Scientific Evaluation of Fengshui from the Perspective of Geography: Empirical Evidence from the Site Selection of Traditional Hakka Villages

Fengshui is extensively employed in China to determine the best locations for ancient buildings, villages, palaces, and tombs. Exploring the science of Fengshui is vital in improving the quality of urban planning, site selection, and human environment. We take the “Form School” Fengshui as the research object, take the Location Selection of Hakka Villages as an Example, and propose a comprehensive site selection model (AHP-GIS model) by combining expert consultation, hierarchical analysis, spatial superposition analysis and kernel density analysis. According to the geographical single-factor evaluation, AHP-GIS evaluation, and the distribution results of traditional Hakka villages in Ganzhou, China, a comparative analysis is conducted to verify the scientific nature of Fengshui. We also evaluate the Science of Fengshui from the micro perspective by the example of the site selection of Bailu Ancient Village. The results show that the geographic single-factor evaluation results and AHP-GIS comprehensive evaluation results coincide with the spatial distribution of Hakka traditional villages. The Fengshui has played an important guiding role in the site selection of Hakka traditional villages in Ganzhou. Its basic principles contain rich knowledge of geography, ecology, psychology and sociology, which has important reference value for guiding urban planning and construction and improving human settlements.