問題詳情

五、閱讀測驗（占 10 分）The ancient Chinese believed that in the features of the natural landscape one could glimpsethe mathematically precise order of the universe and all the favorable and harmful forces thatwere harmoniously connected according to the principle of the Tao—the Way. This was not aquestion of metaphor; the topography did not represent good or evil; it really was good or evil.Under these circumstances, locating a building in the landscape became a decision of momentousproportions that could affect an individual and his family for generations to come. The result wasfeng-shui, which means “wind and water,” and which was a kind of cosmic surveying tool. Itscoherent, scientific practice dates from the Sung dynasty (960-1126), but its roots are much olderthan that. It was first used to locate grave sites—the Chinese worshiped their ancestors, who, theybelieved, influenced the good fortune of their descendants. Eventually it began to be used tolocate the homes of the living; and indeed the earliest book on feng-shui, published during theHan dynasty (202 B.C.-A.D. 220), was entitled The Canon of the Dwellings.Feng-shui combined an intricate set of related variables that reflected the three greatreligions of China—Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. First were the Taoist principles ofyang and yin—male and female. The five Buddhist planets corresponded to the five elements, thefive directions (north, south, west, east, and center), and the five seasons (the usual four andmidsummer). Feng-shui employed the sixty-four epigrams of the I-Ching, a classic manual ofdivination popularized by Confucius, and also made use of the astrological signs; theconstellations were divided into four groups: the Azure Dragon (east), the Black Tortoise (north),the White Tiger (west), and the Red Bird (south).The first task of the geomancer, who was called feng shui hsien shen, or “doctor of the vitalforce,” was to detect the presence of each of these variables in the natural landscape. Hillyground represented the Dragon; low ground was the Tiger; the ideal was to have the Dragon onthe left and the Tiger on the right (hence, to face south). In a predominantly hilly area, however, alow spot was a good place to build; in flatter terrain, heights were considered lucky. The best sitewas the junction between the Dragon and the Tiger, which is why the imperial tombs aroundBeijing are so beautifully situated, just where the valley floor begins to turn into mountain slopes.The shape of mountain peaks, the presence of boulders, and the direction of streams allincorporated meanings that had to be unraveled. Often simple observation did not suffice, and theChinese had to resort to external aids. The mariner compass was a Chinese invention, but thefeng-shui compass served a different purpose. It resembled a large, flat, circular platter. In thecenter, like the bull’s-eye of a dartboard, was a magnetic needle, surrounded by eighteenconcentric circles. Each ring represented a different factor and was inscribed with theconstellations, odd and even numbers, the planets and the elements, the seasons, the hexagrams,the signs of the zodiac, the solar orbit and so on. With the aid of the compass, the geomancercould discover the existence of these variables even when they were not visible to the naked eye.In might appear that feng-shui made man the victim of fate, but this is not the case. For onething, there was a moral dimension to the belief; and to gain the full benefits of a fortunatelyplaced home, the family itself had to remain honest and upright. Moreover, the geomancer’s job第 9 頁，共 11 頁was not only to identify bad and good sites but also to advise on how to mitigate evil influencesor to improve good ones. Trees could be planted to camouflage undesirable views; streams couldbe rerouted; mounds could be built up or cut down. It is no accident that the greatest Chinese artof all is gardening.Many villages in China have a grove of trees or bamboos behind them, and a pond in front.The function of these picturesque features is not as landscaping embellishment, or at least it is notonly that; they are intended to fend off evil influences. The pagodas that can still be seen built onthe tops of hills and mounds serve the same purpose. When visiting some recently builtfarmhouses in the country of Wuqing, I noticed that the entrances to some of the courtyards werescreened by a wall that forced the visitor to wind his way around it, as in a maze or an obstaclecourse. But the purpose of the ying-pei, as the Chinese walls are called, is not to prevent thepasserby from looking in. These are “spirit walls” and are meant to keep out ghostly trespassers.The ying-pei is not an isolated superstition, like lucky horseshoes in the West; it too is part offeng-shui.
71. The passage suggests that the ancient Chinese___.
(A) were preoccupied with death
(B) behaved in a peaceful manner[!--empirenews.page--]
(C) did not understand the basic physical principles that govern the universe
(D) conducted their lives according to a well-defined philosophy

參考答案

答案：C
難度：適中0.4
統計：A(0),B(0),C(2),D(2),E(0)

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