courtyard, which were more conducive to human comfort and helped prevent the infiltration of cold winter air. The area of ideal wind pressure difference between the front and back of the main house for indoor ventilation in winter was also larger in the Feng Shui layout compared to the non-Feng Shui layout, meeting the standard for wind environment evaluation. The study highlights the ecological wisdom of ancient Chinese people and confirms that optimizing Feng Shui improves the wind environment of the courtyard in winter. The practical implications of these results include improving comfort and sustainability in contemporary architecture and urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of the kelenteng (temple) building using a typology of the form of the Chinese temple building is very interesting to be used as a research issue, which raises some interesting questions, namely: (1) Does this aim at the uniformity of all the temples outside China?; (2) Is this building still feasible to use wooden structures?; (3) What about the "sign" meaning of the symbol?. This study aims to find information on how the "Kelenteng Hok Tek Bio" (Chinese temple) in anticipating this problem with the development of people who tended to increase after the fall of the New Order government in 1998 Chinese religious rituals permitted again. The method is qualitative interpretative research. The conclusion obtained in this study is; (1) The "Kelenteng Hok Tek Bio" has Si He Yuan courtyard type in the middle of the building with a symmetrical form. It looks like a Chinese Temple; (2) The structure used is wood and concrete adapted to the spirit of the age; (3) The "sign" meaning is index, symbol, and icon. The findings are "function follows the form", and the kelenteng has a courtyard, symmetrical form, wooden and concrete structures, the "sign" meaning of the building can be an index for Feng Shui, symbols for ornamentation, and icon for flora, fauna, even the hànzì script. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Daniel Patrick Morgan's book, "Astral Science in Early Imperial China: Observation, Sagehood, and the Individual," challenges the notion of a unified "Chinese science" and explores the disunities within scientific cultures in imperial China. The book focuses on the astral sciences, which encompass a wide range of activities such as data collection, theorizing, testing, time control, politics, and ritual. Rather than delving into the technical aspects of mathematical astronomy and celestial records, Morgan examines the legends surrounding the astral sciences and how they shaped discussions on empiricism, progress, and science in ancient China. The book offers a novel perspective and utilizes a variety of materials, including Confucian classics, unearthed slips, and writings by scholars from outside China. While there may be some minor errors in the citations of Chinese literature, overall, the book is a valuable contribution to the understanding of ancient Chinese astral science. [Extracted from the article]

Change and persistence are often richly entangled facets of landscapes. While many studies use land use/land cover (depicted as polygons) to illustrate landscape evolution, this paper draws on approaches from landscape archaeology to investigate how lines and points can also be used to examine landscape morphologies. The study uses three distinct spatial elements: points (graves), lines (field boundaries), and polygons (land use) to represent landscape transformations and reflect time depth in the landscape. The paper aims to identify the most enduring landscape elements within the region and uncover the underlying mechanisms of persistence. It is suggested that the time depth exhibited in field boundaries surpasses that of land use in this case. Field boundaries provide a useful way to examine agricultural intensification, whereas land use is more sensitive to agricultural commercialization and urbanization. In addition, the Chinese Feng Shui funeral culture emerges as a stabilizing force that encourages landscape persistence. This cultural driver ensures the persistence of field patterns surrounding graves, making these fields the most ancient plots within the study area. In conclusion, representing the time depth of landscapes through linear features and points can serve as an important supplement to the study of landscape change based on land use.

Etnis Tionghoa merupakan etnis yang menyebar pada hampir seluruh wilayah di dunia, termasuk Indonesia. Salah satu etnis yang masih memegang teguh budaya mereka adalah Etnis Tionghoa. Salah satu budaya yang sangat lekat pada masyarakat Tionghoa yaitu Feng Shui. Peneliti melihat bahwa budaya Feng Shui masih banyak diterapkan oleh orang Tionghoa, termasuk orang Tionghoa yang bertempat tinggal di kota Surabaya. Salah satu penerapan ilmu Feng Shui dalam kehidupan yang ada ditengah masyarakat Tionghoa adalah dalam pengambilan keputusan membeli rumah. Keputusan membeli rumah merupakan sebuah keputusan yang kompleks yang memerlukan banyak pertimbangan. Selain faktor budaya Feng Shui, berdasarkan penelitian terdahulu terdapat aspek psikologis yang berpengaruh pada keputusan membeli rumah yaitu belief. Belief diyakini menjadi suatu faktor yang ikut mempengaruhi seseorang dalam pengambilan keputusan membeli rumah. Kajian literatur ini ingin melihat bagaimana pengaruh belief dan Feng Shui pada pengambilan keputusan membeli rumah. Kajian ini difokuskan pada orang Tionghoa yang bertempat tinggal di kota Surabaya.