為了不讓風水的複雜而抽象的面向所惑，本文刻意用歷史的觀點對風水的各種想法之起源與演變作抽絲剝繭的工作。發現在複雜的風水理論或是各種錯綜盤結的風水說法之中，其基本想法之中一直都貫有重視祖先崇拜那種「慎終追遠」的精神，遠古的祖先與後代子孫之間則用「氣會聲應」、「同類相動」的想法將祖孫的脈絡給串連起來，而發展出「脈認來龍」，一脈相承的家庭倫理觀念。從臺灣的閩粵移民對生活環境的經理，其重視祖堂的建設、謁祖尋根、興建祖墳、撰修族譜的行為都與風水的實踐有密切的關係，也可以瞭解，風水的價值觀不但影響實質環境的營塑，也活生生地流串在宗族倫理脈絡之中。就是因為風水的觀念貫穿自然環境與宗族倫理之間關係，所以祭祀祖先的祖堂自然要重視其與風水的聯繫，當祭祀祖先的空間與子孫的生活空間結合成一體時，人居的合院住宅也同樣的要被風水的論述所涉及。必然造成自然山形山勢與合院的「氣流」營圍有聯繫的關係。具體化這些想法就是正廳神明桌下的「龍神」，「龍神」是自然環境與人造環境的接續點也是臨界點。因此也無怪乎死去祖先的倫理位序與活人所居房間的排列位序是完全互相吻合，而其間又能互相連通的關係存在。

　　　　　To avoid confusion caused by the complex and abstract aspects of feng-shui, this article intends to apply a historical perspective on the effort of analyzing and revealing the various origins and evolutions of feng-shui ideas. It finds that with these various theories and thoughts of feng-shui, there has always been spirit of old-time Chinese "funerary and commemorative solemnities" in the practice of ancestral worship, inherent in its basic concept. With such concepts of the "gathering of Chi and echoing of utterances" and the "resonance’s within the same sort," ancient fathers and then latter-day offspring’s were able to be brought together within their lineage context, hence develop into 'a recognition of the same descends bloodline' i.e. a heritable familial ethic. In Taiwan, early immigrants from the areas of Kwangtung and Fujian provinces tended to critically regard the erection of their ancestral halls, the observation of the pilgrimage to the ancestral sites, the keeping of the ancestral bury grounds, and the passing down of the genealogical records, etc. By setting such a cosmic order for their environment, these customaries kept close ties with feng-shui practices. The formation of the physical environment is understandably influenced by the existence and the practices of the feng-shui value system which is alive and well in the context and the tradition of the lineage ethic. Because the concept of feng-shui has come to dwell on the relations between the natural and the clan ethic, for an ancestral hall used in the clan worship, it is only natural that its relation to feng-shui has been regarded so much. While the space where people live in and the space where they worship the ancestors are to become one, the courtyard houses they live are likely covered in the feng-shui discourse, as is the way in how the ambient current of Chi in these house courtyards come to be in terms with the shape and force of the Earth. The "dragon god" situated underneath the house altar in a residential main hall, however, is the concretization of this conceptual practice. "Dragon god" is the representation of the point of continuation and immediacy between the man-made and the natural. Therefore, it is not surprising that the ethic order of the deceased forebears and the preferential arrangement of the houserooms of the living are not only in complete correspondence and perfect match, but also in an interlinking relation.