An Anthropological Analysis of Chinese Geomancy

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"CONNAISSANCE DE L'ASIE "

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1974

Copyright by Ed it ions Vi t hagna Tous droits r~serv~s pour tous pays.

EVITIONS VITHAGNA 8.P. 441 - VIENTIANE - LAOS .

AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

OF CHINESE

GEOMANCY

STEPHAN D.R. FEUCHTWANG

VITHAGNA

i

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FOREWORD

i I

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t I

I1 !I

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l

If thaN i8 a subject whu,h should have captivated

Western

8Uwlogi.Bt8~

it

is Chin"88 gecrrrzncy. As early as 1713~ M:mtesquieu pronounced ths Chinese " one of the nt::IBt superstitious psopl.ss in tM worZd. They dare not build a housQ or a

under ehs influence of certain consteZlations , •• "

du:l'ing the 19th and 20th c8nturi88~ when r.tet6'l"ners thought ttJ psnetMte deeply intoths Chinese r.)(Jrld~ both mi88ionariea and raiZl.Jay buUders were to e%penBnCQ the strength tomb e:ccept

Later~

of Chiness faith in geomanclI; the fir'st were forced to remove the tops of their churches, whioh cast oV81'long sha.drn.Js; the second to alter ths Biting of their rail.IoIaN tines , "'hich threatB1'l8d the happy balance of hidden {orcQs in the l.andaoaps • •• Far from COI1sidenng geomtmcy as an Bpiphenomenon in a geneml.i8sd system of corl'BSpondencBB bllttWeen I712Cl"OCOBm

and miC1'OCOBm8 , it

Wc:UI neve:rtheles8 for thsOtin8s8

essential a part of their lives , that they carried it whith them wherever they went~ and satlSl"al neighbour>ing peopl6s were infZutmeed by it • I still remember mu astonishment when the Hmmg ( pal"t of tlu! tl"ibes called "Miao" by the Chinese) of Sieng Khot.tang province in Laos u:plained to me how the fol'l'l'lidabls bands of "Haz,)" pirates had succeeded in taking the W1fonunate ci ty 1 which had hitherto been pl"Otected frcm their marauding attacks by its site~ an ~ly favoUNble OlU' in geoTM11tic terms . In ortUlr to trick ths Lao fJho lived in BO

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ThIs story must refer to the takIng of Sleng Khou2lng by the ChInese BlllckF lags whIch occurred In 1873 or 1874 accordIng to the varIous chronIclers . See sou r ces In Charles Archelmbau lt. Les Annales de I' anclen royaume de S' leng Khwang , pp.58889 , 8u.Ue..tin de. l'Ec.ole. F~e. d' EUlt.eme- OUe.n.t, .tome. UI!, FMe-. 2',Parls 1967.

If

:Jw town , the HatIJ eBnt down inLJffensive - looking Ir,erchante who were instructed t o

persuade the inhabitants that a qui'te unlllJaZ'e Of "'hat was

va~uable

~.appenin{?

treasure was hidden i n the hills . The Loo,

Ns hed off to dig the eru>th IJi th epadss

and

picks , thuB breaking the mu .tat. 0 1' !ut!g mu, the "d'l'aflol1 vein s" • Ths1'(Jaftsr i t became a simple matter f or the pirates to take possession Of the town.

Later on, during my fie Zd1,ICr l< anmg the Hmon(j , I f ound scattered traces Of Chinese geolrant io maxims f or the choice Of a hoURS site! , It was at this point that I etCU'ted to look f or eino logical works on tM Bubject, in the hope could i ntefl1'O.te the Here

trqJ

BCrapS

that I had collected into

a

comprehen.sive

that

I

arzat ysis .

rIM outlines in the UJOl'ks them an anple justice in this

eurpl"is8 was t o b. 8til.l greater. Apart from a

Of Eitsl , De Groot and others ( Mr. Feuchtwang does

book) . there was in eriBtenoe no serious ana l ysis of gsom::uztic concepts, not "V611 a trans l ation Of any Of th" numerous Chinese treatl"i"s of geomancy . Only a f airly confused adaptation in Vietnamese Of the Hung Wll. Chbl Shu. " The. Beok FoJtb.i.dde.n by Hung Wu , t.he.

6-UW.t

lUng EmpVtoJt "2, seemed to indicate, without thrruingfl1JCh light

on tM subject, t'he COI1sid"rabl9 importance of georrr:mcy in the social and political tradition o f Chinese society. However, at that V"l'7I Jll:)ment, Stephan FeuchtwaTlg had just completed this

IIX)rk, presented as an M.A . thesis at the lhIiv8r sity of London, under thes1.p8J"Vis Wn of P;oof. Mamce Freedman . l only became az.lCU'e of this SBveml years 'Later, lI)hen I r e tUl"t19d t o France and blaS able to read in Freedman ' s Ch.ine.oe. Lineage.and Sou«1j the fascinating chapter devoted to Ge.omancy and Ance.o.toJt WOlL6lUp . The this publication begins at that point .

stopY

Curing a visi t t o England in 1972

of

I was

uhl" t o meet Prof. Freedman, and with his help coneu l t Feuchtwang ' s manuscript in the l ibJ'aJ'Y of the London School of Economice . It was a revelation ... Shortly aftel'Warods mutual friends introduced me t o the autho!', and I!Jas shocked t o learn that he had 110 pZa)/s to publish that IolOr k in the near' [utUl"e, as he was unabl9to spar''' the time to revise his manuscript. I therefo!'8 suggested to him that I s hould incZude it in a collection being prepared for a nBW publishing house in Laos . The principal argument which I put fOl'Ward to pel"suade the aut1rJl" to pub lish in its present state a work II)hich he would have p!'efe:r"l'Qdto !'evise, /JXZsthat othe!' l"98earcher s might undertake similar studieslJithout benefitting j'rar!. the consideruhl" time and inteztectual effort II)hich he had aZ!'eady deooted t o the subject. Is not "science" a cozt9ctiv8 wrk, often anonymous C71d !'esu l ting fromnume'l'Ous oon- frontations? Feuchtwang ' s wor k constituted a decisive step f 01'liXU'd: the f i rst fU1l~ tiunal inte!Opretation of th" basic concepts of Chinese geomancy . I I, notod th is fact In Un vill.o..ge. Hmong VeJt.t du. Ha.u.t Lo.o~ , PuIs 1972

( pp . 99-I Ql

2 S!!8 Hang-VU. cam-Thu', tran s lated by Nguyim Van Minh , Quybt Thu'o'ng, Sa i gon 1963 QUIjeJ1 H~ , Sa I gon

1968 .

III

And f..st'e the story continues' I had hardly 1'etw>rzed t o France when

a 1101019 French researcher,

Fn:v1~i8

Martel, ",he had just presented, as

I

mBt

a diploma

diSBerl:ation, a FoltnICLt AnalYII,u, 06 Ch.ittue. SymboUc.4l CoIt6.igUlta.tioI't6' , based

on

ths gflom::mcer ' s compass! In an anicl" IJhich had Just appeared 2 he 8W1f1l12risedthe

first findings of his l'esearuh which CWJ18tituted a comparative analysiso[ a hundred of gQommtic compasses, displaying in l'Bl1lll'kabZe faeh ion. the underl ying rumeroZogicaZ

series incorporated in the various el/stems of the compass. However. while he had 8wccflsded in analysing the formal or ganisation of the (xmstituent symbols. he admittsd tlur nQed t o conpZet8 it with a study of their rrIfIaning. precisely the study und.Jotaken by Feuch~ in this book. Furtherm:JrB. since this book has been in prs88. netJ8 of similar r8s8arch CUM'6rltlll under way has reached me from a variety of quarter's . Andthiswo:rklJiZl. certainly stimulate new research in many directions . &aausli' it analyses step by step eaah of thB terms of reference and t hB prinaipal systems implied i n the i nterpretation of a landsaapB in geomantic tems , FBUl!htlJang 's book constitutes an B88ential basis f or any subsequent study . Ant~po Zbgists will discover here a rich source of documentat~ ~ and studamts Of Chinese ar>t can sJ:Pect to find much of interest in

the chapter re-

lating geomancy to ChineBfl Umdaaape painting. Fina lly , i f , as De Groot cons iders, Chinuli' gli'omancy is as 014 as Chinese civilization itself, i t may be of help even to ths

arc1ulo~ogist8

warking on the e.::ccava t ion of tombs .

Jacques Lemoine Charg~

1

F r an~ols

de recherches au C.N. R.S.

Marte l , Ana..lY061!. 6oJtme.U1!. de. c.on6.igI.LltaUoM 06ymboUquu c.hUto-i06u ,

220p. mlmeog raph ., 83 t lg . blbl. (dIploma de l'Ecol e Prat ique des Hautes Etud es) Perls

2 1972 •

1971. F ran ~ o 1s

MII rte t , Lu botUtloolu cU.v.bta.toiAu c.lWtouu ,

Cortmtt.Ut.ic.aUolU 19

PREFACE

Several people have asked to see the results of the work I did in 1964-6 5 on 6 e n g-~hu~ (Chi nese geomancy). Others may be interested in the subject and even thinking of investigating it themselves, without knowing that some work has a lread y been done. In order to save duplication of efforts the results, which were written as a Masters th esis . are here reprfnted as a book. r have not revised ft. There has just not been the time to return to it and rewrite it in the li gh t of my mo .'e recent research into Ch ineseritual and religion I must indeed apologise f or its very tentative. probing nature and f or a c lum si ne ss of sty le and organ isati on. For his patie nce in difficu lt conditions with many frustrating problems I thank J acques lem oi ne f or turning this rou ghly written di sser tati on into so mething more presentable.

CONTENTS

PART ONE

INTRODUCTION

Page

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PART TWO

THE INDIGENOUS MODEL

15

The Two Schools of Geomancy; Cosmology and Earthly Forms

16

Cosmology; the Compass

IS

The rings of symbols as explained in the La-ching Chieh

19

The tripartite divisions of the compass dial and the 24 poin ts

or directions

27

The centre of the unive rse and the two cosmic forces

32

The Five Elements and the Twelve Palaces

<0

Ch'i, Time Cycles

<S

Branches, stems and the sexagenary cycle

57

Symbols from the Book of Changes

71

Haiu, stars and constellations

SO

Enumerations systems

89

Summary of feng-shui cosmology

96

PART THREE ,

HSING , FORMS " FIRST STAGE IN THE APPLICATION OF THE MODEL 112 Sha, ! noxious vapours and secret arrows I. the soil, hygiene and neighbourliness

115

Yin and Yang: mountains. trees, water and wind

120

Ch'i and th e dragon in fen- ghui and landscape painting

141

The season s, the directions: the animals of the four quarters

151

The nine stars, the elements, and remaining 8ymbols from the compass dial

159

Sy mbols from beyond feng- shui

169

PART FOUR OPERATORS; FENG·SH UI'S PLACE AMONG CHINESE

172

IDEOLOGIES AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS Geomancers, priests. ritual elders and diviners

175

Feng-shui and the other world

182

Feng-shui and ances tor worlfhip

196

Feng-shui and Chinese divination

199

PART FIVE Clients: The soc ial function of Chinese Geomancy

203

Feng-shui as ritual focus of local group3

206

Feng-shui a s ritual focus (or descent groups

210

Individuation; conflict. competition and change

218

PART

SIX

GEOMANCY AND DIVINATION IN OTHER CULT URES

224

Japan

225

Vietnam

227

Africa

231

PART SEVEN

• POSSIBLE CON CL USIONS

236

Appendix A

255

Appendix B

258

Li st of Works cited

259

PART ONE

INTRODUCTION

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~ landscape gardening originated in China and so did landscape painting.

Bothare indicative of acute observati on of unified compositions and balanced patterns in the natural environment. In popular Chinese thought the landscape teemed with demons and spirits of mountains. of streams , of trees, of localities, all of which could receive offerings at one time or another. The natural physical environment had a numinoU $ quality t o the Chinese. It was worshipped by the unlettered and wa s a subj ect fit for the fine art and the seclusion of the literati . ) Many western observers have remarked upon the peculiarly felicitous way in whi ch pagodas ,houses .temples and whole t owns harmoni se with t he landscape .This has been most noticeable in the south of Ch ina where t he landscape is particularly dramatic. Thus Boerschmann (P.ic..tultMque. Ch.ina.. Lttnd4c.tl.pe. and Altc.h.i.te.c.twte.. p. XVII ) descri bes t he situati on of two southern t own s : " Cant on ... , is buil t opposi t e an i s l and on t he north bank of the Broad Wes t er n Ri ver . The ta ll and s l ender Fengshui Pagoda ri ses i n t he south on the ot her s ide of the s t ream. The town f aces sout h, and is spread over a plai n. But i t s norther n par t is on a hi l l - s l ope enc l osed i n t he c ity area by the north tri ang l e of the t own- wall.On it s tand s a f i ve-cornered t ower-li ke edifice wi th the tutelar y godde ss of the t own. The view from th is hi l l shows a furt her connect i on wi th t he l andscape. The "" ho l e of t he town and suburbs wi t h the ir na r r ow s t reet s seem t o be but a sout hern pr oj ection of a high mount ain r ange , t he culminating point of which li es f ar i n t he nor t h of the town .This is the mountain of t he Wh i t e Cloud s , t he symbo l of depart ed soul s. The entire extent of t he mounta inous a reais covered f or mil es a nd mil es i n al l di rec tions with both pl a i n and somet imes extreme l y or na t e graves t hat decorate t he round to ps of the e leva t i ons , s l opes and va lleys" . "Kuei - lin-fu, the pr ovinc ial capita l of Kuang si, i s si t ua ted in one of t he mos t r emarkabl e l andscapes in t he worl d . The t own s t ands on a wide pl ain fr om whi ch numerous s t eep cone - s haped mountains r ise abrup tl y and make the l andscape l ook l ike a fi eld of gigantiC pyrami ds. The t own wa ll is built on some of t he mountai ns wh ich a r e c l ose l y cr owded toget her in the north and a l so consti t ut e a prot ec tive ba rri er t o keep off evil spi ritua l i nf l uence from the north. Nearl y a l l t hese mountains around Kuei -I in - fu are charac t e r ized by caves. The most importan t of the se is t he Cave of the Seven Star s, It cut s through a who l e mount a i n i n exac tl y the mos t i dea l pos ition in t he eas t . In the south -east of the t own t he Feng shui P~ go da crowns a s trange r ock shaped l ike an e lephant' s head with the trunk hanging

2

CH INESE GEOMANCY

down in the river as though draw ing water. Thus the pecu l iarities of a unique landscape are mag nified ". ~

agodas,towns and graves he ig hten the effects or"magn'ify"'thE: landscape.

The re sult 1s aes theti c l or express ive, hut in fact t he plan conforms very close ly t o the rules of Chinese geomancy. The so l e purpose of the pagodas is geoma ntic.They may be aesthetica ll y well-placed , but overtl y they are there to hel p ensure the we l l -being of the in habitants of Ca nton and Kuei - lin - fu. Feng - shui (Fe ng

!l

=wind, shui

1J'.. '"

water ) as a sing l e term stand s for the power of the natu -

ral environment .the wind and the airs of the mountain s and hills; the streams and the rain; and much more than that: the composite inf l uence of the natura l proces ses. Behind it is a whole cosmology of metaphysical concept s and symbols. By placing oneself wel l in the environment feng - shui wi ll bring good fortune . Conversely, an ana lys i s of the s ite of any building or grave with knowl edge of the metaphys i cs of feng-shui will tell the fort une of the s ite-owner. This analysis and the art of good sit ing we ca ll Chine se geoma ncy. Gr eat st ore i s set by the proper pl aci ng of landscape features around t he site at the appr opriate points of the compass.To the no r th t here should be a mountainous shie l d from mal i cious influences, yet the mountain , as in the case of Canton , i n it se l f harbours good infl uen ces and may even be sac red.The dead are bu ried on a south-fac i ng s l ope and to the south of them i s the town and the living. A south- fac ing slope receives the summer sun. Thus the inha bitants of Canton are shielded from malicious influences from be hind,and down the sl ope towa rds them come the good influences from the mounta in and the protect i on of their ancest ors in the graves whi l e from the front t hey receive the fruitful in f l uence of the summer sun . The front of a site i s always the south and all south stands for, and front is symbo li c fo r south even if it has proved impracti cable really to face due south. It shou ld always have an unh inde red view. Likewise the back of a s ite is always t he north and shou l d be bl ocked, l eft i s always the east and all it s tands for . right i s always a symbo l of the west)

~ ~ther symptoms of geomancy that migh t excite our curiosity are name s like the Ca ve of the Seven Stars, or Green nragon Mounta in, many of wh i ch wil l be feng-shui symbo l s.A ridge mi ght be re ferred to as a dragon's back , a contour as a dragon's vein. The or nament on tombs is f or t he sake of feng-shui. The whole phys i ca l environment seems to be an express i on of hidden force s , of a cosmo l ogy . )

"-

( Throughout pre-revolut l ona ry Ch ina if it cou ld be fi nancia lly afforded every grave was sited accordi ng t o feng-shui. A georna ncer wa s al so consulted for

1. I will be using th is term spor adica lly throughout this <;imp l y the e ffe ct o f a sea rch fo r f orma l beauty .

book .

By it I mean

INTROOUCTION

3

t he siting of houses and, in cases of reversa l of fortune, to prescribe the const r uction of pagodas ,or screen walls outside gates,orthe erection of a tablet with a t i g.er paint ed on it to ward off mal i cious influences called "secret arrows" , or merely to cha nge the posit ion of the bed of a sick person or the desk of a studen t not doing wel l i n his studies. A geomancer mi ght be seen carried in a sedan cha i r to a site chosen by his client accompanied by the client and his fanr:ly, gett i ng down and minute ly inspecting some feature, rushing down a slope, stoppi ng to take a bea ring and f ina ll y rejecti ng the si te as unsuitable . )

~ ~hinese towns, idea l ly , are pl anned on a str i ct North -South axis , wit h gates at the four quarters subjec t to the wil01e symbolism of feng -shu i cosmo l ogy. The l ay- out of Peking and of its Forbidden City is exemplary. ) b

~ll these and many more are the outward expressions of an attitude to-

wards Nature and the universe concentrated and organized in the divinat i on of feng shui, in Chinese geomancy. In it is focused a great deal of traditional fby-wh·;ch- 1- Alean-pl'e...modern Western-sc i ent if i c~.nfl uenced.) Chi nese ca 1endri ca 1 and natura 1 ph~l osophy.It assumes that the universe is in flux , in continuous cha nge, but that • there are patterns of change di scer nahl e to experts in feng -shui.) ~ ~ observing these patterns and by understanding the natura l l aws which they man i fest, experts can diagnose the prevalence of good and bad infl uences at any spot of the ground. The forces of two or more of the Five Elements may be in a mutua ll y constr uctive or destruct i ve relationship. The two prinCiple cosmic forces Vin and Vang , may be out of ba l ance. The l i fe - breaths, Ch'i , may be prospering or decaying. By means of hi s compass and the r i ngs of symbo l s inscri bed on its dial, t he geomancer ta kes a number of bearings on a prospective site to measure the state of the forces in it.Rut this is on ly the Compass side of geomancy.A cOloVentiona1 categori sation of landscape features al so hel ps him in his ana lysis. The sa li en t features of a landscape are those that can be traced as l ines - mountai n ridges, all uvial format i ons, all watercourses and thoroughfares - and those which have def i ni te shapes and outlines,such as mountain peaks , bou1ders ,ponds and poo1~ The lines and shapes may suggest paths of the life -breaths or manifestations of the El ements.They may also suggest something entirely concrete whic h has immed i ate signif i cance . A ridge with five undu l ations may be a schol ar's brush-rest and indicate for the owner of the si te over l ooked by the ridge a scholar'S career.This aspect of geomancy is not confined to the experts', it is thlO property of all who believe i n it ,and it ;s part of common parlance about the landscape and the posi tions of houses and graves on it. But on ly an expert, a geomancer, can by his finer ca l cul at i ons f ind the r i ght pl ace for a house or grave, and divine the right t'ime to bury or build or wed. ')

4

CHINESE GEOMANCY

~

lItwi ll by now be clear that we are not dea li ng wi th what is usually defined as geomancy. The Oxford Engllsh Dictionary defines as geomancy "the art of divination by means of signs derived from the earth.as by the figure assumed by a handful of earth thrown down upon a surface. Hence, usually divination by means of l ines and figures formed by jotting down on paper a number of dots at random". ) 1 \:hinese geomancy may be described as the divinati on of earthly sig ns. but not of random line s or dots or marks on a sand tray produced by the figures of cast beads which i s the common form of African geomancy,and which in China itself was a mechan i sm for spirit med i ums. Topomancy may be a better word for feng -shui, divination from the forms of the phys ical environmen9But si nce "geomancy" has by the ma j ority of authors on feng -shu i been the term used r will conform. Something like topomancy is in fact covered in the Oxford English Dict i onary entry under geomancy .It includes a quotation from J. Standford ' s trans l ation of Agrippa ' s Van MtN:

"There is also another kind of Geomancie ..... the which doth divine by certain conjectures taken of similitudes of the crackinge of the Earthe" .

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\0 (Eeomancy is no l onger officia ll y pract i sed on ma inl and Chi na. except in Hong Kong and the New Territories ) There and in the rest of rural China be fore 1949 , as reported in the new standard sociological and social anthropologica l monographs on communit i es in China by Fei and Chang (1948, pp. 45-46) , M. C. Yang (1945 , p. 88), Gamble (1954, pp. 390-393), lin (1947, pp . 23-25), and Hsu (1949. pp. 43-52), feng -shu; was ta l ked of and believed in and geomancers were consu lted at l east once in a life t ime by everyone. ( rn the cities )Whele li~ed-th~ ~ phisticated Confu cians .for whom feng-shui rated as a popular superstit ion,a s we ll as t~ose who were influenced by Western thought, feng-shui was l ess in evidence. But geoma ncers certain ly operated in the cit ies and no-one who was not ent irely imbued with 11estern ideas would scorn tl)e existence of feno -shu; enough not to take precau ti ons with regard to it at a time of crisis.~ What is odd i s that the very sociologists and anthropo l ogists who report this do l ittle more than that. In many of the analyses of Chinese socie ty and of Chinese beliefs,feng -shui ;s not even reported.and i f it is, then not described ' .

1. For inst ance , leong and Tao :V~ge and Town Li6e i n China , 1915 a nd C.K.Yang : A Chineoe ViU.a.g e in EMly Cormu.tJ1i.6.t TJuln6.iti.on, 1959 .

INTROOUCT ION

5

Of those mentioned above. on ly Lin and Hsij describe indivi dua l cases of geomancy and its effects.This may be accounted for by the fact that the observers themselves are Chinese and perhaps high-minded Confucians enough to scorn so patent a superstition as feng-shui. In the case of such early western sociologists as Smith (1899) and Kulp (1925) . both of whom likewise do l ittle more tha n report feng -shui 's existence. their most articu l ate informants would in all likehood also have been Confucian-minded. The western sources which give most information about feng -shui are the writings of men semi-permanently resident in China: co l onlal administrators like R. K. Johnston and J. J. M. de Groot and missi onaries such as E.J . Eitel . and the Reverends Yates . Dool ittl e . Oore and Edkins. De Groot's is the mos t thorough ana 1ysis .fi ll1ng pages 935-1056 of volume 3 of his great work (1892-1910) on the religious system of the Chinese. Eitel wrote the on ly monograph (1893) ent i rely devoted to feng-shui . Report s by Dool ittle and Dore and Dennys are brief and spread through more general works on Chinese customs. Johnston (1910) . and the missiona ries Graham(1961.but from field-work mu ch earlier in the century ) and Henry ( I885) are t he most munificent of indiv idual cases of feng-shui bel i efs and geomantic consultations. Yates's is the ear l iest western report of feng-shui (1868) and is to be found in the first volume of The ClWtue Rec.oJtdelt a.t1.d M..i.6 ~ .umall y Jol.llLtULl. It is from thi s and one or two other journal s publi shed in China that the rest of t he evidence of feng -shu i that I have been able to cu ll from western sources comes . From Chinese i n London. I have myself noted a small number of cases from the contemporary New Territories and Peplow (1931 ) supplies others fr om Hong Kong.but it wil l by now be clear that the bu lk of avai labl e information abou t feng- shui dates from the l ate nineteenth and ea rl y twentieth centuries . in other words . from the l ast decades of the Ch' ing dynasty and Imperial China. I have left out of the above account two major western sources of information : Needham (Volumes 2. 3. and 4:1 of Sei.en.c.e. a.ttd Ci.v.i.U6 a.tion .in CIWta. ) and Feng(transl . Bodde. A Hi4toJty o~ Chinue. Philo~opruj). T~ey are exceptional because they are histories of the ideas that lead i nto feng -shui. and . in rteed~a ",' s case. of the techniques of observation and I"Ieasurement evol ved by f, ~inese geoman cy .T~ey are not reports of fen g-shui in pra ctice and w~ile they are indispensan l e for the ideologica l background. for specifi cal ly socio l ogical analysis their usefu lness i s lim ited. Many interpretations of feng-shui have been offered. Boerschmann and Outkind have treated it from an architectu ral point of view. Historians of Ch inese art , such as Willetts and Si ren, record it s aesthe t ic effects . De Groot and

6

CHINESE GEOMANCY

most of the missi onaries that observed it, put it down as rank superstition and charlatanism. De Groat also calls it a quasi - science. Eitle sub-titled his monograph it

on feng-shui as "The Rudiments of Natural Sci ence in China". Needham calls

a pseudo -sc ience. Schlegel, 1n a review (1890) of de Groat's work,

recommends

that we shed "our scientific supercil ious judgement" and approach feng-shui as the

resu lt of four thousand years ' experience of the laws of nature,if not as natural science.He says that feng-shu; is largely based on "natural.mostly hygienic laws"

and that to understand it properly we must make a thorouqh study of Chinese natural philosophy. Dukes is even le ss eva luative and in the article on feng- shui in Volume 5 of the Encyclopaedia o~ Retig~n and Ethic4 (1912. ed.Hastin9s), writes: "Practi call y th ere is little religion in China but such as springs out of feng-s hui .... It enter s i nto every important arrangement of daily life. Every propos·ed change must be brought to the test of its principles". But he makes no further analys is. \\ (so, on the one ha nd we know that feng-shui was an extremely widespread element in Chinese life,but on the other hand, all the accounts of it that go into any detail describe it from abso lute standpoint s of aesthetics, or Western religion,or science or Western philosophy. It is therefore hiqh time that an analy sis was made from a relative standpoint, to see what feng-shui ;s to the Chi nese and what part it plays in Chinese life. It miqht sti ll be questioned whether such an analysis should be anthropo logical, rather than one in the fields of compara tive philosophy,metaphysi cs,or symbolism.~e ca n meet such an objection immediately by pointing out that Ch ine se geomancy i s not just ideol ogy; that it tells fortunes and these fortune s refer specifi cally to social life; that its practice can be shown to be a medium of social interaction; and that, of course, a large part of the present study will have to be devoted to Ch inese natural philosophy (as Sch l egel warned) to metaphys ics and to symbolism,none of whi ch is out of pl ace in a work of anthropo l ogy. tn fa ct. an anthropoloQical study of fenq -shui offers the exciting prospect of be in g able to see how ideas hitherto described by si nologists as ent irely literary, as the speculations and theorie s of Neo-Confucian philosophy.are embodied in social practice. r.on versely.feng- shui mos t conveniently ob liges us to relate social practice t o t he ideas and values of the community stu -

died} ~ What,we now ask, did the Chinese think was feng-shui ? The answer i s not simple or explicit since it i s to a questi on which would only be put by a non-Chinese. In a library inve stigation perhap s t!le best place to find out what the Chinese thought of feng -sh ui and its power is in folk-lore.Eberhard (1937) coll ected two tales of qeomancers. The first (pp. 113-116) is of a place north of Ch'ao-

IHTROOOCTION

7

ch'ing in Kuangtung province where there "lies the seven star peak and not far west of that the re is a hill that cl osely resembles the back of a turtle,the head of which is fonned by several l arge stones juttinQ out into the water". A geomancer advised a rich man, SO t he tale goes , that ten years ago the turt l e had opened i t s mouth and that it was now due to do so aqain,this year on such -and-such a day. The rich man would do well to bury the bones of an ancestor there. Following the ~eoma ncer' s advice the rich man took the coffin of his ancestor into a boat and was accompanied by the geoma ncer to the turtle rock. Just as the whirlpoo l at the head of the tu rt l e roared particularly loudly the qeomancer told the rich man to throw the coffin into it.But when the rich man realised that the coffin had gone , and was disposed of in so unorthodox a place.he complained that the geomancer had tricked him and took the case to a maqistrate.The Qeomancer was ordered to replace the coffin. He asked the mag i strate to lend him his sword. went t o the turtle's head and smote it. thu s destroying its power. The coffin came up and the geoman cer returned it to the rich man. The rich man immediately reqretted not trusting the geomancer for when he opened the coffi n to re -encase his ancestor's bones he saw "that the bones had already become covered with qolden scales". The story shows wel l the uncertain status of geomance rs. their profes sion being both secular and suspect. and at the same time. uphe l d by the unques tioned be l ief in the possibili t y of secret knowledge beinQ the way to the exploi tation of uncommon ly powerful forces. The other story co ll ected by Eber'ard(pp.122 -124) i ll ustrates just how great, how numinous and danqerous. was the power to which geomancers were thought to have the key. There was a qeomancer named Ts ' ao who lived in T'ung- chou.He was an unusually good geomancer.When he said that peopl e wou l d have few children . i nvariably it was found on investiqat i on that they did indeed have few. Or , if he predicted blindness. it happened. He fell il l himself and his two sons said to him: "Dear father. you have always chosen graves for other peop l e and they have benefited by your cho i ce. Why don't you choose a good grave yourself so that we also can have a little l uck?". He sa i d that hi s sons had no veins of luck. They insisted . So he told them that they would both be emperors if they walked with his body sl unQ on a qrass rope in an easterly direction and buried it wherever the grass rope should break and his body drop. It dropped by th~ Eastern sea. The geomancer had told his sons that they should then make a terrace for the dead . light candles on the terrace and cover the candles with a chamber pot for seven times seven days. This, he said. they would never dare do . But they did , they built the terrace. lit cand l es on it and covered them with a chamber pot. On the seven th day , the two sons fell i l l and extraordinary thin gs began to happen.After forty days. an unc l e came and in indignation at the sacrilege threw away the chamber pot. Every thing was ruined. Children died without

8

CHINESE GEOMANCY

cause in the neighbou rhood. An eminent scho l ar became blind. A real dragon arose at T'ung -chou at the spot on the shore where the geomancer' s body wa s buried. When the dragon wa s killed , the sons died. Both these stories are about the unorthodoxy of feng-shui in operation.in dicating that it sometimes does not support. may indeed be a threat to the state. Ch 'i ng emperors are said to have taken el aborate precautions against fami l ies the sc ions of whi ch geomancers had prophesied would become emperors!. I will have occasion to return to the unorthodoxy or independence of feng-shui shortly. Feng-shui was frowned upon occasionally by members of the ruling class for another reason,that it qave rise to liti Qation and dispute and. paradoxically from the art of burying ancestors.qave rise to immoral.that is unfi l ial, conduct. In P'u Sung -ling's (1679) collection of stories U.a.tJ c.ha.i cJU.h .(. . translated by H.A.Giles as S~nge sto4ieA ~~om a ChineAe stud.i.o (1908) ,there i s a story(pp .447 -449) about a family whose members were l earned in feng-shuLWhen the father died his two sons established separate households and each engaged his own geomancer to choose a grave for their father that wou l d br ing most benefit to himself. On the day of the funeral when the father's coffin was carr ied to his grave , the procession came to a point where a choice between two paths. l eading to one or other of the chosen graves.had to be made. A dispute ra ged there until niqht.by which time the coffin carriers and cortege had gone home. So the brothers decided to build a shelter for the coffi n at the side of the path, but neither would accept the shelter built by the other. So they built new shel ters, upon which neither could agree, until there was a whole village of coffin she lters and both brothers had died. Their wive s then agreed on a grave for their father-in-law, and his grandchildren ga ined civ'il deQrees . Author P'u adds a note to this story: "Feng-shui mayor may not be based on sound principles; at any rate, to indul ge a morbid belief in it is folly; and thus to join issue and fiqht while a coffin i s relegated to the roadside is hardly in accordance with the doctrines of f il ial piety or 'fraternal lbve. Can peopl e be l ieve that mere position will improve the fortunes of their fami l y? At any rate, that two women should thus quietly have settled the matter is certain ly worthy of record". These stories are on the most popular l eve l of feng-shui. giving little hint of any coherent structure of concepts and beliefs behind it. That such a structure exists is, however , made plain by the manual s of instructi on in the art of geomancy.These manuals constitute my Chine se source material . But there are so 1. See f or instance , Porter ( 1920 , p . 849) on how the Ch ' len-l ung Emper o r built a massive c ru shing temp l e over the gr ave of a minist e r Important In his court.Thls effectively destroyed the feng - shu l of the grave - si te. wh ich had b~n so favour f a~e as to o ffer the mi nister ' s descendants aspirations t o the throne.

INTROOUCTION

9

many that even of those at my disposal here in London I have heen ahle to read only a selection . The 1726 edition of. the Imperial Encyclopaed ia, the Ku Chin T' u Shu Chi Ch ' tng , in the British Mu seum ha s in its section (XV II ) on Arts and D1Vl nation 18 separate works on geomancy many of wh i ch are themselves composite work s or compilati ons of more than one manual. In addition , the Ch inese l i brary of the University of l ondon ' s School of Drienta l and African Studi es ha s 6 treati ses on geomancy ,none of whi ch i s in the Imperia l Encyc lopaed ia. None of them , of courSE, has been tra nslated. I had to l ook no fu rther, havinq already at hand more than I could use. For informati on , all 24 of t he ma nual s are li sted in t he bibliography. References wil l be made to a few of them in some detail in the course of thi s book . The manual s do indeed di sp l ay a veritable cosmol ogy, by whi ch 1 mean speculati ons about the structure and dynamics of the natura l universe. They apply to a form of divination based on the el ements of Sung dynasty Neo-Con fu ci an natural philosophy and ca l endar making. Specif i c reference wi ll be made t o it in the course of describing the symbol s of the feng- sh ui compass. The manua ls are descripti ons of the bas i c natural universa l processes and how they are manifest in the detai l s of the phys i ca l env iro nmen t . To know how to tap these processes i n the raw is,of course, to have t.he key to enormous sou rces of energy , at once powerfu l and dangerous , as the two storie s re l ated above indicate. The art of geoma ncy is to place onese lf ap propri atel y i n relatio n to t he dispositio n of the natural processes. The tacti c of appropriatenes s in feng -sh ui is a high ly loca li sed ,parti cular i sed and individually applied version of livi nq and farmi ng according to the aagrarian calendar and ingeneral of the Chinese natura l philosophy of being in harmony with the lao ~ (=the natural universe ). Once patterns have been observed in the struct ure of the universe , and regular t ime-cyc les , seasonal and others, have been recorded,it i s wise to arranQe oneself accordi nq to them. The overthrow of an emperor and the in sti tut io n of a new dynasty was sanctioned if the old dynasty had slipped out of harmony wi t h the un i verse and was upsetting the bal ance of nature . Each of the Five leqendary Emperor s of Ch i nese prehistory had the i r ap propr i ate Element .Thenceforward , accordi nq to the ea rl y Han dynasty na tural phi l osopher Tsou Yen and hi s school of Naturalists, each dynasty had its appropriate element running through the cyc le of fi ve. King Wu, founder of the Chou dynasty, had final vi ctory over t he last king of the prev i ous , the Sha ng, dynasty. A flas h of li gh t ning brought a red crow to the bow of the ship on which he was t ravell ing up the river . It was the emb l em of his rei gn and dynasty,beinq the col our red, the el ement fire and the quarterly directi on south . Such ser i es of symbo l s as the Five El ements and the Four Qua rters

10

CHINESE GEOMANCY

were separately or in combination broad and elementa l classifications of the universe. Banners with the elements and emblems of the quarters were used in the deployment of armies , each section placed appropriately on the ground according to i ts banner as recently as the nineteenth centuryl. Element s and Quarters are categories great ly used in feng -shui discourse. Another series of symbols by which the universe was classified and of which ~reat use is made in feng-shui as well as providing the base for the divination system of the Book of Changes (I ehing , compiled in the Chou dynasty) were the Eight Triqrams. The conception of these classifying symbols is close ly linked in Chinese myth 2with the discovery of the regularities of the universe and with agra rian organisation , irrigation and calendar makin g.

)%--!

The Lo Shu , which is a magic square of numbers upon which one sequence of trigrams and elements came to be based (see p. 35 ) was revealed to the legendary emperor Yu the Great by a turt l e that appeared from the river Lo, a tributary of the Ye ll ow River and central to early Chinese civilisation. It was a reward for the fact that only Yu,inventor of hydraulic enqineerinq, had been able to control the river. Another legend relate s how the spirit of the same River Lo, Fu Fei ,was forced into marriage by the archer Yi.Archer Yi was the defeated rival of the Emperor Yao • but the emporor's reign was made possible only by Yi havving saved the world by shootin~ down nine of the ten suns al l of which had risen at once. In" other words he had enforced the sun ' s obedience, sure ly a legend of the regu l ation of time. Thus the Lo Shu maqic square is the product of a river that links legends of the organization of space and of time . 1. For t he arm i es o f the Nien rebellion and the Pa Kua society , see Chiang , The

Nien Rebellion , pp . 27 - 29 . Sun Tzu , the 6th cen t ury BC autho r of t he A4t

06

WaA

(transl . s . B. Griffith , 1963) - Ch . IX - on ma r ches , advises keeping on the Yang ( t ranslated as "sunny " ) i . e . sout hern slope with height s t o the r ear and to the right . To keep a height behind , to protect t he rear , may wel I be ent i rely practi cal ;t t he right less eas i Iy e xp lained as expedient . Right would be west and what was Id t e r to be known as t he qua r ter of the White Tiger , the Wu o r m!1 i t a r y animal par exce~Zen ae . But Sun Tzu came before the grea t Chinese cosmological ph i losophe rs and Gr i ff i t h prefer s not to give even Vinftand Va.ng ~t he cosmological significance they late r hook on , and to keep them concrete as shady and sunny , r espectively . But parag r aph 13 of Sun Tzu would seem to hint at something mo r e meta ohyslca l : " An army pr e fe r s high ground to low, esteems sunlight and dislikes shade . Thus while nou ri shing it s heal t h,the a r my occupies a f irm posltlon . An a r my t hat does not su ff er from count less diseases is said to be ce r tain of victory ." The position on t he sunny(Yang) side of high g round pr events disease which brings vict o ry . 2. The my t hs related in t he fo l lowi ng paragraphs a r e to be f ound i n a gr ea t many Wester n source s . A compr ehensive one , which ref ers back t o Chinese sour ces , is Granet • 1959 .

IKTRODUCTIOH

11

Another link i s throuqh Fu Fei , eithe r the sis ter or the daughter of another legendary emperor Fu Hsi who first arranqed the Former Heaven Sequence of t he Eigh t Trigrams in accordance with t he eiQht winds . the ei qht directi ons and the ei!lht parts of the human body (see PP.51 - 73) . Ye t another ~th l inks the i nvent i on of the compass t o simi lar cosmolo gica l discoveries. Just as the Emperor Yao depended on the achievements of his ri val, the Archer Yi, so the Ye ll ow Emperor (Huanq ri) depended on the achievement s of hi s ch ief rival Ch' ih-yu. Ch 'ih-yu was, in some versions of the ~ th. actua ll y the min i ster of th e sky to the Ye ll ow Emperor . He wa s the l eQendary inventor of me tal weapons;was deified and worshipped by the Han dynasty military. In his battle with t he Yellow Emperor , Ch 'i h-yu caused a foq to enshroud the scene t o which, accord inq to the vers i on oiven b.y r.ranet (lQS9 , p. 352) . the Emperor rep l ied with the i nvention of the compass,la ter i n the batt le , the Emperor was on the point of defeat when Heaven ( T'ien~) se nt down to him HsU NU (Th e Dark ~; rl ) who gave him a mil itary charm after which he won.Hsu Nu.or a character very like her. i s , with Fu Hsi and Ch'i h-yu . a kind of myth i ca l patron of the art of qeomancy . The N.tite.he.ave.1'I M!loteJt.iouo G.i.Jr.1. U,uveJL6e. and OC.WI'l COI!.l'IeJL 1.hI1u.a.t of fenq -shui (CIUu.-t' .ien Hoiial'l Nu Ch'.titg-l'Iang Hcti.-c.hi.o Ch.Utg) refers t o a similarly named Girl (Hsuan .. mysterious, repl aces Hsu = da rk ) who determi ned the directions by t he movement of the sun b.y day and tI.y the stars and t he 28 as t erisms (ho.iu !ffi) by niqht. The manual attributes the invention of the comoass needle to Ch' i h-yu . which is not ;nappropri ate t o the invento r of metal lu rgy. We have i n the inventi on of the compass , another instance of the link between geomancy . or rather its oriqi ns . and military art. It may be that the de ployment of armie s and hence the arra nqement of camps accordinq to the Four Quarters led t o a simi l ar planninQ of towns. A passaqe quoted by Gra net (p . 2D . Note 1) from the Boof< o~ SOl'lgo (SlU.h ClU.l'Ig , a ninth to fift h centuries B.C . compila ti on) relates how the founder of a town had t o observe the shadows.Doubtless thi s was t o establish where Sou th was in order t o ascerta in the North -South axi s and the proper place for t he gates of the Fou r Quarters. whi ch was certai nl y the rule for ca pital s from t he Han dynasty onwards. The SlU.h Ch.Utg t own founder had al so t o observe the surrounding Yin and Yang, b.y which was orobab ly meant the disposition of the surroundin g valleys and hill s . Granet believes that the passage 1s "la pN!' mi~ re me nti on des croyances qui sont a 1 'ori gi ne de la 9!oma ncie" . In the Han dynasty Re.c.o~d o{ Rite.o III ClU.l , the Lo Shu maqi c square was devel oped into the "IiM T' anq AM Th i s was an ideal house or hall with nine chambe rs .as the square had nine compartments , one central and the remain i ng eight

o:t .

12

CHINESE GEOHANCY

surroundin~

it. These were the eiqht directions referred to above. The ou ter lines

of the Ming T'anQ could be further divided into twelve to stand for twe l ve directions and twelve months.Minq T'ano was the plan for the annua l proQression throuqh the direct ions and the months, for the Emperor's sac rifices and the proper course of nature. It was

closely l inked to the '1onth1.v COllJllands (Yueh Ling) pa rt of the 1

same Rec.OII.d 06 Rilell .

There are two comments which I should like to make on these examp les of myth and history of the earl y deve l oprre nt of Chi ne se cosmo loQY. The first i s that

concepts of order in t he uni verse are in all cases closely bound up with imperial administration. And it i s true that the ca l endar makers. astroloqers and keepers of histo rical records were all state bureaucrats . They were part of the Board of Rites which also timed and superv i sed protocol and the Imperia l sacred ceremon ie~ Thi s i s a far cry from the practice of fenq- sh ui divination by qeomancers whose statu s wa s dub i ous and who divined for the fortunes of individuals and not Stat e affairs.This , the fenq-shui as we know it, evolved much later than the Han dynasty, probably sometime in the T' anq dynastv 2. Fen~-shui uses the symbo li sm of Han dynasty cosmoloqy but in beinq apolied to individual fortunes it has been divorced from the sacred content it had as part of State Ritua l .Thesymbols sti l l stand for powerful universal processes , as witnessed in the fairy tales, but they have been seculari zed and their divination and the actions taken accordinq to them are no longer accompanied by sacrifi ce. The second comment I want to make i s that in the conception of a magic square,in the ideal layout of a capi tal,in the 'li nq T'anq and fin ally in the geomancer's compass I see a conscious strivin9 for the constructi on of a concrete model 3 of the cosmos. Indeed, the cap ital itself, the Minq T'anq ha ll s that were actually built by, for instance, Empress Wu. and finally, the common square plan house around a courtyard is also such a model. For the sake of fenq-shui and on a IT()re qeneral level for state ritual and Neo- Confucian thouqht. it was nece ssa ry to know the ideal order so that one cou l d re coqnise when the physica l environment corresponded to it,because where it did not do so there was likely to be conflict and the disharmony of universal processes. The compass is. therefore, not onl y a measurinq instrument, it is also a guide. 1. See pp . 98-102 for a d1agram of the Ming T' ang and a c hart of the monthlv COlml2lnd s . 2. See p. 16 for the dating of some of the earl lest manuals . 3. Here , bV model I mean s imp l y a r econstruction o f an Ideal order;but tor furthe r dI sc ussion o f models , see the co nclusi on t o pa rt 7.

INTRODUCTION

13

I will take the qeomancer's compass as a concrete representation of a cosmological model implicit in all feng-shui but explicit only in some manuals. The special virtue of a li brary investigation into feng-shui is that it allows one to concentrate on the ideal.I will,of course ,from the document cases of fengshui in operation al so analyse its applicationiso that the structure of this book will be a progression from ideas to practice. This is on ly possible in an analys-is within a cul ture like China ' s, which is both literate and high ly articulate. It needs saying, however , that many of the Qeomancers may have read only one or even none of the manuals. Though posinQ as literat i, they may, in some cases have been only semi- lite rate i and of course, the oreat majority of their clients , of those amongst whom feng-shui was nevertheless a topic of common discourse ,were illiterate and would at best only have heard of , not read, the philosophical or cosmological ideas in the manuals.

Anthropological ana lyses which concern themselves with the ideologies of communities more often infer the ideal from practice ,because the cultures studied have been in the main illiterate ones. The advantage of inferring a world view or a cosmology from observed practice is that the observer is made fully aware of th e variations hetween the different versions of it. Even so, this is sti ll begging the issue whether we can in all truth arQue the existence of a sing l e cosmo logy at all.Not only are there likel y to be great local differences in fengshut practice,the manuals themselves each stress a different cosmological notion , be it Elements. stars , or anyone of the Qreat number of draqon forces, thus ref lectinQ the local school of qeomancy sponsored by the man who wrote the manua l . But I think it is a bias, a matter of stress . There is somethinq which they al l ca ll fenq-shui,and as far as one can te l l, the compass was used by qeomancers all over Chi na and though compasses vari ed income 1ex i ty certa i n symbo 1s rema i ned constant on them a,d in the manuals. These constant symbo l s I will take to constitute a COSlOO10Qical model. It is availab le throuqh the qeomancer to the genera l popu l ace.and basic concepts from it like Vin and V.anq and the Animals of the Four Quarte rs seem in any case to be part of common di scourse.Differences in the practice of feng -shu; operation wou l d on this ana lysis , therefore , be the same story differently told, as lienhardt ( In Forde, A 6~an WO~~ . 1963, pp. 138- 139) commented in his account of the cosmo10qy of the Shi ll uk of the Upper Nile. Previous analysts of feng -shui.such as Eite l and Needham,took it to be an attempt at a na tura l science,but only an attempt because its theories about nature were not tnJly theories. They were not falsifiable. Theories are essentially bound to experimenta l reality. But a model is self-defininq, an in spirati on for hypotheses and theories , but not itself open to experimentation.

14

CHINESE GEOHANCY

If r now say that feng -shu; cosmo l ogy has the status of a mode l , is a self-def ininq metaphysical system , those ana lysts who condemned feng-shu; as pseudo-science would still not reverse their judgement because they made their analy ses from the roode l s in which they believed . religious or Western scient ific. But the mode l which i s fenq-shu; was believed to be valid by its Chinese exponents,

and it must, therefore, for Western Europeans and all othe rs be recognised as having reality as a model by the me re fact that we believe the Chinese to be real.

The relevant analysis then is semantic and it must take into account the mode l' s degree of acceptance and the use to which it is put by its exponents. Th i s t shall try to do. Feng-shui is divination~ a form of knowledqe. It is a way of conce iving and perce iv ing reality and a way of dealing with reality. Both aspects will be treated in this book but, for lack of cl ose observation of the way in which feng shui operates in practice,the former,for which there is more documentary material, will receive proportionately more attention. I think 1t is true that the need to see ·order in things is universal. The re is a danger of my imposing an alien order onto the order which I see ,or or der per se onto a lack of order. In all probability it ;s impossible to avo id this, but one way of remaining conscious of the possible imposit i on of order is to be aware of incons istencies in the cosmology and in th~ practice of Chinese geomancy. " Inconsistencies" will either be 1. due to my inability to see the looic of the order which r am describino. or 2. an actual inconsistency in the system itself . There may be so many inconsistenc ie s as to constitute a case for abandoning an exp l anation of fenq-shu; as a model. self-defininQ and self-cons i stent. But they may be a) not really inconsistencies but the product of obso lete concepts no longer in practice or b) real and the result of accretions in the evolution of the system.taking in contradictory concepts which are both nevertheless sustained. or c) inconsistencies and contradictions in application and therefore in conception , accepted in the absence of a need to systematise and to form a true model. The question of whether feng-shui i s a model lie s open .

1. Divination may be scientific or magical . I take It in t he sense given It by Vogt and Hyman (19591 p . 192 as "the art o r pr ac t ice o f fo r eseeing o r for ete llin g future event s or d i scove r ing hidden knowledge by signs" .

PART

TWO

THE INDIGENOUS MODEL

THE INDIGENOUS MODEL

15

In discussing feng-shui with a Chinese cook from the New Territories,it was possible to talk on ly of its resul ts,such as wealth,education, and good luck, never of their specific causes; of , for instance. which topographical features of his home village's surroundinqs , or those of an ancestor's grave, caused such and such an event in his life. He was able to theorise on a very general leve l about the way a dragon (i.e . a mountain ridoe) should be shaped,or the genera l effe ct of a tiger-shaped mountain on a person ' s character. but thi s had to be drawn out of himl . r have had a report confirminq the vaqueness of talk about feng-shui in a New Territories village 2• and even conversati on with educated Chinese leaves the impression that feng-shui is as generalised and unsystematic a concept as luck Then one discovers that feng-shui's relation to luck itself is given as causa l . Th i s might l ead one to suspect only that feng-shui is no more systemati c than a col lection of omens , on the same l evel as walkinq under a ladder or having a black cat cross one ' s path in Britain . The truth of the matter is that omens te ll only of the workings of fortune it se lf, and the Chinese have of course their share of such omens too ,while feng- shu i purports t o be a way of manipulating luck. What is especially interesting about feng -shui is that it is very much more like a system of bel iefs, supported by expert practitioners of feng -shui who have at their disposal a vast l iterature and the tools of their practice. It 1s , moreover , this over-articulation , the vastness of the ind i genous theoretical literature on the subject, that cons titute s the initial obstacle in the way of an ana lysis of feng-shui.

I. See part 5 for furthe r deta ils . 2. Private correspond ence.

CHINESE GEOHANCY

16

Not on ly have a l ot of feno-shu; manua ls ,or classics . been written, but they articulate such a variety of data. sometimes conflictinq, that it would be a lifetime ' s labour to give an exposition of it. Thi s variety of theory hastef course its counterpart in the practi ce of feng-shui.Yates (1868)ln his description of feng -shu; as practised in Shanqha i al one was faced with several l oca l varieties and

decided

to describe what was cornnon to them all. I will do the same for the

theory r have read in Lo ndon and hope in so doinq not onl y to describe what i s common t o al l feng -shu; , but also what is basic to it. In order to do so , whi l e taking as ~ groundwork the literature specifical ly devoted to feng-shu;, I shall go bac~ t o sources of classical philo sophy that are al so available to the practising qeomancer and which will help to expose the meaning of fenq-shui symbo li sm.

The unification of China i nto rouqh ly its present area in the third century B.C.saw a co rre sponding amalgamation of philosophical school s.The schools of Vin and Vanq, of the Five Elements . and of the classics of History and of Ri tual (Confucian classics were amalQamated into the School of Natura l ists). and by the time of Chu Hsi and the Neo- Confucians of the Sung dynasty. the trigrams and hexagrams of the Book of ChanQes had al so been incoroorated .Out of thi s syncret i c movement emerqed a universal natural phi l osophv. It was durinq the same period that the practice of feng -shui grew into t he form in which it waS found by Vates. Eitel.De Groot.Edk in s and cOMPany in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the amalgamation and the correlation of phenomena, natural and social. that went with it .Chine se phi l osophers showed a fl air for enumeration that became more arbitrary and further removed from experience as time went on 1 . The Two Schools of Geoma ncy ; Cosmology and Ea rthly Forms

Just as it wi ll be use ful to go back to philosophica l sources of fengshui symbolism in order to separate out the basic elements . it i s useful here to make a brief excursion into the history of fenq-shui in order t o make preliminary incisions and divide feng -shui into its basic element s in two directions. The symboli sm of town-planning and of important buildinqs (and the divininq for ausp i cious dates for the commencement of building) has a history many centuries longer in China than ha s the feng-shui of qraves and houses. although feng-shu; shares thi s symbolism. Noti ons of the formative influence s of cosmic ~d-w+nct-and water on land scape and on man have equa ll y l ong storf ca l roots. But the first re cord of writinq s on fenq-shui occurs in the H~tD4Y 06 the FoltmeJL Han VYnMt y. 1. Fo r a det a il e d hi s tory o f th i s ph i losophlcal de ve lopment, see Needham, 1956 , pp . 232- 346

THE INDIGENOUS MODEL It mentions two works, Golden Bex:

17

06 Ge.omancy and

TeM.~tIt.ittt

Con6oltma tionA 60~ PataCe6 and HOu6e6, neither of which has survived. Kuan Lo (209- 256) has a work 1n the Imperial Encyclopaed i a ascribed to him {~. KUdn'6 Geomantic 111.-

but the ascription of parts if not all of this work to him must be he l d in doubt. It is the next two works. The ~ C~6ie by Kuo P'o of the fourth c~y and The Vellow EmpeAO~ ' 6 VWelting6 Manual by Wang Wei of the fifth century, whose title s at least are not held in doubt , (works under the same titles are also inc l uded in the Imperial Encyclopaedia) and from which,according to De Groot, the masters of feng-shui in his day traced their theories. The Owelling6 Manual, as it appears in the Imperia~E ncyclopae~a, dist inqui shed between Yin dwel l ings and Yang dwellinqs. the former beinq qraves and the latter houses for the living. J A present day manua l of feng-shui pub l ished in Honq Konq and Singapore ,TheSimpti6i~ Guide to the Se~et6 06 Fe.ng-6hui ,also separates Vin from Vang dwellingi-but concentrates on the former. This division having been made, it can be sa id that altogether much more has been written and heard about the feng- shui of graves than of houses. dicato~J

-

-

The siting of ~s has been separated from the siting of other buil dings and the theor i es about it been much more specifically formu l ated i n most of the manua l s I have l ooked intO. Pra ctice may account for this. The placing of graves is not limited by such practi cal considerations as closeness to place of work, or ease of access, and there i s therefore much greater scope for and wil lingness t o obey si ting instructions that may lead to eccentric situations i n out-of- theway places.Furthermore. the sitinq of qraves , concerned as it is with housing the departed,with ancestry and genealogies,is subject to much less concrete considerations and ones that lead more easily to theorisation. It is, however, worth notlngthatmore subsequent activity and conflict surrounds the sites of buildings for the l iving than of those for the dead ,as the cases to be quoted will show,and that the sites of graves are more likely to in sp ire speculation about the distant future,that 1s of the descendants of the deceased,than the sites of houses , which in spire concern much more with the present and the immediate future. In ana lysing the socia l function of feng-shui (Part 5) we too will have to make this distinction, which amount s to a separation of the feng -shu; of descent groups (Yin) from the feng-shui of loca l groups (Vang ). There 1s one other preliminary division of feng-shu1 theory . There were two schools of geomancy, one which concentrated on cosmo l ogy, the other on the forms of the landscape. According to ne Groot and Needham ( 1963) the former began with Wang Chih in the eleventh century and was ca lled the Fukien School since it wa s in north Fukien that Wang Chih practiced.

-

18

CHINESE GEOHANCY

The latter was beQun by Yang Yun -sunq,of the ninth century, who was Imperia l r~omancer and two of whose works stil l survive.Manual 06 the ~0 virtg V~gOrt and Me.thod 06 the Tweive StavM . It shou l d be said that in the period of fenq-shu; practices with which we are ma i nly concerned (late 19th and early 20th centuries) the two school s 'were

no longer kept apart. r,eomancers practisen both methods of sit i nq in both Fukien ·and Kiangsi. according to ne r.root, but they did mainta in that there was sti ll a clear demarcation between the two ; the mounta inous areas of the south be i ng more suscept ib le to the Forms Schoo l . This demarcation is usefu l for the purposes of exposition and I shall divide my description of feng - sh ui theory according ly. Cosmology : the Compass

It is tempting to treat the qeomancer ' s compass dial with its concentric rinqs of symbo l s starting with the Heaven Pool in the centre and working its way outwards throuqh the two cosmic currents into ever more complex and limited symbo l s , as a concrete Chinese mode l of the universe. It mu st not be assumed that it was intended as such but since it does very neatly contain in its rinqs all the sets of ~ymbo l s ever mentioned in manuals which might be said to support the cosmological side of fenq - shui , it wil l be convenient to keep coming back to it as a sta rting point for the description of each set. As is to be expected , there is much variety in the size of compasses and what rinqs of symbols they inciude. The John Couch Adams compass! now in the ~hi p ple ~useum,Cambridge , Eng l and, which has a l ist of its ' rinqs inscribed on its rear, has 25 2, the compass illust rated by De Groat has 17. Williams enumerates 16 rings, Eitel IS. The La Cking Chieh Ri. ~ (ExpiaruttWn 06 t he Cemp.u.4) , which I shall use as my main source of information, l i sts 3S.

,lit

Al l these expositions of t he compass are ring by ring , starting from the centre or from the outermost edge. They may be consu l ted, and I give below what amounts to an extended contents list of the Le Ching Chieh, but a cleare r and more analytic appr oach will he to take out what is common to all these compasses and,si nce frequently the same set of symbols is repeated in more than one ring of a s inqle compass with a slioht variation of application, I shal l also extrapolate each of the basic set of symbols from the rinq s and treat them separately; then see how they interlock with other sets. 1. Ill ustrated as an appendi x. 2. The Chinese met hod of counting rings , adopt ed here , Includes t he cent ral area as t he f ir st , as well as each concentric circular st rip .They are also ca l led layers (u ' eng)/{ ) .

THE RINGS OF SYMBOLS AS EXPLAINEO IN THE LO-CHING CHIEH

19

Th e -rings of sy mbols a s explained in the Lo·ching Chieh

by WU WANG KANG 1. Heaven Pool (~:'e..l :

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

the centra l circular area of t he compass which ho l ds and is divided in half by the magnetic needle The Eight Trigrams( ,/ \.. :il~ ) of Fonner Heaven (;LA ): the eight ~~ , Pa Kua,from the Book of Cha nge s, arranged in the so-ca ll ed Former Heaven sequence Pure Vin ( ~, ft) and Pure Vang C·;¥ J1.j) : not really a sepa rate ring but taking the form of4ed ~ol\. Yang Md buck ~M Y.irt malLIWtg6 on the 24 compass points of Ring 71 The Three Hou ses (..::.~) of the Five Elements LZ.At ): various combinations of the 24 points of the compass al l ocated to each of the Five Elements Or ien t ati on :j:> by the Location of the Nine Stars (1Lg..J : v' ~ne moving otaAA ,as Edkins ca ll s them,or fate -cate gor ies ,as Needham calls them, correl ated with the Pa Kua , the stems , some of the branches , the elements, and wi th the twelve palaces The Star s of Heaven L~

et.

I) :

6 c.o It4UUa.UottO ; oome. 06 the Pa Kua an.d oome

ot~

are selected out as sta rs and given Vin and Yang si9nificances; correlations are made with the Nine Stars and 2 ot her constellations are named The Eart h Plate ( ~e., -j! ) (i.e. govern i nq the ~nner reaion of the compass dia l ) 24 Posftions ( 1Jt ) accord ing t o the Corre ct Needle LiE.. i t >: the 24 pointo 06 .the c.ompdOo ; reminders of the cor - I relations made with them in explanations of previous rings ; exempl ary appli cations to water-courses and the dragon. lists the 8 bitter -nature,s (= animal at tributions)of the 8 triqrams ,and Yel1owspringgriefridden and noxious kua , stem and branch comb ination s - al l to be avoided I. The Lo Chi.f19 chi..eIt conta i ns no Illustration o f an actua l compa s,s so that in cases such as thi s and pe rh~ps also the next ring, It is ha rd to tell whether a sepa rate strip of s ymbol s Is intended . The Lo Chi..n.g ClUeh'o method o f explaining each r Ing Includes nothing so s imp le as a prelimina r y li s t o f the symbo l s t o be e xpl al ned . See t he Adams compass In t he Appendix for corre lation s with some o f t he ri ngs described by Lo Chi..n~ Chi.eIt .

.>" !

20

CHINESE GEOMANCY

8. The Ch '; ( Jt ) of the Four seasons: the. 24 ~-i.~.tee.)1-da.y peM.OcU of the solar yea r co rrela-

ted with the ?4 Doints 9. The Seventy-two DraQons . or Earth Record ~ountain-piercing Tiqer : a sexaqena r y cyc l e of bltd)1ch and .6.tem comb.i.na.t.iCM in

twelve blocks of five,one block for each branch, the twelve spaces between each bl ock correspondinQ to the positions of the 8 stems and 4 triqrams of the 24 pOints;the t otal of 72 posit i ons to be combined with the 72 five-day divisions of the year (hou ~ or f~)

specifical ly for evaluatinq mountain forma t ions

10. The Nine Ha ll s

( 1L'i: J. or

Palaces, of the Hidden Stern i!!. o/ (or numbers) :

72 l1umbeJt
o~

5 [th e Mme 12

tU

in IUllg 9)

u6ing only the. l1umb~ olte.to ~e . indicat ing Yang and Vin positions and an appropriate number for time of year;n umbers supposedly based on the Lo Shu Magic Square contained in the Great Appendix of the Book of Chanqes 11. Mountain - penetrating Ani ma l Stars ( ~ the 28 h6iu ~t~m& divided among the 12 branches in threes and twos and also corre l ated with the sexagenary cyc l e of Ring 9 (see Rino 12) 12. Mountain-piercinq Root Kua ( ~ ~ ~ al l ocates sections of seven and eight , alterna t ely , of the sexaqena r y combinations to the eigkt~9~; these triqrams become the lower three 1ine s 6011. heXLlg4dm~ 06 the ~ok 06 Change6, usually a different hexagram for every sexaqenary combinat ion , alt hough, there are repetitions; involves a system of divination by which each of the six l ines of a hexagram has a meaning. This s'ystem is further expounded in the exp l anation of Rinq 25 which has appended to it a table of the sexagenary combinations and the numerol oqy needed to wo r k it. A second part of the exp l ana tion of this ring continues with the matter of Ring 11 , elaboratinq on the elements associated with the I~iu , the production and destruction orders of the elements and their mutual control - this too linked with a numerolooy of div i na ti on possibly to be found in the table of Ri nq 25

J,.,.t- I. ) : .j\. ) :

THE RINGS

OF SYMBOlS AS EXPLAINED IN THE lO-tHING CHIEH

21

13. The Sixty Dra~ons in Equal flivisions ( {- ..,~ ) : more elaborations on .the .6 exagel'lMy cycle and its assoc iat ions with the ~ua and methods of divination mentioned above;div1des the 60 into 16 posi t ions for filling the home with wealth and honour, 10 for producin9 'llory, 18 half l ucky and half unlucky pos itions, 11 of great bad luck and 5 which are good for graves 14. Heaven's J;...;G ) Sixty Hexagrams to link Mountains ( J,., ) : the characters of the 60 hexag~.6 of the Book of Cha nqes, 1n the Fonner Heaven Sequen ce, leaving out the hexagram equivalents of the four cardinal points of the compass; the 60 arranged in a cycle t o coincide with the divisions of the sexagenary cyc le; comparison at each of these divisions between the hexaqram equ iva lents in the Former and in the later Heaven Sequences ; the Former Heaven Sequence hexagrams show the waxin~ and wanina of Vin and Yang and hence of the ch 'i and seasons,whi le the balance of Yin and Vana lines within each hexaqram is siqnificant only in those of the later Heaven Sequence ; the stems are divided into those which are lucky and those which are unlucky 15. The lines of the Former Heaven HexaQrams : .the actual. diag1l.alll6 06 .the 60 hexag1l.alll6 arranged under the previous rinQ and marked by circles or dots to indi cate misfortune and luck re spectivel y 6. The 120 Divisions CM. ( ~i:- I '

i!

F,.

l'lO .6paCU , e..LtheJr. blank , Olr. 6Uled w.i..th a .6tem c haItLIcteJr. air.

wUh .6exagel'lMy chttlw.dvw - fr om what ca n

be gathered in the text which i s without an il1u stration, and from descripti ons of other compasses 40 .&paCe.6 Me blank, 8 6Uled with

.&tem.6 ,

48 cui.th 4exa-

genMy cluvtacte/L.6 and 24 wdh .the pobt,U a 6 the cam-

paA.6; blanks are totally unlucky, spaces filled with

sexagenary characters t otally lucky (presumably if the specifications for each cOJrbinati on are followed) the 4 Vin stems are lucky and the 4 Vang unlucky as divided in RiM 3's and mentioned in Ring 14's explanations.This rinq contains 48 of the fiO divisions of

22

CHINESE GEOMANCY

Ring 13 as well as the" secret essence" of Ring 9, and the "essential Principle" of the To'ui Kual1 , 11

companion to the Lo ehing Chieh which corre l ates constellations with the 24 points of the compass and der i ves prognostications from them. The rin g is arranqed so as to qive S di visions to each of the 24 po ints and is also. of course . linked up with the five elements. It is spec ifically for evaluating the

site itself . but see Ring 22 17. Earth' s Returnin g-to -Concell.l ment (

.At Ii..

) .60 Hexag rams:

Th e 60 He ~g~ of t he Sook of Ch anqes in the La ter Heaven sequence leav;nq out the hexagrams which are eq uivalent in this sequence to the ca rdinal poin t s of the compass these 4 standinq at the solstices and equinoxes and each of whose six line s govern t he six ch ' ~ of the appropriate season ; these 60 hexagrams extend the seasons an d are divided equally giving five t o each month , one of the five feuda l ranks appropriated to each ; the lines of each hexagram used also f or the method of divination mentioned in Ri ng 12 and elaborated in the ta ble of Ring 25 which would indicate that this was a rinq of" Root Kua " if it were not that this sequence of hexagrams linked with sexagenary cha racters i s not in the table of Ring 25 but forms part of another one , the Precious Mirror , not attached to any particu l ar ring.Each hexagram in thi s sequence indi ca tes the flow and balance of Yin and Yanq. El ements are attri buted throughout 18. The 12 Soverei gn Hexagrams { :!} ): the 1'2 "MVeJleigl1" hexag!U'tl7l~ arranged through the 12 mon th s of the yea r so that the 18th month is ent irely of Vin l ines , the 11th with one Yang l ine at the bottom of the hexagram, Yang wax ; nq to compl et ion in the 4th month after which Vin waxes and Vang wanes 19. The 72 l ines of t he Sovereiqn Hexaqrams : each o~ the 1'2 U.I1U 06 the hexaglLMI~ of Ring 18 gover ns one five-day period of a 360-day year 20. The Five Cycles, or Fates ( .li. and the 6 Ch 'i : the yea r is divided into six equa l per i ods and each is given names and a Yin- or Yang-ness as wel l as an

.$f

if ).

THE RINGS OF SYMBOLS AS EXPLAINED IN THE LO-CHING CHIEH

23

element. Fire having two periods; the ch ' ~ are those of heaven, so- ca lled "guest" or "moving" ch ' ~, which master the earth ch' .i.., or "host" or "clea r" ch ' .i.. , so that on ly if heaven ch' ~ and earth ch ' .i.. are in harmony 1s there happiness; this ring of ch ' .i.. pertains to the heaven part of the compass , earth ch ' .i.. are those referred t o in t he earth part (Rings 4, 7 , 8 , 9, 12 , 13)

Heaven Plate (i .e. outer reqfon of compass) Seam- needle ca l cu l ation of 24 : t h£ 24 po~ 06 th £ com~4 as in Ring 7 but shif1
~

l CA-1\)

it)

(l!.

)

f JiJ) :

24

CHINESE GEOMANCY

tweenthe h6iu arrangements of these two rings and by an enumeration system whi ch link s them to the root hexagrams of rinq 12.the h4iu of anyone position is extended by others in the first place and secondly a whole range of h6iu or rather order in which all the h6iu are to be taken is indicated. Four of thE seven ori ginals are intrinSically lucky but all come into pl~y in production and destruction orders with the elements attributed to mountai ns etc .. . by othe r means (see Ring 12) 25. Earth-penetrating Inner Hexagrams : a table settinQ out hexag4dm4 and sexagenary s~o l s and their extensions. contained al so in the discuss;on of Rinq 12

26. The Ce lest ial Sphere Five Elements According to Degrees a table and explanation distributing the ~~v e ele· m~ in 61 divisi ons of the 356 degrees of the ce· lestial sphere correlated with the h6iu and the 60 cyclica l comb inat ions, the element attributed each time be ing cho sen by vari ous means 27 . Lucky and Unlucky Site Orientations ~ ~~ ) in the Degrees of the Ce- · lestial Perimeter ( i!. A ) :

(t

4pot and CJi.044 naIlWg4 6011. bad tuck , blank ~Oll. good luck 0 11 all. 365 deguu of the ring :half are unlucky,

48 being the dealt-dealers of Heaven's dynamic source, 58 unlucky stars causing element destruction, 74 of 5·element mutual destruction causing the appearance, of noxious sp irits{6ha 1t). , the results of whi ch are li sted; the other sources of misfortune are YinYang imbalance, and disharmony, or cl ashi ng (ch 'ung ;f );the explanation l ists the luck attributions of al, the degrees as names of constel lations and stars which cover them, including the 28 h6iu 28. The Equatoria l Extensions( J.. f!l ) of the 28 Hsiu : thi s is the m~~emen.t o~ the h6iu according to the K'ai -Haf refqn period (1 205) ; it is correlated with the sexaqenary cycle in exactly the same extensions as given in Rinq 26 ; the four quarters of the earth and their lepresentative anima l s are given their h6i.u extensions; ends by pointing out that al though the

...

THE RINGS OF SUHBOlS AS EXPLAINED IN THE lO-CHING CHIEH

25

h.6.iu m;qht be take,. to divide a day's round of Heaven

29.

they are !'lOre approprate to a year' s round, the orbits of the planets being more appropriate to the day (see Rings 37 and 38) The later Heaven ( {i. J:.... ) Pa Kua /\. ll~ the eight tAig~ in the sequence based on the lo Shu magic square The 24 Directions According t o the Ce;1ral Needle ( for the Outer Compass dial: ./ JOt _ _ this i s-another Heaven plate ring of the 24 po.i.n-U, / J> but unlike Rinq 21, they are shifted 7.5 degrees west of nor~h; this ca lcul ation of points i s distinguished in use al so from the other heaven plate,being appropriate to orientations accordinq t o the heaven ly bodies themse lve s , especially h~iu , as distinct from Rinq 21' s appropriateness for ident ifying Heaven inspired ch 'i etc .. . in earthly application Mr. Ts'a; ' s Hountain-piercinq 60 nraqons : .the 60 Cljc1.i.ctLi co",b.i.na.tWn6 in an arrangementattributed t o Ts'ai Shen-.yu of the 10th centuri ,according t o Needham (in this text it is Ts'ai Hsi -shan and Chu Hsi) ; points out that Ri ng s 9, 13 and 23 are unconnected (i.e. not aligned in quite t he same way) and that this ring is to be taken specif ica l ly in correlation with the 120 6en-chin (presumably of the next ring, 32) Outer Dia l 120 Divisions (Fe n- chin) According to the Central Needle .the 6ame 120 ~ymbot6 a~ 06 Ril~~ 16 and 22 , but pre sumab ly, this one i s shifted , and so are the other two, in accordance with the shift of the 24 points repeated for each of the three sections of the compass dial; this rinQ of ~en-clU.l1 specifically for use near the Tz'u Han of Rinq 37 Fen- chin Former Heaven Hexagrams :

& 7

"+ it )

VI

31.

32 .

33.

.the

~ame

aIVlangemeltt

06

~ljmbou

M

06 R.i.ug 14, spe-

cifically to be taken toqether with the 120 ~en-c lt'<'l1 and to show the cla sh (c.lI ' wtg) or hannony (/10 1fC )of Vi n and VanQ lines at each posi tion 34. Fen -chin later Heaven Hexaqrams : the same 60 hexag4am~ a6 06 Ring 1" also to be ta-

26

CHINESE GEOMANCY ken with the 6e.tt-c.1U11 and specifically to divine each

position accordinq to the method in wh i ch each line of the hexaqram is separate ly interpreted (see Rings 17 and 12)

35. The Co~ lete Received Ca l endar (

~t

*

At ) Oeqree

Calcula ti ons

a circumference of 940 denrees in 4 divisions of 235 36. The Equatoda l hteM.t.oI1.6 06 .tIle 'l8 H.6.w ;

accordinQ to the Received (Shou) system of the previous Rinn. not the K' ai-hsi one used in Rinq 28 al thouoh differences are on l y very slioht - of one or under one oenree ; it is a calendar of 365 days in t he year. This rinq, as distinct from Rin9 28 i s spe cifically for choice of position of sun, moon and 5 pl anets 37. The 12 Tz'u Han (

iJt~ )

:

The Tz 'u. H(lt! are the .twelve !:Manchu used as double-

hour dividers of the day ; i s based on ye t another calendrica l arranQement . the Kao Hsin Pan. which is also of 365 deQrees and Qives h..!..iu extensions very much the same as those of Rinqs 36 and 28,but it appea r s that the latter shou ld be taken with a 360 day year, 3 days per ~en-ch.i.n ; this too Qoverns a system of choice of hour and day by the luck of the re levant pl anet or the sun or moon (see Ring 24) 38. The 12 Positions Oiv idino the Country ( .the 24 po.inU .in 12 )1(Ii.!u ; each pair approp r i ated to one division of China , its astrological influence governing that geographical division; thi s i s linked with the previous rinQ si nce in effect the 12 pairs are also the 12 branches.

,Iq. 1f ) :

That ends the explanation of the ci rcles. Next comes the Prec i ous Mirror table referred to in the explanations of rinQS 9.17 and 23 (see pp. 67 - 68 ) and the Ts'ui Kuan tab l e referred to in the explanation of RinQ 16 (see pp. 87 89 ) . As I shall show, the dial of the compass accordi ng t o the Exptanat.i.on appears to

be divided into three Plates as follows: Rings 1 - 6 Centre Rings 7 -19 or 7.0 Earth Pl ate Rings 20 or 21 - 10 Inner Heaven PI ate Ri ngs 30 - ~8 Out er Heaven Plate

THE TRIPARTITE DIVISIONS

or

THE COMPASS DIAL ANO THE 24 POINTS

27

The Lo ClUng ClUeh !Explal1aU.o r. 06 th e Comp.:t6<1) is so much more comprehensive than any other description of the compass dial that I have found that it includes everything the others mention. In what follows I wil l , therefore,confine my references to its rin gs and their "explanations" as out l ined above. Lo ClUng Chi.eh had its first edition in the Ming dynasty.Neverthe l ess, the symbo l s and arrangement of its rings is similar both to Needham ' s and to De Groot's illustrated compasses, which are of a much later date - 19th century. I therefore feel justi fied in using it as an explanation of feng - shu i symbols re l evant to the period in which most of the cases to be quoted happened. The edition of Lo ClUng ClUeh which I used was that of 1810.

• •

•

T h e tri par ti te di visions of the compass dia l a nd the 24 points

or direc tions (Rings 7, 21 , 30, 38, 16 , 22, and 32)

Before l eaping back into the morass of symbo l s that have now been pre sented it is important to note that all of them, except for the tri and hexagrams (perhaps the five elements should also be excepted) on the i r own are signs for ob served astronomi ca l and natural phenomena or for measurements of time and space, and only in addition to such very concrete and definite significance do they atta i n the rank of symbols~ This being a compass, obviously the most basic signs are those that i ndicate the direct i ons, and have to be al igned with the magnetic need le . In China , the magnetic need le pOints south. In the West , we have put the tail where the Ch inese put the point on the needle. There are 24 direct i ona l signs on the Chinese compass dial , as given below. They are made up of the 12 branches, 4 of the tri grams from the Book 06 Chal1ge
28

CHINESE GEOHAtl CY

Branches IClUhl

t.

Trinrams 1,,,,,1

1- ,,,

*" 1i ~r

"..fl...

e.. -t

-~.

,!'I'ou

Stem s {Kanl

.f- jen 1;~ kuei

R. 'eo

yi n

~ chia

t NNW

by

:NE NNE NE ENE

bY"] by

L..; ~

EJ]

[SE by

SE

sun

ssu

if;] ' ;09 wu

T

ting

i'lf yu

A hs'

:J]

SSE by

EJ

:SE

SJ]

by

SSW by S]

SSW SW

if "uo

E]

ErIE by

[SE by

ch'en

NJ]

by NJ

E

mao

i- we; 'I' shen

1;:

:11·

by • ]

]

WSW' by S

J1. 'eo9

:SW

"*

WNW by

hs; n

by

WJ]

wJ

WNW by , ]

fL ch 'ien ha;

NW

J

NNW by W

As indicated,the 24 points may be grouped into threes to make a Simpler arrangement of 8 , being made up of the four cardinal points and the four "cornerpoints as the Chi nese call them . This arrangement of 8 is associated with the eight trigrams, to be discussed shortly. The 24 points are, as is also indi cated, grouped into 12 pairs. In Ring 38 each pai r becomes a symbol for an as trol ogica l influence governing one of 12

t

Divisions of Chi na. Th is is

the basis of

a ·system of divina tion popular, acco r -

di ng to Needham (1963 . p . 295). in the seventh century . De Groot (1 897. p. 1009) notes that fen g- s hui manua l s of hi s day frequentl y began by a di sse rtation on

h~

the K'un-lun ra nge of moun tains in the far north-we s t of China i s "the orogen itor of all t he mountains of the world and the centre of the earth" from which the great r ivers carry the benefici al influences of the dra90n to the so uth and southeas t. There ,.Jou l d follow

sections on t he peculiarities of the fen g-shu; of every

THE TRIPARTITE OIVISIONS OF THE

CO~IPASS

DIAL AND THE 24 POINTS

29

province as a who l e with astronomica l maps to el uci date the correlations made between cele stial and t errestria l characteristics. Exact ly how th i s fonn of feng -shui divination was worked is not explain2d by la eking Chieh • De Groat or Needham , but some combination of the meanings associated with the 12 pairs of di rectiona l characters which may quick ly be bro ken down further into t he 12 branches.and the cl imatic and geographica l regu l arit ies of China could Pl a/

Y ~ovide its ground work~ t

....

- 6(

/,k,

To re~urn o' the 24 pOints as mere measures of space. we have;reen that . h they are repeated three times , ~h time in the,lSame order in the la Cking but sh ifted roun some degrees accot'ding to the Cor. ect Needle (Ring f) . the Seam Needle (Ri ng 2) and the Centra l Needle (Ring 3 ) , These are the names given to the three repetitions of the 24 points on the geomantic compass in the Whipp le Museum. Cambridge. i ll ust rated by Needham (1963, pl ate CXX)~ He expla i ns (pp. 294 and 295) that the Correct Need l e is true , or as t ronomi ca l, no rth; t he Seam Needle shift being 7. 5 deg.r..e.es east of north to accord wi th the dec l inationof mag neti c from true north as observed in the ninth century by Yang Kung ; the Centra l Needle shift being 7.5 degrees west of north to accord with the declination ob served, according to tradition , in the twe l th century by lai Kung.

Becoming more symbolic, the three circles divide the compass dial into three so-called "p l ates ". On the Whipple Museum compass these three plates are called ~ M~and Heaven plates , being respectively the in~st, the cen tral (wh ich is that of the C!Dtral-N~_ on the Whipple Compass), and the outer- ) most (the Seam Heed l e). The La Cking Chieh omits a Man Pl ate, having Earth, Hea ven and Outer Heaven, and reverses the order of Seam and Central Needles, but the division into three ;s there, and, since the Inner Heaven Plate is concerned with the closest of corre l ations between Earth and Heaven Influences, it may permissibly be taken as an equivalent to a Man Pla te. What is in any case to be noted here is that there are equiva lent s for the Chinese Division of their universe i nto Heaven, Man and Earth. Man was seen as being in the same serie s as Heaven and Earth, not as i nferior . In other words, he cou l d influence them as they influenced him .Although in practi ce it mi ght seem that their influences on hi m are more

-

1. See pp . 54 - 55 be l ow f o r t he l'I8anings o f the br anches . For a brief ' desc r iption of seasona l regularit i es of cl i!'late , see pp . ~53-1 54 . Geogr aphic regu l ari ty would st art from the flow of Ch i na ' s main r ivers to the easter n sea from the west er n high plateaux and mount ain ran ges - ferti l e plains in the north-east , swamps and trop Ics In the south-w est , f er tI l e ... alleys and coas t a l plains in the south- eas t. 2 . An d here , In th e Appendi x . It i s ca lled th e Adams compass after t he man who present ed I t t o t he Whlpple Museum.

CHINESE GEOHANCY

3()

powerful he can at least manipulate their influences and play them against each other to his benefit. Chinese geomancy woul d be difficul t to understand wi thout recognition of this basfc assumption. Besides account ing for magnetic declination , the effect of having the rings of 24 pOints shifted round sl ightly is that when the three rings are taken in a straight l ine ,each of the 24 divisions comes opposite its neighbour s to l eft and right,according to the shift from centre. Not s i ~ nfficant here.;t becomes more so for other series of symbols . also repeated in each of the three pl ates and shifted round. In this way ,the blur of the limits of each symbo l ' s infl uence, the mutual interaction of nei ghbouring symbols in a series, is indicated. It is true to say for all the series of symbols on the compass that each marks a point i n a con tinuum, not a clearly demarcated area. There is nevertheles s a preference for the pOints as opposed to the blurred edges. The cardinal poi nts of the compass (S, N, E, W) are unchangi ng and mean certainty while the seam or corner points (SE, NW, flE , SW) are points of change. When the directions are subdivided into sixty, as they are in the circ l es of cyc l ical combinations , it is the due pOSitions, which in t ha t context are the 24 directions , which are luckiest .

• •

•

In operation, having al igned the dial with the needle,the geomancer uses a thin thread with weights on either end to drape over the compass dial in a s traight li ne in order to take bearings on the s ite or any feature of its surroun ding land scape. The line of his thread, wh i ch must always cross the centre of the comrass , thereby connects up a line of the relevant symbo l s from each of the series in their concentric circ les on t he dial relevant t o that bearing. By them he can div ine the fortunes inhe r ent in the site and how i t i s affected by t he surrounding l andscape. ~

,

The land scape- is seen as made ur of t yoica l features to which spec ial attent ion must be given. Ring tJ s exp lanat ion names them. Where possib l e , the site \ is on a slope. The ridges of the mountains or hills on the slope of wh i ch t "e site is s ituated and also of all those wi t hin its siqht , t he way t hey are connected and ranged, are important. These,the l ines of the rai sed features of the landscape ,

,-..~

THE TRIPARTITE DIV ISIONS OF THE COMPASS DIAL AND THE 24 POINTS

31

are the t wis ts of the dragon's arterie s , the ducts of dragon eh '~ ~ 1. Bearlngs are t o be taken on the di rect i on of their progress as they approach the site on t he point at which the line may be sa i d t o come t o a head, where it can be seen to enter and t o lea ve the surroundi ngs , and (he re Ring 7's explanation changes fro m human to bamboo image ry) , t he position of , and directi on faced by the slope of each sec ti on of the dragon. A poo l or some accunu l ation of water shoul d be in front of the site. Bea r ings are t aken on where the watercourses that l ead into it as well as on where those visib l e in the vicinity bra nch and f l ow toget he r , on the directions of t hei r f l ow , where t hey may be seen to ente r and t o leave the sur roundings and ,where relevant.the poin t at wh ich they ente r and leave the pool. They are bearers of a different kind of eh ' ~~ Othe r features of the landscape. paths , railway track s , l ines of neighbouring roo fs. may also be bearers of e h' ~ , or they may bear 4ha~ These are all bearings on the dynamics of the l andscape. Of the static features. it is important to take beari ng s on visible pea ks of mountains and any outst anding feature of the gro und such as boulders or bank s of earth t hrough which the watercourses run,as we ll as the position of the site itself and the direction in which it. or rather the sl ope of the hi ll or mountai n i t is on , faces. prom~ .­ nent si ngl e or cl umps of trees are not menti oned speci f ica ll y, but they are certainly central t o t he geomantic landscape and in flat country may subs titute the protection afforded by the hil l t o the rear of the site. There i s , therefore , a mul t i tude of bearings which can be taken , f or each of which there is a different l ine of symbols.It js the i nterac t ion of t hese bearings t ha t prodU/;es the luck or misfortune of the site. The process of in teraction will be seen most clearly when we come t o the section on the five eleme nts . and their mutual production and destructi on orders. The 24 di recti onal symbols have in t hemse l ves l i ttle meaning, although mere ly by being branche s , stems or trigrams they are given different values. It i s by means of the symbols associated wi th them from other series . especiall y the fiv e elements that they are given content, and it 1s incidentally to be reme~ bered that the rings or ser ies arranqed on the dia l are fixed and that it is therefore possible t o make defin ite cl i ch~ assoc iati ons with anyone poi nt. The most immed i ate assoc iation s made with the 24 point s are in t he three rings of the 120 divisions (Rings 16, 22 and 32) which include the 24 symbo l s for the direct i ons ~u t separate them su~ i vid their areas , with stems and sexagenary characters . Thus, only ln the ntext of the whole comp lex of compa ss symbo li sm do t he 24 directi ona l si gns th msel ve symbol ic value. I . For an explan ti on 0

sec t ion belo w on eh ' ~ .

CHINE SE GEOMANCY

32

To return to the triple div i sion of the compass dia l . Ring 30 may be quoted on t he uses to which each of the three lo Ching Chieh rings. of 24 directional symbol s may be put: " Ri chness

or

poorness

as

assoc i ated with the ch ' i.. could no t be t old

wi thout (exami ning) t he s tars . (So) t o orientate according t o heaven take the Heaven plate (i.e. t he outermost ). To seek the dragon ' s pul se (or arteri es) and the pur i t y of earth ch 'i.. , take the Earth pl a te ( i .e. the i nnermo st ) . To f i nd the charac teri s t ics of t he Leadership of heaven ch ' i.. in the accumul ation of ground (infl uenc es ) take the Heaven plate (Le . the mi ddle p l ate)".

The centre of the unive rse and the two cosmic forces 1 .

Having begun the analysi s of geomantic symboli sm with its most pract i ca l aspect ,the ana l ysis will now s t art out from the the o ritical,or metaphysi c al source . To expound the source and at the same time to give an examp le of the kind of l anguage in which feng-shui is couched , a s we ll as to give several hints as to what the pra ctice of feng - shui meant for the Chinese we can do no better than to quote the explanation of Ring I, al most a ll of it :

~

'~h e compa ss takes the fo r es t and mesh ,and makes an order of the thi ng s the world. In the middl e of al l thi s i s one wel l, the Heaven Pool, called thf Pool of t he Great Abso lute (T' o..i-clU. .:t...;:fi. ) ... movement and r epo se working to· gether.This. for t he schol ar i s t he source of LiJj[and Ch ' i~2 . Now Heaven fi r st produc e s~e r and water i s , as the scholar knows . t he mother of ch 'i 3 . Fix your mind on the wat er in the poo I 4. Ine m1ddl e 1S dlv1ded by a thin line. On i t s lef t (NB fac i ng south ) from tz u (see abov e , due N) t o ping ( SSE by S) i s sub j ect t o Yang . On its right, from «tt (due S) t o jen (NNW by N) is subj ect to Vin. The hard material of the needle enabl es it t o di sc lose and decide . Moreover, the lode stone wa s vitalized by earth ch 'i , it i s earth ' s off spring, and earth i s the centra l of the fi ve elements .. . Pur e wat.er i n repose must re sid e at the centre !!..ru=_e--i.ts_ac.ti~ to disc los e the ch ' i of Yin and Vang. It enables the cl'tv ts1CiTl into the t wo primorofii l orms , (tlie singl e line an
in

I. All se r Ies o f s ymbol s a re a ff ected by t he cosmic forces Yl n a nd Yang but Rings I and 3 espec lll l ly , and Rings 10 , 12, 14, 16, 17, 20 , 24, 26, 27 , and 37 as we l I make spec I f lc use o f Yln-Ya ng s ymbo l i sm . 2 . Li a nd Ch'i Il re bas ic Neo-Gon fu cla n, or Chu- Hs i- Ist , co nce pt s and wi l I be disc ussed in t he sect ion below on Ch ' i . 3. The ~ Cta4~ie attr i but ed t& Kuo P' o , one o f the founde r s o f feng- sh ul , has t he re la t ionsh i p rat her d iff erent l y: "Ea r t h is t he mot her o f Ch'i . .. Ch 'i the mot her of wate r . Fo r Chu- Hs i -ist s , who Il r e after a l r a t the ori gin of t he concept , nei t her hea ven nor ea rt h a re or Ig I na t or s ( if tha t I s the wa y "Mot he r" I s t o be ta ken l. Ch" -<' Is t he lif e- breath o f 11 11 thing s a nd It s s t a r ting po int Is the Great Abso lut e , and so we come bac k t o the Heave n Pbo l . 4 . The image ry he re Il nd i n t he fol lOwing sen t ences Is a ppropr iat e , the poo l beIng t he f luid on which t he magnet ic needl e is suspended, the th i n l ine t he magnet ic needl e it self .

THE CENTER OF THE.UNIVERSE AND THE TWO COSHIC FORCE S

33

possible combi nations of the primor dia l form s) , se~le s the eight tr i grams (of sing l e and broken l i ne s) and complete s the great busine ss . The fi ve ch ' ~ (r ain , fine weather, heat , cold , wind) sa l l y f orth into the. wor ld devo ting their energies t o the three gr owths of all t hings .Their cycl e i s in exhausti ble and( it s exi st ence) can always be relied on . If it were not for the Ileaven Poo l, you cou ld not as certain the dir ec tion of the mounta ins and streams , and the work of the cyc l es would be uncharted,the pr i nci ples of change and movement und ivulged and you would not be able to consider the trans format i ons of the spirit or penetrate heaven and eart h ... The secret is i n t he compass ' s rows and placcs ,tt-.e pos it ion of the names o~po s it e t he posi tion of t he changing (d irect ions of ) the streams by which the changes can be invest igated" . With the centre of the comoas s so consc i ousl y seen as the cen t re of the un i ver se and the three di vis i ons of the universe see n in the t hree di visions of the compass dial , perhaps i t is not so wrong to take the compa ss as a Chine se mode l of the universe. The s i mi larity of the above quotation to Chou-Tun- i ' s (10171073) 1 diagram and exp lanat ion of t he Great Absol ute is self-evident. I illustrate it be low with the translation of its explanat i on as gi ven in Needham (1956 . pp. 460-1) leaving out the elaboration into socia l ethics which gives littl e en li gh tenment of the way prognostications were made by ge~ncers because feng - shui is an amora l sys tem2 (see illustration on following page) .

• •

1. A pr edecessor of Chu Hsi and one of the founder s of Nee - Con fuc iani sm . p.36 on feng - shui and T' ien . 2. See

34

CHINESE GEOMANCV

Chou Tun l's

n; a~ram

of the l'ai Chi (Great Abso l ute)

Al l five parts of this diagram are various aspects, or cross-sections, of one and the same ci r cular Great Abso lute or Supreme Po le.

unbroken lines

the Tao of Ch ' len

YANG

VIN

motion

repose

perfec t ing

perfecting

the Tao

broken

maleness

femaleness

of ~u~

lines

The myriad things in tran s formati on and generation

TIiE CENTER OF' THE UNIVERSE AND THE TWO COSMIC FDRCES

35

(1) That which has no Pole! Vet (itself) is the Supreme Pole (T'di cki)! (2) The Supreme Pole moves and produces the Vang. When the movement has reached i ts limit.rest (ensues) . Resting . the Supreme Pole produces the Vin o When the rest has reached its l imit . there is a retur n to rnotion . ~tion and rest alternate . each be ing the root of the other. The Vin and Vang take up their appointed functions . and so the Two Forces are established. (3) The Va ng is transformed (by)reacting with the Yin and so water .fire. wood . metal and earth are produced. Then the Five C h ' ~ diffuse harmoniously and the Four Seasons proceed on their course. (4) The Five El ements (if combined. would form) Vin and Yang. Vin and Vang (if combined. wou ld form) t he Supreme Po le. The Supreme Po le is essentially ( identica l with) that which has no Pole. As soon as the Five Elements are formed. they have each their specif i c na ture. (5) The true (pri nciple ) of that which has no Pole . and the essences of the Two (Forces) and the Five (Elemen t s) . unite (react) with one another in marve ll ous ways . and consoli dations ensue. The Tao of the heavens perfects maleness and the Tao of the earth perfects femaleness. The Two Ch 'i (of maleness and fema leness) . reacting with and influencin g each other. change and brin g the myriad thin gs into being . Generation follows gene ration and there is no end to their changes and transformations. A noteworthy characteristic of the way in which Chou Tun-i take s his diagram and of the way in which Wu Wang - kang (the author of Explanation o~ .the. CompaG&). and for that ma tter probab ly many more than these two Chinese . take the form of the compass dial and the lines of the configurations of a landscape is that what are in fact static forms are taken as l ines of motion. For example . a circle is taken as circular activi ty. It is important to be aware of this concept in understanding the references to change . transformation and growth when applied to streams. li nes of mountain s . etc ... which are not in fact cha ngin g. They stand for change,change in the fortune of men; and ~c tual changes in light. vegetation. weather and other effects of the seasons he l p this i llusion. Vin and Yang.the diagrams of the Boo~ o~ C hang~ , and the Five Elements are centred on t he Great Abso lu te. or Supreme Po le, of the Neo-Confuci an and geomantic universe. The basic correlations between them are shown in Chou Tun- f's diagram ,but for the purposes of analytic exposition I wil l treat them separate ly, and am supported in this by the separate historica l or i gin s of their conception s .

36

CHINESE G[OHAACY

Before pass ing on to Vin and Vanq some mention shoul d be made of the meaning of the Ch inese word "heaven" [,t'.ien) as in Heaven Pool.lt is anthroporoorphic , as in the phrase Hual1g ,t'.ien ~ho.llg ti , "imperial heaven and the supreme emperor".lt ;s fatalistic , as in the sentence from Met!(~..iM (~ook 1 part 11, sect ion 14) "As to the accomplishment of a great deed, that is with T' ien." It can mean "nature~ , the natural order of things , and of course means the sky or celestial ~phere as opposed to the earth. The powe r, the numen , of the word may wel l derive from its very high ambiguity. This particular ama l gamation of meanings in any case se serves we 11 as the centre of a system of beliefs about the fortunes of men based on observa t ions and measuremen t s of his physical environment. In it, however, T'ien is conceived as a natural force,more than a moral or an t hropomorphic direc ting powerl. Vin and Vang, concepts of an equall y high metaphys i ca l order, also have definitions which come from purely phys ical observations. The etymology of Vin 1s "shady . the north side of a hill",of Vang "sunny , the south side of a hill.,,2 As dua l ist forces they then come to stand for a great range of opposites: qu ie scence and motion,fema leness and maleness,substance and spirit, low and hi9~. mother and father. It is to be remembered t hat they are forces,principles, not static entities. When in the passage from Ring l' s explanation quoted above it says that the east side of the compass i s subj ect t o Vang.the west side to Vino this means that t he ea stern half of a clockwise motion sees the ascendancy of the Vang force culminating in due south . the continuation of t his motion on the west side sees the ascendancy of Vin culminating in the north . This is explained for Rings 2 and 18 with reference to the Former Heaven sequence of the eight trigrams and we shall ~fer to it again when discussing them. North is dark , the sun rises in the east. i s at its apex in the south and sets in the west. Although arbitrary, both we and the Chinese find it easy to add onto this the association of the four seasons,winter to north.spring to east. summer to south. and autumn to west. Thus the Vin and Vang motion is seen t o produce the seasons and at the same time to work through the divisions of the compass. Th is process is very clear ly illustrated by Wi ll etts (1958 , pp. 270-1) in the graph shown below. It is worth quoting him on the kind of correlation made with Vin - Vang theory in the Han dyna sty - a range of correlation that the compass incorporates . Surrounding the centre of the universe (Heeven Pool. Great Abso l ute. T' a-i-.i. ~ L ) as the stars may seem to centre on the Po le Star, "scarcely a class of observed phenomena failed to find its place in the system of fancied corI . See pa rt 4, pp . 19 1- 193 for f ur ther discussion of T' icn and fen9- shui . 2 . As used by Sun Wu , see not e I . p. 10

37

THE CENTE R Of THE UNIVERSE AND THE TWO COSMIC FORCES

respondences that grew up in the Han times. Nort h, East , South and We st, the Four Quadrants into which the vault of Heaven was di vid ed , surrounded the circumpolar Central Palace of the SUpreme rul er T'ai 1 [Gr eat Unity], just as upon Earth, the Four Directions of terrestria l spa ce (t'.i..e.n h4i..a. "under heaven") surrounded the pala ce of the Emperor. They corresponded al so with the Four Seasons ... and the Four Cardina l Point s corresponded with the seasona l so lstices and equi noxes. Pres iding over them were the ... Four Supernatura l Beings , Tortoise . Dragon, Phoenix and Tiger ... brought into association with the Four Elements Water , Wood, Fire and ~Ietal [ the fifth , eart h, wa s at the centre and therefore not in· cluded in this correlation] and the Four Co l ours Black , Green, Red and White. If thi s cosmogony was arbitrary, t he causa l theory of two antithetical but complementary for ces working it is a rudimentary scientif ic hypot hesis analo· gous to modern theorie s of wave ·motion . Indeed, their interaction can best be ex· plained by means of a graph . Associated with the name of the fourth cen tury B.C. scholar Tsou Yen,the dual istic concept of Yin and Yang explain s a ll ce l est ial and terres trial revoluti ons as alternating phases of ascendancy and declens i on of these two forces. "

A

SPRING ( East : Dragon)

SUMMER

( South; Phoenix') Maximum'-__~::~~::~'-~=;~~~~~lr ),ang Summer

r.

AUTm ':-l ( West ; Tiger)

WINTER (North ; Tor to ise)

__~~~~~__-r__~~~CCCC-C~

Solstice

Autumn Equality

Equi nox

+-------/c------+ --------------+ -------l<;""= =-f-----------------j Spring Eq uinox

Wi nter Solstice

Mlximuw1-______________l-______________-L______________-L__-",,-+_<<-__-' yiD

More will be said about the Four Supernatural Beings when we come to discuss the Schoo l of Forms aspect of feng·shui, and further correlati ons will be illustrated in the section on the Five Elements below. Meanwhile, another quotation, thi s time Eitel ( 1874, p. 46 ) , describes the organic process of Yang and of Vin in the form of "breaths" !c.h' iJor pulsations. It -is a description of a Chinese concept written for European readers and not scrupulously representative of the Chi nese imagina tion, but it identifies the process vividly. "Whenever the breath of nature fir s t advances or expands, something like an unshapen foetus is created, which constitutes the germ-like beginni n~ offuturc

38

CHINESE GEOMAHCY

developments. This shapel ess, incipi ent orlgln of things being light and pur e, but not yet possessing any determinate form,belongs to the male and any be called the super ior principle of nature, but when the determinate shape has been assumed , it manifes tl y presents itself to view , and constitutes the exac t form of things, possessing body,colour, shape and manner. This , being heavy. gross and cogni table t o the human senses belongs t o the female , and may be called the inferior principle ... One advancing and one reversing breath, regularl y succeeding each other are the condition of growth and decay. of life and death in the physical world."

Furthermore it is to be noted that both in the Chou Tun-i diagram and in the Yin-Yang symbo li sm of the diagrams of the Book 06 Change4,Yin is contained in predominantly Yang condition s and vice-versa. It is their ratio, the symmetry of their disposition, that is either harmon i ous or bia sed (words constant ly used in this reference in the Explanation) that gives ground for hope or anxiety when it comes to telling fortunes . It is right to do things in appropriate season. The sea sons are the regular and most gene ralized motion of Vin and Vang.But their intercourse may also be detected at the most part icular l evel , and at this level it is not as easy t o know where their proportions are out of order or where they are in harmony. For this the rings of hexagrams in the Later Heaven sequence are necessary. Too much Yin-ness at a spot of ground may mean too much dampness, stagnation, death. too much Yang-ness may mean over-parched earth, over-exposure. The Exptanation does not go far to specify the physical effects of Yin or Yang imbalance. it more readily and more frequently says mere ly that bad luck and noxious influences (4hal result from such imbalance and that it should be avoided. The trigrams and hexagrams of the later Heaven sequence,says the explanation for Ri ng 33,are for the detection of Yin - Yang harmony or clash at particular spots .The Former Heaven sequence, as it 1s explained for Ring 14. i s to indicate the waxing and wan i ng of Yin and Vang at the most genera l level, the heavenly or cosmic level as described above. Since an unbroken line stands for Yang and a broken line stands for Yi n and the symbols -trig rams and hexagrams - of the Book 06 Change4 are entirely made up of broken and unbroken lines ,n atura ll y it i s they who are the primary carriers of Yin-Yang information. But they are not the on ly ones. The unbroken line (Yang) i s one line, the broken l ine (Yin) is thereby made into two lines. It follows that odd numbers are Vang and even numbers Vin o By this means, everything or every situation is given a Yang or Yi n characteristic . Numbers 1,3,5, 7 and 9, and 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 of the ten stems are Yang and Yin . respectively, and when taken in pairs of one odd and one even numbered stem they come to mean, for instance, the Yang and Yin aspect of each of the Five Elements (= the 5 pai rs of stems). Ring 3, what js more , allocates Yang- or Yin-

THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE AND THE TWO COSMIC FORCES

39

Elements ( = the 5 pairs of stems). Ring 3, what is more, allocate s YangM or Yin ness to each of the 24 points on the basis of this method. First it takes the Former Heaven sequence of 8 trigrams (Ri ng 2) fo r the 8 pOints of the compass , but enumerat~s them by means of the numbers in the Lo Shu magic square l , which may also be taken as a very simp le directional compass dial. It gives the cardinal points odd numbers ( therefore Yang) and the corner pOints even (therefore Yin). Then ,quite logically,the odd numbered stems and branches of the 24 poin ts are allocated to odd - numbered trigrams, even stems and branches to even trigrams. But when you look to see which of the 24 directions are thus made Yang and which Vino you find that they by no means correspond with the Vang and Yin directions indic~ ted by the 8 Former sequence trigrams of Ring 2 i the cardinal points mac (due east) ~r and Iju (due west) LW for instance come out as Vino It is possible to some extent t o resolve thi s inconsistency as follows.The Former Sequence stands for the Heavenly order of things, the great cycles of sun and seasons , the Ring 7 to which Yin and Vang is being allocated is of the Earth plate and therefore of the pl aces on the ground. The derangement of the regula r cyclic order is therefore meant to account for the more random- like distribution of Yin and Yang on the ground. Dif ferent parts or circumstances of the same situation are qua l ified each in a different way appropriate to it. Having qualified each of the circumstances in its proper way ,i t is possible t o decide the favourableness of the whole situa tion by the overa ll balance of circumstances. For an example from the Explana.U.ol1 on the way in which Yin-Yang balance man ifests itself on the ground,so to speak,we may take the explanation of Ri ng 3 which recorrrnends that: "A Yang direction ; a Yin dragon should be si tuated on a Yang mountain facing a Yin direction." The recol1l11endation could have several meanings .To give some of them will show some of the kinds of balance to be detected by the compass and some of the sophistry of feng -shui discourse.To start with "dragon" : it may refer to lines of elevation going in directions of Yang or Yin ascendancy. It may refer to the "corner" point s of the 8 compass points as indiM cated by Ring 2. there called dragon trigrams. or changers. just as the lines of land formation are called dragons and change direction. They are changers because they are at points of ambiguity between the unchanging 4 cardinal points. Two of the changers are predominantly Yin and two predominant ly Yang. It is most likely, however, that Mdragon" refers to a reading on one of the rings of sexagena ry cha 1. The lo Shu , acoord ing t o Wilhel~ , t rans lator of t he 1 eking, is t he basis for the l ater Heaven sequence . The autho r of Expial1a.U.ol1 is aware of the inconsistency of usi ng It with the Forme r Heaven sequence, saying "Pwoe Yin and PuPe Yang (aUo -

cat iona}a)'e based on the Fo)'mer Heave n sequence coup Zed rJith the Later Heaven po-

sitions . " More will be saI d about the lo Shu In t he section below on Enumerat ion

Orders .

CHINESE GEOHANCY

40

racters which, too, are ca lled dragons. "Mountain" may !rean a mountai n mass situated at a point of the compass to which a Yin or Yang attribution ha s been

given by Ring 3 . "nirecti on " is most

l ikely to ll2an the direct i on in which the dragon pO i nt on the mountain mass is fa-

dng .To choose on a Vang mountain mass a Vin point facing a Vin direct i ona nd viceversa . is • then . a proper ba l ance of the two cosmi c forces.

The Five Elements an d the Twelve Palaces 1

\r

Q he Five Elements (u.u h6.ing

..D.-..ft ) are

Water /.!.Imi

1.f'.

I . Fire (huo

::J:.... ) , Wood (mu .i.. Meta l (ch.Ut ~ ) . and Ea rth it ' u;l:..J. "Element" has become accepted as the tran slation of h6.ing ma inl y by the duration of its currency. not for its precision. It need s qualifi cat i on. The IOOst usua l se nse of Miltg ;s "to move" or "to go" . {(Ill. hQin.g has been translated as the Five Agents . which retains t he kinetic sen se of hQing. The Chi nese elements are in any case not t o be understood as substances but rather as differents t ypes of energy whi ch inform every substance and every process of change and transformation . !\lthough their names are taken from observed external phenomena and the chara cteristi cs attributed to each of them are certain ly based on the qualities of these phenomena ,they are nevertheless primaril y, and probab ly in or i gin also , a metaphys i cal series of concepts much as are Vin and Va ng. like Vin and Vang too, they are indicated by every series of symbols on the compass . . On the cosmic level, the celestial sphe re and t he six divi si ons of the year are all oca ted (Rings 26 and 20) the i r various elemental characteristics; on the more pa rticularistic le vel , each of the 28 hQ.iu 2 positions is given an element by Ri ng 24, and on the Earth l eve l, Ri ng 4 indicates a number of sys t ems of detecting the el emen t s of mount ains, the directions in which they face, and the directions of wa t ercourses. In add iti on . the astrological influen ces of the nine st ar s are i n terms of the five elements and the eight trigrams also have element qua l ifications .) 111 ( Again ,as described fo r Vin and Va ng,when a singl e element is indicated, this onl y means that it is predominant ,the other four are al so there , in a rece ssive relat i onsh ip . ) LL1 ( What was said ahove about the multl~ude of ways in which Vin and Va ng 1. The elements suffuse every ser ies o f symbo l s on the compass dial but Rlngs 4 , 20 , 24 and 26 most pa r tlcularly , and also Rings 5 , 12 , 16 , 17 , 27 , and 37 make specific use o f them . 2 . See section below on The Hslu .

41

THE FIVE ELEIo£NTS AND THE TWELVE PALACES

may be detected applies equa ll y if not more so the Five Eleme nts.More so , because the ove rall ba l ance or nature of the circumstances of a situation , each circumst ancewHh its own element qualification, is made that much more complex and spe cific by there being 5 elements whereas there are only the two major cosmic forces.The mutual interaction of the elements and the results of thi s interacti on is how the luck (when the interaction is productive) and the misfortune (when it is destructive) of a situation is made known to feng-shui experts. ~ Two primary and two seconda ry orders of the five elements are made use of in the Explanation ~ The two primary orders are the mutual producti on order

I \

W ood

~

Water

Metal

Fire

) _____

Earth

and the mutual destruct i ve orde r: 1J00d

( Met al

Ea rth

\

Fire

) " - - Water

These two are "controlled" and "masked" by the two secondary orders.

Wood destroys Earth , but Metal (which destroys Wood) control s • Meta l Wood, but Fire ( • Meta l ) " " , • Fi re Metal , but Water ( " " Fire) Water " Fire, but Earth ( " " Water) " Earth " ~/ater • but Wood ( " " " Ear~h)

1. See [ber ha r d ( 1933 , pp . 41 ff. ) fo r all the poSSib le o r de r s .

the

" "

process "

,

"

"

"

"

CHINESE GEOMANCY

42

Wood destroys Earth. b,t Fi re Metal Wood. b,t Water " Fi re Meta 1 • b,t Earth Water " Fi re . b,t Wood Ea rth " Water . but Metal

(which produces Earth)

masks the process

"

Wood)

"

"

"

(

" "

"

fOota 1 )

"

"

"

(

"

"

Fire)

"

(

"

"

W ater )

" "

"

(

,

"

These orders become more plausible when Wood is understood to be al l vegetation, which i s fed by Water. and swallows, covers, binds earth, i s cut down by metal implements and i gnites; if Wa ter i s under stood t o be all forms of fluid

including the li qu ification of met al by fire,and which ca n be solidified by being st anched with earth ; and if Earth is understood to mean all mixed,i mpure , and inanimate subs t ances including the ash produced by fire.

The E)(plalttLtion gives element attributions t o most, if not all. the se -

ri es of symbo l s on the compass. What is more, on occasion it introd uces several methods of arranging the element s among the symbol s of a si nQle series . To illustrate this. take an example from Ring 4's explanation . At the end of the section on Yin and Ya ng, I introduced t he concept of "change rs" as appli ed i n that instance to t he 4 tri grams at the co rner pO i nts of the compa ss and it wil l serve our purposes wel l t o use it again for i l lu strati on here beca use the very comp lexity of interpretation that it insists on is a good example of the kind of flux and change of conditions t hat the compass symbo l s are intended t o pi n down. Five of the ei gh t tri grams are given element significances i n the Book 06 C ha.ng~.These are used i n Ring 4. In addit i on, an all ocation of el emen t s among the 24 points kn own as the three houses or the paired mountai n arrangemen t i s used : thi s on top of the more general ly known cosmic arrangement (see below). The R trigrams of Ring 2 are all ocated three compass points eachl. as well as selec ted branches and stems wha t ever their pOS i tion s among the 24 points 2. Ring 2 i s the Former Heaven sequence of the trigrams but the 4 trigrams incorporated into the 24 pOints are extrapo l ations from the l ater Heaven sequence ~ and are moreover the changers. comer pOi nts . of the sequence. The expl anation of Ri ng 4, then . has several methods by which to indicate the elements which are recess ive at each point behind the most prominent. al l oca ted element. and into which that el ement is l ike ly to change. Using the tr i grams at either end of the axis of the Former Heaven sequence and a method of l ine changinq similar to the Book 06 Chang~ method 1. See p . 28

2. See p . 38 3. See p. 73 tor

di~gr~ms

o f the 2 sequences .

THE FIVE ELEMENTS AND THE TWEL VE PALACES

of div ination, Ring 4 exp lain s t he element nature of c.1U..tt ~ l ows :

43

(ENE by El as fol-

"Ch '.ien (the tri gram ~ ) contains c.'1Ua (according to Ring 3) .Ch '.ien and K'un ~ (axial opposites in the Former Heaven sequence)interact.Take the top and bottom l ines of K'un (:: l and substitute them for the top and bottom line s of Ch '.ien, and you make K'an f~ (: :l. Therefore chin changes according to K'an into Water (clU..tt is normally Wood. K'an ' s Book o~ Chang~ element significance is ' water ' )". Now us in g the Later Heaven sequence and Sun ~(5E l t he exp l anation for Ring 4 says:

its four changers t o desc ribe

"Sun , Wood (Sun's Significance accord~Rg to the Book o~ Change.6), is In a shifting position beb'een Chen and L.i ¥if!. ' (the cardinal pO il!ts East and South in the Later Heaven sequence )~ If you pl ace a corpse in ch ' en )f~(ESE by 5) ther e is decay, if in 441.1 G eSSE by E) , disease . It (Sun) cannot stand sti ll of itself and consequently the position of the Water Treasury changes."

:t.

The Wa ter Treasury is the pool set in front of every site and if si tuated i n t he sh ifting area of Sun !ch ' en to 441.1 t hrough 4W1 itse lf ) i t ,a ccording to the explanation, makes t he who le site pa rt icula rly vulnerabl e, Two l ast examp les: "S4U ' S (SSE by E) root class is Fire (it is i n the cosmic quarter of Fire) .Ther eforc Wood produces i t and it avails it self of Wood' s si cknesses, stan ding in for Wood and being classified as Wood (over and above its other classifications) , ... Shen's ~ (WSW by 5) root class is Meta l (it is in Meta l 's cosmic quarter) and in Water and Earth's area of gr owth (Earth produces ~letal . Hetal produces Water), When Water meet s Earth it is dest royed but Netal ' s productivity helps (masks the process), Therefore Shen ' s root class is Water (as well as ~Ie ­ ta l ) ," So do the inner processes ' of the growth and decay of the universecontinue according to the compass. The examples given above are on a detai l ed level. Whe n it comes to the overa ll si tuation, the elemental influences of the celestial sphere , and espec i all y the h4.iu . are sa id to domi nate (c.hu 1- )1 . The stems , branches , the 24 point s and the h4.iu are mere designator s of time and space divisions until they are each given elements, Reference to el ements immed iately gives them syrTtJolfc meaning , individually in that each series of symbo ls has its own sys tem of refe rence to el ements ,and genera l ly in that the Five El ements are a common reference and a way in which all the seri es of symbo l s are interrelated,

1. But see pp. 79- 83.

44

CHINESE GEOMANCV

PAIRED MOUNTAIN OR THREE HOUSES DI VISION OF THE 24 POINTS jen

,,"

) )

kuei ch 'ou

)

keo

)

yi n chia

)

)

'"'0

) )

;

)

ch 'e n

)

"0

)

"" ping

)

wo

) )

Water Metal

J

Water

Nor t h

Wi nter

W=d

East

Spr i ng

Fire

South

Surnner

Metal

West

Aut UJIn

Fire W=d

Water Meta I F! re

t i ng

)

,,)

)

k' un shen keng Y" hsln

) )

W at er

)

)

Meta I

h"

) )

Fire

ch ' Ien hai

)

)

ELEMENTS , THE FOUR QUARTERS AND SEASONS

W=d

W=d

[ Sometimes Ea r th is al located to the 3rd month of each season of the sixth mont h, between Surnner and Autumn , but usua r 1y It ;, left out because it is at thecentre of oil these - see sect ion on Stems p. 6l J

1

It is in ' the associations made with the Five Elements that we ca n now for the first time have more than an in kling of the way in which social prognosticati ons are made from what have so far been main ly abstract metaphysical proces seS.The Explanation frequently refers t o the Hung Fan Five Elements. The Hung Fan (Great Plan) is a chapter ;n one of China' s most anc ien t books, the C~~ie 06 H~tD~y,but is itself an i nterpolation of a date not before Tsou Yen (fourth cen tury, B.C. ) .It is a descript i on of the "invariable principles" of the univer se and li sts severa l sets of behavi ou r both nat ura l and soc ial without corre l ating them. Bu t since,in addition to the Five Elements , there are ot her set s of five, it has become commonpla ce t o put them t ogether. We may tabulate tho se quantities of the Five El ements whi ch the Hung Fan itse l f select s

~llsl!e de I 'HamIe , Paris. f'rom Fran"oill Mazot,I'1I Ln BoII.8IIoZ" Dipi l'lat oi rlllll Chil1Qi ll" . in

A geanancer's cmpass fTan the collection i n the (PifYtll.r, borI'OlJ,d

COIlllUMcat.io" 19, 1912)

CAl..CUl.'.TIGi OF THE IOKIlM OF GRAVE SITES' ASPEcrs , 00. OIREcrICNS (h4.iMgl BY )'EANS OF mE 1WELVE PAlACE pHASES.

~IRTH d ireot l on chart PROSPE. ITI Is p.. s ed but IIIml 1. w
TOIoIB direction ohut Two 'p ri n,' dlve",e

SUlPIo ohart> to explain t he .. tob l lsl'llle nt 0{ Ihe
PROSP~ RI TY d lreot ion ohar< URn! 00lIl.05 to .... t PROSPERITY

. ....

u..

(Sketches from the Y.tit Yang Feng ShLU CMa.ng I. Yin Ya.ng U Wu Sh.i..h T.6u T ' ung • " An exposition of the geomancy of graves and buil.dings ~ Teach yourself geomancy" TailJQn ~ Heinchu, 1967.)

The figures illustrate the mountain (~ha.I'1.) position at the centre from which the the sighting is made. The lines from the centre are the direction in which it faces. Its position is therefore on the ~~ points of the compass ( central ring on the three figures ) diagonally oppos ite the two points in the segment made by the lines of the direction faced . The covering of t~~ possible points is cal led the 'paired mountains ' system. The outer ring of the three figures i s broken by the place where water flows out of the sample place and the characters around the outer ring are t he Twelve Palace Phases in anti-clockwise order. The outer circle seems to be for calculating the water' s significance and the inner for the contours (the lines of the site's position i.e. the dragon) . Some combinations of palace phases are bad luck and some good;these three are good.

45

THE FlVE ELEMENTS AND THE TWELVE PALACES

Water Fire Wood Hetal Earth

soaking and descending burning and ascending fonmable (by carvi ng, etc ... ) malleable and changeable (by me l ting ) producing edible vegetation

so l ution combus tion solidity sol idity nutrivity

sa ltiness bi tterness sourness acridity sweetness

On pages 41 - 42 I tried to aid the understanding of the orders of the elements by giving them identifications of a rather too substantial character.The tab le from Hung Fa~ stands as a corrective since, as Needham (1956 , p. 243) says , it " suggests that the conception of the elements was not 50 much one of a series of five sort s of fundamental matter ... as of five sorts of fundamental process es. Chinese thought he re characteristi call y avoided subst ance and c lung to relation."

It is easy to see how such qualities as ascending, descending, and nu tritious, having been abstracted as typical of a category of real processes could become further abstracted to stand for types of fortune or of social relationshi ps.

tleedham (1956,p . 244 ) has suggested that the associations with five tas tes may have been hased on ef!Ipirical reality. He sees them as representative of the chemica l interests of Tsou Yen and the School of Natura l ist s , who gave birth to the Five Element theory. But most of the rest of the associations,some of which are given below, must be seen as part of a system of arbitrary correlation of the Five Elements with everything in the universe which it was possible to cla ssify in fives. me Five Elements Planets l Star Palaces or The Five Classes Q.1arters of Animals Wood Fire

Jupi ter

Mm

Azure Dragon Red Bird

Earth

.Saturn

Metal

Venus

Yellow Dragon (centre ) White Tiger

Water

Mercury

Dark Warrior

The Five Domestic Animals

Sca ly (fishes)

Sheep

Feathered (birds )

Fowl

Haked (man)

0,

Hairy (manma ls )

009

She 11-!overed (; nvertebrates)

Pig

1. In a se nse the pla net s a re t he e lement s In ce lest ial a s pec t , the fi ve e lement s , sun and moon be i ng the Seven Heavenly Bod ies (Ring 24) .

46

CHINESE GEOHANCV

lI'ood

8

l esserYang

green

spleen

ange'

relaxed

Fire

7

great e r Yang

,ed

ltmgs

joy

enlightened

Eartn

5

equal balance

yellow

heart

desi re

careful

Hetal

9

lesser Yin

white

kidney

sorrow energeti c

Water

6

greater Yin

black

liver

fear

quiet

demeanour lI'ood

Fire

vision

thought Earth ~t!t al

speech

hearing Water

More correlations may be found 1n Needham (1956 . pp. 262-3). Uncorrelated, but showing more examples of this flare for enumeration, the ijung

Fan

itself

gives the 5 Div i ders of Time : the Yea r

Moon Sun Stars, planets and h6iu constellations Calendar, branches and stems; the

5 Happinesses: l ong life,riches, sound body and mind ,love of virtue, fulfil -

lin g the will of heaven; and the

6 Evils: shortened l ife, sickness , distress

of mind . poverty . w; ckedness or overpowering ev; 1,

\~eakness

Typical are the personifications it makes of

of vi rt ue.

the five types of weather

i n order or in excess

Type of Weather

In Order

In Excess

Usual El ement Assoc i ation

Rain

gravit y

recklessness

lI'ater

Sunshine

orderliness

assllllption

Earth

Heat

wisdom

indolence

Fir e

Cold

del i bcmtion

hastiness

~le tal

Ihnd

sageness

s tupidity

Wood

THE FIVE ELEMENTS AND THE TWELVE PALACES

47

The E:tpf.atta..UolI makes use of the cor re lations with ot her cosmic syOOo l s , but not spec ifi ca ll y of the roost humane and empirical classifica t ions l isted above. give them to show the possibilities available thr ough them t o directprognostication and t o show t he rationale beh i nd feng - shui cosmology , t he readiness with which socia l qua l it ies are l inked to natural events.Seasons , human behaviour, fee l i ngs, and weat her be l ong as much to t he ca t egory of ch 'i, breat hs , which are the subject of the next sect i on, as they do t o the Elements. The i r in t roduction here forms as it were a l inking passage between t hi s section and the next,and i t s existence merely shows t he imposs i bi l ity of comp lete ly severing anyone part from the who l e ra nge of co ncept s used i n feng -shu i . At th i s stage between Elements and Ch 'i i t is appropriate to introduce t he Twelve Pa l aces . They were or ig inal ly t he names of the twe l ve phases of the cycli ca l recur rence of the Element s t hr ough the mont hs of t he yea r,each phase bei ng occupied by all Fi ve Elements in t heir mutua l producti on order. The names of the phases characteri se a life, or annual, cyc l e and not at all the Elements. They are :

1. 6hou ch' .i.

2. t'tU

3. yang

-t. Jt

Aa !

to receive breath womb nourishment

1-

growth, or to be bo"

5. mu yu

;'f-. %-

t o be cl eansed

6. /wan .t.a,i.

~f

t o come of age (l itera ll y t o assume cap and gi rdle)

7. Un kuru!

/li.'f

to approach. offi ci aldom (become an officia l )

4.

~hV19

8.

"""g

JI1

prosperi ty

g.

~hutU.

~

t o decay (become weak)

10. ping

p,

to become sick , sickness

H . .. u

Ft..

t o die , death

12. ,tMttg

.lI-

to be buried , bu r ial

Chao (1946 . pp . 302-3) contains tab l es showi ng the annual cyc l e of elements in t erms of these phases and al so how they are extended t o show the l i f ecyc l e of stems and of bra nches ,but 1n the E:tp£attatictt these t we l ve phases come t o

48

CHINESE GEOMANCY

stand for 12 types of fortune or promise and are found associated with the Five El ement s but scattered over the ground in every direction,in no discernable order and with light variations.

Ch'i, Time Cycles 1

So numerous are the senses of the word ch'~ in the Explanation 06 the Com~~ that it barely retains a sense common to them all. It is , of course, possi ble to take ch'i. in its old vague sense of "breath of life". This is not quite enough however. Eitel ' s view that the existence of feng-shui owes a grea t deal to the philosophy of Chu Hsi i s supported by the passage I quoted (on pages 32-33) from Ring l's expla~ation. Chu Hsi was the main proponent of the concept of ch'~ , and we should take a quick l ook at it and its counterpart, lA.... For our purpose,one famous passage from Chu Hsi 's collected works (chapter 49) will suffice to illu strate it ; the translation i s also Needham ' s (1956, pp. 477-8), "Throughout heaven and earth there i s Li and there is Ch ' i. l.i is the Tao (organising) all forms from above , and the root from which al l things are produced. Ch 'i is the instrument (composing) all forms from below , and the tools and raw material with which all things are made. Thus men and all other things must receive thi s Li at the moment of their coming into being, and thus get their specific nature; so al so they must receive this Ch' i and thus get their form".

Needham sees Li and Ch'i as the foundation of a philosophy of organi sm , and,while preferring to leave them in their Chinese form,trans late s Ch'i as "matter-energy" (with reference to modern physics and the discovery that it is impos sible to separate matter from energy) and Li as "organisation". Feng Vu- lan (Tr. 80dde , 1953, p.535) understands Li to be a pre-material ~rincip l e and Ch ' i a post-material principle, but this brings up the ques ti on of whether Li came before Ch'i ,about which Chu Hsi is not clear, and which we can afford to ignore. In order to elucidate the nature of Ch'i. we need see it only as necessarily co-exi stent with Li. By my reading Li may be understood as the pattern of the universe:a big Li which determines all the little Li of every individual thing; in short , Order. 1. As ch' i are central t o t he annual cyc le as we l I as to the lan dscape t hey t oo form pa r t of ever y series of symbols on t he compa ss ; most speci f ically . t hey are mentioned in and e xplained f or Rings 4, 7, 8, 9 and 20 .

CH'I,TIME CYCLES

49

Ch'i is then the animator of Li , capab l e of condensing into physical being. Li. in turn. is that which makes Ch'i inte lli gib l e because Ch ' ; on its own is just pure being. There is no Li without Ch'; and no Ch'i without Li; one of Chu Hsi's aphorisms. Everything has both Li and Ch '1 in it. But it is the possibility of finding a pl ace where Ch' i is l ikely to acculTIJlate and condense into life that most interests the feng-shui practitioner because obvious ly a grave or buil ding on that spot will then prosper . This is already a crudification of Chu Hsi's concept of Ch'i and there would be no pOint in attempting further t o refine our understanding of it for the sake of feng -shui;even less so Li. Apart from one or two hints such as that 1n Ring 1 of the Expla~n, fen g-shui literature has almos t nothing to say of this essential, to Chu Hsi, counterpart of Ch' i. Nevertheless, Ch'i as a metaphysical 1 concep t,though formed historically later than them, retains an even more bas i c meaning than that of the five Elements and Vin and Vang. They are ways in which Ch'i works 2. Vin and Vang are frequently called the Two Ch' i and we have already met them i n thi s form on pages 3738 . Once thu s elaborated, Ch 'i, or c.h 'i in its diffused plura l form , becomes cyclical. Ch'i concentrate and disperse, ch' i grow or prosper and decay. and fengshui practitioners are concerned to know, at any paint of space or time, in what cyc li cal phase the ch 'i are.To help them in thi s there are several series of symbols on the compass dial which divide up the cycles in different ways and according to their different ma ni festations. The Twelve Palaces cyc l e has already been described (page 47). It is essen tia lly a phasing of the annua l cyc le ,but the names of the phases of this cyc l e are used by feng-shui pract itioners most frequently for spots on the ground or points i n time not connected ;n a regular cycle, at which the feng- sh ui expert di vi nes a particular stage of growth or decay. eh 'iare , of course. subject to the prima ry divination made throughout the rings as exp l ai ned in Lo eking Ckieh . into Heaven Ch 'i and earth Ch 'i . It is the regular cosmic cycles that are measured by Heaven eh 'i rings and the particularistic, irregular ch'i that are measured by Earth Ch'i rings. Ring 20 ' s explanation states that "Heavenly ch 'i are guest ch 'i and lead by movement,never resting .Earthly c.h 'i are host ch'i and l ead by purity and c lari ty , constantly protecting (and maintained). All guest c.h'i des troy and disperse host ch'i even if t hese latter are pr osperous . This is the principal (cause of) ca lamity. When guest ch 'i are in 1. I have used and wi I I use this word qui t e frequently and in case I am misunderstood to mean by it anything like super- natural I would like to assert that I use "met aphyslco!ll" i n the sense given it in Oxfor-d English Dictiona ry "thatb r o!lnch o f spec ulative enqui ry wh ich treat s o f the f i r st principles of things, Including such concepts as being , substance , essence , t ime , space , cause , Ident ity, etc". 2 . for a mor e considered app r aisal o f their r e l a t ionsh ip see page 52.

50

CHINESE GEOMANCY

ch'.i.. , this is the source of happiness".

accord with the luck of hos t

This is followed by a description of the six heaven ch'i. They make up the simp lest division of an annual cyc l e into phases.after the divi sion into four seasons. It i s given in terms of the 24 fHteen -day periods cycle (see page 51);

but unlike that cycle , it ;s not absolutely regul ar in its sequence,one of the six phases being more pronounced and another slippin~ up one in the order according to what year it i s. As characterised by

24

GROW I NG CH 'I

~XPANDING CH ' I

FULL-GROWN CH'

~ANGING

CH ' I

Frolll

Period

Cyc l e Yin - Yang

Great Co ld Insects

, Eleme nt

From Spring Equinox to Begi nn ing of Summe r

From r Sma ll

Grain Heat

Fills

From Great

lIeat

White

to

.6611.,

led by Fire

ting

Yin led by Earth

a

flDDEN 01' 1

From Small 5ma 11 Cold

a

Snow

to

Yang I,d by

great

I ,d

by

dampness

bright

ping ,

"".

we..i, It ' Wt ,4 he.n,

ke.ng

"".

heat

yu., h4-i.n, ch ' .(.U

co ld

hai , ken . tzu, Ilue.i

!Icta l

Yang Water

ch' en ,

""'

a small Vang assistant

a great

to

D,w

ken , gin,

""" . <.

Yin literatus led by Fire

a small

From Autumn Equinox to Beginning of Winter

It 1S difficult to make sense of "literatus" (chiin

:fa ).

w •. .sw.

a Yin wind led by Wood

to

..Exci ted

ATHERED CH ' I

(hb.£ang

24 Compass Poi nts

A)

and "assistant" They may be errors or remnants of some system of bureaucratic asso-

ciations.

The 24-phase cyc le

(Ri ng 8) is a farmer's calendar in use t o thi s day

throughout China . It i s mentioned in the H.u.tOlr.Ij 06 the. Fo1tmeJt Han DIjI1a4ty. but is probably of earlier or i gin, and i s evidently a northern ca lendar. of the Yellow River valley. It 1s divided

into 8 cM.th

ifi . or sectiona l

points. and 16 ch ' ;"

51

CH' I ,TIME CYCLES

1t . Each of the 24 divisions corresponds

to 15 degrees of the sun's motion in longitude on the ecl iptic and therefore demarcates a spatial as well as a tempora l division. The temporal division is something between 15 and 16 days and it is possible to give for it equivalent dates in the Western day which is also solar. It is not possible to be so exact with the Chi nese months of the Imperial Calendar.which are based on the lunar cycle. In order to do so the lunar calendar must have 7 intercalary months in every 19 years. When the winter solstice (a division of the 24 chi£h ch 'i) fell very near the last day of the eleventh lunar month, an intercalary month was ordained by the Imperial Ca l endar makers and in the fol l owing year an "intercalary sixth (or seventh) month" would be added. These l unar months were numbered but not named, the 12th month coming somewhere between our months of January and February. The l unar calendar i s, so to speak, the sacred ca l endar, according to which the annual festivals are timed, the calendar of the cosmos, and not the cal endar for practical use. Farmers use the solar, or seasonal, calendar to tirre the agricultural cyc l e,as is indi cated by the narres of its ch 'i periods. Although the compass has a ring devoted t o the solar calendar and the other rings are correlated with it,this is on ly for the practical application of feng-shui diagnosis.The divisions of t~e so l ar calendar ring have no symbolic va l ue as do those of the rings of sexagenary characters. Sexagenary cycles may be bracketed with the lunar calendar as being imp ractical. They are used for divinat ion and in horoscopes and for keeping historical records. Together they constitute the civil calendar, a political and ritual ca lendar , not an economic one l . The dichoto~ marks neat ly the gap between mode l and practical life. ~uch of the' complexity of Chinese geomantic theory and the compass is due to its adaptation of the cosmology to cross the gap and apply to the farrrer. THE

CHIEH Li... ch'u.tt ~hui.

CH 'I

Vu.

CH' l

Ching chill

CHIEH

Ch 'un

CH' I

Ch ' .ing m.ing

6ett

Ku yu CHIEH Lt- hAi.a..

CH'l CH' l

H~.uw malt

.rr.t-

t!J>l'-

:&; t-

t-?l'it a}j

:t .), ;;¥j

24 SOLAR DIVISIONS

Beginning of Spring Rain Water

begins (approx.) S February 20 February

Excited Insects

" "

7

March

Spring Equinox

"

22

March

Clear and bright

" " " "

6

April

21

Apri l

6

~lay

22

H,>

Grain rains SLIlmler begins Grain filling

1. Eber'hard in Fairbank (1957 , pp. 6 2-3).

CHINESE GEOHANCY

52 CH'I

Gra in in ear

begi ns (appr ox. ) 7

Summer So lstic e

CW l

Sli ght heat

" "

J une

22

June

8

J ul y

24

Ju ly

CH'l

Ta hhu

Gr eat heat

CH IEH CH'1

U. ch' -i.u Ch 'u 41w.

Aut umn begins

"

8

Augus t

Limi t o f heat

24

August

CH'l

Pai.

White dew

" "

CIHEH

Ch '.w. 6en

Autumn Equino x

"

24 September

CH'I

Col d de ....

1t

9

Oct ober

CH' I

Hoar frost descends

"

24

October

CHIEH

Winte r beg ins

"

8

November

CH'l

Slight s now

"

23

November

Great snow

"

7

December

CHIEH Tung chih

Winte r Solstice

"

22

December

CH'l

S li ght c old

" "

6

January

21

J anuary

tu

Ta lu. ue.h

CH'1

Great co ld

Ta 1\.411

CH'l

8 September

Ch' i as opposed to chieh are always the names for peri ods of growth and decay it will be noted . In a much broader and undivided sweep Yang and Vin ascen dancy and complementarity characterise the same cycles of growth and decay as do the ch ' ~ described in this section. De r.root (1897, p. 989) l ists a series of 8 wi nds which come at times of the year correspondinq to the 8 ckieh. The chieh are here , too , mere ly marks in time endinq and heraldinq new pha ses in the annua l cycle. The list comes from Hun9 Lieh Chieh , chapter 8, by liu N9an. The Shih Chi . chapter 25. comments on these e1 ~ ht winds linking them to the Yin and Yang order:

COMP ASS PO I NT

NA ME OF WI ND

NE

T' .i.a.o 1~ "orderly"

E

lIJl"Brighteni ht. M.i119ng 4hu

CHIEH

Beginning of Spr i ng Presi des over the ri sing of myriad things and regulates {Chih i"f; I their growth Spri ng Equinox

all"

SE

;tllJl

SH I H CHI COMMENT

Ch'i.ng mittg Beginnin;: of Summer

"Cl ear and bright"

Brightens th. fu ll rising of th. myriad things Presides over th. winds blowing on th. myriad things

53

CH ' I, TIME CYCLES

sw

sw w

NW

N

~

; ,v.

~

ClUng

Summer So l st i ce

"bright"

li.a.l1g

Yang cJ. '.i.. at the t op of it s parabols (tao

.tt l

Beginning of

Aut ~ n

"coo l"

r~~I~Ch ' a.ng

he "Gate of Heaven closes"

~ foJ

Pu chou "not complete"

At Jt. Kwttlg mo "Boundless , or vast nothingness"

Autumn Equino x

Ch ' ang is the same as chllng 1~ (" guide , lea der") , 110 is the sal'\e as a'llngjJ( ("conceal, hide") amI" i t means that th e tllO of the Yang ch '.i.. is at t he poi nt of bringing about the c losure of the myr iad t hings t hat grow large in Spring

Beginning of Winter Presides over the killing of life Winter Solstice

The Yang clJ '.i.. is at its nadir;Yin' s nu l lifying of Yang is at its gr ea test

Ya ng and Vin o however , have meanings beyond growth and decay(e.g.male , female; high. low ). that cover every dimension of life. The interest of the clt'.i.. cyc l es i s confined to the detailed phasing of gradual change in asi ngle line or plane of action And the Five El ements cha racterise the more dramatic changes that take pl ace at the meeting point of several lines of action. The fact that,by means of the compass , div i sions of time such as the 24 sol ar terns have spatial eq uivalents i s very important. The compass l inks t hem to the 24 directional points,but roore subtly it integrates time and space consi deration s into sin gle series of symbols - the rinQs of hexagrams and sexagenary chara cters!. The hexagram cyc les are in effect Vin - Vanq cycles. The sexaqenary cha 2 racter cyc l es are based on a twelve-fo l d division of a circle or cycle by the twelve branches. If the 24 points are pa i red into twelve, each pair contains one branch and the disposition of branches i s the same in the rings of 24 point s as it I. Hexagrams wi 11 be discussed in Symbols from the 800k characters in Branches, Stems and thei r Combination. 2. A cycle is , of course , a temporal circle.

o~

Chang2A , sexagenary

54

CH INESE GEOHAHCY

is in the rings of sexagenary characters . So the sexarye nary characters are in elaboration of both the 24 points and t he 24 solar divisions of tine , and the Explanation ,to simp l i fy t he compass dial itself contain s a tab le 1 which co rrel ates all three and adds an arrangement of hexag rams. Ring 8 ' s explanation tells how the year is subdivided after the 24 di visions have been made . It begins by saying that the winter so l stice is half-way through the branch tiu.

-t (due north)

thus i ndicat ing the al igrvnent of directi ons and temporal divisions. Then , tak i ng all 24 di visions of the year as ch'i , it divides each ch ' ~ into 3 hot/. and each hot/. into 5 days. The year then is one made up of 360 days and 72 hot/.. The omiss i on of 5 days of the solar year makes possib le

the exact correlation with a circ l e, the division of wh ic h is of course much easier by 360 than by 365 degrees. Each degree indicates a point on t he qround appropriate to and te ll ing some thina about one day. Be fore the advent of the Je~ui t s in the late sixteenth t o seventeenth centuri es with their expert i se in astronomy and the more effi cient division of the circ le into 3~0 degrees , the Chi nese had in fact a circle of 365% degrees and on many compasses including the hypothetica l one of the Explanation there are two rinqs of h6~ , one measurinq their equatoria l extensions by t he old ,and t he other by the new method,with circles of sexagenary cha ra cte rs to accord with them.Whateve r the ensuing comp licati ons , interest in g t o the historian of sc i ence , all that need concern us i s t ha t for the purposes of geomancy degrees and days are correlated,and that however ma ny degrees measure a circle, the compass ' s ci rcl e i s divided into 24, 60 , 72 , and 120. all divis i bl e by 12 mont hs. Ring g,the 72 dragons (being the sexagenary characters plus t he 8 stems and 4 trigrams from t he 24 pOin t s) , is correlated t o t he 72 hau divisions of the year. Ring 19 gives one l ine of the 12 sovereign hexagrams to each of the 72 hou . Corre l ation with the 60 (sexagenary) character combi nations vi a the 12 branches has already been explained. The 120 6vt-c.!un corrbine the 24 pOi nts .48ofthe sexagenary comb i na t ions and 8 of the stems in t o a sing l e serie s , the explanation of which conta in s all the most explici tl jdivinatory associations with the stems , b ra~ ches , their combinations and the 24 points; assoc ia tions that wi ll be given in detail in the se ction that fo ll ows this one. Each of the 72 /tau are themse l ves minor fl uctuations of ch '.i ,as it says in Ri ng 9's explanati on. On t he tables of correlati ons (i llust rated in the next 1. See page 62 .

CH4

CH 'I. TIME CYCLES

55

section) they are marked by the signs for up ( ~ ). midd l e ( ~ ) and down (-r' l. which stand for advancing or growing ch'i ,certain or prosperous ch'i ,a nd retiring or ceasing ch'i. We are now at the very detailed stage diagnosing each point on the ground. In fact.we have reached earth c.h'i or host ch'i,res i dent in the ground; microcyc les subject t o the major cycles (or heaven ch ' Ll . On this leve l are also the Twelve Palaces or Phases of ch 'i .8etween heaven dRd earth and in a semi - independent state are the 5 weather ch 'i assoc i ated with the 5 elements: rain. fine weather (or sunsh ine ), heat. cold and wind 1 ,

• •

•

It has been possibl e so far to treat a number of the senses in wh i ch ch 'i ;s taken in the Explanation as aspects of a single spectrum at one end pertaining to heaven,and at the other to earth. It has also been possible to see how the Five Elements re l ate to the 2 Cosmic Ch'~ (Vin and Vanq) and to the major and minor cycles of ch'~ . In yet another se nse are the ch ' ~ that r un through the earth , in the arteries of the dragon,and along it s watercourses.Th i s type certainly does retain the orig inal sense of breath or matter-ene rgy that in concentration produ ces life.It is also possib l e to think of these ch'~ as micro-cyclic; they are de finitely thought of as subject to decay, and they are of the earth. But it cannot be said for certain from evidence in any of the Chinese manuals of feng -shui that they are of Earth and therefore part of the above -mentioned categorisation in t o Heaven and Earth Ch ' i. They are part of a semi-autonomous, l ess cosmol ogical , and more earth-bound comp l ex of symbols which be longs more to the Forms aspect of feng shui. Absence and weakness of such ch'~ open the way to 4ha, which are al so breaths,but life-taking and sickening, not life-giving. In most contexts "noxious exhalations" would be a good translation of 4ha having an apt association with stagnation and bad drainage. Ha l f of the degrees of the compass circle are named as unlucky by Ring 27 ' s explanation because they are i ll- sta rred and therefore prone to 4ha by various means. Most commonly, this is the effect of a destructive relation of elements. Metal destroying Wood means "wasting 'away and injury", \~ood destroying Earth means "jaundice epidemic" ,Earth dest roying Water means "plague", Water destroying Fire means "death in youth",Fire destroying Metal means "natural 1.

Se~

pp . 32-do

56

CHINESE

GE~~CY

calamities" . But 4ha are not onl y si ckness and decay, they are the instrument of all other kinds of misfo rtune , such as loss of office and lack of offspring.

So the feng-shu; site-finder i s concerned as much with the dispersal of ch ' ~ as to know whether ch'i are at a stage of decay. Having found ri ch arteries of ch ' ~ the geomancer must follow them up - what the Explanation ca ll s riding the ch 'i - and find a place where they concentrate so that they may engender life (pros perity ) . Sha ll ow , fa st-movi ng waters disperse ch'i. On high and exposed places the wind disperses them. These are types of l ocati on classi fied as Yang. l ow protected basins, pools of wa ter , are Vino Their peace and quiet should mean the peace,Quiet and prosperity of the site and i ts inhabitants . or the descendants of it s inhabitant if it i s a grave.This type of Yang- and -Yin - ness should not be confu sed with positions on the ground indicated by points of the compass ascribed to Yang or Yin.There i s the same kind of dichotomy in the feng-shu; universe here as was noted above between dragon eh ' ~ and the cyc l ic ch ' ~ of the compass. Yin and Vang and the ch ' ~ of the earth as repre sented directly by t opographi ca l features . though li nked to the compass Yin and Ya ng and ch ' ~ , have to do with the less organi sed universe of symbo l s of the School of Forms. In fa ct, all compass symbo li sm is repeated in Forms.

• •

•

So far,very little has been said about how prognostications are made by means of the compass. It is true that some natural and soc ial correlations have been made with the Fi ve Elements and with ch'~ . but they are on a generalij!:ed leve l as .vet unadap t ed to the particular fortunes of i ndividua l men . So far on ly the symbo lis m basic t o the dynamics of the Ch inese geomantic universe has been descri bed . We now pass on t o the se r ies of symbol s by means of which these general pr ocess es are filtered down t o pOin ts in time and space that begin t o apply to the bu i ldings . graves and li ves of i ndi viduals.

BRANCHES. STEHS AND THE SE:XAGEKARY CYCLE

57

Branches. stems and t he sexagenary cycle

(R ings 3, 9, 11, 13, 16. 22, 23 , 31, 32)

Although their full name 1s the "twelve earthly branches N, on the compass the signifi cance of the branches 1s not entirely confined to the Earth plate . They are given astronomical names and correlated with the h6iu asterisms in Rings 37 and 11.In Ring 3, eight of them are allocated t o four of the trigrams. But the Yin and Yang associations thus given them,and the Element characteri sations given them in Ring 4 with the res t of the 24 points, come into play very much l ess than the equivalent associations and characterisations given to the stems which infull are the Nten heavenly Ste-,IS M

•

Much more than the stems.the branches give particular information about the time or place, even though they may be the medium through which come influences from heavenly boq ies. If on ly 12 points of the compass are to be used. they are referred to by the 12 branches ; stems and trigrams are left out because they belong more to the Heaven plate. The twelve branches' primary function is t o mark the terrestrial directions. When they are correla ted with the h6iu in Ring 11 ' s explanation. they are given in the opposite order to that given below because they retain their terrestrial directional sign ifi cance and must therefore be mirrored if correlated with heavenly bodies . But for t he sake of the table below, it is the h6iu that are given backwards. Branches are for making the pOSitions of dragon ch'i , ch ' ~ of the earth, that is.Stems are associated more with water, as are the trigrams of Ring 2 and the stars of Ring 6. Taken on their own, the branches also signify 12 double-hour divis i ons of the 24 - hour day, and the 12 months of the year: their correlations may thus be listed as follows:

58

CHINESE GEOMANCY

Associated

R,t

Mon t h

H'flle

ani • • ,

Doubl e - hou r

Direction

H.i" a nd associ.ted In l •• h

•

IX,hu(ret) * "lljbltl

I II

NN'

It:ill ;;t t OIl ( t he 1o.4i4;uf unico r n)

fl r H-spr ! nq

3 am - S a ..

EH,

~:'( " 1d ut, wd( tlg e r )

mid -s pr i ng

5 1111- 1

,

't'

-T

.. Id-winte r

O.

C ~' o "

,Jl-

Jut-w i n t er

I

Ti ger

Yi>!

1<

Hare

Woo

qr

11 pII - I u

111 - 3

ani

j[,

IIIti

(sw, lo w

(ox)

,..:;

k6i>l~ fO. )

( hi r e

~

coo n)

Drl gon

ek'ell

Sn. ke

S"

Horse

.,

At

l u t -sp r l ng

7 n -9 u

[SE

'-

f i r s t- s ll lllller

g n -11 ..

SS[

f"

. Id-su".er

Jt.

ill

.tr

&

64 11 9

ti (r.e-

tu!' '~n.Q (M.gon) e/t.io (suly a r ago n )

c.lltII{urt h'"Ol"III)j

.x. "(sn'h) 11

' "-1

p.

S

kOll9 (dee r )

!l lt',,,g

( ho r se) ~ UIt( r o, bu c k )

Sheep

We"

Mon key

Situ!

Coc k

"

-*-

hst-slllllll e r

'"

'I r s t -au t Uflln

J pll - 5 p.

WSW

~

",'d-Iu tu llln

5 plll - 7 pm

,

1 pll -3 p.

SSW

9t. ku.«

(s !lup )

lfcki llg(w l 1d dog)

f...(lIIon6/11'.key) .11 (Ipt) t

.t~lli

~i( YfOW ) lP. ~40 ( COC k ) «Iei (p huun t j

00 ,

,

..

A.

lut - Iutullln

7 p,. -g pili

Bo~ r

'M

1£

first - win t er

9 plII - ll p.

'"' ,

..

~(~" ( d og) .1(wo lf ) ~ pi. (UPl r ) {bov)

1:

ha 4~ik

BRANCHES, STEMS AND THE SEXAGEHARY CYCLE

59

The classificat ion of animal species impliea by the correlation of bran ches and h6iu merits more detailed discussion than i s appropriate here. For the present, it need only be noted that the animals confirm a very close correlation between branches and h6iu . Ring 11 ca ll s the h6iu "ani ma l stars",and the fa ct that the branches have the same animal emblems i ndicate s their astronomical sign ificance . Eitel even ca ll s them signs of the Zodiac, but I have found no indication that they were signs f or actual stars and groups of stars as are those of the Western Zodia c and the hbiu. In no way do the branches correspond t o the Western signs of the Zodiac. The Zodiac di vides the ecliptic.while, as Carroll (1964 ) explains, the branches were si 9ns for a 12-fol d div i sion of t he celestia l equator along which st ood the hb~ aster i sms in 2,400 B.C. - hence thei r correl ati on. They became associated with months when it was observed at some time early in the Han dynasty that the handle of the Dip per pointed around the celestial equator's 12 divisions in an annua l cycle thus corre lati ng months and t he of the equatorial divisions . The planet Jupiter takes 12 years to come back to the same pOSition i n the sky. Its 12 st ationS,each corresponding to one year, were named, and these names are given for Ring 37 linked with the 12 branches.The branches therefore Signify a twelve-year cycle as well as the annual and di urna l cycles. In fact. they may come t o be used for anyth ing that i s divi ded into 12. including the twelve-fold animal cycle. and it i s from these twelve-fold cycles to which the names of the branches have stuck. given in the table above. that the symbol ism of the branches derives . Ring 27 ' s explanation.in dis cussi ng sources of bad luck. represents the danger of the twe l ve branch posit i ons as due to their being "open to error". Presumably . thi s means that parts of the areas of terrestrial circumference named by them are lu cky .others unlucky.and some finer divis i on i s needed to identify them. This finer divi si on is the sexagenary cycle in which the branch areas are given five sub-di visions , ea ch named by the five even -numbered stems for areas named by even-numbered branches , odd stems for odd branch areas . But before we come to the sexagenary chara cters it would be best t o see what are the signi f i cances of the stems on their own. I wrote above that the stems are more associated with the cosmic proces ses than are the branches . and that this might explai n their bei ng named "celestial" . Needham (1952. p. 303) explains that on the Han dynasty diviner ' s boa rd the 12 branches divided the Earth plate whi ch was sQuare. and the 8 stems and 4 Tri-

60

CHINESE GEOMANCY

grams divided the round Heaven ~late . T he compas s derives from the diviner's hoard l and maintains the div isi on into Heaven and Earth plates t hough not the separat i on of items a'nd trigr ams

from branches since it is all 24 which sign ify the 24 com-

pass pOints in both Heaven and Earth divisi ons_

There i s . however .one ring on the compass wh i ch in an indirect way does separ ate out the 8 stems and 4 trigrams fr om the 24 pOints. It is Ri ng 9 in which the sexagenory characters are properly distributed in accordance with the twelve branch pos iti ons bu t leave gaps of one space between each group of five divisions. These 12 gaps correspond to the 8 stems and 4 trig rams of t he 24 pOints. As the branches are for ma rking positions of the dragon eh'i , stems seem to be more appropria te as marks for the branching, conf l uence and direct i ons of water-courses. They should therefore be able to divi de the whole of the circumferen ce on their own, as do the branches , and as they did on the Han dynasty diviner's boa rd. Perhaps one of the functions of Ring g i s to indicate this, although its expla nation does not mention it specifi ca lly. The suggestion that stems are for water where branches are for earth i s based on the fact that i n the Explanation ,references to stems and the phrase nei ~hui (contained water) frequent ly coinc i de , as do references to branches and eh'i . In add i tion , the explanat ion of Ring 2 applies the trigrams specifi cal ly to the directions of watercourses a~d in Ring 3's explanation each of the trigrams governs one stem2.

The explanation of Ring g says that t he sexagenary cycle is used to in vestigate the rrut ua l i nfluences of the three mountains .The ideal feng-shui site i s protected on t hree sides of the site. The fourth side , that which the site faces , shoul d be open. Having made sure that th e elements associated with the pos iti ons of the three mountai ns are mutually productive, one then goes on to find out what are their bearing s on the 12 directional points marked by stems and t ri grams . Six of the se last are lucky, s ix unlucky . The two trigrams Ch'i en and K'un , overbea ringly Yang and Yin respectively, are unlucky. The other two, Ken and Sun, the forme r more Yin than Yang, the latter more Yang than Yin,are neither overbearing nor 1. See Need ham (1962 , pp . 262 f f . and 362 ff. ) . By throwing images of const ell at ions on t o t he board and see i ng In what divisions they fe l I, diviners came t o know what in fl uence te rrest ri a l a nd ce lest ial points were subject t o at t ha t momen t in t ime . Needham suggests that the game o f chess wi th images of ~onstella ­ t ions is c losely ! In ked to di vi nat ion of t his kind . Lat e r , it was obse r ved t ha t t he image of t he dippe r , a ladl e , when made of a cer tain kind o f s t one ( Iodestone) and t hrown on to a sh i ny boa r d, swive l led round to point In t he same di rection each t ime t hrown, and so t he pr incip le of the mag netic need le was discover ed . 2. See below. OBge 79 .

BRANCHES. STEMS AND THE SUAGEHAR'f CYCLE

61

are their Yang and Yin lines confused.so they signify lu cky ~h·~. Associated with the unlucky two trigrams are stems 1. 2. 9. 10; stems 3. 4. 7. and 8 with the two lucky trigrams. I have already explained (pages 38-9) how odd numbers are Yang and even numbers Vin and how the apparent inconsistency with other Vin- Vang characterizati ons may perhaps be resolved. Here I want t o point out that while the branches are thus given Vang and Vin significance . it 1s l eft undeveloped . Much more is made. as here. of the stems' cosmic sign ificance. Rings 14 and 16 elaborate on Ring 9' s division of stems into those which are l ucky and those which are unlucky. Stems 1 and 9 are Vang orphans.stems 2 and 10 are Vin emptinesses; "orphan -empti ness" (ku-MU. :y~ be i ng a stock phrase for "unlucky". Stems 3 and 7 are Vang prosperity. stems 4 and 8 Vin assistance; "prosperi ty-a ssistance" (Wang - H6.iang Jl1 ;ffl) being a stock phrase for "lucky".

Lt.)

We have so far been examining the 8 direct ional stems .There remain stems 5 and 6. These are the stems that stand for the cen tre and therefore have no di rection. As the explanation of Ring 16 says of t hem "they have no trigram allocation by which to fo l low eh ' ~. nor do they have an appropriate use. Therefore they are called Tortoise-shell. It is said that they are hard and eh'~ do not enter them . They are void (fl. ' wtg Mtng ~ C ). and it is said that they have no correct position and no special pl ace (or office. kua.n

1" )."

Ring 14' s explanation incl udes these t wo stems with the unlucky ones but adds that "if the great earth 6ha. are heavy . then the t ortoise-shell (s tems) may be used to control dispersal (of good influences)." Thi s. is only one instance of many in which ot herwi se unlucky influence may be used to control one another for benefit .

It will already have been noted that the number s of the stems come very much into their s;gnifica nce .It i s no surpri sed then that the stems t hemselves are frequent ly used as numerals either from 1 to 10 or,in pairs , 1 to 5 with a Vin or Vang sign ificance, or , in alternates, 1 to 5 in two different ways - one of Vin stems and one of Vang stemS.The second way is used to enumerate the FiveElements. The third way to enumerate the divisi ons of branch areas in the sexagenary cycle of stem-branch combinat ions.We are now in a position,before going on to the sexa genary cycle. t o ta bu late the stems and t heir significance:

62

CHINESE GEOMANCY

Numbe r and Name

Direction in t he 24 poin t s

Yin - Yang

+ L u ck

'I'

[ NE by E

Vang

bad

1

chA.a

El emen t

Wood

2 3

L if;]

<

[ SE by E

Vi n

bad

p.{.l1g

SSE by S

Vang

good

Fire 4

-r

5

T ""

ling

6

C.

chi

7

ffi.

k."9

SSWby S

Vin

good

CENTRE

Nothi n9

bad

USW by W

Vang

good

Earth

, "ieta l

8

-t

hA;."

IllW by W

Vi n

good

9

.:l-

jen

NNW by N

Vang

bad

Water 10

~

kue.<

Yang

NNW by N

bad

Stem-elements Wood, Ea rth and Wat er are unlucky, But of the h6iu- element (Ri ng 24) .for instance, it i s Wood ,Fi re and Earth that are un l ucky .There are many ways of arranging elements , each theoret i cal ly appropriate t o a different as pect of a si tuation, as expounded 1n the section on the Five Elements above. Wha t look l i ke in cons i st enc i es between the arrangement s are really the interact ion of the vari ous aspect s and are the very source of a situati on' s f orce (4ltih ~ ) .

•

•

•

Of all the series of symbols on t he compa ss , the sexa genary cycle combi nes ti me and spa cedivision and si gnificance at t heir mos t e l aborate. Not onl y i s

63

BRANCt£ S, STEtiS AND THE SEXAGENARY C'fCLE

it a sub-division of the twelve branches and hence of the terrestrial circumference • it is also a sub-divi s i on of the 24 periods of the solar year.When a bearing is taken by the site -finder and a place thereby ascribed to one of the sexagenary divisions,not only can the state of the ch 'i in that part of the ground be toTd.but also an appropriate period of the year is signified. The table which ac companies the explanation of Ring 25 makes thi s clear and I reproduce part of it. The hexagrams and the numbers in each column are for a method of divination that will be referred to below.

1..

.... COM~ASS

SOUR

POINT

~ERrO!l

lot""

loCi'"

Of TilE VE.\R

jUt

~re ..

Sofjt~

sort,u

t
7oru~

70ft....

]or -..o.I JofUu

WInter Solnl",

Snow

t..L<

s.un

Softu. . . ...

sof<~·...

Col~

10r .... •..

loft ...

(; rut Cold

ST.ln Of CH'I

• ------ ------ --

------ ------ -- --

-

,,,

•

pi., a~J

•• ' SAURY ... ~O OFf I CE '

'THfi FOUII LUCU'

,

•

..•

,

- ----- ---------- --------- - - --, .,

' ~'{or 'IIU.SSI~')

'THE THUE 000 STEIlS'

•

••,

,•• • 7

•

"•

I 7

•

,, •

"" •• ,

.,.

,,, ,,. 9 l I S

6' 0 I I ~

•o ••

0 .. ,

. ,.

•, •

, ,,

••

•• ••

..•

,

Further sub-divisions are made, when, in the Precious ~irror table! the hexagrams associated with each sexagenary division are sub-divided into their separate lines.each line meaning good or bad luck. There are 360 divisions, one for each day of a 360-day year . The Preci ous Mirror table, part of which is given below, includes Five Element correlations,gives states of ~ h' i ~y the T~elve Palace phases, and rather cryptic glosses ,The sexagenary cycle i s given twice, once correlated with the Former Heaven sequence of hexagrams, once with the later Heaven sequence,In its lower half,not to be correlated with the upper , are given the degree divisions of the h6iu constellations , their elements and further crypt ic glosses for each degree 1 . See page 26 .

CHINESE GEOMANCV

.,

t\.

.;-

5.

~

'j-

.;-

Hetol

Wa ter

Fi re

Ea rth

I/o o d

Retreating

Advanclng

Correct

Advancing

Retreating

Disperse

Prosper

Pr e gnant wO .b

Prosper

'Rising'

'Rising'

'f'

S(XAGEHA RV CHA RA CTER AND ELE MENT STA TE OF CH'I PHASE

Know that Chou o...kH,~n:cuises , FU-IIII at lien Md Han"n acadea.iI/u's court had cl ans , cabinet first riches tht'fl ministers ,showed honour. Oxen and gnat r iches and fields greatly honour. For a prospend. For long thlle every distantly syelOIn prospe~. ceKlng generatlons each son ha d long life and prosperity.

'luder'

: 9~~d: ~ : ~d!

666696 gg ggb

bo tto .. line is on left

HS Ill , DEGREES, ELEMENT

IIa ter

966666

• •

HeUl

Ruin

'Rising'

" .

666669 bb bg

, • " " "

.;-

For every ~n , PosterHy , benesickness ,ca 1,.1- yolence COllPlSty, and dnt .... c- sion, r lchu and tlon. honour ,longlife , e. tnenc e, IInd graduation: for younger brothers r iches , ,"perabundance , IIttairaent of offlce , Court .ttend.nce.

HEX AG RAM THE lUCK or ITS LiNES

l~

.;-

,

.2 . 2 Wood

Prosp!'I'OUS ..,n , riches and honour long posterity, attal.-.ent of glory with brl1llance. tr.n,grus, you are eaQty, ha~ rIO 'leader' sickness, and no growth of r iches.

"'"

966696 9 bgbb

966669 bbb 99

Hs lu

' lude r'

", •

Earth

•

•-, • <

·

•

,• ....,-••-.

,,

•

i'

-•, ,." , ·· •

--

,

.::'-Z ,

.

,

;,

•

65

BRANCHES . STEHS AND THE SEXAGENARY CYCLE

~I

,I;

A:.

1-

1-

J1.

;!,

1-

1-

1-

lIo od

Elrt~

"e t,l

lI.ter

Retreating

AdVlncing

Cor r ec t

Adnncing

Di s per se

Pr osp er

Pregunt lIo_b

Pr osper

'Rising'

'Ris i ng'

followers of tM drr'gon pIu .cMeve scholnly office . read, high ofric t a ldooo. aM t M Ivgr1 tab le t.pendant-hung COIICI\es. dCMS .nd ho/lOUr. If )IOU tr,nsgress .nd I re VOid . )I0Il11111 not be pros per ous .nd ' l eader ' 11111 be cut

oH.

Fire

'Leade r '

Prtnces aM "'rquhes .sst~t t M £.peror his Consort 'M Court COlicublnes. Posterity. lI isoo. In offi ce. TM E"Ilt!ror CluSes every Mln t o prosper gre. t11. 8u t to Idvlnce crossllise (E t o 11 ) cuu off weal th, pos ",,, Ions, Tidies for three generltlons .

966669

Orphaned aM frt e Mless In youth . B.cktng orftce .M duties. Productlon of all.lt lls evIl. stckneu . jlundlce Sllollen feet . r or t hrH gl!Jlerattons dtstlnee, cut off f,.,.

-.

.

999699

,

bbb 99

Hslu 11

, • , ,

,

f

•

•,•

'!

•

"

"

11. t er

, ~

[

•

o

o

•

o

,--· -

.. • n

.

-,-

I

966696

669666 99g 'n 9

"etal

•• i

• ," •

Eich .. n grettlypros !'ers. brillia nt ly gr.du.te for off icI ..,d .ppt'"Olch the ( ... !'eror. fields aM Ol en flourish.

9 bgbb

, , , • , .

•

'Lllde r '

Prosper for three ge. Jler tttons . Posterity, ri ches , hofIovr ,fn 1,1 pIety ,princi p ledJless . for f ive generations . Afte~rds decllnt. ruin. 'LeAder ' Pf.S ses the /lou se by. Adoption ,nd bre.dln9 of OTpM ••. Mo jln) flt or Pf""09I'ess .

~

f ?

•

10

Duth

'luder'

966666

"

Ret r u t hg ,nd Correct

•

o o

o

o..-• S .:: o

0<•

~O • o.

f

, ,

,

n

,,.

i

•,- . o

•

'!

"

,~

66

CHINESE GEOMANCY

"I f the 24 mountains ( 12 branches used

once to show the position of a

mountain and again to show the direction a mountain faces) are the theory, the 60 dragons(scxagcnary combinations) are the practice. If the 60 dragons are t he theory , the 120

6en -dun

are the practice."

Thus Ring 32's explanation defines the process of sub -division on the compass,each stage further in sub- division being that much more practical.The 120 6en-ckin contain only 48 of the sexagenary combinations but nevertheless are an el aboration of the full 60 and always come near a ring of them. There are, therefore , three pairs . Ring 13 (60) with Ring 16 (120) , Ring 22 (120) with Ring 23 (60)

and Ping 31(60) \~i t h Ring 32(l20).The t!"iple repetition corresponds to tfJe triple :livision of the compass 1 . 1\150 repeated three times and attached to the above pai rs are rings of hexagrams and rings of h&iu. The 120 6en-chin are diffe rentiated from the cycles of 60 by having specific correlation with tl'iO rings of hexagrams in t he two sequences in which they are arranged . whereas the 60 have the i r own rings of hexagrams. It is with the latter only that the table in Ring 25 ' s explanat i on deals the Precious Mirror table only with the former. We may set out these three clusters as follO\~s :

RINGS Table of Ring 25

I"

( h.\-iu)

13 (60)

)

14 (hexagrams in Former sequence) 16 (120) 17 (hexagrams in Later sequence)

\

12 (hexagrams)

1 Upper Preci ous Mi rror table

22 ( 120) 23 (60)

Table of Ring 25

INNER . 'EARTH' . PLATE

MIDDLE. 'HEAVEN '. PLATE

24 (h&.i.u) 25 (hexagrams) 31 (60)

Upper Precious Mirror table

( 120) 33 (hexagrams in Former sequence) ) OUTER, 'HEAVEN' , 34 (hexagrams i n Later sequence) \ PLATE

Lower Preci ous Mirror table and Table of Ring 26 (see below)

36 (h.\-iu)

32

1. See oages 29- 30 .

BRANCH£S, STE"IS AND THE SEXAGENARY CYCLE

67

It may be noted that in the middle plate, the ring of 120 6eJ1-clUn does not have its cus tomary rings of hexagrams and in the outer plate it is the ring of sexagenary charac ters which does not have its customa ry ring of hexagrams. The explanation of Ring 23 has it that the difference in use of inner and middle plate is that the former investigates outwards and visible forms,the latter the invisible path s of ch'i and it also indi cates that the former investigates mountain clr 'i.the latter watercourses~This must refer only to the relevant rings of 60 and not to the 120 6en-clUn. The latter are meant for the investigation of the site itself and its orientation. not of its general su rrounding s.

One ring of sexagenary characters .Ring 9.has been left out of this discussion because it is un repeated and seems to be a special case. Its explanation notes that sometimes it is l eft off the compass and it does seem to duplicate Ring 13 in its function which is to investigate the outer appearance of the mountains . On the other hand. i t may be used i n conj unct i on wi th the Preci ous /1; rror whi ch is ruled out for Ring 13 in that ring's explanation . Ring 23's discussion explains the anomaly of the 72 dragons (R i ng 9) historically. "The authorship of the 72 dragons i s unknown. They came through Yang Kung (Yang Yun-sung ,founder of the Forms School of geomancy) and were used to separate out the lucky from the unlucky. Later, men saw th81 the 8 ste~s and 4 trigrams spaces and the 60among whom they are distributed were not connected , so they made this ring (23) of complete Heaven sexagenary

characters

to support t he seasonal

ch' i and did not use the 72 dragons or take them with this ring. Then Chu Tsai(Chu Hsi?) suspected (this ring ' s) unequal division (in accordance with the equatorial ex tensions of the h6iu) and made (the ring of) 60 equa lly divided dragons (- Ri ng 13) ... All these patterns of dragons (are fo r ) riding the

ch 'i and (enclose) im-

portant mysteries entering the site."

All three rings of 60 (but not Ring g) have in their explanations lists of lucky and unluckY dragons(a sexagenary combination is ca lled a dragon);n vari ous degrees. If one corrbines these l ists into a single table as bel 0\'/ it can be seen that there is a fairly high rate of consistency.that exactly half are lucky . half unluckY . that dragons correlated with due positions of the 24 compass points (correlation of the two are made in the table to Ring 25) are luckiest, but that there is little consistency with the division into lucky stems and unlucky stems introduced on pages 60 and 61. 1. See pages 57 ta ins .

and 60 fo r a corre lation o f heave n with wator , earth wi t h moun-

68

CHINESE GEOMANCY

TABLE SHOWING THE CONCORDANCE OF LUCK AND MISFORTUNE AS SPECI FI ED IN THE THREE RINGS OF SIXTY DRAGONS (rings numbers 13, 2~ and 31)

, "[!IS

u .uc. u

,. -t

•

f
, ~

....

cl<

<1.,

0 0

0 0

• •

•

0

.,,

."••

•

,

• • •

0 0

~f

•

••

•

,

,

0

0 0

0

.. ,

·

. Ai. ",.

, , ,

•

0 0

• t. , .. ,. h

•

0 0 0

•,

•

• • •

0 0

,

0

0

•0

0

>

•

• *- 0..,

••

•u ,

• •

0 0

•

0

•

0 0

••

0 0 0

•

•

, • •

1'0.11" "

•••

I" '" I" " ,,'

••

• ,•

•

0 0

0

0

•

•

lU'_ .... - Cl", '. ,) . .... " •• _ . " ... _ ' ifOl .... • c... " II . ...... 'oc' ,_ .... c."". 11 ....... '0<,

•

•

T , "., " '"

C

• ,•

• •

• ••

, , ,

••

, ,

,a. .....

.. :it 'i. "

, ~

• ••

0 Tn

,

~

•

,

0

•• •

0

,

•

0 0

•

, •• • ••

0

0 0

• •

0 0

, • , ••

,• ,

0

0

,

0

• ,

0 0

,

0

" " * .."

• • i.

,

•

0

•

0

•

•

0 0

•,

••

0 0

0 0

, •,

* , "OF>' +

. - . *,

• • •

0 0 0

,

• ••

:>''''''''0, ;11"';:",""0<1.0-

: \ t..I

... >'1 ;:::::'+'1'''''':>''''''''* 0

0 0 ~

••••

" " " U · ' ...1...... _ ' .... _ ·

. , "" I • • ' ,,,,, 1od' "

" Of .) . . ......

.. .

, , " ......

loc"

_.........

I. d .. 11' • "..,.'

., " " 11· ... ,. ''''". •, "00

l ) . ' .. "

I.. ",'

I.0, "00 "" Zl" ..... '00" • '

. .....

hod ,",, '

"" " '..:" ..""'l".'_,.. ,,, ....

I•• t .. I T .... " '"",,"'

The coordinates of t his ta ble are in the vertical coordinate the earthl y branches and in t he horizon t al coordinate the heavenly stems whose combinations are 'the sixty 'dragons'. Against each branch t here are three rows . The top rows are the luck specifications according to ring 23, and the lowes t row the same according t o rin g 31.

BRANCHES,STEMS AND THE SEXAGEHARY CYCLE

69

One more correlation, beyond the confines of the compass, remains to be made with the sexagenary characters. As well as being an annual cycle the sexage nary characters also make a 60-year cycle.~ re than that,when a horoscope is made out in r,hina , the hour, the day , month and year of birth are each given in sexagenary characters , and by their branches are re lated to planet and h4~ influen ces, as well as giving an animal characteristic t o the individual. A fourteenth century horoscope illustrated by Needham (1956 , p.353) gives the following branch mean i ngs officia l posit i on. -.tzu

,

~

c.h ' ou '" travel,

i 11 ne ss •

yin

onc

'" marriage, women ,

- .6.6u

~

sons,

- wu

~

1anded property,

- we1.

• brothers,

- .6he.11

wea lth.

-

".

~

fate, longevity,

- h6u : bodily constitution (which is how Needham tran slates h4.iang ~, it also has the sense of getting on well with others and ln one's

job) , - 116.<.

'" happiness.

The horoscope has al so in its twelve divisions the 12 palace phases of ch ' .<. in the order given on page 47. with "womb M corresponding to the branch wu (due south).Although the horoscope antedates it. the types of fortune in the list above have much in common wi th those given in the E~ptanat.iol1 . De Groot (18Q7, p. 975) writes that the sexagenary characters of a man's birth-year must coi ncide with those of the site, but that it is not so dangerous if the characters for month ,day and hour do not so co incide. If coincidence is not possible at one time ,building of the site must be postponed until it is possible. For no t on ly are there fortunes intrinsic to the sexagenary cycles as listed in the E~~n, the almanac for each year decides according to De Groot (p. 974) between which two points on the compass the lucky bearings for a site are, and he notes that "the chief use of the geomantic compass i s to find the line (bearing) in which,acco
70

CHINESE GEOMAHCY

Since ideally, every site should face south, the segments i ndicated as lucky by the almanac vary for direction faced between SW and SE and for situatior itself between NW and NE. The rest of the compass would then be for investigating conditions on each side of the site. But in practice, of course, it is not possible to face south always and the whole circumference of the compass must t herefore come into use for both site and surround ings .So much for the spat ial situati on. As to the selection of appropriate time, Oorl! (1922 . First part, Vo l. IV, Chapter VIII)described the Imperial Calendar's arrangement of days for building,marrying , burying,visiting, travelling, etc ... Although they could. I doubt if the sexage nary symbols on the compa ss pertaining to a site do indicate the day on which building should commence.Nevertheless, geomancers are consulted to decide on proper times as well as places for burial and building, for starting a funeral and for putting up the ridge-pole of a house and for the timing of many other occa ' sions besides. and because this is so the geomancer always has an almanac as wel l as a compass. In the almanac, days of the year are divided into se ts of 12. each day standing under a certaifl planet element or terrestrial element as well as one of the h6~. A sequence of 12 day-names is repeated in the same order for every set. Some of them are neutral, some lucky , some unlucky. As well as there being lucky days for specific activities, it also happens that unlucky days are appropriate for unpleasant activities such as ca l ling i n a doctor,pullfng down a house,ordestroying vermin. A second part of the calendar is an arrangement of the 12 months under good or malignant planets .The direction in wh i ch the influences of the good planets are to be found is indicated and recommendations are made - such as that turning in a sedan chair 1n these directions will be genial. Plainly this is an extension of the feng -shui type of symbolism. The almanac links what is essentially feng-shui divination to other types of divination and the tables given in the Expta~n are in many ways reproductions of those found in almanacs. The one form of divination which they incorporate to the greatest extent is the Pa Tzu (Eight Chara cter) method 1 , in which prognostications are made 'on the basi s of a man ' s horoscope. The horoscope con stitutes the sexagenary pairs of characters for hour ,day, month and year of birth , giving altogether eight character s , 4 stems and 4 branches. Calcula ti ons are made by interrelating the branche s and the stems by means of their element referents as well as the element ascribed to each sexagenary combination and called the "contained note" element (see the table accompanying Ring 26' s explana tion, p.86 bel. The ot her is t he

Chang e6

Boo~

symbol ism below.

06 Change6 me thod ,for wh ich see t he s ecti on on Bo ok 06

SYMBOLS fROM THE BOOK Of CHANGES

71

low). A glance at an almanac shows how many other instances there are of the use of stems, branches, elements. and Yin- Yang in the calculation of fortune and the discovery and measurement of basic natural processes and cycles.Geomancy is me rely one ,and possib ly the most elaborate. of them and, sha ring with them these common references, it is not surpri sing that other methods of divination are exploited in geomancy and in the Expiana..ti.on 06 t he. COmpa.66. The lower half of the table in Ring 25's explanation refers to the Pd Tzu method. The headings in it are all terms , variations of whi ch may be found in Chao Wei-pang's exposition of the Eight Character method in Folklo~e studieo,Vol. V, 1946. By means of their horoscopes . people are given certain characteristics which may clash with those of others. Both people and days of the year can be thus clas sified and the almanac is therefore able to recommend that at funerals. wed dings and all other kinds of ceremonial occasions on certain days or months in the year , people born at certain times are to be avoided. For the purposes of this classifica tion of people. the branch character for the year or the day of birth. according to the School of Eight Character divination sponsored, 1s used and its animal association becomes the emblem of the person as it does also for years in the 12 year cycle and days within the year. Al l this is the business of the geomancer .The timing of weddings must be in harmony with the birth-dates of the couple. a funera1 mus t be in harmony with the birth-date of the deceased and these dates should not clash with the compass' sexagenary characters bearing on the site of the grave .

Symbols from the Book of Cha nge8

(Rings 2. 3 , 12. 14. 15 . 17. 18, 19. 25 . 29 . 33. 34)

Much has already been said about how the hexagrams tie up with rings of sexagenary characters, how they express the waxing and waning of Vin and Vang through the seasons in the case of their Former Heaven Sequence , and the balance of Vin and Yang in t he site and its environs in their Later Heaven sequence . We have al so seen how Vin and Vang attributions are given by the Former Heaven Sequence of trigrams to the stems. branches and 24 points of the compass , and how trigrams of the two sequences interact ,change into each other and put into effect

72

CHINESE GEOMANCY

their various element attributes including those given in the Book 06 Change& itself. It remains to exami ne what significance the tri - and hexa - grams contri bute per 8e in their many correlatio ns with other series of symbols. The symbols

of the Book 06 Changeo are the 64 hexagrams and their 8

constituent tri grams , made up of the two f orms , broke n (

)and unbroken ( -

)

lines.The hexag rams are all the possible computat i ons of the paired t r igrams.Both tri - and hexa - grams are ca ll ed Ilua. :i} . The Book 06 Chal1gu i s the fossilisa tion into writing of a very ancient oral tradit ion of omens , l inked to a method of di vination by which the diagrams (late r to become the hexagrams)formed spon taneously by throwing on to the ground a bunch of long and short yarrow stalks I • were used as the medium for prognoses of the immed ia te future. It probably dates from the Chou dynasty . Its various commentari es and appendixes were written in the Han dynasty when the diagrams we re put into the ir various orders and made the basis of a naturalist cosmology and ethical system. It i s one of t he Confuc i an Classic~ but is as much a source-book for Taoists. According to De Groot (1897 . p. 994). geomancers refer to the fo l lowin9 passage in its Great Append ix when claiming the antiquity of their prac t ice: "Look up and cont emplate the s igns in the heavens (l 'i en weltf.. j:~look down and investigate the regularities of the earth (ti U ~~ J..!l which means also "geomancy" and "geography" ) and know thereby the causes of darkness and light. Trace things to the ir beginnings and follow them to their ends and thereby know what can be said about death and life. "2

Tradition has it that the diagrams of the Book 06 Changeh were i nvented by the legendary ruler and inventor of nets and text i les . Fu Hsi, when, according to a later part of the Great Appendix . he "looked up and contemplated the forms exh\qited i n the sky and looked down t.o cont.emplate t.h e patter ns (or processes, 6a }J;) forming on the earth. He contemplat.ed the patterns (or ornament , wen..::t. ) of birds and beasts and the propert. i es of the many habi t.at.s and places . Near at hand . in his own body , he found things for cons iderat.i on,and t.he same at a di stance in events in general. Thus he devi s ed the e ight tri grams , in order t.o ent.er i~t.o relations wit.h the virtues of the bright s pi rits and t o c l a s sify the re l at ions of all t hings."

This passage was a sanction for the accumulation of the vastly ramify1. This is t he met hod associat ed with t he mode r n use o f the Book 0 6 Change6 a~ a medium of divina t ion . Other s , such as the cracks in a t o r to i se- she ) I fo rmed by heat ing , and the t hrowing of tablets and coins , t he latte r st i) I associa t ed with it , must also have gone into it s format ion . 2. The cont inua t ion of this passage conta ins othe r f eng- shui concept s such a s ch'i , the t r ipa r tite series o f Man , Heaven , and Ea rt h, the essential pr ocesses o f product ion and change , but t he y a r e mi xed i n wit h concept s such as the semina l es sence and the soul which belonq t o o t hAr systems .

SYMBOLS FROM THE BOOK OF CHANGES

73

ing series of correlations made with the diagrams,and also with the FiveElements , which finally formed the fleo- Confucian universe, an offspring of which is fengshui divina ti on. •

•

•

It is to Fu Hsi that the Fonner Heaven sequence is attributed and the Later Heaven sequence is attribu ted t o the first ruler of the Chou dynasty, King Wen. That these are historically fal se attributions need not concern us , but the fact that the trigrams vary in t hei r significance according to each sequence does. They may be represented diagramatical1y to show their di st ribution among the 8 pOints of the compass thus : FORM ER

HEA VEN

SEQUENCE (RING2)

5 Ch I «It

E

/:1 u: "

K'

~hbt

=,'/',

W

Kin " K'=

NE "

",1' NW

N LATER

HEAVEN

SEQUENCE ( RIN G 29 )

•

"I Chin

"

Ch ' .iLn~

,, 'an

'7 •

• The four marked with an asterisk are included in the 24 points for tions which they signify in the later Heaven Sequence.

the direc-

74

CHINESE GEOMANCY

Such octagons of the eight trigrams - sometimes with the Yin-Yang circle or a mi rror in the centre - may frequently be seen inscribed outside houses as ta l ismans to ward off evil spirits or ~ha. The innermost lines in the octagons of the tr;grams are their l owest lines and are counted as the first, the top. outermost, line as the third. The same applies to hexagrams. When arranged in circles on the compass , the 4 hexagrams at the cardi nal points (N.S.E.W) according to the relevant sequence are left out leaving a cycle of 60.

The Former sequence is clearly the more logical of the two 1, Line one determi nes the trigram's cosmic force and its sex. Thus Ch 'ien, Tui, Li and Chen are Yang and male, the other four Vin and female. The second (middle) line is the next most determinate line.Thus Tui is more male and Yang than Li. and Li is more male and Yang than Chen which has two female. Yin, lines above its one determinative male line . The mos t male trigram. Ch'ien (S), is Father, the most female (N) , K'un i s Mother. Tui is elde~t so n (SW) , Li (fast) middle son . Chen (NW) youngest son; Ken is eldest daughter (N E),K'an (W) middle daughter,and Sun (SE) youngest daughter . There is , of course. no reason to be lieve that because she is less old. the youngest oaughter should be more ma le than the eldest daughter. but we should beware of too strictly applying the very simple and rigorous logic of this diagram t o empirical reality! Yang progres sing up the trigrams and finally pushing Yin out altogether for a brief moment after which Yin ascends and does the same to Yang i s , as has al ready been described, a feature of the Former sequence of hexagrams and represents in its mos t ideal and metaphys ical form the annual cycle of seasons.A variation on this cosmic cycle is represented by the 12 Sovereign hexagrams in Rings 18 and 19 which use the same method of representing Yang and Yin ascendancy as the Former Heaven sequence but instead of having mid-summer (due south) as most Yang, mid -winter (due north) as most Vino it has the month before mid- summer as completely Yang and the month before mid-winter as completely Vino It thus represents a more subt le and less perfect symmetry and expresses the wide spread aphorism that within Yang there i s always Yin, and within Yin there i s always Yang. I . Carr oll (1964) attempts to exp la In how t he "Later " sequence came about a.6teJL t he " Former" sequence .He postu l ates an unreco r ded Middle sequence that could have fol Jowed t he Former sequence when new astronomical obse r vations changed the quart er s and seasons as r ep r esented by th e 4 emblematic animals and possibly also by t he car dinal trigram s .8u t he cannot explain t he arb itra ry l eap from ~iddle to Late sequence.lt is I i kely , nevertheless , t hat t he " later" sequence wa s the fi " ~ ~ and the " Forme r" a rationalisation o f the order of tr ig ra ms by laterph il o

SYMBOLS FROM THE BOOK OF CHANGES

75

The comparativel y confused arrangement of tri- and hexa-grams.in the Later Heaven sequence cannot represent the cosmic cycle of waxing and waning Yang and Vino but it does represent the paints of the compass. Its diagrams are more loca l in their application.intended to show the state of balance of the two cosmic forces for particular spots on the ground. The Yin and Yang of that spot is then to be taken together with the cosm ic Yin and Yang on the same bearing but from a Former sequence ring . If the Chinese found it necessary to explain how this dualism of Former and Later sequence sign ificance is repeated in the ~eaven and Earth plates.theycou l d say that in the Heaven plate the two sequences are to investigate the cosmic and microcosmic states of invisible and formative influe nces . and in the Earth plate. they are for the cosmi c and microcosmic states of visible and formed influences in the site.The guide to the co rrel ations with ch 'i phases.elements and sexagenary combinations of former and Later sequence hexagrams and to the type of prognostications that can be made in each case i s the Precious Mirror table~ But the prognostications do not seem to differ in any typical respect between its former sequence and Later sequence halves. feng-shui cosmology and its appli cation can by no means be represented as perfectly consistent. At the same time it must be represented as having every part connected or relatable to every other part~ Ring 2' s explanation has an interesting application to feng-shui of the cl44h of the two sequences of trigrams.lf water. at a po int of the compass marked by a former sequence trigram. flows in a direction towards a point marked by the same trigram but on the Later sequence ring this is fonner Heaven destroying Later Heaven and is ca lled "dispersion" (h6i.ao i~ ).If it is the other way round ,water at a Later sequence point flOWing towards a point marked by the same trigram but in the fonner sequence,it is Later Heaven destroying Former Heaven and ca lled Mloss" (utt1t9 C ). 80th dispers i on and loss make the dragon's lair (the site) unlucky. Thus far,the discuss i on of hexagram sequences has applied only t o those rings which combine with rings of 120 6en-chin . not to the two rings of hexagrams (12 and 25) . which represent a third sequence and are associated with the sexage· nary dragons. This sequence has much more to do with various other forms of divinati on than with the more metaphysical interests of the f ormer sequence and the Later sequence. 1. See page 64 . 2. Reasons for and agains t consider ing feng- shul symbo l Ism as a system are a lso sugQested on pP. 106- 108 .

76

CHINESE GEOHANCY

The guide to this third sequence 1S the table in Ring 25's explanation~ The hexagrams are arranged into 8 groups by the trigram which forms their lowes t three lines ,the 8 groups being arranged in the later Heaven sequence of trigrams . In the table are the names "Father", "Son" , "Wealth", and "Office" , and the"3 strange stems" and "4 luc ks". They refer to the Eight Character horoscope method of telling fortunes (see pp. 70-71 above). but in the context of feng-shui they

are used as well in a system of mutation by means of the hexagrams in the columns above them. The numbers are part of an associated system of divination , the Tun Chia

il!. 0/ "method,

the subject of Ring 10. They are based on

the le Shu

magic

square and in Ring 10 are distributed in 12 groups of 5. Ring 10 's explanation gives Yin positions f or 12 of the 24 fortnightly periods and 12 Yang positions. The hexagram mutation works in two ways.In the first. the classifying trigram implies its next but one in an anti-clockwise motion round the Later trigram sequence and thus indicates a possible mutation of the hexagram of which it is part and therefore another position on the ring or table. In the second, lines from neighbouring hexagrams invade each other and create other possible mutations of the hexagram which bears on the mountain or stream in the site's environs under investigation. Bya cormination of mutations a so- called root hexagram (pen kua. ;.f- J} ) is formed and is supposed to govern a ten-year period . Regrettably . this description is un satisfactory and incomplete guesswork in a very obscure and complex explanation which in any case probably refers not just to one other. but- to a number of types of divination independent of feng -shui. The explanat i on of Ring 12 gives two sample analyses of lines for the sexagenary division keng tzu (winter solsticel ond for p-Utg tW (surrme r solstice) : for keng tzu tru y-Ut and keng tzu are for the"honorableman's

the last line ,t he the the the

salary horse" . and are al so brothers wu ehen is for wealth tru wu is for sons and grandsons keng tru is also for sons and grandsons keng 4hen belongs to keng tzu ' s sa lary (from official emp loyment) and is al so office keng Mu is wealth

2nd line 3rd line

4th line 5th line

the 6th line

f or ,uUtg wu ill

the 1st line the the the the

3rd 4th 5th 6th

MW

is for sons

chi ch ' ou i s f or office chi h6~ i s for Yin honour and also for brothers

the 2nd line line line line line

kuei ch ' au is for offic e bel h4~ i s also for Yin honour and brothers bel yu is for father

(the words in scr i pt are sexagenary combi nations) 1. See ca.ge 63 .

77

SYMBOLS FROH THE BOOK OF CHANGES

They refer t he geomancer to other parts of the sexagenary cycle and elaborate only very little on the kinds of fortune predicted. The triplet of numbers called the "3 strange (or odd) stems" i s definitely explained as referring to posi tions in the l o Shu mag ic square of numbers. The square is in one of the appe ndixes to the Book 06 Change4 and by its means each number indicates a trigram.The lo Shu magic square is the basis for the later Heaven sequence of trigrams . We shall come across it again when discussing enumeration systems. In support of an interpretation of the numbers as dates. but not necessari ly of a ten-day or ten-year period. is the list of numbers for lucky conjunc tions with the seven luminaries (or Or iginals - the five planet elements , sun and moon - of Ring 24 ) ; numbers which patently refer to days in a four-week month: 4 , 11 , 18,25 5,12 ,19,26 1,8,15,2 2 2 ,9 , 16,2 3 3 ,1 0 ,17,24 4,11 , 18 , 25 5 ,1 2,19,26

with with wi th wi t h with wi th wi t h

Sun ~Ioon

J upiter which rei gns in the East: Venus which ·reigns in the West: Saturn " " " " Centre: ~tars " " South: " " ~Iercury " " " " North:

Spring Autumn Mid - SUDJIler SUl!DDer Winter

Benevo lence Decorum Fidelity Propriety Wisdom

WOOD METAL EARTH

FIRE WATER

given in Eitel (1873. p. 15). It includes a correlation of the Fi ve Virtues with the planet-elements, their quarters and seasons. Exactly how the systems of div inati on referred to in Rings 12 and 25 are worked is not our concern. Enough has been said about them to demonstrate the flux and mutabil ity of the cycles of symbols in feng-sh ui symbology. Even within a single serie s, neighbours and oppOS ites are implied by anyone symbo l and it must form a relationship with them t o show the direction of change . The linechanging method in the hexagram series i s of course formally related to the Book 06 Changeo own method of divination in which each line of the chosen hexagram i s liable to change into its opposi te form (broken if it is unbroken and vice versa). th e sum of changes producing a new hexagram which stan ds for the sta te of the client in the future should he follow the lines of action indicated by the origi na 1 hexagram. Nowhere in the Exptanat40n i s it indicated that the meaning of the hexa grams given in the Sook 06 ChangeA itself are to be used in compass divination 1. Only its attributions of elements and kin to trigrams are used. These are given in the Discussi on of the Trigrams sect i on of the Book 06 Change4 summarised in the 1. Needham (1956 , pp . 31 4-325) lists t hem and which would be relev~nt to feng-sh u l cosmology .

sane of t hei r meanings , nany o f

78

CHINESE GEOMANCY

tab le be l ow with some of t he other attributi ons. The tri grams arc a se ries of 8 . just as the branches are a ser i es of 12 and the elements a series of S.and therefore , anything else that i s 8-fo ld may be correlated with it . Thus t he chou Li corre lates the 8 Great Minis tries and t he 8 "concepts" with them.

The kin attribut i ons gi ven in the table are,incirlentally ,from the Later sequence and not those desc ribed above fo r t~e Former seq uence. although Father, Mothe r , and eldest son and daughte r are t~e s a~e for hot~. Onl y the later sequence ' s kin attri bu ti ons are sanctioned by mention i n ExplmULtiol1 .

".1."£ AND ATTRIBUf(

--

Ch '': ~ ~

- C'". ----- nu -

..

---- , --

-----

X'u

"

----

...

----

r".:

'"

A~lruL

PART

at tll:

Il1fA01

B~Y

M.l.TURU

COLOUR

soc IAl

POSIT I ON

'MENOIt[ NON

Dnp red

Ktnl!

t roath . st r ong

r . t ~H

.-

0" 90 n • 1I0ru

Heo d

Hea ven

Rectpttn yhldlng

/lother

o. or

Bellt

Etr th

Ihck

Tile .. 1tttllde

Foo t

Thundor

Cl rk y.llow

lou"1! un

Wlltt,

M. r cll ,nu

Arousing .o. u ent

Gent lenus pto,tr,tlon

. ,

Eldut

Eldest 6 .. g~tt r

" D,"ge r ( h ,,1ng wHer Adhe r t"c. depe"d," -

".

I'Ild6 1o

"

".

IIlddle ~I u ~h hr

" St udl.ess HIllnoss

Yovng u t

J oy , II r enl t t

lou "v u t d .. g~ter (Co"c ubln.)

".

"'

.In

Flying 6 .. ,on Or gll op in l! 1I 0r Sf

... '"

Phu'" t . torto l u c r lb , 'nlll

TU gh .

Wind

,,,

I(oon

".

Sun . 11 9hU lng

Bl oo d

,,'

Till ....

A.alone

Dog,rH . bhcHI1116 bl rd s

Hind • fin ger

lI ou" t ,ln

Gate -hlP"s

SII.. p

Mou t h' t ongue

ll kt

Encll'fttrt'Ssts

79

SYMBOLS FROM THE BOOK OF CHANGES

ELEHEh'T

GREAT mN ISTRY

"CONCEPT"

STE'j ALLOCATION I N RINGS

Ch ' .ie»

Netal

General Administ ratio n

Heaven

dUn.

K'""

Earth

Education

Ch",

(Wood)

Ri tes

Spring

Izeng

K'au

Water

Public Works

Winter

Izuei.

Su.

Wood

U.

Fire

,<.

(Wood)

T",-

(Wate r a nd Metal)

Eart h

<

h6.i»g Execut ive

Summer

jen

p.i»g Justice and Punishments

Aut umn

u»g

Ring 7 gives each of the eight tr igrams a "killer nature" which is ani mal and which must be avo ided or else punishment and death will ensue. Presumably t his is the nature t he trigrams take on when they are involved in an el ement clash with other symbols in beari ngs on t he si te. They are Ch ' .ieJ1

!torse

K'""

ilare

Ch",

Guardian monkey

Sun

Hen

K'an

Dragon

Li

Boa,

K<.

Tiger

T",-

Snake ' s head

Not many of these tally with the ones given by the Book of Changes. The list i s given at the end of Ring 7' s explanation and seems to be an inessent·;al embel li shment of the symhols .t he ki nd of inter ~ r eta t1 o n one g~omancer or group of

CHINESE GEOMANCY

80

geomancers would make and use as their speciality. It i s . however, worth noting that the anima l s in this list and most of t hose in the Book 06 Change& list are also those of the branches and h6iu. A reminder of the fact that the trigrams are not to be seen as sta ti c symbols but essent ially as marks on the flow (.6hun ll/Jl ) and counterflow (tU

iJ£.).

words used continually in the Expea~», of Vin and Vang is the possible correl at ion of the 8 trigrams with the 8 winds and the 8 chieh of the sola r year listed on pages 52-53~

Hsiu, stars and constellations (Ri ngs 11. 24 . 26. 27 . 28 , 36 and Rings 5. 6. 37)

The meas urement of the celestial equator into either 360 or 365 degrees need not concern us more than its mention on page 54. Of the five rings (26 . 27 . 28. 35. 36) which measure the equator.all except Ring 27 do so with regard pr ima rily to the extension of each of the 28 h6~ constellations along it and the dis tribution of elements among them. Ring 27 is a distribution of luck and bad luck to each degree of t he extensions of stars and constellations including the k4,iu . Its explanat ion accounts for good luck by urging the recommendat ions of t he numbers of the table in Ring 25's explanation, and most of the bad luck i s caused by element clashes 2 . l et us pass on immediately ,therefore, to the k4~. which incorporate two arrangements of the elements , and which, as we saw on page 66, are associated with the rings of sexagenary characters (13 and 23) and of hexagrams (12 and 25) which , use the method of divina ti on exemplified by the table in qing 25's explanation~ The h6~ are 28 asterisms 4 which in 2.400 8. C. were distributed roughly round the celestial equator. The distance of many of them from their positions on it then is now too far for it to be possible to maintain that they descr ibe the equator ,;f they ever did (although of course their extensions can be projected on 1. tlon 2. 3. 4.

The discussion of the Book 06 Chttngu symbolism is continued in t he next secbu t one below. See pages 55- 56 . Pu t of whIch i s on page 63 . A cha rt s howi ng t heir e xact distr ib ut Ion In t he s ky ma y be found in Needham

( 1959) .

HSIU, STARS AN D CONSTEllATlOr;S

81

to the length of that imaginary circ l e in the s ky ). Their primary me rite in any case ;s that they are circumpolar , bei ng all of them visible at all ti mes of the year and therefore making it possible to th ink of each of them as governing one of 28 di fferently s ized segments of a circl e whose centre is the cen tre of He aven or , on the compass, the Heaven Pool. On page 58 we saw how they and t heir an imal s ignificances are corre lated with the 12 branches and direct i ons. Other t han that they have, in the Explanation their el ements and their names :

fQ :it

1.

2.

1\ I!r

3.

4.

C/UD

Horn

K' ang

Neck

Ti.

Root

Fang

Room

5.

.' ,'-'

H4.w

Heart

6.

ft

I)!ei

Tail

7.

$.

Chi.

Winnowing basket

•• 9. 10.

tfJ 4- Nttn tau or :t -+ T' a.i "'u t t Ch'.ien Jti.u t "'-" 0 '

-It:-

jJi

NU. or

H6u. 11U.

Southern Dipper or Gr eat Oipper Ox or Herd- boy Gi rl or Serving maid

11.

J!

H4u.

Emptiness

12.

ft

We'-

Roof top

13.

14.

l' .!if

ofT

Sh..ih or P.i or

15.

4-

16.

.t-

~.!if:

Y.ing 41Uh TWtg pi

House or Encampment Wall or Eastern wall

K' uei

I.egs

l,u

Bond

17 .

'If

I))ei

St omach

18.

SF

'''

is a graph fo r a group of s tar s the Pleiades

" -t-

Pi.

Not

19. 20.

1Ir

21.

T4u.i or

22.

.Jt

2."i .

J1L Kuei or

Ch..ing or

ll' shen

"

~#

~~

T.s u.i c.hu,i

Turt le is a gra ph for a group of three s tars

TWtg clUng

Yu hue'-

Well or Eastern well Ghosts or Ghos t Vehic le

CHINESE GEOMANCY

82

24. 25.

1.

~~

Liu

HhVtg or

-l"1.

27.

#;. j(.

28.

.tt-

26.

Willow

Chi h6.ing

Stars or Seven Stars

Chang

Extended Not

r

Wings

Ch ...

Chariot; Platform

Element characteristics of each ~iu are not given on th i s list for a number of reasons. There are two types of element distribution among them. one of the planetary elemen t s and the sun and moon with them. the other of the Five Elements alone . The second is given on the t able which is accompany i ng Ri ng 26 (see below).The first i s not given in fu l l anywhere in the Explanation 06 the Com~h. Matthews ClU.ne4e-Eng~h Victio~y contains a table of the ~iu with a distr i buti on of the planetary element s. the sun and the moon , but judging from the few examples of the i r distribut i on given in the Expltuut-tLolI, the two do not tally .

The M.w. are numbered on the list above according to an order in several ancient works . one of the earliest of which is the Huai Wan Tzu (circa 120 S.C.). The translation of tt',e i r names is according to their ancient significance and is given by Needham (1959 . Table 24).Because they are always visible in the sky, the courses of the sun . moon and five planets (named as the Five Elements) seem to be through their areas (segments) of influence.The moon especially is seen to change its resi dence from one to the next in its complete cycle of 27.3 days - hence the name ~.i.u "residence".Since all five planet -elements. sun and moon over a certain period all appear in each one of the 2B hh.i.u . to distribute as does Ring 24 these "Seven Or iginals" in 4 cycles so that they are permanently associated with single hh.i.u . would seem arbitrary unless it was to indi cate the lucky conjunctions of certain h6~u wi th one of the seven. That is almost certainly at the basis of the distribution.but . although so much of feng -shui symbol i sm is grounded on astronomical observation . I am not at all cer tain whether in feng-shui siting a genuine observation to find out in which I~.i.u are t he seven originals at the time of in vestigation is in fact made or should be made. Ring 24 enumerates ~iu in groups of 9. each lot beginning with a h4iu ~Ihich i s in conjuncti on \'Iith "sun:'/ 9 does not go into 28 exactly so that this enumeration has no permanent significa nce. It is not the way in which the element planets are distributed among the M.i.u and it is much more probable that "sun" in

HSIU , STARS AND CONSTELLATIONS

83

this context i s meant symbolica l ly and does not refer to the real sun at anyone time. It may be that the numbers in the table in Ring 25 ' s expl anat ion , al so from 1 - 9 , refer t o haill . Rin9 24 and all the rings concerned with hoill extensi ons, except Ring 26 ,make use of the distribut ion of pl anet -elements among the hoiu and are used together with the r ings of hexagrams and sexagenary cha ra cters connected by the table of Ring 25.Ring 11 refers to the animal characterist ics of the hAiu . and if one Mill element destroys another. the animal i s sa id to eat it. The other el ement to which a hoill element relates is that associated with the sexagena ry combinati ons. It might be expected that hoill and their planetary elements would stand in the same relation t o sexagenary (or lOOun.t ain, or dragon) elements as heave n ch'i do t o earth ch 'il. This brings up the whole question of how far t o insi st on the logic of the division of the compass into Heaven and Ea rth plates. Heaven ch ' i have elements with which the other ch 'i elements must be in accord, but they are not st ron g enough t o resi st be ing injured if the earth ch ' i elements are in a destructive relati onship to th em. So also the hoill pla net -element can be destroyed. It i s not easy to see hO~1 a difference between Earth and Heaven elements is t o be characterised. unles s it is by the Heaven elements be ing undestroya ble by Earth elements - something never mentioned by the Expta~n , and perhaps alien to Heaven-!lan-Earth as a series on the same plane. The application of elements to a site i s in any case con fu s ing. t he site and it s situati on having sO many aspects, each produci ng a different el eme nt. The chances of there not being any in a des tructive relati onship with any of the otr.ers and therefore producing ~ha and bad luck of some kind are very low i ndeed. The problem is even more comp li cated as we shall very soon be reminded . but before we say that the system ca nnot work , we should remember that it is with augury that ~}e are dealing, and t ha t t hi s kind of confusi on gives the augurer a choice of interpre tation, a chance t o suppre ss one or another aspect of a situati on and by shi ft of empha sis t o augur different things from the same mass of data.Furthermore,low chances of happiness and harmony l eave him room t o explain the fai l ure of a positi ve augu ry . Rin g 20's explanation, and it i s the onl y par t of the Explanation which goes into any detail on the difference between Heave n and Eart h,does nevertheless say t hat Heaven ch 'i domi nate Eart h ch 'i. It i s the more regula r cycles of ch ' i and of Vi n and Vang t hat are characterised as "Heaven". I have therefore inter preted "Heaven" as mean ing cosmic and "Earth " as microcosmic in the sense of per taining to locali sed conditi ons , and this suit s the fxp~nation ' s descr i ption of 1. See pages 49- 50 .

84

CHINESE GEOMANCY

Heaven ch ' ~ being formative and invisible while Earth ch 'i are visible and in forms - the forms of the earth . Beyond similar characterisations of the re l ationship between rings of symbols in the one plate, and others in the other plate. we should not go. Thus Earth ch 'i are dominated by Heaven ch 'i in the sense of being dependent on their more regular and inevitable cycles , and if a choi ce of stress i s to be made.the potential destructive force of an Earth ch ' i,. element on a Heaven

ch ' i element may poss i bly be forgotten . but thi s is mere speculation. It would surely be wrong however

t o lose all sense of "Heaven- as sky ,

so we must ask further whether symbo ls for

stars are not more "Heaven" than

"Earth" in this scheme. There are more rings of h.6iu.in t he Heaven plate than there are

elsewhere.

Rings 5 and 6. which consist

t han h6iu. are at the

centre

of

the

of star s and constellations other

compass which may be considered as a part

whi ch comes before the tripartite division begins.Each ring of 24 compass points . with pet·haps one or two rings on its inside.makes the border line be tween plates.

So . fr", Ring

.. .. ..

.. .. ..

1

6 is Centre

7

19 or 20 is Earth Pl ate

20 or 21

30 ;, Inner Heaven Plate

30

38 ;, Outer Heaven Plate

Only Ring 11 of all the celestial sphere rings

;, ;,

the Earth plate. It

1s probably there to be aligned with the terre s tria l branches , for convenience and because

after all it is the influence of the stars and cosmic processes on

t ha t is

feng - shui's

~

concern. In its explanation, t he h.6iu. of Ring 11 are called

"mou ntain hJ.i.u ,\·lherea s the Heaven plate M.w of Ring 24 are called ·~lO r ld or generat i ons , supporting" h4.w ({ thouqh they are of course bo th concerned with the M

sal'1#! celestial phenomena)and Qinn 24 stands in rel a t ion to Ri ng 11 much as do root

l1.ua t o first selection I1.M as described on page 76. A simil ar pr,ocess of mutati on and imp lica tion occu r s here too among JllIiu , not su rprisingly since both kM and Ju..i.u are connected \·ti th Ri n!! 25 ' stab le.

The rings of sexagenary

characters assoc iated wi th thes e h4.i.u . kun and

t hat t able are f or i nves tigating the environs of t he site.The remaining circle of M.i.u (26) is also to be cor related explana ti on shol'ls , but the are not

\~ ith

elements

sexagenary characters ,as the table in its

it arranges through the degrees of the h4iu

the planet - elements. Ring 26's elements are chosen by a variety of means

as indi ca ted on the part of it s t able

~Ihich

is illustrated be low.

HSIU , STARS AND

COHSTELLATI~S

85

CHINESE GEOMANCY

86 (The lower

half of the Precious 'lirror table has the same arrangement

of elements among degrees of h6iu exten sion ) . Although named , the methods of element choice seem to have no relation to any system among branches, stems, etc .. . that is discussed in the Explanation. They constitute yet other distributions of elements. The explanat i on of Ring 26 gives this example of bearings which are mutua ll y destructive: "P.ing

tzu (sexagenar y combination) i s Water with Fire hl.-i.u. degrees and

Wu tzu is Fire with Water hl.iu degrees . There will be

6ha (a noxious breaths). It

is said that the mountain destroys the site."

This indicates that the sexagenary characters here as well as with all other hl.iu arrangements are those for investigating the environs of the site . The ring of sexagenary characters (31) in the Ou ter Heaven plate has no ring of hexa grams to go with it and it could well therefore be the one intended for correla tion with this different h6iu-element arrangement. Ring 26's explanation says that it is al so to be taken with the ring of Tz 'u Han (37) ,a ri ng of 12 branches whi ch , as we know, are sub-di vided by the sexagenary combi nations. So the planet-element h4iu rings go with the Inner Heaven and Earth plate rings of hexagrams and sexagenaries while in the Outer plate Rings 26. 31 and 27 go t ogether. But what then is Ring 36 with its sun , moon and planet-element arrangement doing right next to the Tz'u Han ring and why does the explanation of the Tz'u Han state its relationship to the 5-pl anet.sun and moon arrangement? We have to face here the fa ct that the compass dial preserves in its r ings of s~ols a variety of astrological and divinatory practices each with its own arrangement of elements and use of the basi c cosmological symbols and that each new arrangement was added to the compass when fir st it became popu l ar and was preserved t here. It i s possible to go quite far in assimilatiny t hem to some kind of consistent scheme, but it would be false to try too tortuously t o do so. Some compasses have fewer rings than others. The geomancer may in practice consider some of the rings as obso l ete and ignore them. In any case what we have here are alternative me thods of quali fying the Tz'u Han and the sexagenary characters by h6iu elements and they cannot be integrated .

•

•

•

We come now to heavenly bodies other than h6iu - Rings 5 and 6. Ring 5 ha s the symbo 1s for the Nine 'lovi ng Stars ,corre 1a tes them to the tr ; grams. stems, branches and characterises them with elements. They are the subject of the Ha»

HSIU. STARS AND CONSTELLATIONS

87

LWlg Ching by Yang Yun -sung. founder of the School of Forms. and will be more appropriately described when we come to discuss that School and the aspect of geomancy it represents. The beginning of Ring 6's explanation sets out the re l ationship bebleen Heaven and Earth: "In Heaven the images are complete. On Ea rth the forms are complete. Therefore the stars of heaven sh ine down on to the 24 points of the compass. The stars have beauty and ugliness and th e earth has luck and misfortune. This ~called " Heaven's light reaching down and earth's virtue (o r power) contained above" .

It goes on to give the compass pOints for 6 constellations, links them to trigrams and stems and calls them the 6 luxuriances or beauties which br ing great happiness . There are the 6 beauties of the Yin dragon artery and the 6 beau ties of the Yang dragon. A Vang trigram marks an artery of Vin beauties and vice versa. There is nothing else of significance in this ring's explanation bu~ its use of "beauty" is noteworthy as an example of support for the undeniably aesthe tic correlates of feng-shui.

•

•

•

Ring 16 (the 120 6en-cJUn ~Ihich include the 24 points of the compass) refers to the Ts ' ui Kuan.This i s a table given in the companion volume to the Expla~OI1 by which the 24 directional symbo ls are linked with 24 constellations for controlling success in civ i l service careers and the imperial examinations. I reproduce it below with an example of its type of recommendation.to complete this description of the stellar symbols of feng-shui. It may well be an example of the process of raking into feng -shui discourse what in other contexts is part of another ent irely independent,astrolo9ical , form of divination .

•

•

•

TIlE 24 PO INTS

of

-!-

STARS, ASTER1SMS ANI) CONSTELU,TlONS

*-

Cele Hhl Celestia l "'ssiHan t Rampart

..,

Yao Kuanl

,,"

Yant l i gh t

~

T-

*

~

Ce l estial Celestl.1 Celesth KI tc hen Mark e t Flail Nort hern

i nfluenc

~

Go lden

,,"

Yang pho t

Jf

-*-

'I'

Vin nfl uence

Yang t ransver se

'"

i'li

Celes t ia l Celestial Iionou r Br eadth

Celes tial Celenia l Cd estial Celes ti.l Cons tant Halberd

Ce lestial Teuple

The Hi Iky

T' ai Wel Ess ence (Gr en of lIeat Obsc u re) (th e 5un ) Vin pivot

",,'

Sout h Pole

Gre.t Constant

Dark Spea r

-Il

('ang

..,

Cel est ial River

"""

Ce lut ia l Sc reen

...

n- ' a i I

Snak e

(. it.!.w)

Yanl jade

~

of Ce!u ti al Flrs t one

"m

iC.

.l+

elen ial Ce l esti al OH ice "'nlQI

A Hshng assis tant of t he god of thunde r

,.,

"

L

Celutial Decr ee of Park !leaven

Ce le stial Herito r l Pivo t OHicil l

Hlht

T

'f'

g:

qr

~

~

~

Cel e stial Ce les t ia l Ruler Stable Ce l estial

OM

",

Vanl ' nfluence

dark ness

Vang openinl

It. :

over bearin, Yanl Vant South

towards '/{ l e ads to refinement and the gl o r y o f t he villalle . Towards .Jl- a nd on the left are we.1 tll, honour In Wen and

\l'u. If (th e positi on) f aces ~ the c.h ' i. fa vour tile left . The position is pros pe rous , Vl n-Yang In accord, happi ness visible. Seek

*

au s p ieiousnen at t he two pivots (see above) wi tll If t ile .,un uin at

p..

is luxuriant l y ( treed) i t will

on t he le ft a nd L

on t he rltht , ri dinl tile cla ' i. for treat IloTY and f .....

.un , reat literary knowled ge and fa-e. Faeinl

..«. th e cJo'i COlle up t o tile

l eft and pene trat e obscur e r OOIlS, f at t en and en r ich tile IIouse , s t ore up to l d and ileas. But fear p re-ature dea th lit erary honour a nd wea lth but In i t s strength Is weakn ess , its (elemen t) wood de, t r oys

1l

' 5 own.

-S ~

~ ~

", jade

Saap le r eadi ng! _ f or

1: c

'I

We i (Purple Obscure) T~'u

eIIinence Ku P'en

Ob scur e

~ 1.1

e"".

,..U

c

-f+

le.ds t o

ENUMERATIONS SYSTEMS

89

Enumera tions systems ( RIN GS 10. 12 . 22)

Two sources in Ch inese ph i losophy may account for the enumeration systems to be found in the rings of the compass: one in theories of the origin of things. bound up with the centre of the un i verse and Vin-Vang t~eory ; the other in the 8c o ~ 06 Cnange6 appendixes and especially the two magic squares Lo Shu and Ho T' u. It would be a waste of effort to describe what would amount to a long l i st of the ways in which number systems are actually worked i n the various forms of divination associated wi th feng - shui symbolism. It is essential to numbers that they may be computed in several ways leading to several results especially when they are not statistics, but are manipu lated on their own merit as if containing a meaning and a secret in themselves. We have already encountered enumeration for its own sake i n the section on Five Elements, in the Vin and Vang of even and odd numbers,and in the fact that the sum number of any series. 12 (branches) . 8 (trigrams) , may link it to other series whose sum number is the same whether or not 'here is a plausible empirical link between them. Our interest is in the approach to enumeration and its place in the cosmo l ogy . Ring 22's classification of the 6en-cJUn into 2's and 8's or 3's and 7' s is basically a classification into even dnd odd numbers and therefore into Vin and Vang.Th i s dua l ism i s a facet of the grander scheme by which the centre of the universe gives a dua l division into Vin and Vang which , with a centre , makes a triple division (another tr i pulate is Heaven-rlan - Earth j and which produces and ma nifests itse l f in the myriad things. Dualism i s ins i sted on at every stage of the

90

CHINESE GEOMANCY

evolution subsequent to its emergence. It is t he life force that produced the myriad things and is also inherent in everyone t hing and every div ision of things . Dualism is crucial in general to feng-shui thinking, as we shall see again in the next section when the principle of opposi tion wilT be introduced. It is a form of dialectic,but not one irl which opposing forces meet head- on producing a synthesis by each becomi ng redundant in the process. Vin and Vang produce a synthesis by each

being in their proper place and time and the synthes i s is never independent

of them nor are they

independent of each other, Vin supposing Yang, Vang having

Vi n latent 'wl thi nit.

The evolutionary scheme can be expressed by numbers : first . there was o (nothingness) . t hen there was 1 (the Great Absolute). which produced out of itself 2. so that there was 3 (the monad plus the 2) ; out of the 2 came infinity (the myriad things). This kind of schematisation goes back to Chuang Tz u and the earliest Taoist philosophy. It may also be seen in Chou-Tun-i 's diagram (page 34) where the number 5 is added for the elements between 3 and infinfty. In this way the mystic Significance of numbers is built up. The close similar ity between this Chinese scheme and Pythagorean nLQerol ogy i s brought out by Feng VU-lan (II .19S3 . pp.93-6 ) and it is notable how . in both. the elemental division of numbers according to whether they are odd or even is developed into a metaphysical principle. £berhard, in Fairbank (1957. p. 39) writes: "The Chinese, like the Pythagoreans and many other civi li sati ons , including our own , believed in a ' harmony' of nature: the course of natural phenomena is determined by individual laws which can be combined under one general law. As the Chinese as well as the Pythagoreans had already attempted to express some of their laws in mathematical terms, the one general law was a l so conceived of as a mathematical law, generally as a number which included a ll numbers, the ' Great Number'. But instead of attributing apparent discrepancies , ie. unusual ce lestial or natural phenomena , to inadequacies of the t heories , such phenomena were thought to be the result of human activity, human interference in the balance of natur e. Therefore, instead of correcting or adjusting the theory , men sought the sources of human interference."

Chinese geomancy is a particular and peculiar instance of this very generalized description. The essential geometric shapes that came out of Pytha90rean numerology were the square.the triangle and the sphere (= the heavens); for the Chinese they were the squa re, the circle and the sphere. The Chinese triad was expressed not by a triangle but by three separate or concentric circ l es.Where the Pythago reans represent odd and even by square and oblon9 . t he Chinese have round and square. A

ENUMERATIONS SYSTEMS

91

preference for curves, frequently alluded to as characterising Chi nese conceptua ~!estern

lizat i on as opposed to a at

preference for straight lines.seems to be hinted

here. In feng - shui. meandering l i nes are

on.~lhile ~ ha.

the proper paths for

c./l ' .{.

COO1e in straight lines. The straight lines of roads. or

to travel

I~atercourses

or ridges of roofs are deadly arrOl'ls . so- called , of destruction. This seems to support the theory that the Chinese prefer to think in curves,and yet there is no fear

of

squares. The symbolic

shape for earth is square (as opposed to a round

heaven) and the altar is square, t ha t of Heaven, round. The class i cal d~le lli

ng

plan of a tOI'1n is square, as it is of the courtyard, the

unit, In fact in architecture there is also a dualism; that bebleen the

squares of

man -made

structures and the curves of natura l forms in landscape and

garden. But

here the dualism of Vin (Earth) and Yang (Heaven) is lost, for l'lhile Earth is Yin and square, Vang is heaven and round , we cannot extend the logic and see the

opposition

of nature and man as Yin and Vang for this would reverse the

shapes. The two dual isms are not mutually exclusive, hOI'Jever , they are Merely not coincidental. Vang and Vin a r e both in 'tan as Ruler (Vang}and ~uled (Vin) ; they are both i n Nature as the tl'IO cosm i c ch ' L I have drifted away from numero l ogy, but hope that in so doing I have shown h01'1 metaphysical concepts may be elabor ated into concrete compos itions, It is one of

feng-shu;'s

peculiar

fascinations that it provides a codification of

the bridge between cosmological specula t ions and concrete act ; on.~ost of th e data I,dt., ~'hich Fen(1 YU - lan provides r:.,inese analogies to Pythagorean numerology are taken from Appendi.x III of the Bool1. the

o~

Cha.119M . It is in the same appendix to

Beol! o~ CIUll19M that the second sources of feng - shui enumeration systems is

found. The two sources are, of course, not squa re s , which constitute rallel school of philosophy

independent

of each other; the magic

the bulk of this second source , are a product of a pa ~Ihich

then Merges with the Yin - Vang school.

Behind the squares is an evolutionary legend that casts light on the place of nunlerology itself in man's relation to environment. The mythical Emperor YU the Great , because Ho ( the Yellow

only

River) and Lo

he had been able to control the waters of the rivers I~as

given the Ho magic square by a dragon - horse and

the Lo magic squa re by a turtle. The magic squares then, are the product of , or anyway associated with man ' s control of nature. A variant legend is that Fu Hsi 1 first observed the natural objects around hi m,then on the basis of these observa tions created

the trigrams wh ich I'>ecame corrrnon knol'!ledge to mankind and provided

the mode l s for the ma nufa cture of man-made I. See paoes 72- TL

i~plements.

It is by means of number 3

92

CHINESE GEOHANCY

in magic squa res t ha t the tri grams are arranged in their orde rs . A passage in t he rhO Cnuan for the year 645 B.C. sta te s that: "Things having been pr oduced. there are t hen emblems (the trigr ams); these emblems go on t o mu l t ip l y;that mult i plicat i on having taken place . there are number s ."

Feng Yu- l an , who quotes t hi s passage (1953. p. 92). expla ins i t as meaning that "First t here are physica l obj ects,and finally var ious numero l ogical categories based on t hese emblems."

The numbers come, then, at a stage between trigrams and man-made utensils . to adapt the T40-Chuan passage t o the Fu Hsi legend. They are schematisations of the records of man's observations of nature in order to help make the utensils with which he controls nature. Thi s ki nd of rea soni ng mi gh t we l l be extended to the who l e range of feng -shu i symbols ,especially since the magic squares themselves are an ordering of the elements as well as of the trigrams by number s and by compas s directions. Before gOing any further along these l ines let us see how the magic squa res , and the Lo Shu in pa rticular because it is the one used in t he E~~o n , schematise the trigrams and elements. This can best be done by showing t he Lo Shu i t self and the extensions made f rom it : THE

WOOD

l.O SHU

SOUTH- SUMMER

FIRE

,,/

... '

Su~/ /

WOOD EAST- SP RING

Chen

:1

Ken "

'\,-,'

L.i

EARTH

K'I.H1.

""" "

~ry?7A----OT/777-n

3

5

7

1

6

K'a.n WAT ER I'I I NTER - NORTII

11 :

T
METAL AUTU~-WEST

~Ch ' .ien

META L

ENUHERATJONS SYSTEMS

93

The associations of elements with trigrams varies only for k~ with the associat i ons made by Appendix 8 of the Book 06 Change4 and which were listed on page 79.1t is evident that this square supports the Later Heaven sequence of trigrams and that.a s Ring 3 points out. Vang numbers are at the cardinal points. Vin at the corners . Going round in a clockwis~ direction the numbers indicate the ra tio of Vang to Vin through the annual cycle: in Winter. Vang is 1 (Vang's lowest number ) while Vin is 8 (V in's highest number). in Spring . Vang is 3 and Yin 1s 4 (crudely par). in Summer Vang_is g (its highest number). Vin is 2 (its lowest) •.. and so on. The "magic" of this square (which . in its numbers alone. is found the world over. and not just in China) is that the sum of the numbers along anyone side or diagonal is always 15. Thi s happens t o be the number of days in each of the 24 phases of the solar yea r. This fact leads no furt~er mathematically. but gives authority to Ring 10's assignment of 3 numbers. which. its explanation says are from the lo Shut to each of the 24 solar divisions . the se numbers being represented in row four of the table accompanying Ring 25 (page 63). The numbers in row seven of the same table are also explicitly stated as being those of the lo Shu.Both these rows must therefore refer to trigrams. and trigrams moreover. that are not often the same as those in row five. The mysteries of the table are fur ther augmented. The nine squares of the Lo Shu are called the nine palaces . as ls reflected in the name for Ring 10. and this refers to the nine halls of the Ming T'ang - a mystical temple - dwelling through which the emperor was supposed to circulate . carrying out the rites appropriate to the seasons~ In the Skih Chi (trans l. Chavannes. Ill. il) it is reported that in 123 B.C. an imperial cult of the Supreme O.,e (T'tti J) was instituted. T'a; I had an octagonal altar with openings on each of the eight sides for the passage of the spirits of the trigrams and all they stood for. The celestial residence of T'a; I was the pole star and its equivalent was the centre of the octagon~ From it the deity made regular visits to its eight satellite spirits. The Supreme One is a Han dynasty deification of the Great Absolute' and the octagon was the cosmos .Octagons Jf the 8 trigrams still feature as lucky shapes on popular vegetable dye prints given away at the New Year festival. Neither the Lo Shu nor the Han dvna~ty diviner 's board nor the round compass dial are objects of wo rship,hut it is surely not fanciful to relate the Han diviner ' S board with its round plate on a square plate to the round altar of Heaven and the square altar of Earth, and to relate the lo Shu to the octagonal altar of T'a; I as it is explicitly related to the ~1ing T'ang I. See t he Monthly Cornmand6 on pages 98 ff. 2. See

pao~s

36- 37 .

94

CHIliESE GEOMAHCY

and place the geomantic compass as the product of the mer9ing of the square-plus round with the octagonal. The linking of elements to t rigrams was the work of the Han dynasty School of Naturalists. The La Shu i s probably a good deal l ater than this - Feng Vu-lan attributes it to Chu Hsi (Sung dynasty). So numbers truly did come , as the T60 Chuan said. after the emblems , and they are assoc iated with the great period of syncretism in Chinese philosophy lasting fr om the Han to the Sung dynasty; a period during which the entire feng-shui cosmo l ogy was evo lved. If the recording of phenomena is the first step in the control of nature , the organization of the records (a the emblems) whether it be by numbers or some other method is the next step .It turns the table of Nature's domination of ~an because it amounts to a recons tru ction of Nature by 'lan. It is at this stage that calendars are made, by wh i ch the agricultural exploitat i on of nature can be planned and astronomical events such as the phases of the moon accurately predicted. But there i s a coun terpart to astronomy and calendar-making in which tlature is reconstructed by spe cu lat ion into an ideal system untested by empirical use. Despite sceptics like Wang Ch 'ung (27- 97 A.D . ) who ridiculed the orders of the elements and the animal associ ations with the hoiu ,Chinese syncretism progressed steadily away from empi rical reality . It became an autonomous, self-defining system with a potency of i ts own. The nearest it came to bei ng tested empirically was in the work of alchemist~ But they explai ned their genuine chemical discoveries tortuously in terms of the system and their failures did the system no harm. Feng-shui is a re-application to Nature of this system after it has be come enti rely independent of Nature. Its enumeration systems are the most extreme examples of the arbitrariness of its re-constructi on of nature and the universe, and we have seen that they stand behind the serialisation of many of the compass' symbols ,in particular those fr om the 600~ 06 Chan9~.Discussi ng the 600~ 06 Chan9£.6 and its appendixes, Needham (1956. p. 311) supported by Waley (1934 ) , guesses that it was to begin with a collection of peasant omens - records of observations of some concurrences in natural life and the spontaneous reflexes of the human physiology, such as that tingling l imbs mean that a friend remembers you , or "If the li ttle fox when almost over the stream Wets its tail Your undertaking will completely fail. "

Another example given by Waley is, "When the "'ild goose skims the rock-ledge You may cat and dr ink in peace When th e wild goose skims the l and The absent husband will not return and the pregnant wife will not bear child When the wild goose skims the mounds The wife for three years wi ll not be pregnant and in the end will s uccomb."

ENLKRATlONS SYSTEMS

95

He also finds omens from the observation of ant behaviour,omens derived from beam sagging and creaking and also from appearances at marriage ceremonies (e.g . if the bridesmaid is better dressed than the bride,it bodes ill) .. This last is of the order of proverbs and is based on stereotyped common sense . Taken altogether, the types of omen observations , peasant ome ns, that Waley detects at the base of the Boo~ 06 ChangeA, present a broad range with at one extreme scientifically true predictions - such as those made from ant behaviour which is a notably accurate weather index - through stereotyped common sense to pure allegory - of which the little fox rhyme is a good example . Already at thi s stage , then, there is something more than the mere recording of natural occ urrences. Either meaning is given to them based on their empirical correl ates hut genera lized and therefore not all-'ays true, or also they are mere ly metaphorically apt. The next stage , Needham continues, was a coalescence of peasant omens with various systems of divination. They were tnus abstracted even further from empirical reality,often los ing even their allegorical aptness , but, to judge from their continued usage, retaining a symbol ic value, perhaps by being peculiarly evocative of ce rtain broad types of situation and therefore st imulating the inter· pretations of the professional diviner. The whole was then taken up and sys tematized into a cosmology by Tsou Yen and the School of Naturalists and thenceforth increasingly abstrac tconceptualization grew away from the essentially human and physical correlations of the peasant omens . As an historian of science tleedham deplores the influence of the 800~ 06 Change4 on alchemists and scientists. He cal l s the Book a ~Unive r sa l concept-repository" (p.322), and "a cosmic filing system" (p. 311), a hypothesis for entering all novelty .This bureaucratisation of nature takes the fear of chaos out of life, it is to "classify for peace of mind" (p. 328) and it involves a passion to em.wnerate for the sake of numbers. ~J unber i s no longer the qua ntifi cati on of reality but is, from the start , a symbol, and given meaning later •

•

•

•

CHINESE GEOHANCY

96

S umma r y of fe ng -shui cosmology

This concludes the

description of the compass - the most complete and

comprehensive single body of feng -shui symbo l s. The description amounts t o an outline of the un iverse according to traditi ona l Chinese natural phil osophy. I have attempted to trace back each category of symbols to its sour ce , whi ch in most , ~ cases turns out t o heorin part be some form of empirical observation; I have also

tried to show how each category of symbols is applied by means of the compa ss to topographical features and empirical situa tions. In this summary, I would like to

amplify the general nature of the philosophy from which feng-shu; stems. Feng-shui is a form of divination and therefore lumped together with popular religion and superstition by Western authors , and by Ch inese authors writing in English. But as we have seen, feng-shui. far from being an inventi on of popular superstition , stems directly out of Chi nese syncretist phil osophy from the Han dynasty School of Naturalists to the Neo- Confuc iani sts of the Sung dynasty. The symbols of feng -shui cosmology and the correlations made between them can all be found in the works of t hese philosophers. Th e apocryphs and commentaries of the Book 06 CluutgM in which the final syntheses were made between the Yin and Yang,the Five Elements , and the phasing of time, constitute the most outstanding source of feng -shu; cosmology .But there are many others, and by giving a few more examples from them I hope to show finally the great breadth of the tradition of which feng -shui is a part. The third century B.C. work Yueh Ling (,t(0nth1.1 COl"f'IMdh - an interpola tion to the Book 06 RitM) correlates Elements , and colours wi th directions, and is a kind of almanac for the emperor's and court ·ritual by wtlich the sovereign is advised the correct sacrifices and robes and the correct direction in which to face while making the sacrificed for each mont~ of the year.lt is in the form of an annual progress through the nine halls of the 'ling T'ang, which legge translates as the Hall of Distinction (Li Ki. S.B.E. 27 , Book IV , p.252 ). The Ming T'ang, as we have noted (pages 11-12 . part I, and p. 93 above) . i s related cl osely to th€

9)

SUt·1IARY OF FENG - SHUI COSMOLOGY

Lo Shu mag i c square, also div i ded into ni ne ha l ls . A di agram of the Ming T'ang i s given as below in the Ch ' ien Lung edit ion of the Li Chi (Book 06 Rite&).

THE LO SHU

s SU~!1-!ER

I I

""

4t h month

5th month

6th month

"~

~

~

"

,.

R

""

,.

I

E

ff

~

s P E

,. ,~

ff

N G

A

~

0

U T U

ff

M

ff

"

,•

0

"

,.

""

,.

~

N

L-

W

N

~

ff

"~

""

,• 0

,. ff

~

l.pUOW

l{:JZI

l{~uow

l{:J11

l{~uow

l{:JO l

L

I

WINTER N

The ca lendar referring to i t may most conven i ently be represented as a table

98

CHINESE G[OMANCV

MONTH

'"

SEASON - STEMS AND OTHER ASSOCIATIONS sp... .t.~

: u •• s

ChA • i

, r uturn sell)'

tute lour s • • 11 rink

nUllbeT 8

CELESTIAL CORRHATE Sun 1 ft hill Il [yenH.r h hill 21 d.llnstir

in )"i" 6

NATURAL

PHE"O~ENA

Eut wind

r' 50I yts. The col d cre.tures be~tn

IIFFERUGS

EXEMPLARY CONDUCT

t~f door of sph eft of wlet".

£.peror rides. (lTrhge

"

flying I grftn fl'g , lItl-

.\t

to IIOYe.

Fishes rise up to tet. Otters ucrH l e.

l'IounUl"s , Forests .

Stru"s, Likes.

f t sh. Wild guse

with phoenll bells drawn

by

IIUT,

horse

ring gr •• n robes .nd j.dt. Ht nts .. hut Ind ,"utton, gOtS with handle Ind shirt of plough to (UTrOIl his ft ,l d.

Dly;sto" of

IPa,'r.

dr'gon

the ft.lds .

.11 attentton to husbud r y, no bulldhg. no tl1

lln, of cre.turts you ng .nd gl ylng bir t h , Or of '99S. ~ ... rring.

,.,

,.,

hins begin Orl OI$ sl~9S Pucll begins to blouolI Sw.llow 'ppurs Thund.r .nd lightening Insects In .otlon

[11.ocoeca begins to fl ower. l I fa Ind growth fully dneloped wlr • • genlllllr. Shoo ts co.e fort h , budS unfold . nO restr.lnl .

~t

the

F.ar~~

, Urs ISlot ) to.t~

firs t ... te~-..,~, e r with i bull , rllI . bOlr. In the Inelstr.1 tuple, I I .." to the ruler Of tht col d for ope ning the I Cl PreHntatlon to the Inctent dt~Int ruler • his wife, r obes ye l low IS .ulber ry. To encourage · fish ing thl lo"gsnouted (roy.1) sturgeon.

I.

Repair of gates. dcors sleeping .part.ents Ind t uphs. Stria .,. Ind ponds .,us t not run dry , repair of d ••• and ponds. All .tt,ntlon to husbandry. Do not fire hills and fore sts.

Distribution fro. Stlt. grlnlrllS to the poor . In spection of dytes. Bulls s. nt out t o .I tl (Slc rlflcl., ~Ictl .s) . Prep.rltlon for slltwOrllS. Cerellonies agllnst pes tllen c •• Untetterln! of pr isoners No lIti9.t on.

99

SUI+VIRY OF FENG-SHUI COSMOLOGY

HOItTH

SEASON - STEMS ANO CEl£STIAL OTHER ASSOCIATIONS CORRHAH

s"•• « , pi~g

•

s te. ' tift~

Cr uturu hUhere t nu " r id s.ell o f burlng Nu.b,. 7

NATURAL

r, r een frogs t r ol t E'rth-.or.s rise. Roy,l .elons grow So.-thistle In seed

SI Ight ~ut Praying 'la nth born. Shrl ke heard '!otklng-blrd cnses so n9. Dear shed horns. Cludu begin song. Trlf hibiscus flowers

'"

EXEMPLARY CONDUCT

PHENO~["A

Gentle winds Cri ckets on •• lls fireflies Trees luuri. n t Ground "e t ' Ad 5 te' lIln9 benelth hu t. (; r ut ains

At the furOf vlctl.', I"ngs(nso' tilted .ith lIeUI which Is dntroy!d by fire - su ... er' ·s elellen t Offering of fi rst .hu t and pork in ,ncestr.l tt.ple .

hpero r rt dn I ver.tlton clrrl'ge , red horses with bllct tllls , red rh9 .nd red r obes Clrnltion J,d •. [Its b,lns Ind fow l. ".rlt brough t forwlrd. Tlth'-t'~ of cocoons o f sllk·wor.s. Collect .,. dlcln.1 herbs.Ch.se .W11 bu t do not hunt wild .. nl.,h. Exhor tlt lons t o work hard n husb,nd r y . Relelst o f prisoners on light u nunCl.

Great S"""'fr Sf erHice to H ~ to spl rHs of I!IO\In t .. lns.'ipr lng 1 strUM Ind to Officials In tile ~,t who have be neftted the IlO'O pIe. for rlln ~ !IOOd harvest. 'lfferlng of first fruits of.ll1ft chleten Ind che r ries In • ncestr.l tfllple .

fasting and Iscetlels. pe't • • nd 4~lt t . tl~e in high b~lldhgs. C1I.~ hllh ,"d tower , to •• old trelt h"t. tl'v, opln doors ,nd g •• tlS to clrc~ll t l Ilr. Allow.nce of f ood Inc r,ISI Ind le"lency for prisoners evln with grut crl.es. Ho ve_itlons or ."q~l­ rles It b,rrlers or ~Ir ­ tets. I.p rlgn ltld •• res sepir.tld fro_ 5t.lllons •

un.

COllec ti on of food to nowrl,h vlctl.s for SI ' crlflce to Tt . splrlts of f . . ows hills, grllt Urn.s .nd the four qijlrter, Ind the ti~g of thl ""cu t rll

u . ph.

Orders to flsher •• n to , tt .ck 11119'tors c.pt~· r e the glvl.l (.nothe r " urtln) ,the t ortoise Ind the grll t turtle . Collection of rushes .nd of ~urn t g r ,ss to ~I I. ft under nln , to beeON ... nure for field S of grlln . Or d.r, to wo.en f or thl correct coloy r dying o f rob ,s t o be uSld I t Cl r .· lion liS Ind Slc rlf lclS. No cutting or pruning , ,11 ut,ntlon to husbln dry In this tl . . of f loods

lOp

MONTX

CHINESE GEOHANCY

SEASON - STEMS ~HD OTH ER ASSOCIATIONS

CELESTIAL

NATURAL PHENOMENA

OFHRINGS

(ORlI.(lAl(

B«.. (( ~ su .... r "/Id

In . tddl. cou rt

IlIt .. 1I1I

helven .nd elrth and the othl r .1.-

o r the hurt

£." r oT rld.s In gT.,t Cl rrl .g. 1.110w horses with blict t l l h . ,..110w

!!Ients Is Earth

fh9 .nd yrl10w robes, ,.110 .. gus.

ste.u "'" • ehi

(atJ pantcled .ll 1.t .nd beef.

creatures Skin

tlst, SW'ft 5",.11 {.,grlnt "ulllb,. S

".

"utUJI"

S

tt.,

.ug • hi .. crutures hatry tute bitte r sm.l1 Tint

",, ",be. 9

COOl winds. White dew

(Ic.da of the cold nOli begins to chirp. Young hawks ki ll

b i r ds.

At the gate of th.lIuT. nrtHnu t lon of

IItW

gn I n In anClS trl1 t.npl,.

£.p,ror

ri des

.ar chl-

riot, whi te horses with bla ek .,n's , white fl.g "I t h whit. r obes , wh i te j Id ••

[Its he.p se,d and dog's fles~,

ChOOH .en 'nd ... p .. upons. the oppress ln .nd Insolen t - •• kin g c l ••• who. t he e.peror love s and ..h o- he hate •. Revision of lows , good re pat r o f pr hons . Rtfit houses,strengthen w.lls , t.bank.tnts, dykes. Collec ting I nd s t oring. Co... ~nders s~

Pun1s~

a,"

Sudden' violent .d nd •.

UI1d geese arrh. I t their .. hter

hOlies . S... l lo .. , re t urn. Birds store pr ovlstons . Restrained thu nd er. tnsects stop UP ut ... nces t o tllt t .. burrows. IIH.rs b'gln to dry up.

Ftrst ~ t .. o· utd .n~ dOf S flesh

"

Incestr.l te .. ple

Inspection

of

"cr tft·

chI . te tl .$ for htnen,

leng th of horn. C" ••ontes agltnst pest tl.nee.CI"1 for the old. Butldtng Qf ... l ls. g ... t n pits. und.rgrQund pISS.ges . s t or n. Whut so .. lng. Re.tston of punlsh.en t s, we t ghh , .... SUrfS , ta r l fh and tolls.

101

SIJIot'.ARV OF FENG-SHUI COSlIIlOGY

tlONTH

S[ ~ SOU - 5T[~S ANn OTH(R AS50C IAT IONS

[X[~PL~Rf CON~UCT

C[lEST IA. l CORRHAl( Wild gnst

H'

COIO'

li ~ e ~"ests. CII ~lu nt~' .u.s

Of e. ptu r ed il a ... to Ule spi rits of

y, I Ia .. .

t he fou~ "u'r hrl . "Ic t .n~

The "lid dog uc dO ces h rg e r

anl .,Is , u ts s.~lle r

~ on' s

~n l .l ls.

r1u ~

H

Hoar fr os t. I n s e cts Durroll

Inc es tr .l

t, .. p h

de e pe ~ .Pll nt s , nd tret s tu~~ ye lloll.

Luns fi ll.

ROb ."

a nd ,qu l p.en t propreplred and 51er1f lc li l . Ie tl .. fo ~ l utu.n Slc rlf lc,s t n In perly

clstr. 1 te.ple ~eld y . Huntlng . t o t e.ch t he ult

of the 5 ""Pons and t ht . .nlge.ent o f hors e • . Hlr .e . t ln; Ind sto r ing r , gl . t tr o f p rod y ce. fllllft9 o f S tlte grlftlrll S f or Stlte "c r l f l CIS . tlbou ~

c ~u, '.

C,l e ndar

f or

n~x t

1 11r

I ssued.

llw s of t • • , tl on f o r th e rev e nue o f produc t, f or t he . ~b~~bl n SIc rlf l'I' 8r.nc hes cu t f o ~ ., k lng 'h, r CO II . 10th

"i " tt~

in •

: su.s

'ue' C rtltw~e s she l l t onred tlSh Hl t y

sull rotting Nu.be. 6

Water co ng uls. [Ir th oent tr . t ed Dy (Old. '" Inho~, I r e hld ~ eft Air high up In

HII"t •.

All shu t up on £. r th.

~t

P lt~

to

In ces tra l

le.ple. kidney s o f o. rl . bOl r . To sp irit

f) f

of

h n~{s ~~)

At public

.Iur .nd

["pe r Or ride . d~ r~ Cl r r ll gf, Ir on-b l'c k hor.e. di rk f I.g .nd b lack ro bes ( f wr) , dHk J.de.

r.ts

.I llet Ind suc k ling

ptgL

for bltsslng on n.,.t ye&r. Co.passlo n to orphlns Ind .. Idow •. ~r . ys

111 gHts

tofts ult.tlon. o f to rt ol-

• Ilhge •.

SU lks .

Spoils of the c~H e to the 5 household

ud.

o f t Ollns ,

Slcdflcu

• • ll .ncutors. Vesseh

consecr at ed IIl th blood.

se-shfll

.nd

divlnlng-

Rules f or .ou r nlng re.l-

fe. tlv lty ~lll t.r J

R,vfftue

Ind drinking. Inst r uction. f~ o. lI.ttrll.Y' .

102

~OMTH

CHINESE GEOHANCY

SEASON - STEMS AND

C[L£STlAl

OTHER ASSOC I H IOlrS

CORRElATE

tlHUUl

PII(NO"[H~

[Cl stronger. Earth cricking.

l! th

"fghtbird Cllses

song.

Tige r s begin to

pllr.

~lrtnfSS

, decIY

strugglu with

b r ightness and

To the'

seas. the g,ut rlnri,

springs 1I ~ u.wel1s

(.Inter's

ehwent Is IIHer)

gr owth.

Elements of Itfe begin to ",ove.

Rtu begins to gro". Won" curl. !toou-door shed horns. Spdng of W.tH

All

things

to

be kept

Doo r s Inspected ,nd shut. No vhltlng . Self-.djus t Ment futlng. W.rdens & for este r s to .Id anyone see king n. t ur .l pr oduu ,nd g,Me. liquors f or rlee .nd gl~­ tlnous , r a in s to be co.pIned l enen ca kes.ade. Any produce le ft un,,t her~d, horses .nd oxen left at luge M'y be hken by ,nyone. Felling t r ee Ind b'MboO for arrows . Rebuilding .nd repal r l n, co~ered.

in .av.wen t.

12th

~.iu

10

" J

Wild gun go

north. ~.agple begins

to butl,L Cock "henl"t

crows.

hen ha t ch e s. BI r ds of pr ey fly high and hs t . I"

abundant.

thick and strong.

Presentltlon of f ish .t Incestrl' tuple. To hills . r lv ers.To the gr ut Ml nht r l". To splrl U of '"ture. To r chlight procenlou

EMpero r eats fish. Ftth l ng s t ar U. Ce r eMonies agains t pes t ilence. AnlM"s t or n to piece, ,nd o. -o f- the-elr t h sen t f orth t o cle, r ,w'y t he cold Ilrs . Collec t io n of tee - s t or u. Br ing ou t t he 5 gr el n seeds, rep.l r plo~ghs.

&sHrlftce.

In subu r bs .nd ,ncufr.l

u.-

pIes. To l.nd & gra l n,hllls foruts feMOUS strUMS.

T~@ sun his gone through its degrees, the _oOn through Its conjunctlons,the stlTS re t urned to their stews , the yelr

"Ill soon begin .galn.

Revision of St.te s t . tutes. Olscusslon of se. son,' pr oceedings in pr epar,tlon f or New Vear.

SUHKARY OF F[NG-SHUI COSMOLOGY

103

We see in it how the time of year was told by astronomical observation and by certain minutiae of natural observation. ~uch would depend on the accuracy of such observations. It was the basis of the organisation of civil administration just as the solar calendar was the basis of agrarian efficiency. To be in the right place facing the right direction dOing the right thing at the right time is, then, a cross between being practically efficient and being ritually correct. It is being in tune with the universe. The Shu eking l record s as history the legend that Hsi and HO ,mini sters of Vao. were put to death f or not regulating the calendar correctly .£verything depended on it. A successio'I of natural calamities indicated a lack of merit in the Emperor, chief link of man with universe. It is easy to understand that the success of any operation can thus be seen as due to being in tune with the universe, and it i s thi s kind of thinking that is behind 6eng-.!.hu.i.;a mixture of practical efficiency and ritual significance. But it is not, in the case of feng-shui,a matter of correct moral action. since no cou rse of behaviour is indicated by reng-shui manua l s beyond burying or building in the right place and at the right time and 'right' is a purely physical not an interpersonal matter.Whatever the subsequent act ions of the beneficiaries, the result of the burial and building is automatic. Vi Hsing (673 - 727) made a table using data from the 11011.t.h.t1j COmm:tl1d6 , but within a much more elaborate system which correlated the 72 periods , the primary hexagrams (equivalent to tri gramsj and the rest of the hexagrams of the Rook 06 ehal1pe6 . giving the appropriate feudal rank for each period 2 . By the time of this development.then. we are very close to the correlation tables to be found in the Explanatiol1 06 the Compa4.!..A glance at the traditional way of correlating calendar and directions with the symbols of the Book 06 Chal1gu , in Feng Vu-lan{1953 pp. 15 and 106 ) wil l convince us that a circular disposition is the most convenient form, since it is a cycle and at the same time the circle of the horizon that i s being described; reason for the existence of the compass ,besides its evo lution from the diviner'S board. A Taoist alchemical work of the second century A.D. by Wei Po-yang, the Chou J n.'al1-t'ung- dt ' .i (A/t.innu6 06 .the TlLi..o .i11.the. Book 06 Chal1gu) and Chu Hsi's commentary of it in the twelfth century , lin ks trigrams with the phases of sun and moon for each month. These are correlated with the directions of the compass by knowi ng the poi nt on the hori zon a t ~Ih i ch the moon i s fi rs t seen in the 1. legge . Ch.il1ue C1.a.s6.iC6, vol . I ll, pa rt I , pp . 162 et seq . 2. The table Is reproduced In Feng Yu-I an , 11 , (195 3) , pp . 114- 6 .

CHHIESE GEOMANCY

104

night sky on the first night of each phase. The directions are marked by the stems , and a correlation is made between trigrams and stems almost identical with that made in Ring 3'5 explanation .

examples of philosophical parallels to the evolution of the fengshui system could be given, but I hope it is by now sufficiently established in ~ore

principle if oot in detail.

Here and in the descriptions of the various classes of symbols ,and most explicity in

the

section

on EltumVt.atiott

SY4.t~ .

I have indicated the possible

history of the evolution 9f feng-shu; symbols. It is a history and not yet an ex pl anation. Explana tion, or t he attempt to explain , will be left to the conclusio n of the book. r~an...,h i1e t he evoluti on as r see it is l'ike this:

1st STAGE

Observati on of Astronomical phenomena

,, ,

Observation of natural phenomena

,------------ - ----~

J-----------~

, ,,

cale~da r:pra ctical

divination systems

and ri tual philosophical ,"",, , ,,'

, ,sys tematltatlon ..

'.

,",

ethics

cosmology

,

:,

3rd STAGE

,, , correlated , ,,, ,,, ,,

,-------------- ~

correl ated classified and ,, : rituafised

2nd STAGE

Obs ervation of human behaviour

,

' symbolisation of obseryations ,

.-

.., ' ,-

, ." '- -- ----- --- ---fF.NG-SHUI

It i s , of course, largely hypothetical.All that can be demonstrated, as I hope I have done, i s that the observation of astronomical and natural phenomena and their correl ation came before the systematization of the clas se s of symbols that make up the feng'-shui system,and that calendar making and the subsequent syn cretisation of the various schoo l s of natural phi l osophy helped in the process of

Sl't-flARY OF FENG·SHUI COSKllOGY

105

constructing a single conception of universal dynamics that included all of these classes of symbols. This line of evolution helps us t o understand the notion of appropriateness that under lies feng -shui . but not how appropriateness i s extended to mean luck. To understand how this takes place we need the second line of evoluti on . that which takes in divination systems . Here one important . perhaps crucial. pOint. must be made . A divi ner is concerned wi th pa rt icu lar actions and their consequences. while a phflosopher is concerned with generalities. I have therefore put "observation of human behaviour" into the divination line of evolution and not into the philosophy l ine. beca use by it I mean observat ion only of particular in stances of huma n behaviour. but he makes generalizat ions from particul ar instances of human actions. The Chinese natural philosopher even makes types of human action. and human act i on itself as a category among other natural-curn-metaphysica l categories of activity. Seeing a general course of behaviour that is in harmony with the worki ngs of the universe. the philosopher posits it as the correct course. Actions that con form to it are good. those that do not are bad. Thus he evolves a system of ethics. The diviner mere ly pos its that one instance of behaviour belongs to a particula r set of circumstances. The geomancer . a diviner and not a philosopher. refers to the cosmology esta bl i shed by philosophers but only in order to knowwhether a specific set of circumstances is in harmony or 1n ~onflict with the regu lar forces of the universe and whether i t is an instance of a constructive or a destructive cosmological phase. He takes for granted that both pOSitive and nega t ive fo rces are at play on human behaviour . and makes no further value judgement, whil e t he Neo-Confucian philosopher defines as good that behaviour which i sappropriate to t he positive forces. and that which is negative as bad. Hence the tleo Confucian evolves a moral sys tem and geomancy does not. Reference to the cosmo l ogica l sys t em will not.however. entirely explain the diviner 'S attribution of luck to every conj unction of symbo l s. We know that reference t o the cosmology can te l l hi m whether growth or decay . production or destruction are taking place in any particular instance . but.a s we have seen that the overa ll circumstances must i n t he majority of cases have somewhere a negative element . an arbitrary decision must be taken on how much thi s prejudices the luck of the case. Furthermore, the vague knowledge t ha t so-and-so much growth and production , off - ~et by so -and -so much decay and destruction pertains to a set of circumstances mus t be fur t her interpreted before the diviner'S client can know how it affect s t he facts of hi s life. This interpreta tion involves decisions on the diviner ' S part that are to a great extent independent of the symbols . let alone

106

CHINESE GEOMANCY

the cosmology. These decisions may be helped by reference to the personifications of the symbols. of the branch and ho~ animals for instance. or to the astrologi cal bodies.the nine stars , and in particular to the topographical forms and their resemblances - an aspect of feng-shu; that i s to some extent independent of the natural philosopher's cosmology . Even so, the last stages of applica ti on to individual cases are so arbitrary that we cannot explain them either by the natural philosopher's cosmology or by person if ications and resemblances of forms. There is no way of finding out in terms of the cosmology, or any sense that we have made of feng-shu; theory,why premature death and literary honour of all possible kinds of luck should be chosen to go with ke.n and "Celestial Market" in t he Ts'ui Kuan table . And this is only the penultimate stage of application. Even the most applfed section of the manual volumes accompanying the Explanation 06 the. Cornpa.64 . stands in relation to the rest of the manual as apocrypha. It is really a number of samp le applicat i ons which mayor may not be useful as a guide to the practitioner of the basic principles which form the central matter of the manua l . The practitioner is essentially on his own in the last stages of applicati on and this explains why attributi ons of luck in the Explanation are always general. They are typical kinds of luck. referen ce to whi ch may help inspire the feng-shui expert's di vination . It is necessary to stress that the universe ot symbols that has been described is open only to 6e.ng-4hui h6ie.n-4hengJit~ ;l1,Jpracticing geoma ncers). To their clients and the general bel ievers in feng-shui practice. the symbols appear only as a patter of mysterious names on the 6eng-6hui h6ien-4heng's tongue. Thi s patter, De Groot and others report. is nevertheless what conv in ces the client of the diviner's skill. The symbols in it. though ha lf-understood .have power. They evoke cosmic processes the existence of which are not doubted by the cl ient. The meaning of the compass symbols i s far more out of the reach of the lay believer's understanding than the symbols of the Schoo l of Forms and it i s in t he l atter that lay believers converse about feng-shui. While for the purposes of analysis it i s convenient to divorce the two Schools of symbo ls. in practice they are not separated. They are equally drawn on by 6eng-4hui h4ien-4he.ng. I have described the compass symbols fir st. because the basic concepts of Vin and Vang. the Elements . Ch 'i, stars and planets seem to me to lie behind the less systema ti c Forms symbolism . but to be explicit on the compass. In other words . I would maintain that what I have described in this part i s the theory behind all feng-shui practice.

SUIfoIARY OF FENG-SHUI COSMOLOGY

107

In what sense does it. in fact , constitute a system? It is definitely metaphysical ,a hypotheti cal cosmol ogy that i s used to explain physical events. It is self-defining. 8ut i s it al so internally consi stent? Paradoxically. the question cannot be answered in theory. Extensive observation of feng- shui in practi ce at one pOint in history and in one locality would be necessary to answer thequesti on whether feng-shui i s capable of a self-consi stent theoretical base. A single manual like the Explanation 06 the COmpa44 quite definitely contains inconsisten cies (see pp. 67. 75. 85) bu t it may be that a 6eng-4hul h6ien-4heng selects from this l arge body of theory only those pa rts which are cons istent .One would have to li sten to his patter to know . l oca l variations are great. so are the variations between manuals. It i s of course, possible t o consider only the most basic concepts and argue , as I have done, that they fo rm a cosmology which has internal sense.8ut the whole question of system is of anthropolog i cal interest only when it i s in the form of an answer to a more complex question :do the Chinese who practise fe ng-shu i find it necessa ry to have at least a core of theory t hat makes internal sense even if they are only hal f aware of it? Contradi cti ons in practice, such as the unlu c~ consequences of a presumed-to- be-lu cky site can always be explained by t he shortcomings of the application of basi c theoretical principles on the part of the 6eng-4hui h6ien-4heng . Would experts , when describing t heir belief in feng -shui , have found it necessary to set them out as I have done and with the occas i onal rationalisation s I resorted to, for instance . i n describi ng the var iou s forms of applying elements (pp. 62, 75 and 83)? No, is the answer that would most likely be correct. Believers need not resort to rati onalisation and therefore not to making internal sense. Obviously the geomancer chooses one interpretation from many poss ible alternatives. De Groot would call thi s an expl oitati on of the su perstitions of the ignorant to suit the geomancer . But we should keep in mi nd that the geomancer ;s to some extent also in al l probabi lity a believer , and that full knowledge of all the symbolic circumstances of any given situation wou l d in any case be imposs ible. In addition. ma ny different types of di vination enter into feng- shu i theory, such as the Tun Ckia (Ring 9). and the Pa Tlu horoscope method. I have indicated that some of the rings of symbols on the compass are historical left-overs. Is the practiti oner conscious of an irrelevance in these rings or doe s he ig nore the fact that they are in consis tent with la ter developments?

• •

•

108

CHINESE GEOHANCV

In this su~ry of the compass symbols. i t is of interest to note these characters whi ch recur most frequently in the Explanation and whi ch are presumably .. therefore. the most evocative. The symbols are applied to four hasi"e land·

scape ca tegori es

mountains, and Lwt9

-it

dragon, mo untain ridges and formati ons

water, all watercourses and concentrations of water earth or all uvial fo~tio~s. the word has a sense special to feng -shui whe re it means any distinguishable shape in the cont ours of t he earth and also the banks of ru1lies and watercourses and perhaps boulders, etc ... dwe lling, the s ite itse lf literally "lair" (Le. the dragon' s la i r), also means s ite, but

indicates mor e t han chai the si tuation of a site in a ho llow or a place protected on three sides.

The symbols themselves rarely stand for a static state, nearly always for a process or a state of being that is in flux and always in some kind of relation t o another symbol . There is always some form of dialecti c. basical ly between the Heaven and Earth aspects of the situation. but more specifi cally . even within a single series of symbols. one symbol imp lies another and interacts with it . An opposition of forces is to be reckoned with at every level of feng -shu i diagnosis. between Former and later trigrams and hexagrams . between variou s orders of elements , between different declination s of the compass points. Thus, i n the vocabulary describing the symbols . the most common word s are those that express action or the state of being in relati onsh ip to something else. The dragon or the ch ' -<. ; nfl uence enters or 1eaves the si te !ill A ch ' Il t.a.i and ch ' Il J. C~ ' -<. are co 11 ected up, or condensed. [.6holl ~t I , or disperse and leak {-<' i~ !t.6-i.ao i~ I. Vin and Vang cycl es .6hun ~ (approach, increa se , literally , go with the curren t ) or tU (recede, oppose , literally go against the current) . Force s ch 'u.ng (cla sh ) or ha ~t1 (harmonise ). sym~OlS ~ (influence , change) one another. or are p« ~~ or .6h.wtng (pa lred wlth) one another. A force 6rut ~ (injures, transgress es) .These are the most common and the key verbs .

:tl

-*--

f.J

-k

4t

't

109

SUMMARY OF FENG-SHUI COSMOLOGY

The key recurring words for states of being are those that describe in· ter-dependency: ho,*, (included with , joined), ckU:w (interlocked with), 11e..i f,~ (contained in), t.hu..-i (classified as) . and h.6.iang ;ffl (in mutual relation ship \'Iith).

3t

*

The most common adjectives other than lucky and un lucky are those that describe a situa tion as (beautiful) , k6.i.u (luxur i an t, elegant ,beautifull and.6 itwt ~ (pure.simple) or as po (confused), u ' o 4{} (cha otic) and ni or c.ho i"lj (muddy).

mu :k-

ilt

~ verything

Utt.!U.4a

is potentially or act ively kinetic , but in addition it becomes

plain that there are bas_lca11,! two_for-ms-of-kines.is O.r interac ti on . That associated with \disaste~ i s where forces clash or injure one another , are out of ba lance and disperse . lis state1 s ~ .(rhat associated with ] OOd fortune js har monious, balanced , concentrated , clear, pure, beaut ifu l. Potentially, the.re is on the compass an almost infinite variety of symbol combinations ,only a few of which are described by the Explantttiol1. Other manuals may exploit others . This i s logi cal if we understand that the function of the compass is to make sense of confusion. It must therefore cover all contingencies. It is , in effect , an attempt to recreate creation and make it intelligible and it is, for th i s reason, embattled with chaos . See the first sentence of Ring l's explanation (page 32 above). Other than the symbols themselves, there are few nouns among the commones t words ,and t hese few have a curious ambiguity that animates what could other wise be purely formal :

c.h '.i.ng

it

t. hi-h

"#.

6a

}k

"pattern" , "rule", and thus also "law" . In feng - shui it mos t frequentl y refers to the manifest pattern of watercourses, mountain ridges , contours, etc.

chi-

..

"the sour ce of universal moti on", "node" , "motions".

chi-It

f

"character" of a situa ti on or a person

means "cir c umstances~, or Mconditions" , but also "fee lings"; Ch '.i. "l ife-breath" , etc ... , similarly has a human correlate: "manner" or "temper" "circumstances", "terrain" but a l so "power"

and of course kua

1"t.

"change".

tHINESf: GEOHANCY

110

Noticeab l e also throughout feng -shui theory and particularly in the key words i s the pr inc iple of opposition to wh i ch I referred when discussi ng duality {page 89 -90) . Using the word tU.

06 the a section to it : EX P04~Q n

Sec4~

"In tomb

ilf. (counterflow)

to describe this principle . 8JLi.e6

06 Feng'4hui (publi shed recently in Singapore) devotes

feng~shui

there is no action which does not select opposition ,

reject concurt"ence rho ~'C1 ) . The law is that the reverting eh'i infuse the bones and protect what grows. This is the new law of burial to se l ect opposition. It is

exemplified by the or ientation of a tomb-site following a right-hand path (clockwise) when

the dragon comes on a left-hand path (anti-clockwise) .... (and vicever sa) ... Water is essentially in movement , its secret is in rest (Le . the pool in front of the tomb). The mountain is bas i cal l y at rest , its secret is i n movement (of the dragon ' s pulse). What comes str aight should be received diagonally . What ~omes cross-wise should be received stra ight. On a stony mountain select a soily tomb - si te ... "

It con tinue s and

with a long lis t of opposi tions between general situation

the s ite for the t omb , such

as "leisured s ite in a hurried situation , level

s ite in a bumpy situat i on ,Vang site in a Vin situat i on". Th i s is an opposit i on of fit rat her than of conflict ,and its manifes t ation in feng-shu; is notably

adapt-

ah 1e t o a sys tem of aestheti cs , a point to wh i ch we sha 11 return shortly. It i s an oppos iti on which

Needham

has described , referring to Han dynasty Naturalists in

his section on "Fundamental Ideas of Chi nese Science" (1956 , p. 283) , as "a kind of mutual courtesy rather than s trife among inanimate po"'ers and processes , a finding of solutions by compromise , an avoidance of mechanical force, and an acceptance of the inevitability of birth and doom for every natural thing." " If t his expresses something deeply true, as I be lieve i t does , about the Ch inese "'orld-picture, of which the five-fold correlations (Elements , etc.) were the a bs tract chart, then clearly the scholars of the Han and Later time s were not simp ly s tuck in the mud of ' pr i miti ve thought' as such ... For , once a systeJll of ca tegor isa ti on such as the five-element system is established , then anythini =an by no means be t he cause of anything else ... the re were (a t least) two ways of advance from primitive participat i ve thought, one (the way taken by t he Greeks) to r ef ine the concepts of causation ... the other , t o systematise the universe of things and event s into a pattern or structure by which a l l the mutual i nfluen ces of its parts were conditioned . On one world-view , it was because another particle had pushed it there; on the other, it was because it was taking up its p l ace in a field of force along - side other particles simi l ar ly responsive." In the passage quoted , Needham thought"

Levy- Bruhl's

description

takes

for

his

premise

of "primitive

which has been superseded to a great extent ,

most recently by Levi·Strauss.Nevertheless , what is of interes t in Needham is not what he means by primitive thought , but how he describes subsequent Ch inese world view , a desc ripti on which cer t ainly helps in the under standing of feng - shui : "Chinese co-or dinat i ve thinkin,g ... was a picture of an eJl:tremely and precise l y ordered universe , i n which things 'fitted ', ' so exactly that you could

SUMMARY OF FENG-SHUI COSMOLOGY

III

not insert a hair between them'. But it was a universe in which th is organi zation came about ,not because of fists issued by a supreme creator-I awgiver,whi ch things must obey subject to sanctions imposable by ange l s attendant ... It was an order ed harmony of wills without an ordainer. It was like the spontaneous yet ordered in the sense of patterned movements of dancer s ... And , however absurd may have been the conv i ction that dread evils would follOw his failure , the ritual of the emper or was the supreme manifestation of this belief in the one-ne ss of the universal pattern. In t he proper pavilion of the ~ling T 'ang , no less his dk'elling-p l ace than the temple of the univer se, the emperor, clad in the r obes of co l our appropr ia t e to the season , faced the proper directi on , caused the musical notes appropriate to the time to be sounded , and carried out all the other ritua l set s which signified the unity of heaven and earth in the cosmic pattern . Or to speak of scien tif ic mat ters , if the moon stood in the mension (It.4.w) of a certain equa t orial cons t ella tion at a certain time , it did so not because anyone had over ordered it to do so , even lIIetaphorically, nor yet because it ",·as obey ing some mathemat icall y expressmle regularity depending upon such and such a n i solable cause - it did so because it was part of the pattern of the universal organism t ha t it should do sO , and for no other reason whatsoever. "

The Chinese theory of the universe as organic ,further described at some length by Needham , contains also the not i on of what he called "action at a distance", whereby change at one po int has reverberations through every other point in the universe, but especially at points wh i ch are susceptible to the same wavelengths (as it were) of resonance. Needham believes this not ion was directly res ponsible for the discovery of magnetic polarity (1956 , p.355 - 1962 , pp .60, 233). It is obviously conducive to all ki nds of wave theory, electricity, resonance. Chinese talking about feng -shui today sometimes themselves use the analogy of electric i ty to describe i ts influence.The concept of eh ' ~ is , in many ways ,a more concre t e version of the same notion.

• •

•

PART THREE

HSING I FORMS) First stage in the application of the model

CHINESE

112

GEO~ANCY

We now come out of cosmo log i cal or bit and , l iterally , down to earth. ' Everything that grows has l i mits, everything changes but is restra i ned ' . This ;s a theme common to many feng - shui manua l s . and in thi s case comes from a passage expounding a diagram of the ear t hly shapes of the nine stars(see p. 159 below) i n the 8.tue- bag (Unive..'Uel and

OC€LU1-CQJU1V!. ClLu~.i.c

06 Yiian-nU in the Imperi al Ency-

;iT; )

clopaedia.On the ground . in all places are to be found forms (hl.-ing in pat terns (ke .:l~) , and power ,or the s i gnificance of circumstances (~lU.h.) seeks

manifesta t ion i n t he forms (Ming ).

• •

•

"When the gcomancer takes his pos i t ion to inspect a site for a grave , house or city he fixes upon a spo t which is call ed MU. (lu.iie.h) . hollow. The win -

dings of t he surface in its ncighbourhood whether s t onc , sand or l oam , extending all round until the view is bounded by hills or the horiz on , constitute the cons tellations which encircle it a s star s do the po l e." So

\~rote

Edkins , {1872 . p.293} of North China and with particular re f e -

HSING (FORMS)

113

rence to a feng-shui manual which was devoted to the influence of stars · on the earth . In this passage Edkins is describing the way 1n which a site is defined and characterised on the ground. It has a visual definit i on: everythi ng notable withi n sight of the h1.iieh K ; and it is characterised as a microcosm.This 1s . ofcours e, Edkins' own description and is not ostensibly taken from a feng -shui manual or hsien-sheng.but it is one which is supported by feng - shui logic as I conceive it . Every site has four sides, North , South. East and West. and everything within them has a correlation with a symbol on the compass . The North should ideal ly be at the back,the South should be faced and be open and down the slope of the ~il1 on which the h1.iieh is placed . The East , which is therefore on the left, is characterised by the animal which stands for that quarter and for ~prlng the Azure Dragon - and the West (right) is the White Tiger. In prac t ice however no t every site faces south . Nevertheless , and this brings out more than anything else the character of the si~e as a mi niature universe. whatever direction is faced , the hills flanking t he site on the left hand side are always called the Green Dragon , and those on the right the White Tiger .

A ' dialogue , written by a Chinese scholar ' to explain geomancy to B.C. Henry in Can ton,(lBBS.pp.140-141) describes a procedure similar to that described by Edkins and then goes on to give what is a Forms type of geomantic diagnosi s : "- When the professor (of geomancy) goes to the hills t o search fOr a s ite , what method does he pursue? - Having fi r st chosen an auspicious day, he goes in a sedan chair to the hill, accompanied by the man who has ground for sale. Having carefull y inspected the position on each of the four sides,and noted the shape of the hill in its de pressions and e l evations , he descends and makes a cir cuit of the hill three or four miles off , carefully looking to see if there are any breaks or landslides ,ob serving the direction of the watercourses with each bend and turn, and finally, after these preliminaries , adjusts his geomancer s ' compass to discover the position of the s tar s in relation to the spot. This is the general mode of proceeding. - How is a propitious site distinguished from its opposite? - Every auspicious site is connected with some range of hills that ex tends perhaps fo r hundreds of miles in a succession of ridges,with passes leading into level plains. At the back stands a lofty peak, cal l ed the 'rear barrier', or ' back rest ', on the left and right are spurs of r ock called 'the attendants ' ,while the place for the grave appears like a great nest.The shape of the hill may be like an elephant, or a lion , or a phoenix, or an unicorn, each shape having some sp~cial significance. Below th ere should be the foot-protecting sand , and every grave where this bottom layer of sand is found indicates honor for posterity , and the Jack of it presages dishonor.It is the true dragon pulse. It is said that the Dragon (not the same as the Azure Dragon of the east ) follows the watercourse ,and the meeting-p lace of waters is the meeting- place of the dragons ,where the virtues of hill and stream are united and the grass is ever green. Such a place being found, the conformation of the land is observed , and if there appears no outlet for the good influence in the air, it is pr onounced an auspicious s ite .

CHINESE GEOHANCY

114

- What outside marks are sought? _ In the distance there should be groups of mountains with streams of water encircling them; in front a stretch of level plain , a pond , or lake. In the

wider circuit , the level space should be large enough for ten thousand horses , and t he watercourse be sufficient to admit a dragon boat (as at the dragon boat festival) . I f the expanse be wi de , children and grandchildren will multiply and be s trong. I f the front is toward

the star of luck , some of the family will rise in

offi ce. If on the right and left rocks assume the shapes of drums and flags. it presages military power. From the top of the hill the view should extend formiles , with mountains and streams interspersed. If the hills opposite are in the shape of moth wings , it indicates that beautiful daughters-in-law and good daughters wi ll appear. "

Th i s concern with the forms of landscape features and the sign i f i ca nce of the i r resemblances indicates an eminent ly visual way of thinking as I shal l show . It is not a secret or spec i al i sed art , as is the use of the compass.,o,nybody can see resemblances and speculate about them. With H6.tng we are close to the commones t form of discourse about feng-shui , a discourse in which all Ch i nese in dulge at some time or other according to De Groot. Forms can and do resemble anything which a Chi nese considers sign i ficant and this is a great dea l more than the symbo l s on the compass. Nevertheless all the categories of symbols class i fied i n the previous sec ti on are manifest in Forms and since they are peculiar to feng shui I shall consider them before dealing with images from other f i elds of bel ief. Wit h t hem I wi ll in t roduce ot her symbols peculiar to feng -shui which I di d not in troduce i n t he sec ti on on the compass beca use they exist more as Forms than asmet aphysical forces. Such are t he Animals of the Four Quarters. Cosmological symbolism. even though it takes on a rather special sense when manifest as Forms (as was described on pp. 55-56) . is not an alternative to Forms symbol i sm or vi ce- versa. The latter is by no means as sys t ematic as t he for mer. It is the ex i st ence of the compass itself and the ordering of the symbols on its di al that makes the cosmolog i cal symbols systematic. There is no equivalent instrument for Forms. On the contrary , t he compass is more or less used by every geomance r . whether he be a Cosmology or a Forms devotee. With Forms . however . we are closer to the feng -shui of the individual case than we were with Cosmology.The notion that the resemblances of forms in the landscape are significant allows va riat i ons far beyond those of strict cosmology and leaves room for projections of pecul i ar concern to the individual feng -shui client.The examination of the Forms school and all the physical considerations of feng -shui should show us something about it ~ relation to concrete real i ty .how its symbols derive their strength and hO\~ it is linked to other aspects of Chinese culture and bel iefs.

SHA , (NOXIOUS VAPOURS AND SECRET ARROWS),.

115

Sha, t noxiou s vapours and sec ret arrows I, th e soil . hygiene and neighbourlin ess

We me t 6ha. briefly as the an tithes i s of ch 'i. on pages 54 - 5.Sha. is translated as noxious vapour which does also for the extended form: 6 ha. ch 'i. !.~~ $\. (noxious ch 'i) reported by Edkins (1872) . and 6eng 6ha J.il.~~ (noxious wind) re ported by Oe Groot ( 1897). In its mos t general sense, 61Ul is just evil influence . the produc t of unlucky as t rological bodies and conflicting conjunctions of cosmological influences. But it has also the more concrete sense of a cold wind that issues from t he earth or through breaks in the protect i ng ridges of the site. The first 1s called t6 ' ang- 6eng ~~ hidden \~ ;nd, and its outlets are ho ll ows. It disturbs bones in a grave, as Edkins rete ll s: "In 10 years they will be halftumed over . In 20 ent irely."

JJt '

Therefore no grave must have hollows near it . This applies far less to houses . The second wind and the more general sense of 6ha as evil influences apply equa l ly t o all ki nd s of site. S/ta of this sort prefer to travel in straigh t lines and therefore any l in e in the configuration of a si te pointing straight at the point of bui l ding or burial is harmfu l and should either be avoided or blocked by an embankment, a screen wall, trees , or a board with one of many charms drawn on it (see pp.136.137).The lines may be in the fonn of water cou rses , thoroughfares , telegraph ~I;res. railways or the roof ri dges of other houses . and are called "secret arrows". 'leander i ng l ines and undulating topography on the other hand conduct good inf l uences (ch ' ,i). Sharp bends in lines or too fast a watercourse indicate stra i ght 11ne flow and are dangerous .

116

CHINESE GEOMANCY

The overall aspect of a good site is therefore calm and smooth. It must be protected since, just as too fast a watercourse carries bad and disperses good

influences,too much wind is either malicious or does not allow good influences to accumulate. On the other hand, too little movement of air and sluggish water flow mean the stagnation of the site's good influences. While all these considerations have ritual significa nce . it is at the same time easy to see that they conform to the purely practical si de of siting. Any handbook on basic architectural siting st resses healthiness of ground air and the concommitant need for efficient subsoil drainage.Free circulation of air is necessary, but too much wind has the effect of rendering the air in the pocket s around and inside houses stagnant. Un drained subsoil, marshy ground and sluggish water , give off damp and stinking exhalations (an excellent translation of ~lta.) which, blO\~n over the building , would in all practical truth put its inhabitants in danger of sickness and misfortune. To avo i d this, the architectural handbook would recommend the clearing or digging of watercourses or choosing a site in the neighbourhood of free flo~l ­ ing watercourses and a situation on a slope both for the sake of drainage and for the free circulation of air .All these things are also recommended of the feng shui manual. Hollows , flat land and straight - lined formations "do not respire" (De Groot, p. 953) . Drained s.ubsoil is importan t, too, for the preservation of coffin and bones in a grave. The peol which should be situated in front ,t hat is down the slope from it as ~Iell as accumulating ch 'i performs a very practical function then. The recommendations by feng - shui experts fo r the right kind of soil to preserve bones , though they are tOl'lard a symbolic or impractical end , themselves have little symholic content , are almost entirely practical. Hard rocky soil is lifeless (Oe Groot , p. 953 ) . It is not necessarily harmful,but inciden tally a house built in such condit i ons would certainly have an unfertile garden and would thereby be without a valuable source of income. Red , loamy soil is full of life , and prevents the decay of coffin and corpses,hardering the corpse's b0nes , and does not contain the white ants "and other voracious insects" that diminish the life of a corpse (De Groot, p. 953). "Near the surface , one half should be sand and one half clay, with but few large stones. After digging four or five feet you may come upon a r ock that cannot be moved , or upon water , and the ~lace has to be abandoned. At a depth of three or four feet a layer of clay may be reached , and at si x or seven feeta layer o f sand, then a layer of loose stones, and then a Jayer of hard clay, yellow, red or variegated . Beyond this, water will be reached . '~ose buried above the hard

SHA . (NOXIOUS VAPOURS AND SECRET ARROUS) •..

117

c lay fi nd the air warm and comfor t able, and have no troub l e from water or white ants.Good clay is a sure indication that it is a sa fe place t o bury , and the qual i t y of the clay may be tested by taking bits f r om the s i des and stra i ning it through wate r . If no sand appears and the c lay feels greasy t o t he t ouch , i t is good. "

These are t he re commenda ti ons of B.C. Henry's Chinese scholar of feng shu i (p.142 ) . As an end. preservation of the bones if no t the corpse of an ances tor i s a fil i al duty. The length of preservation is an indication of the power of t he ch 'i , stories being t old of bones radiating a white light through t he ea rth where a miracu l ously pOl·/erful concentration of ch ' .i. has been exploi ted.And if the ch 'i are powerful the livin g descendents benefit from them. The recommendation t o choose a south-fac ing site and t o have protect ion from the north ,t h r o u9~o ut China means prac t ically speaking that t he si te will be nefit from warm,wet winds and be protected from cold winter winds. It may be that the symbols of the Four Quarters are bu ilt on the basis of such practical and recurrent considerati ons. Perhaps t he whole ed i fice of feng-shui symbo li sm developed out of the pract ical benefits of correct si ting as ha ve heen ou tlined above. No doub t the cause of the benefits remained un-anal ysed but the need to remember what t he benefi cial cond iti ons were would be sat i sfied by ritualising them.Maybe, but we have even less evidence here t han we had for a history of the cosmo l ogica l symbo l s.Wha t may be concluded f or certain is tha t practi cal benefits coex i st wi t h belief in t he symbo l s .For the purposes of ana lysis it is necessary to dist ingu i sh wha t i s of purely pract ical import i n feng-shui instructi ons in order to know what is imaginary and perhaps related t o other fact ors ,social pressures,other beliefs , the hi story of ritual and ph il osophy or aesthe ti cs. We can say with any degree of cer tainly only of soi l analysis that it is explicitly practical.All ~ the r pra cti cal cons iderations are built t oo deep ly into the symbo l ism for us t o assert that they are explicitly intended. The pract i ca l benefits of feng -shu; siting so far discussed have been ones of physical hyg iene. There are others which have t o do with mental hygiene and with which a handbook on archi tectural siting would again con cur. A sout h-fa ci ng situati on rece i ves the sun. A situation on a slope and with an unrest r i ct ed view is also an es sentia l for feng-shui. These two and the fact which we will develop later i n another context that the best feng-shu; sites are fre que ntl y also the most beaut ifully si t uated are quite naturally desirable for the well -being of the client. Everyone takes unsymbolic pleasure in sun l ight . airiness and a good view . Being in a beautiful si tuati on i s an unsymbolic pleasure. Bu t it is also an educated pleasure (see pp. 144-5 , compa r ison of Eng li sh with Chinese la nd scape-

CHINESE GEOMANCY

118

painting aest he t ics) and is more the pleasure of being seen in a beau ti ful s itua ti on than enjoying it oneself - a socially symbolic pleasure then! Another recommenda ti on that a basic architectural si t i ng handbook would ,nake and one whi ch is also

made

in the feng- shui of house si tes is avoidance of

conf lict with fu t ure neighbours . "

When a man wishes to build a house in a vi ll age,how does he go about

it ?

Be fir s t

purchases

a plot of ground , at a prop i tious dis tan ce from

the ances tral hal l , idol temp l es . and open-a i r altar s , and engaging a pr ofe ssor of geomancy to choose a lucky day . encloses the lot with a wall , and prepares t o l ay the foundation (t he geomancer may . of course , quite a s easi ly have been consu lted

earlier for the choice of the site it se l f). - What are the ceremonies r equi r ed i n thi s work? - He must give public noti ce of hi s intent ions ,that all t he vi ll age may know , and all troub le from persona l offence or interference be avoided." (Henry , 1885 . p. 147). Trouble nevertheless does oft en occur subsequent t o buildi ng, Accusat ions are made t ha t the new bui l ding ha s blocked a lucky view or opened other bui lding s to 'secret arrows' or itself f ormed a 'secret arrow '. Such conf li cts will be ana lysed when we come t o the soc ia l correl ates of feng- shui practi ce .Here we may not e that wa rni ng and avoidance of conflict with neighbours i s enti r ely expl icit and practical, even t hough it may be over imaginary forces such as.6ha and 'secret arr ows'. Only wher e the neighbour i ng build i ng perfor ms a ritual function and/or is t he bui ld ing of an ins titut ion or one representing a social group does it be gin to feature highly i n t he symbolic scheme. It is good to have a temp le t o the East but not to t he tlorth , West or South , for i ns tance . The YUttg Dwe.Uittg (i. e. houses of t he living) c.tM6.tC beg ins with a li s t of rules among which the foll owin g exemplify the fen g- shui of urban or vi l lage env ironmen t: "All dwellings should not be at t he mout h of a thoroughfa r e,or in a monastery (Buddhist temp l !! grounds), nor come nca r to a shrine , nor be ,,'here plant s and trees do not grow (to scr een and protect) , nor in an old ba ttleground ... nor 3t the gate or open ing of a large wal l , nor opposi t e a pri son gate." Temples and shrines themselves omi t the influences of the deities or spirits wh i ch they celebrate and May therefore be da ngerou s or interfering. They have probably be ~n si ted accord ing t o feng - shui and in the interes t s of the group or congregation wh i ch t hey re presen t so t hat a build ing in their environment would in a metaphysica l sense be st arv"d of good influences or i nterfere ',~ ith t hose feed-

SHA . (NOXIOUS VAPOURS AND SECRET ARROWS) •••

ing

the

11 9

more i mportant buildin!J. In social and practical terms it '·'ould lea d to

involvement or conflict

~tith

t he larger group i n2 .

•

If we are seeking t o explain the continued existence of helief in fen gshu i, part of that explanation must be the real benefits ~ich rationall y fol l o-·/ on putting them into pra cti ce. They do not, of course , necessaril v eX:llain t he inceptio n of feng-shui be lie fs .

CH INESE GEOMANCY

120

Yin and Yan g: mountain s. trees, water and wind

"To have t he front high and the rear low is t o be cut off ,with no family. The r ea r high and the front low is t o have many oxen and horses (concomm it ant

of

prosperi t y) " , says t he Vlll1g lNJdUng C.tao4-t.C. . We are facing south so that the

he ight in fro nt \'/Ould obstruct a southern view. The k&ii.eh ;s Vi n and by the prin-

ciple of opposition and balance should be situated in Yang - a sou th facing s lope .

( In \

r neral.

raised features are Yang and dips are Vino This is obvious

and Vin and Yang are not more definitely man ife sted in gr ound formation. They are always inherent in ch'-i , in t he elemen ts and t he eight tr;gram~as has already been discussed (see parti cul ar ly PP.39 -40)~hey belong far more t o t he Cosmological way of thinking and no more than ~Ihat was said in that con text about their presence in physical fo rma tions is possible, al t hough ma ny passing reference s t o them are made , as "!e shall see, i n feng-shui manua l s dealing mai nly with Forms ') Descripti on of t~e use of t he compass has already brough t ou t t he way in ~!hich the geomancer is cons trained '1:0 obser ve the br anching and bending of mountai n and stream fo rmation . His skill with the compa ss was to discover what the secret \'/riting of these format ions mean t in cosmo logical terms.

YlN

AND

II I

YANG

l\f ountain s

lb ~untains ar e

not only secre t writing , they shelter and protect the h.6iieh . While t he south must be left open and clear and if poss ible down· slope in order t o be nefit fr om Yang , t he ot her three sides should be closed in to help ac · cumulate the good infl uences and a height, especially in the north , protects t he ru.iieJl f rom malignant inf luen ces . A point on the spine of a moun t ain range or on t he bank of a la rge or fast · running stream i s undesi ra bl e, as the Ydng Vwetting C~oic says. It would be too open to the dispersal of good influences by wind and water.A break in the protect ing mountain lets in rr~lignan t winds and may moreover be , wound in the dragon's vein . ) receive more attenti on in fen g· sh u; manuals tha n any other natural phenomena even t hough t hey do not exis t in many areas where feng -sh ui beliefs prevail.I>'ountains are synonymous with tla ture in a long Ch ines e tradition of poetry and pain tin g and they are al so the traditiona l abode of immortals and the sacred places of gods (see pp. lag-gO). One of t he manuals supposed to have been wr itten by the founder of the School of Forms .Yang YUn·sung. who pra ct i sed in the mountainous prov in ce of Kia ng si . is the shih-elth Cluutg Fa. ~t ili ' (the 12 Stave Patt erns) . I t is to be f ound in the Imperial Encyc l opoedia , 1726 edi ti on and was still a standard work in 1879 according t o ne Groot. Twelve basic mountain situat ions with th e h&ueh and chief vein of influence marked on t hem are illustrated wi t h commentaries , then 17 comb inations of these basic twelve are also illustrated with shorter commen t ari es . The illustra · tions are fol)owed by a general discussion of subjec ts under headings and in an order to be found in the great majority of feng· shui ma nuals, given a li ttle va · ria tion and with one or two headings more or less: the dragon , the h.6ueh . oM (ea rth format i ons and banks) . wa ter s , the Ming T'an9 (the pool of water in front of the JI4ueh) . Yang dwellings ,and leve l ground situa ti ons. All the se have been or wil l be expounded in this part in their own contexts. f~ountai ns

-t ;::.

The Twelve basic mountain situations are: I.

ShUlI

)100

(con -current)

"wh ere the hJiieh

receives

(influence)

by

CH I NES E GEOMA NCY

122

riding

along with t he Toot mo unta in' s in-

coming vein" 2. IU

i.i

(an t i-current ) (for anothe r i ns tance of th ese two te rms s ee pp. 108 - 9)

.' i.

Situ.

(coi led up )

"where the ll1>uell r eceives inversely by meeting the root mount ain ' s vein head-on"

"where the h6itd!

r eceives

caus e i t is on an

inner

by but

th e ch ' i

lIn connected

with

co i led up (berange surro unded a higher r ange)

co llec ted in and coming from the

peaks of the lIIoun ta ins"

4

Cltui.

(connected)

"whe r e

threads S.

K'ai

r.ll

the

h6Udl connected

is and

among

veins

like

SOIffl in clothing"

(open , o r spread out ) ",,'here t he dragon ' s powe r i s deathly because it comes up s traight at the 'head'

so that

the

vein

has to be divided i nto

two at the 'head ' making two h.6iielt at the sides a nd abando ning t he cen tre"

6. ch ' iiau ~

(threaded)

"whe r e t he vei n comes from the side and the cor rect o ri en t a ti on conn ect s t he po. s ition ( t o it) like a threaded needl e ' s eye or like t he eye of t he hand l e of a duelling axe, th e ch 'i fo l l ow a middle course t o en t e r and fi 11 th e h~iie.ll at the l oins"

YIN

7. U

,ij~

8. Mc

il!.

AND

123

YANG

( di scaroed)

"where t.he lu.iieh r eceive s f r om t he cas toff vein o f the root mountain"

(sunken)

"wher e the Yin of the root f"Iountain come s , but Yan g joins fa s t and dow nwar ds , openin~ a hol l ow . In the ho ll ow (100 ~~~)

t he !u.ueh i s es tabli shed. The entrance to t he ' head' i s hidden, it s ch'~ arc deeper t hen the

hollow's

bottom. The s tave a l so

is sunk into the bottom o f t he hollow. Deep l y rid ing t he r oot moun t ain ' s vein i s the r eceiving Iw.iieh " 9. Tu<"

-lit

(oppos it es)

"where the s tave 'hea d ' urgentl y ind i cates

tha t

here

(c.h 'ing

is

a

feeling .

place

of

sympat hy) .

circumstance Se lect.

the

f our powers (that is , t he influences in the fOUT . quarters)so t hat they a re suit abl y matched and the Iuoii.eh rece! yes i n

its heart" 10. Chieh

~

(severance)

"whe r e the Ju,ueh s houl d not be si t ua ted at t he end o f the tongue because it st i cks out so far t hat at its po i nt i t is unp rotec t ed at the s ides. The end ma y pos sib l y be s nipped off , s ince , as in t he illus trat ion, on l y a l ittle i s projecting t oo far "

CHINESE GEOHANCY

124

~e. (offensive) (fo r thi s ter m in another context , sce P. l t')S)

11. Fa"

"is a s tave wh e re th e root mount ai n ' s vei n

is injured and i s also opened out. All the s urrounding mounta ins are high wherea s the Ju.ue/z' s si te is low. The COIIImentary indi ca te s t hat the si tuation i s to s ome ext e nt redeemed despite the dangers of being ill a

low

pos ition i f the surrounding

~ountains

a re beauti f ul , .i.e. ri ch l y vege tated"

12 . Tun

(synt hetic )

"where a high ra mpart i s prepared , ea ch part of the earth ( us ed) r eceives the p r o ductive ch 'i , and it i s banked up into a fa l se mound t o mat ch up t o a true posit i on.

This wou ld be a mound at t he back and rampart s a t the sides much like the construc tion o f a horseshoe grave a s i l l us trat ed and descri bed by De Gr oa t (p . 942) "

To be si ted near steeply falli ng water or to be dominated by the equi valent of wha t we too call ' corrrnanding' heights is highly dangerous. Bo th signify an overplus of Vang. Hence in No.8 the houeh mus t be hidden from the ' fas t and downwa r d' Vang and to tap the deep Vin ch 'i . For this rea Son also too lowly a pos i ti on i s dangerous by giving t oo muc ~ relative height t o t he surroundings , as well as for the fact t hat a very low pos iti on may mea n an overplus of Vin and be t he breeding ground , amongst r oc ks and hollows, of cha (noxiou s airs). To avo i d both dangers t he hoiieh i s most often situated on a headland (the "head" referred t o in r~os 5, 8, and 9) jutting out fr om the centre of a higher horseshoe - shaped mountain formati on, or el se from the crotch of a f orking formation.An alternative metaphor for the headland i s to describe it as a tongue , as in No. ID , but the mos t frequent descript ion of it i s as t he dragon's head. Except i ng t he over - projecti on of the headland , No. l O illust rates the idea l situation , perfected hy having streams joining in fr ont of the itciieit ,the resulti ng watercou rse flowi ng away at t he side,if possible out of sight.To see water flowing away (ie. in a souther ly direction) i s bad ,as t he commentary to No. 10 says ,but "to see the coming (and joining) and not t o see' the leaving is beautiful (mu ~ ) " . The illustrati ons , inc'identally , are in both elevation (seen fr om the ground) and pla n (seen fr om the air) at ~ he same t ime . The outer lines are peaks flattene d, as it were , agains t t he paper, while the inner lines mark the lowest cont our s of the mountain ranges. Tne vein, or line of influence , as can

~e

seen on

the il l ustration of

YIN

AND

YANG

125

NO.6. very rarely comes fr om the highest peak.which would be too Yang (see No.5) , in the surrounding range ; a less high peak , contained by the high range, is preferred.It is nevertheless strongl y recommended that a high ran~e of peaks be seen behind a lower range as in No.3, or ,more generally , behind its own foothills. The line of influence may poss i bly start out at a high peak and then come dipping over a series of lower peaks to the headland as it does in No.2.lt may also come along a saddle or a descending ridge. In one case out of the twelve the influence comes from a single peak beyond and unconnected with the lower range on which the h6ueh is situated. 'In this case it is an influence by lJing fl.l1. ' 'sympathy'. It may be said that in genera l , just as the h6ii.eh should be on a middling height , so i s it fed by the convergence of delicate lines of c.h 'i , veins ,and not by arter ial c.h'i, Other than "head" (t 'ou. iHi) ,there are two more terms which describe the proper site.In front of the h6ii.eh 7Z t here should be what is called , in full, ch 'ao ,ut ~fJ Court Altar or Table , and in short just Ch ' M ~fJ , Court, or t'altg ,Hall: a flat table of land on which presumably the !'l ing T'ang , the frontal pool , is situated. The features behind the h6ii.eh are called t'o l.o,H.A~", Support of Happiness ,and the l ower ranges or ridges are sometimes called screens , since they screen the high ranges (but not the peaks) from the h6iieh. The h6iieh itself i s of course the small circle on the illustration s.

'1"

if.

The twelve patterns are basic configurations . .fl.ny single real situation is likely to be a combination of the characteristics of more than one of them. The corrrnentaries and recOllJtlendations attached to the t~lelve basic patterns,and to the following seventeen sample combi nations, can only be a general guide to the practi sing geomancer , \fflO would have to adapt them to t he indivi dual cases at hand. Seen most clear ly in the basic description of No.9 above , is the case with which geomantic 4elec.tioll. the choice and rejection of sites, may be equated ~Ii th IMlli .. puht.tiOIl of natural elements and cosmic forces , such as,in the case of t:o. 9, the ranges and streams on the four si des of the site. Care in following the instruc tions to find a suitably placed site and in avoiding dangers is then the same as controlling the forces of fortune and misfortune . although mountains and rivers and rocks and ridges are there and may only very ma rginally be changed in fact. Only one (No.l l ) of the basic patterns is bad , and even that has a possibly redeeming factor. We do not have here a simple and clea r -out system wh i ch can stipu late that this means good and that means bad luck. Even on the ground as here . dragon , c.h 'i . Vin and Yang are still very much in ev i dence, and feng-shui constantly refers back to basic metaphysical and cosmological principles. What it

126

CHINESE GEOMANCY

does in effect is allol'/ the geomancer and hi s clients to make a con nect i on for

each particular of life to t hese bas i c principles whereas in t he normal

circum-

stances of exi ste nce it ;s not only impossible to know of basic principles but ft i s also extremely difficult to see very far beyond particular events.

Although it is poss ib le as r have done to elicit basic considerations common to them all , according to what are the special merits and dangers of each of the basic twelve configurations, the commentaries give different priorities i n their advice.In a situation sur rounded by high mountains. for instance , it i s re-

commended that the h6ueh should be built high up.Where there are deep gullies and cavities there is a particular danger of 4ha. Some stress the importance of the network and various sizes of veins,some st ress watercourses , others do not consi der them at all. The distance which sho uld separa t e the hhueh from the nearest peak is variously specified.The depth towhich a grave shoul d be dug is also some times recommended. These are only some of the points enjoined by the present manual of feng-shui . We must not forget that the landscape features come to symbolic life as Forms and their resemblances, and it is interesting to note from the commentaries in the It Stave Patt~n6 that resemblances are evoked not only by the physical forms of rocks and the like, but al so by the patterns taken by the metaphys i ca l influences ,in particular the veins of ch 'i . In one of those il lu strated here , No. 6, the vein i s like a thread and the hhueh the eye of a needle, or else the h&ueh is the eye of a duelling axe. Although no meaning is given in the commentaries to these similes , it i s an easy step t o take from here to find an appropr i ateness in the first simile t O,saY,an industrious daughter-in-I aw ior in the second to strife or to a man predestined to military exploits. The vein to be tapped in configu ration NO.7 is likened to a large number of things all with the theme of being an appendage or cast off: the musical instruments played by generals, the carpets spread out by beautiful women ,the ch 'i spat out by yel l ow snakes, the red phoenix sea l s of the literatf, a si lk-warm' s cocoon , the shadow of the numinous (ling tortoise, the ball a lion plays with . They are all cast-off forms of the root mountain and are therefore the ch 'i on which t o establish the hhueh . In this case the process of reasoning i s all on the same , metaphysical plane. Sut the resemblances of actual rock formations may indicate the existence of metaphYSical forces and also give rise to recommendations for siting.In No.3. for instance, it is recommended that the h&ueh be established high up because of the existence of deep gullies where there are likely to be broken and sharp rocks from the sight of which the h&ueh should be hidden because their shapes indi ca te harm: " like spears , like swords , like daggers , l ike halberds."

3t )

YIN

AND

YANG

127

t10re will be said later of the metaphysical significance of the actual shapes of rocks. As we shall see in the next section , the idea of veins in the landscape i s only part of an elaborate anatomical metaphor. The commentary in No. 6,in which the h4ueh is fed ch'~ at the loins instead of the more normal northern point , the head , actually says "it cannot rece ive them in the brain, or in the ears, so it does so in the 10ins".Acknowledging the fac t that feng -shui manuals are more part i cularly concerned \~ith burial than with building leads to the reminder that a body may well be envisaged in the I~ueh and that it should lie with the top of its head to the north so that it faces south. The peak from wh i ch the line of in f l uence comes to the h4ueh in the most typical prototype configuration 1s in the north. Thus it too may be characterised as a head. And as a general principal it may be that the source of influence opposite the part of the body in the grave wh i ch takes i n that influence is by extension characterised as the same part of the l andscape's body. This matter of facing south is am~iguo u s since it is not clear whether an ancest or faces south in order to receive beneficial influences coming from that quart er or whether it is because he transmits them in that direction. Grave-ya rds are traditionally situated to the nor th of towns and villages , on a slope facing south and towards the town or village. The Imper i al quarters are situated in t he nort h of Peking. It is true that the emperor has his back to and is protected i n the north by a hil l . Nevertheless Imperial blessings are transmitted from the north to the populace in the south. In t he same way good ch'~ come down the slope from north to south. as they in fact do in the form of st reams . Al t hough gaps i n the ba rrier to the north let in evil inf luences,the barrier itself . or rath~r its south-facing si de. is the source of good influences.

Trees

( In plain country Single or groves of trees may substitute the pro t ec tive function of mountains. In fact. t he Yang Dwelling Cla44~C recommends dwe lli ngs with trees round them so long as the trees are not in the front. The st ~ct u re against trees in front has resulted in an unsigh tl y ba reness of terrain where

CHINESE GEOHANCY

128

there are concentrations of feng -shui sited dwellings. These are usua lly grave grounds. Isolated dwellings would not produce this effect. For grave- grounds the advantage of being seen in beautiful surroundings as a symbol of socia l welfa r~ as ment i oned above (pp . 117-118) must frequentl y be di sco unted for thi s rea son.

f

( Feng- Shui trees should never be cut or sca rred ' in any way. If the ir fo liage i s abundant it is a s i gn of prospe rity. If r oss i hle they are evergreen ,ever-

green being a symbol of high Yang co ntent) Joh ns ton (1910 . pp. 263 -4) noted traces of tree worship i n Weihaiwei . and others have noted the freque ncy of an old untouchab le tree close t o or shad ing a sh r ine to the l ocal deity of a village (T'u Ti Kung ).The symboli sm here i s not hard t o appreciate. The yew tree, an evergreen, is sem i-sacred in Europe , being found mos t frequentl y in (and for t he protection of?) grave-ya rd s. Although litt le of trees is menti oned in t he manuals , they are one of the most common feng - shui symbols in practice. Trees are wi l d, ent irely natural , yet they l ive as mounta ins and watercourses do not,and t hey are vulnerable. More over they are to be found in urban con text s often as the onl y pure examples of natu ra l growt h. They are t he mos t ubiquitous and sensi ti ve foc uses of i nteres t in feng- shui. A grove of trees j ust outside a village i n th e ~ew Territori es which is in flat country are called feng - shui trees. The Peking Ga zette for January 1st 1877 reports the increased cos t of camphor wood in Kiangsi province needed for ship- building . "The population from among whom t he timber is procured is i nfl uenced to so great a n extent by t he feng-shui super s tit ion t ha t large off ers are necessar y t o induce t hem to come forward with supplies."

Frequentl y , however, as noted by Johnston , it is not groves but sing le trees which are the focu s of feng- shui. D.e. Graham reports several in Szechwan ( 1961 . p. 114 ) , "In the rear of the Ta-o-ssu monas t ery on ~tount Omei , inside the temple and gr owing up t hrough t he roof i s a great pine tree that is wors hipped a s a god and is a l so t he feng-shui tree of Omei -hsien (the countr y of Omei , or t he immortal of ~'ount Omei 1) ... Near the Hsin -k 'a i - ssu monastery on ~loun t Omei i s .lnother great pine tree that is the feng- s hui tree of Ch 'i n-wei which is a city 120 l i down the Min River from Lo-sha n .. . Near Hsii- in - chien- ssu , very c lose to the c liff in which is the sac r ed cave cal l ed t he Chin - sha-t'ang or Go l den Sands Cave , is the fengshui tree of a powerfUl family that lives not far away ... At kan- pai - shou on the Hin Rive r abo ve I -pin (town) is an old dead cypress tree that is t he feng -shui tree of that town. These i ns t a nces cou l d be multip lied i ndefini tel y."

It i s notabl e that al l these trees are in a smal l area, that they are all evergreens, and that al l but one of them are associated with sacred prec i ncts

VIN

AND

129

VANG

which may argue with Johnston for the convergence of an independent form of tree worship with feng-shui.

Water

I ~ ( Like trees, watercourses are

to be found

in both mountainous and plain

country. Their lines are more definite and easily followed than contours and elevations.Great attention i s therefore given to the exact measurement and interpre:ation of their bends,confluences and branches in feng-shui manuals.) Th is is what Edkins referred to as the ~Iater Dragon. perhaps learning the name from the Wa.teJl V4agon Cia46ic , a work devoted to the interpretation of lines of water and to be found in the Imperial Encycl opaedia.The Oragon referred to without any qualification 1n E x~n 06 t he Co m~o and most other manuals may be either mountai n or water dragon. but in the case of Exptanation it probably refer s to mountain formations since in it watercourses are referred to by their proper name (ohui ~ ).We thus have two sorts of dragon. as will be discussed in t he next section. We will now concentrate on the Water Dragon in its prime feng- shui function as the source of information for the diviner. Explanation has already revealed that certa in directions of watercourse indicate the clashing of trigrams in t he Former order with trigrams in the llter order (p. 75). Edkins (1872) gives some interpretations of t he COOlpass points at which watercourses branch . I cannot relate them to any interpretation which Explanation would he lp us make. but they do form a much more succi nct tabulation that I have been able to find in any feng-shui ma nual :

SHARP BEND OR CONFLUENCE AT

BRANCHING AT

N

chi l qren will be thieves . family if rich will be poor

NE NW SE or SW

NE

posterity will die young or as widows and childless

ENE WSW SSE or NNE

= prosperity

poverty. and dispersa l of e lder sons and brothers

CHINESE GEOMANCY

130

SHARP BENV OR CONFLUENCE AT

BRANCHING AT

ENE

E by N W by S S by E • happiness for mid-

= disease

or N by W

E [SE

dIe children

posterity will be vagabonds

= disobedience

N by E and due W

unhappiness for

middle chi ldren

B. C. Henry (1885) gives the same list but it may well be that he was us ing Edkins'.Such interpretations as the above are probab ly made by means of the 8 trigrams and their signifi cances. Although Edkins ' cannot be so re lated they do show how the trigrams may be applied to f ormations on the ground and al so how social individuatfon let alone co nflict can be thus brought about by feng-shu; - a point wh i ch will be discussed at greater length in Pa rt 5. Edkins ' list seems t o be of exceptional interpretations,for in general. as he himself says la t er on. confluence is beneficial because it means the concentration of influence .branching i s undesirable because it means dispersa l .Sharp bends are bad since t hey make stra i ght arrowlike lines. meanders being t he natural path of good influence. and perhaps he should have om itted conf luence in the heading on the left hand side of the table. which is wholly indicative of bad luck.

The

cl assi f ies watercourses into trunks and branches. The h4ilVt should nestle among branch wa t ercourses . a recommendation of the same kind as that of 12 ~tav£ Patt~ to site the h4ueh on off- shoot ve ins. Water i s the path of ch'i and branches . otherwise called inner ch'i . ' stop ' or may be tapped and are productive . whereas trunks or outer ch 'i merely surround t he h4ueh . The Wttt~ V4agon Ci444ic contains several diagrams showing different types of watercourse formation . indicating wi th a dot where the h4ueh is .and explaining which are lucky and what each formation signifies. Like the shapes of roc ks they t oo may indicate Elements . Animals of the Four Quarters. h4iu constel l ations and many other things besides. The h4iu mus t be at the stomach of the dragon . surrounded by it. just as it shou l d nestle protected at the fork of mount ain r i dges. Wat~

V~go~ C~4ic

Y!N

AND

131,

VANG

• o

Inner ch'~ . the branches. either feed into or are the product and so by association the productivity of the outer eh 'i - the trunk. The more branches the trunk has the more potent it must be. Trunks are the arteries or pulses. to use another of the wateIL CWlIic. ' s metaphors. of the Ta Ti

:k.. J~. the Great

Earth. To

sited by the trunk of many branches is to be too close to the main stream, which runs too fast to allow the gentle penetration of ch 'i into house or grave . be

132

CHINESE GEOHAH(1

To be situated by a branchless trunk is to take the risk of its being barren. A flat,featureless site which has no streams i s the ultimate of barrenness . The analogy of barren ground and off-spr ing branche s with human fertility is too obvious to need further expansion. Less symboli c than pra ctical is the additional point that ground, on which a peasant' s livelihood and prosperity depends . ;s in fact unproductive if unirr1gated. "Water mus t not be fas t or straight "

says

the uu.teJt DlUtgon CW4i.c in

its introductory section . "If water pours out (of t he s ite) it drai ns o ff . it i s hurried. How ean be abundant and wealth ac cumulate ? If it comes in s traight and goes out straight it injures men (Secret Arrow) , Darting l eft, the el dest son must meet with misfortune; darting right, the younges t children meet with calamity . " it

The left and right in the last sentence have nothing to do with the eight trigrams' allocation of kin categories to pOints on the ground.In China the left hand side is always the position of seniority and honour over the right hand side - for 1nstance, at ta ble and in family graveyards. So here is another way in which the fami ly ,the group centred around a grave or in a house, is divided wi t hin itse lf by means of feng -s hui. So far we have a bas1c typology of watercourses into trunks and offshoots. The ~ D~on Cla46i e then goes on to sub- classify the formation of trunks and off-shoots by the shape and sharpness of the1 r bends• and by the total pattern of each complex of trunk and off-shoots. BaSi cally a stream to the left of the n&ueh is of thp. Azure nragon and one to the right is of the White Tiger (facing t owards the side which has the view and is downhill- if possible south ), In addition . certain patterns by their own shapes signify Dragon or Tiger , as we shall see later in the sect ion devoted to the animals of the four quarters. Parallel streams with no mountains between and flowing out of the site mean the sale of father's land, t he plundering of wealth. and disgra ce. This diagram alsc shows a site with streams flowing away from it,That on the left str ikes the Azure Dragon ' s head so that:

•

•

YIN

AND

YAlIG

133

"The eldest son is fated to be the first to grieve."

On the right the stream strikes the White Tiger's brain so "The youngest son will be difficult to protect."

•

This diagram shows water coming together but then turning away again. It means that chi ldren wi ll be separa ted from their parents.Or else i t shows the two bordering waters lea ving without t urning their heads. which means rui n and that ghosts wil l come and pilfe r . Water wh i ch flows right to left thus (A)

• Or from the left to r i ght thus (B)

• in both cases is fortunate. It 1s difficult t o tell from the diagrams whether the streams flow in front or behind the h6ueh . But whichever is the case, they both link E and- Wand are f ortunate . (A) means "wealth, honour and goodness" . (O) signifie s "high office". These two are in contras t to the pattern il l ustrated below which shows

134

CHIN[S[ GEOI.\ANCY

dragon and tiger fl owing towards each other,thus cla s hing. It 'i s very unlu'ck.Y.sig-

nifying that fath er and so n are not to be together and that fami ly and children are l ost and cut off from ea ch other.

s

•

t

It is good to have water in the south. as the ~~ Otagon Cla44ic with all other feng- shu; manuals specifies, but lt should be ca lm and smooth - abay in a stream or a pool with 1nlet and outlet. It brings, according t o the tlkLteJl V~on Cta64ic . literary exam i nati on honours . We have already met it 1n the lo Ching Chie.h which. like the Cfuuic, calls it the "1;n9 T'ang. Bright Hall. analy-

sabl e according to the position of its inlet and outlet by the Eight Trigrams as they are situated 1n the Ming T'ang diagram (see pp . 92 and 97). The Ydng Chai (Vang Vwetting Manual) has several il lustrations of houses with various shapes of the Hing T'ang in t he front . as we ll as other objects such as trees and boulders . their shapes Signifying each time something different in the fortunes of the inhabitants of the house.

•

•

•

YIN AND

YANG

135

I i llustrate a selection of 12 out of at least ten times that number ;n the Yang Chai.~hey exemplify not on ly the way in which the shapes of water and tree format i ons are significant but al so the signif i cance of the shape of the house ftself.Theyalso exemplify some of the feng- shu i strictures ment ioned at the end of the previous section about nei ghbour i ng temples and paths. There follow my translati ons of the texts under each of the 12 selected illustrations .

~2 '

3

I

-

~~q

L

1i~

I){ I .~

I

t

'" ~Y. bl.. 7 . ill

~l ±p - -

1 - On the diagram itself : path. first lucky . then unlucky On the two

sides at Late Heaven Sequence) Afterwards there will tained. Not more than

K' an and Tui (Trigrams signifying North and West in the a path comes acr oss.I t wi ll certainly lead first to l uck. be un l ucky people. Wealth at the beginning will be sus 10 years later it will be gone.

2 - On the diagram itsel f : unlucky dwelling Thi s dwel ling is a farm on the bank of the head of a stream . This is certain to lead t o it s ground not being fit for the rearing of oxen or sheep. It wi ll end in death , men will flee. Build a house for rearing (stock here) and calamity will befa ll the family tomb.

3 - On the diagram itself: narrow in front, a luc ky house Narrow in front , broad behind. Firmness of est ab l ishment . Wealth , honour , peace, prosperity, posterity , property. Extensively there are peop l e and good fortune. Gold , pear l s , valuabl e will fill the house.

136

CHINESE GEOMANCY

6

5

4

)¥n

iIi: ±

~I ,

L

~

1::1

!of:

I J

~

A*

4 - On the diagram itself: grave,or embankment, or mound (to the right ) trees

(beh i nd ) lucky dwelling At k&1g , Ju,itt, jfut and Iw_cU (st ems 7, 8, 9, and 10 covering

altog ether SW to

NNW) are grave-mounds. A thousand tr ees (tho se at the back) may be se lected , growing thickly and facing correc tl y onto the dwe lling f or sixty pa ces . Posterity wi l l alte r the house (family) .

5 - On the diagram itself: a t empl e (front left) . hillock or grave-mound (front right ) . Buddhist mon astery . or a hall (back right) unlucky dwelling I t is very important t o know that the mona ster y and temple and grave-mound do not divide south to north but do separate east and wes t. The dwelling does not measure quite one hundred paces. ~len will come t o harm and posterity be l;illed.

(I n the

foll owing

the right hand' col umn i s headed Tuan

IWT • which

transl ated as "judgme nt " . the left hand co l umn i s headed vi.i.e.h or perhaps "explanation")

may be

El . "speech "

6 - Tuan: This Ming T' ang gi ves rise to those widowed when young , to eye disease , miscarriage and loss (death).

Yi.i.eh: The breaths of consumption are caught by some i nd ividua l s. If there i s flowing water , posterity can truly come to harm.

YIN

AND

8

9

137

YANG

7

7 - TUdn; The form of the Ming T' ang seems br oken. The Military star (or pl anet) does not give rise to the army (as it should). It really gives rise to workmen.

Yueh; Spoiled corpse. Death in foreign parts. The family will recede and fall. Orphans and widows. Near the gates , 2 surnames of men (2 clans 1). 8 - On the upper Ming T'ang: Star of Culture (one of the nine. see p 160) On the Ming T'ang furthest from the house - Moth ' s eyebrows (an epithet of female beauty) Tuan; The Ming T'ang of culture is immediately in front. Men and women's reputations will spread from this place.

Yiieh: include

~len

few, women many. Really it is not lucky. It means that the men and a drifting away .

sons~in-Iaw

9 - Under the stream: Jade-belt water TUdn; If there is in front of the gate a Jade-belt of water high office is certain. Certainly it permits an easy rise.

Yiieh: Gives rise to men for many generations. Scholars' reputations and glory show themselves. Wealth and honour brighten the house.

138

CHINESE GEOHANC'f

10 - Tuan: A swe l ling at the head (of the tree trunk , which is anyway in the front of the house). It will be di fficult for men to make out (dis t i nguish) mi litary es tablishment s (1). Cannot see . Yueh: The living s eparated. Death in foreign parts. They do not cons i der r eturning. Widowed mother s. Tear s dampen t he fragrant faces.

11 - On t he diagram: either an earth bank or a heap of rocks Tuan: If in front a pile of ea rth is visible it means miscarriage and suffering eyes. Troub les begin.

Yueh: Il'idows. The young peri sh. Noth ing issues forth. The house is blind, deaf and dumb and pr oduces calamities.

12 - On the diagram: a path ch ' ilan (curves? , lit. = a sma ll bowl) i n front Tuan: Wa ter in front of t he gates , i mmedi atel y in fr ont of the curving pa~h

(?). Within the

fa~ily,

disso l ution and confusion. Not worth discussing .

Viieh: Orphans and widows. The young per ish. Har mful and ru inous affairs. Within the fami l y , l oss of temper and catching of p l ague.

YIN

AND

YANG

139

Fonmations need not be straighforwardly lucky or unlucky, as we have seen . They may, for instance, signify good luck at first, foll owed by bad luck . All turns of luck and circumstances of luck are indicated by the Yang Ch4i . Circumstances nonmally significant of good fortune may b~ turned bad by a single additional feature. The Wate4 V~on C1a46~e has an example of this which serves also to show how wind, as well as mountains, waters, and trees, ha s a part in feng shui divination. Of a position among multiple off-shoots of water. suitably meandering. the Wat~ V~cn Cia66ic says : "If the wind shakes the willow branches or i f the wind bends the grass whether passing over the pos ition or not i t will mean trouble and even meandering water will not justify the s ite. It will bring decay and sickness."

For another situation, the comp lete absence of wind. not even enough to ruffle the water. is calamitous . While very li ttle wind measurement is mentioned in the manuals I have read. there is evidence that it may have been given greater importance at one time. The Imperial astrologers in the Ch'ing dynasty on every lunar New Year took a wind measurement. It was. in fact. always the same; said to be from the trigram Ken , which 1s NE in the later Heaven Sequence, and signified prosperity. longevity and good harvests. even at the beginning of the second consecutive year of disastrous harvests~ There is also a rather cryptic reference in the Ckine4~ Fun~ Cu6to~ 06 Ckihti P~vince to a geomancer's use of a mirror to examine the wind in select ing the site for a grave-yard~ Force of wi nd cannot,however,be classified as closely as the water formation s .despite ingenious and close observat i ons of what weight of natural phenomena it i s bending. Neither 1s it reliable. in terms of direction or force - the onl y two ways in which it can be measured - since they are continua ll y changing . Perhaps that is why it features less than does water in the manuals. Its variations are not given nearly as much symbolic value as the variations of watercourses . ~1ind values therefore remain quite close to the pract ical values of wind strength and direct i on which J described above (p. 116). Water as drainage and as irrigation has also some practical values by which it can be measured. and to a lar ge extent these coincide as we have seen with those values given in feng- shui terms, but watercourses have also an entirely symboli c valuation related to shape - a purely perceptual quality. To give a different significance to each of so many details in the variations of features 1. See trans l ati o ns f r om Pe ki ng Gaz ett e , 1877 t eb . 13th . 2. See Wi eger , MoJta.l. Tenet6 and Cu6tom6 .in CIUna , 1913 .

140

CHIHEs[ GEOHAHCY

in a landscape, exemplified by the wat~ V4agCrt Cla4hic for watercourses , and for the location of ridge s and elevations by the IZ stave Patt~n6 and by both at a more theoretical leve l by Explanation 06 the COmpa4h. depends on precise observa tion and per ce ptual discipline. As can ~e seen from t he illustrations of the 12 Stave Patt~n6. and as has been observed by Needham (1956 . f1g. 45, 1962 . fig . 321). feng -shui di agrams of this sort stimulated cartographic skills. It has also been observed (Wil'etts , 1958. Val 2. p. 261) and Needham (1959 , pp. 516-518 ) that lands ca pe pa i nting, especi all y in Ch ina, in i ts early stages when panoramic and almost bird's - eye views were painted . was al so very closely akin to and may in some cases actually have been t he fir st steps of cartography. The diagramma tic reconstruction of a stretch of l and . of a chunk of Nature. is in origin the re sult of an intellectua l effort to come to terms with and to encompass natural environment. In China . the development of a cosmo logica l philosophy begu n by the School of Natura li sts and consummated by Chu Hs; and his followers coincided both with the devel opment of fengshuf and of landscape painting . We ,shall see in the following section how consis tent ly some of the con cepts of the cosmological phil osophers and of feng - shu; recur in landscape - painting manuals .

• •

•

CH'I AND THE DRAGON IN FENG·SHUI AND LANDSCAPE PAINTING

141

Ch'i and th e dragon in feng.shui and landscape painting

The most basic form in a geomantic situation ;s what in every feng-shu1 manual is called t he dragon. It is what all topographical fonmations resemble . The dragon appears in many ways to the Chinese and has very ma~ meanings even within feng-shui.I am concerned here with its most general man ifestation . not to be confused wi t h its manifestation as the animal of the Eastern quarter which takes a far more limited form.sharing its universe of discourse with the three other animals. The dragon with which we are now concerned characterises almost every shape in the landscape. It stands . as it were. for t he general animation of landscape features. I wrote Mal most" every shape .beca use one must suppose that a shape which could not be linked in a l ine with other shapes co uld not be seen to be part of a dragon. The dragon is essentia ll y linear. Through its lines. ri dges , water- beds . run ch' ~ .These are the earth ch'i that we discussed above (p. 7). of the same genus but to be distinguished from the purely metaphysical conceptualisation of eh'i by the cosmological schoo l of feng-shui. Two types of eh' ~ cour ses. through moun tains and through water ,are distinguished in writ;~g s on feng -shui . Mountain ridge s . in fact any line of raised topographical formation. are called the dragon's veins or pulse, and ch 'i being dragon's blood. But as we have seen from Henry and the Wat~ V4agon ClaA6ic. though they are not ca ll ed dragon ' s veins. watercourses are al so the ducts of the dragon and of ch ' ~ . Explanation o~ the Co m~6~ makes a

142

CHINESE GEOHANCY

tentative distinction between the ch 'i of the two kinds of course. Mountain ch 'i are Ea rth ch 'i . water is Heaven ch 'i. But this is not a di st i nction that can be pressed. It is more likely that one or the other kind of duct i s given primary consideration and that if both are considered at the same time no distinction ;s felt to be necessary by the pra ct itioners further than that ch'i travel in two different ways. Of course , mountains and streams are only the main ch 'i ducts. As in the human body . every part contains ch 'i. carried there by a va r iety of 1 1n~s ranging from the most apparent and import ant to the least visible: - arteries . then veins.then capillary vessels etc .. . Too much proliferation into minor ducts. t he branching of watercourses . is undesi rable because it means dispersal of ch'i whereas the higher their concentration the more productive the grave or building . De Groot refers to the breaths (ch'i) at one point as dragon spirits (lung 4hen and al so as 4Mn.Li.¥!g J., 'f(mountain power - Ung is numinous or spiritual power).

11..# )

The configuration of a site should act t o concentrate the spirit- breaths but it may be that they are inactive. In this case the site is as if dead and is use l ess .We have seen how the compass can di agnose whether ch 'i are in a declining phase. the lowest ebb of which must be total inactivity. A good site is not good steadily or forever and a decline in fortune may be attributed to t he dying of its ch'i . There are, however, means by which' a geomancer can try to 'wake' them. Oe Groot reports one in which the geomancer stands at a spot on the slope where there is great accumulation of ch' i and t hen rushes down towards the grave ., This 1s in order to induce a current and is a most graphic example of the conception of ch'i as kinetic energy . The dragon and vein metaphor for landscape is common to both fe ng-shui and landscape painting and a consideration of the two together is instructi ve not only of the range of the imagery used in Feng-shuf but also of the constitution of feng-shui concepts.I have al ready drawn attention to the aesthetic and graphic qualities of feng -shuf thinking (see pp. 35 and 53). An examination of the key words used 1n Explanation showed how suited the cosmo logy is to aesthetic interpretation. 'most obviously shown in the repeated use of the words mei (beautiful) and hhiu (e legant) and 1n the who le concern with ba l ance.To find resemblances for the shapes ' 1n a landscape is also of course pure ly a matter of vi sual apprecia tion and imagination . Oe Groot makes a similar point when he notes how l acking in practical considerations feng-shui is :

CH'I AND THE DAAGON IN FENG-SHUI AND lANDSCAPE PAINTING

143

"Whereas unseen dangers are no dangers, unseen protection is no protection" (p . 94 1). The site is limited by the horizon seen from its centre ,the Mite.h . Ilany Western writers on feng-shui have pointed out that what is praised as a 900d geomanti c site is frequently al so the most beautiful site available. Porter (1920) notes thi s when describing the situation of the EmperorCh'ien -l ung's temple s famed for the beauty of their situations i n the hi l ls west of Peking but chosen accord ing to feng-shui principles . lin Yueh-hua (1947) gives the following description of finding a si te : "The geomancer set his compass and t oolt his be ari ngs .Sudden l yhe screamed with joy. He had found a very be.aut.i6ut (my stress) site . He named it A Oragon Vomi ting Pear l s,the mountain of cour se representing the dragon, the field and its crops the pearls , and the stream t he saliva. " Willetts (1958) says of feng-shui pagoda s (see also pp . 1-2) that : "Their placing often proved an insp ired act of artistic fo resight." I want t o draw attention to the visual ae stheti cs of feng-shui because 1 think it shows how feng-shui works as a system of idea s , an ab stract sys tem. While it 1s derived from nature it runs parallel to and.far from being influenced by empirical reality, affects the very perception of the real ity of a landscape and of fortune. Feng-shui provides a detailed vocabulary of types and sub - types of landscape features. Once such basic categories of percept ion have been accepted. it is difficult to destroy confidence in t hem unless they are consci ous ly opposed or the experience of reality is totally at variance with t hem. They become part of the stock of images. New perceptions of r eality merely extend or mod ify them. Ac ceptance and maintenance of the two basi c concepts of mountains and ranges on the one hand and of all watercourses and channels on the other is universal and not easily contradi cted. Sub -categories are more variable. What would be cons idered a hill in one country might be thought of as a mountain in another for ins t ance. But that does not change the basi c categories of "raised topographical formations" and "topographica l depress i ons" . In Chinese these two bas i c categories are label led respectivel y ~han (literally , mountai ns ) and ~hui ( l iterally ,waters) , and ~han-~hui J4 ~ i s the word for landscape both in feng-shui and painting. Edkins has ~hu.i. as a geomantic term extended t o include all 101'/ land . There are , then, three categories of t opography. high. lOW , and flat ,but the las t is ignored since, as the lt1a..tu Vllagotl Clau.<.c says , there i s no land indifferen t or flat to

144

CH INE$[ GEOHAHCY

feng-shu; for water runs through apparently flat land t oo. The dragon is omnipresent . Mountainous land i s pre ferred, however,i n both feng -shui and landscape pain ti ng. Any difficulty in accepting dragon as both mountains and watercourses , that and ~hui , is overcome as soon as we realise that ~han and ~hui are mere ly positive and negative of t he same thing ; that.6han follow t he same lines as.6hu.i si nce every .6han i s the bank of a 4hui - taking .6hui in its broadest sense as above to mean low land whether dry or with water running in it . is•bo th ~han

The most basic category of environment for bu ilding and burial in Chi nese geomancy is ti - earth . Shan-.6hui is more speci fi c and itsel f inherently divisible into mounta ins (.6han) and waters (.6hui ). Dra gon is associated both with the overa l l ca t ego ry .6han - ~hui and separately with each of its subdivi sion s , and the same goes for ch ' ~ .lt i s interesting that 1n t he purely perceptual dis cipli ne of landscape painting the same associa tion is mai ntained - i.e. pul ses and arteries, if not specifi cally dragons - and that beh ind it is the metaphysical con cept of dt ' ~ . I mentioned above that the t wo basic categories l abe lled in China by ~han and ~hui in the i r broadest senses are universa l . The Engli sh equivalent of the basic Chinese category ti is "earth" ,of the more specific ca tegory 4ha.n-~hu.i . "landscape ".I n Engl i sh it is still a si ngle entity while in Ch i nese it is al ready split ti ng into two ca tegories. That it shou ld do so at so elementary a l evel of ca tegorisat i on surel y indicates that greater importance is given the two ca tegories than in English and this is seen by contrasting t he t wo. In Eng li sh land scape painting,a pool. tree, road or fie ld or al l of them simultaneously are frequently as central to t he composit i on as a hill . Where in Engla nd a number of ca tegories succeed to t he bas i c category la ndscape , in Chi na ~han and 4hui remain the most important subjects of the pa inting and this may be due to the importance with wh i ch they are inves t ed metaphys i cally - i.e. thei r importance as pr imary carriers of eh'~. The land of China is far more moun t ainous than England and of course this goes a long way toward expla i ni ng the predominance of mou ntain s in Chinese landscape painting,but cannot al t ogether account for the searching out of ,1IOuntai ns , in a country t ha t is after all 40% plains , in both feng-shui ma nual s and landscape painting. si gni fi cant and less easily explained i s the fa ct that English landscape is much more often ba ckground for a human scene - a fa rmyard . a herd of cattle . a couple~ a hunt . While the main subject of t he t ypi cal Chinese landsca pe ~o re

CH'I AND THE DRAGON IN FE"NG-SHUI AND LANDSCAPE" PAINTING

145

cattle, a coup le, a hunt, while the main subject of the typi ca l Chinese landscape painting remains t he mountain and its mists, pools and streams. In the fnglishtradi t ion man i~ on a par with the landscape and frequently superior , the landscape being behind or painted around the more essent ial human situation . In the Chinese tradition sometimes a vi ll age or a boating scene is of equal importance to the mountain or river or lake, but more frequently the landscape, equated with "mountain and water- ,i s the main subject and man - figures, bridges , roads , temples or houses - merely put into it. The same is strikingly true of feng-shui. Although on an elementary level of the cosmo l ogy man is equal and in the centre of the seri es with T'ien and ri, the landscape it self being part of Ti (earth) and affecting the fortunes of man. In practice this knowledge helps men place themselves in the landscape ~Ihere they may benefit most from the forces of T'ien and Ti. Manipu l ation of the landscape does of course occur.The course of streams are altered, boul ders are moved , jitches and pools dug. But in nearly all cases such manipulation may be explained in feng -shui terms as bringing out the essential and good aspects of the l andscape already th~r e , or as correcting or healing what is marred and therefore harmful in the landscape. Man does not essentially change it but subjects himself to its changes. De Groet reports (p. 948) that the island to the left of Amoy har bour, properly called Dragon -head hill (after its appropriate Anima l of the Eastern Quarter) , had boulders heaped onto it to aid the imagination and increase Amoy's prosperity. It seems , then, that in China Nature is more aweful than in England and plainly this is largely due to the fact that man in China was more dependent on a far more dramatic - in topography and weather - Nature than in England.lnEngland, landscape painting ma tured with the industrial revolution, in Chi na it flourished in an entirely agrarian society, Experience and awareness of some degree of independence from the land i s preparation for a more impartial and less involved view of it and a more self-conscious view of man himse l f, Conversely, the fact that feng - shui and Chines~ l andscape painting are manifestations of society dependent on an agrarian economy is a good basis from which to attempt an explanation of the strength of the attachment of metaphysical concepts to landscape features. rhe reason why man is so, little considered in feng-shui cosmo logy could be just that he is not thought of as separate from the landscape, If it is not within the experience' of men that they can be anything but directly involved with natural resources for the basic needs of life how can they consider themselves as uninvo lved in it? Man is separate only at his peril in such a context.To benefit ~re he st riv es aftel' a more proper place in nature. The notion of union with the

146

CHINESE GEOHANCY

lao (the 'way of nature' ) i s a less concrete form of the same ideal.

In a much more open and obvious way the metaphYSical association of ~han and 4hui with dragons' veins and lines of ch 'i reinforces the purely visual conception and representation of the Chinese landscape. Chinese l andscape painting is far more linear than English l andscape painting 1n which blocks of light and shade and col our washes are preferred. Chinese painters. 1n discussing their art, constantly refer t o the ch 'i of the brush -stroke. the secret of life which must be discovered for the truly effective recreation of life on silk or paper . 'The dragon veins are the source of vitali t y' notes a Ch'ing dyna sty painter!Brush and ink as painting materials to a great extent do. of course. demand linear execution, but it can also be said that the ma terial s of Chinese painting would not have prevented a more promi nent use of washes as in English water-colours and the choice and continued use of the materials may themselves have been dictated by the concepts of ch'i currents and dragon formations. The effect might also and simultaneous ly have been the other way round assuming fa miliarity of phil osophers with early representation s of landscape. Kuo Jo-hsU edited and wrote a preface to a co llection of the conrnents on painting made by his father. Kuo Hsi, the fa mous Sung dynasty landscape painter (translated by Sakanashi. 1935) . ln his preface Kuo Jo-hsU refers. as do the 6eng-6hui h4ien-6 heng , t o the Book 06 Change6 ' recommendation to study Forms and then writes: "Shan like the mountain, clt 'i like the atmosphere, h6.ing like the form: these are the elements of painting. " In t he chapter of his father's

COlmle.rt.t6 Ott

LancUcaPe6 are the following :

"Water is a living t hi ng . . . watercourses are the arteri es of a IIIOW!tain : grass and trees its hair; mist and haze it s comp lexion." at er is the blood of hea"Stones are the bones of heaven and earth .•. W ven and earth" (pp. 44-45) . But perhaps most striking of aTl i s a passage whi ch has a direct link with divination: "Painting has al so its law of physiognomy. (The pa i nter) Li ch 'eng ' s progeny was prosperous and abundant; he mac'~ t he foo t of t he moun tain s and the face of the earth very thick and st rong , broad and large , graceful at the t op and luxuriant below. which i s i n agreement with the characteri st ics of having proge ny. " Here sure ly is a clue to the detection of what leads to the belief that landscape features influen ce the fortunes of men.We know that there are two separate phenomena . 1) topography, 2) the anatomy of animals and men. We know that 1. CIted In Si re n , 1936 , 1963 editIon p. 204 .

CH'I AND THE DRAGON IN fENG - SHUI AND LANDSCAPE

PAINTING

147

some of the truths about the anatomy of an imals pertain also to men - we experi ment on animals for this reason. But for us to say that the topography has the anatomy of a dragon or of a man it would have t o be understood that we are speakin ~ metaphoricall y , just a matter of descript ion , certain ly not of explanation for we know that a truth about topography is not a truth about the human or ani mal anatomy. Kuo Hs·; is not as decided about it. Of course he must appreciate a great difference between the two . He would not go to the grotesque leng th of lookin g for the mouth of a landscape and putting food into it in order to make it look sleeker and more beautiful. But he does believe that there is a law of phys i ognomy which, while it varies in its application,applies commonly to animal and human anatomy and to to pography. The attribution of hair, bones and blood to a la nds cape is metaphor but more t han that i t is an illustration of t his common law. The same must be true of the practitioner of feng -shui.Because he believes 1n the existence of such a common law he observes the landscape to find in it symptoms of illness or well-being, symptoms which he relates to himself through the same law. He also assumes that the state of being indicated by these symptoms affects everything i n their loca lity. The state of being is common, only i ts effects and symptoms vary according to the medium - in the cas e of the landscape they are in the forms taken by rocks and watercourses, in the consistency of the soil and the fertility of vegetation, in the case of a human being they are in terms of sickness , prosperity and also of fertility. Perhaps the feng -shui practitioner would take more literal ly than does Kuo Hsi the relati onsh ip between Li Ch ' eng's mountain and hi s prosperity andabun dant progeny, the painter distinguishing between the actual mounta in and the way it was pai nted.But by the Sung dynasty, in which lived Kuo Hsi and in which landscape painting flowered, and in which also Chu Hsi lived and feng-shui flowered , the rather crude form by which I have descr ibed the link between human anatomy and topography had been refined into a universal metaphysic. It is that described in the previous Part, and the common law is of course the common law of the organic universe and of resonance, and most particu l arly of ch'i . Both blood and watercourse are ch'i. Chu Hsi's famous interpretation of The ~ea£ L~ning ' s (one of the Four Books , stud ied by all for the civil examinations) axiom to 'investi gate things' {he wu ~~4f1; I . by which he meant all of nature, provided the philosophical justification as media of feng-shui ,since everything was a manifestation of the universal, if not divine, ck 'i and li. Previously the only worthy subject s of painting had been divinit ies. heroes and paragons of Confucian virtue, or di dactic illustrations of the orthodox rel i gions - Taoism and Buddh i sm.

CHINESE GEOMANCY

148

The pr inciple s of eh'i and yun (resonance) basic to the constitution of an organic universe were accepted as the foundation of all types of painting by its earliest and most revered teacher Hsieh Ho (c . 500) and down to the last dynasty when the seventeenth century writer Wang VU wrote : "The origina l points in painting are not to be found in the composition ,

but in ch 'i

yan ............ ..

' Everybody knows that li and ch 'i are necessary in

painting."l

I may quote two of the many instances of Chinese be l ief in the landscape

as

the

body of the dragon. Eitel (1873 . p. 2) reports that: "When the Hong Kong

government

cut a road .. . to the Happy Valley the

Chinese community was thrown into abject terror and fright on account of the disturbance which this amputation of the dragon ' s limbs would cause to the feng-shui of Hong Kong."

Johnston (1910, p. l2D) reports a court case which he heard at which a man objected to a quarry being opened because it cut into the bones of the dragon on another part of vlhich his family ' s graveyard was situated . We see, then,that the perception of mountains and watercourses is inex tricably associated with an animating metaphysical concept even in the purely visual discipline of painting. Obviously there is no reason why the categories of purely vi sual perceptions need be contradicted once formed, so that they need little explanation here, but why was the metaphysical associat ion with the dragon so widely accepted and how did it and does it persist? Some other meanings of the dragon might help us to understand. Just as \~e have had to distinguish within feng -shui different types of dragon, so we should continue to keep in mind that the Chinese conceived of many species of dragon~ We are, hO\~ever.justified in considering them together as dra gons since the Chinese too have a single term (l wtg1tJ to name them all ,and all representations share t he characteristics of serpentine length , 4 legs,and a leonine head with long flicking tongue. The dragon inscribed on thrones , gowns and insignia ,i s that which stands for government and imperial authority, it being the emperor ' s prerogative to associate himself with a five-clawed dragon. while his ministers and officers wear insignia decorated by four-clawed dragons. This dragon stands for imperia l power and also for purity; a dragon is supposed to appear a~ a warning when a ruler lacks virtue. The dragon was not only a symbol, however 1. Siren , 1963 edi t ion , pp . 208-209 . 2 . See Visse r ( 1913)

CH'I AND THE DRAGON IN FENG-SHUI AND LANDSCAPE PAINTiNG

149

"Such animals as dragons, phoenixes and uni corn s and many other strange creatures were believed in (or at least the ir existence was not questioned) by educated Chinese up to a quite recent date." This was written by Johnston i n 1910 as a conclusion t o a quotat i on fr om the chronicle of Weihaiwei, a paint on the north eastern coast of Chi na. The chronicle ' generally devoid of the least imaginative sparkle ' reported t hat: "In IS39 there were disastr ous floods and that in the autumn a large dragon suddenly made its appearance in a private dwelling. It burst the walls of the house and so got away, and then there was a terrifi c hai l stom." The Peking Gazette for August 10, 1882 contained a memorial suggesting that over-flooding could be prevented by slaying the water dragon , which l1ves five feet below ground near the river,on the s i xth moon as reconrnended by the Yueh Ling (Monthly Corrrnands) in the Li elM. (Record of Hites). Oennys , 1876 , writes (p. 108) that: "The dragon i s in fact an all -pe rvadi ng element of every myth relating to the powers of nature." He gives it a serpent origin and further reports that: "Domes tic dragon worship i s familiar to every native ... Every hill and mountain i s supposed to be inhab i ted by t hem , and whenever a new house i s t o be erected, a Feng-shui geomancer i s consulted to learn if the location be within range of fr iendly dragon spi r its. The house on be ing complet ed has a niche fitted up in it as a shrine for the i ndi vidual dragon which protects t he destinies of the house. " The same pas sage contains a descr ipti on of a ceremony necessary to reinvi gorate ' the ori ginal virtue and efficiency of the tute l ary dr agon', a ceremony surely of the same order as that described by De Groat for waking the ch'i (see p. 142 above). The strong association of dragons with storms and with water is epitomised by the fact that the rain-king i s also conceived of as a dragon 1 and that he of the ~6U.-Ung '{!!] (the four numinous creatures) , like the dragon of the Eastern Qua rter and therefore also of Spring, is ' king of the sca ly tribes , ..... ra in-god ... and lives in the sea' (Owen , July 1887). A most powerfully representative image of thi s dragon of r ain and storms, always part hidden in mist and cl ouds,is the painting Ni ne V4agOn6 , AD 1224 by Ch'en Jung to be found in the Museum of Fine Arts , Boston. The dragon as male and imperial i s epitomised in the marr iage custom2 in which the groom ' s parents give to the bride ' s parents a dragon emblem , the bride's parents giving a phoenix emblem,

'f

One of the most important characteris ti cs of t he dragon is its ability 1. 2. See fo r instance 0001 ittle . 1867 , Vel 2, pp . 265 - 6 .

150

CHINESE GEOMANCY

to transform itself, to be large or small. to move quickly and twist as well as, in many a story, to take on the appearance of other creatures or of human beings. This power of transformat ion, of cha nge, i s at the basis of a conception of nabJre and the landscape that is continually undergoing cycles of change and the

lines of which are treated as l ines of motion.

Two general cha racteristi cs I) of power, 2) of male 'fertilizing rain' (De Groet , p. 948) are emerging from this composite view of the dragon . And this may be equated with 1) the power behind the efficient administration of an agrarian state - widespread co-operati on in irrigati on with cen tralized organization, finally the emperor. as well as 2) the natural element itself which induces the growth of food, and of prosperity by the sale of food·stuffs.

It stands then for the power on which depend men living off the land,so naturally it fills the landscape as a living force . Why a dragon in particular shou l d be chosen to emblemize this force i s another question. That it sho uld be a monster, a member of the animal wor l d but semi -mythical and therefore of a species even more out of man's control than the wildest of animals ,is an appropriate characteri sation of a cosmic force.

But this needs qualification , since it is not quite permissible to inchde the dragon in a series of real animals ranging from the tamest to the wi1dest~ The dragon may stand for a supremely uncontrollable force,but 1s himself contro llable since he is an invention of man. Furthermore , he (or to a lesser extent the other three emblematic ani mals also) is an object of religion.Besides making ~e of him by Sit ing in a spot protected by him , he may be influenced by sacrifice and prayer. The dragon is reputed t o be scared of iron and may be tempted and pleased by offerings of swall ows , according to the natura li st encyclopaedia Pen-to 'ao hang-mu . in its sec ti on on scaly animals, chapter 43. To make a remotely controllable creature thus stand for uncontrollable natural forces may well be a subl i mat i on of the desire and need to control t hese forces.

1. Suc h as that used by leach (1964) in hI s ver bal abu se .

ana lY Si s

o f ;,nl mal cat egor i es and

THE: SEASONS , THE DIRECTIONS: THE AHIHAlS OF THE FOUR QUARTERS

151

The season s, the directions: th e animals of the four quarters

Chinese l andscape varies considerably be t~/een t he picturesque mountainous and wooded sou t h and the north China pla in .Nevertheless as we have seen ,both plain and mountainous landscape is charac teri sed by t he dragon , as moun tain where there are mounta ins (or hills) and as water and mi nor contour s in any part of China. China's climate i s far more constant than its l andscape , and seasonal differen ces are common to the whole land. Not one , but four emb lems - the S4u Chen 'i!SJ ~for S4u Shou '\!El JPk.. , - stand for clima te therefore and on ly one of them i s a dragon , the Azure (ch ''<'l1g some ti mes transl ated ' blue ' , someti mes 'green') Dragon. The ot her three are the White Tiger, the Sombre (S lack) Warrior (-the name for Tortoise) and t he Red Sird (someti mes equated with Phoen i x). They are ce lest i al animals,standing for the fou r quarter s of the heavens ,a nd , like the stars and planets, are man ifested in var i ous ways on ear th. The Dragon stands for the eastern quarter , the Tiger for t he wes t ern, the Tortoise for t he northern, the Red Bird for the sou thern, and as their colour s , bl ue-green, white , blac k and red, i mpl y. they stand in addit i on for spring, autumn, winter and summer respectively. Colour and seasons were li nked in the description of the cosmological sys tem through the Elemen t s and i t is possible t o add t o the Four Animals t he rest of the correl ations made with the Four Elements (leaving out Earth and the centre). In prac ti ce. however, correla ti on with more than co l our, quarterly di rection and season i s rare. Neither are the Element s themselves imp l ied , being separately in -

1r :

152

CHINESE GEOMANCY

dicated by Forms . as we shall see. All four animal s are mythica l, but Tiger, Sombre Warrior and Red Bird may quite readily be related to real animals.

The Tiger is a tiger i an animal notoriously wi l d, strong, predatory. dangerous; the king of the jungle in China where there are no lions. On figures of tigers the mark ings on the forehead are frequently simpl ified to the charac ter ~g .£ (king). Not only is the tiger a killer he is also the object of the hard est hunt. The season for hunting was autumn as we saw i n the Yiieh Ling (pp. IOO-l).

Tiger is an apt emblem therefore for the warrior virtues of strength and bravery. in fact all that comes under the rubric Wu ~,Wu i s one half of social being and government ; We~ ~ (culture) the other. Wu and Wen are ep itomized in Confucian myth and history by the first two rulers of the Chou dynasty , both paradigms of virtue,King Wu and King Wen. Wu stands for the strength and mi litary force necessary for the safety of China ' s borders. Wen stands for the class ical education and cultural refinement essential to anyone taking part in the civ il administration, and possibly also stand for the peaceful peasant occupation of cultivating the land . The tiger is Wu. His opposite, the Dragon, is Wen, and the Dragon stands for spring,a season of fertilization, growth and absolute devot i on in administrator and peasant to the business of agriculture; a season when all killing of wild life is prohibited. In fa ct Wen takes in summer and the Red Bird as well as spr ing, and Wu takes in winter and the Sombre Warrior as well as autumn. I have described them in the context of spring and autumn, Dragon and Tiger, because these two animals are perhaps the most constant symbols of feng-shui whereas the other two animals of the quarters feature only margina ll y. Dragon and Tiger are to the left and right of a site. The front, south , i s open and the back, north, is high and protected . North and south are thus clearly differentiated. Left and right are not, and it i s perhaps thei r very ambiguity, linked, as we shall see, with the relative ambiguity of the spri ng and autumn seasons compared t o the definiteness of summer and winter, that necessitates symbol i c concentration on them. Left and ri gh t flanks are similar to each other and therefore undifferen tiated. Spring and autumn are al so simi lar in that they have the average amount of rainfall and the same temperatures; whereas summer has high rainfal l and high temperatures and winter the exact opposite.Now the difference between spring and autumn is that in spring the rainfall and temperatu re are ri Si ng and things growing up, while in au tumn rainfall and temperature are falling and things are rot ting or bei ng ha rvested. In fact spr ing is a time of Yang ascendance, and autumn a time of Yin ascendance , and thi s difference is

TtE SEASONS , THE DIRECTIONS: THE ANIMALS OF THE FOUR QUARTERS

153

used to differentiate left from right as part of the character of the animals that sta nd to left and right.Hence spring,summer and the left hand side are Yang . Autumn, winter and the right hand side are Vino Incidentally when we try to link the Yang-ness of spring and summer with Wen and the Yin seasons with their characterisation as Wu we are obliged to recogn i ze an inconsistency. For the Tiger and Wu are definitely male while Yin has strong female correlates . The Tiger is a male emblem sta nding for a season that sees the ascendance of Yin . In Spring, by mid-april, northerly winds are ceasing and winds coming from the south are firmly established by mid-June over most of China. These wind s come from the ocean and bring warmth and rain. In summer , the heaviest rainfall for all regions is in June and July, the highest temperatures coming in Jul y and August . The winds are from the south with perhaps a prevalence of south -westerly wind s. ' The unifying feature of all Chinese climatic t ypes is t he monsoona l r egime ' . , t he summer monsoon ... i s gentle i n approac~ ' ' the winter mensoon is the more lIarked and persistent; during the autwnn it spreads its i nfluence from nOIth to south over the whol e country interrupted onl y by the Siberian and Central China depress ions which cross the country from west to east . ' 1 In autumn sudden bur sts of co ld north winds interrupt the warm winds from the south. Other prevailing winds are from the west. It i s from the north west 1n fact, from the Siberian land mass whi ch i s cooling more quickly than the ocean and is in any case north of China and nearer the pole.that winter is brought and it is brought by winds. It i s not surprising therefore that winter is li nked with the northern quarter, summer with the warm wi nd and rain fr om the south . Neither i s it surprising that the dragon is associated with rai n which is in crea sing 1n spring and which feeds the land; the tiger on the other hand being assoc i ated with wind which is the harbinger of the most cru cial development of autumn. the cold . Winds in autumn are extremely variable and it is appropriate therefore that an animal whose supreme cha racteri sti c is danger.a dang er that i s assoc i ated with wildness and unpredictability ,should be autumn's emblem .Un predictability is closely associated with ambiguity.Not knowing where the tiger will spring fr om as he fleetingly appears in several pl aces at once is a close empi rical analogy t o t he seman ti c effect of meaning several things at once. And autumn is the most excruciatingly ambiguous of the seasons. It i s a time of harvest . of the reaping of I . These quotations and a l I c li ma ti c data in t his section come from Geographic Handbook Ser ies ; Naya l Intelligence Divis ion , CIUna. PIlOpeJt , vol 1, pp . 202- 3.

154

CHINESE GEOMANCY

the year ' s labour . a time of rejoicing traditionally, but also a t ime when the success of the crop is most clearly measured and therefore a portent of the ease with wh i ch winter will be survived. The onset of winter itse l f contrasts the end of autumn most po i gnantly with its beginning. The tiger and hi s season are thus highly amb i guous and highly numinous and greatly to be feared but also to be respected.But as he is so dangerous, the flank of a site on which the tiger stands should be dominated by , be lower than . the left hand si de which belongs to the dragon. For the dragon's season is in the first place less ambiguous and i n the second place al together more posit i ve than autumn. The '4 Influences of t he Sea sons' are ~heng .1. (growth) . for spring.~ha. (destruct i on), fo r au t umn . ya.ng ~ (nourishment) for summer and tQGng'~ (lying hidden or buried) for wi nter~

4t

In the categorisation of the animal world by the Animals of the Quar ters . first establ i shed in the Shuo Wen, a Han dynasty scr i ptionary, the Ti ger stands for the hairy animals.(i.e. mammals) ,the Dragon for the scaly (i.e. f i sh), the Tortoise for the shell-covered (i.e. invertebrates) . and the Red Bird for the feathered (i.e. birds). Certain ly the Tiger is king of mammals, and i t i s perfec tly possible to envisage the Tortoise or Turtle as king of invertebrates or crus taceon~.Both Tiger and Tortoise are of the biggest and most powerful in their categories. Should we t hen see the Dragon and the Red Bird as real animals at the heads of their categories? The answer is yes if we take the Tiger as touchstone. The Dragon's category then supports a theory that the Dragon is, at least in origi n,someth i ng like a sea -serpent. But if we now examine the Red Bird and the Tortoise we wi ll see that the Tiger is rather an exception in the way he stays so cl ose to nature, for both Tortoise and Red Bird are hybrid emblems. The Red Bird in its graphic representation appears sometimes with the tail of a peacock, some t imes with the tai l of a pheasant; it frequently has a cock's comb; and has also been equated with a quail.It i s never represented as a real bird in any case . And its identity merges with that of the phoenix ( 6 el1g - huang~Jil ) one of the most myth i cal of creatures. In or i gin, that is before the Han dynasty when the Four Animals as a group were first depicted.it is likely to have been a summer migrant, hence its appropriateness for summer. Its merging with the phoenix. associated with the sun i n China, would have increased its aptness as a summer emb l em.But we shou l d not insist too strongly on the association of Red Bird wi th Phoenix. As Willetts.{1958. p.281) pOints out , the Red Bird is most character i st i cally gallinaceous - a fowl - and the cock as much as the phoenix is the bird of the sun in Chinese ~th and it may well be that the Red Bird is more cock than phoenix. If we

1. Acco r ding to Rev.S . Cha l me r s , in 0001 it t le , 1872 , Pa rt Ill , section VI I .

THE SEASONS , THE DIRECTIONS: THE ANIMALS OF THE FOUR QUARTERS

155

insist too hard on the phoenix we shall be led into an unwarrantable inconsistency since the Phoen ix is closely associated wi th fema l e characteristics. being the emblem handed over by the bride ' s to the bride -groom ' s family at a wedding in exchange for a dragon emblem. And spring and summer, Dragon and Red Bird , are Yang; mid-summer being Yang ' s apex. The Black Tortoise is also called Sombre Warrior and Un ique, or Orig inal Warrior (Yuan Wu ~ ~ ) - appropriately enough since he is, with the Tiger, a Wu an ima1.ln mos t representations it is, like the representations of Tiger, the real Tortoise and not a hybrid. But in Han times, and on occasion i n later centu ries as well, it is represented with a snake coiled round and coupling with it (the snake may someti mes degenerate into a smoke like coil). The Tortoise ,because it s genit als are not vi sible , was considered to be fema1e.and it was therefore supplied with a snake.Thus as emblem of a Quarter and as head of a category of animals the Tortoise i s not necessari ly int ended to be realistic , may indeed be hybrid as i s the Red Bird . It seems, then, that rather than take the Tiger as test case we shoul d treat him as an exception and let ourselves understand that the Chinese looked upon him as semi -mythical while depict i ng him naturalistically as a real animal. Certai nly the Tortoise i s closer to the Tiger in being a real animal . and the Red Bird closer to the Dragon in being almost uni dentifiable as a real an imal. but we have seen that the Tortoise has a somewhat unnaturalistic and hybrid character and he has other names , unlike the Tiger, which immediately transform him beyond animal status. We seem to have, then. four semi-mythica l animals standing for the sea sons and the four quarters of the heavens and also epitomising the four categories of real animals. I have not described the Dragon here for two reasons. First , because I dealt with his general characteristics in the prev i ous sec t ion. and secondly , beca use he i s far less easily identifiable than the other three animals of the quarters. The attempt to understand the Animals of the Quarters as a logi cally consistent ser ies does.however, supply preliminary' grounds for an identification.In thi s attempt just as we had to mythologise the Tiger, so we should make the Dragon more natura li stical1y rea1.The clue to his rea l ity is the fact that he epitomises scaly creatures. He is serpentine and he is associated with water. As we saw in the last sect i on he is supposed to appear , ~~y, in storms, and there are many cases of unfathomable lakes which are thought to be inhabited by dragons . The Dragon i s , then, something of the same genus as the Loch Ness ~onster, and

CHINESE GEOMANCY

156

equally impalpable. The Ta r.u. Li CILi- (B.C. 73 - 49) Chapter Five says that "The essence of the sca ly an imal s is the Dragon."

P.i. Va (1042- 1102). Chapter One.s ays that fishes and dragons begin to hi-

bernate at the autumn equinox , mos t appropriately COinciding with the descendence of Yang.Huai Nan Tzu corroborates the dragon as one of the 4 ling (numinous) animals but adds that he is most numinous of al l and that all animals orig i nate in him. An interesting theory (see Williams, 1941) links the dragon with the bones of primaeval and extinct saurians found by pea san ts and sold as 'dragon bones' .These

saurians , flying and amphibious, fit the dragon's characteristics and also cover

those of all 4 Animals . The mythi~al aspect of the four animals is manifested in the i r being the animals of the quarters of the sky. We have already given good climatic rea sons why at least winter and summer should be associated with their quarters north and south. There is less reason why spring and autumn should be associated with east and \~est. But the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, spring is growth ,autumn decaY , and that IS apparently good enough reason for mos t of us arbitrarily to associate east ana \~est with spring and autumn and I feel certain that a Chinese would give the same reason. But an additional and more calculatedly as tronomical link \~as made in the late Chou dynasty to link the celestial quarters wi th the seasons they have implied ever since. As it says in the 4th century B.C. Ho-Ku.a.n Tzu :

"When the Dipper points to the east it i s spring ,when the Dippe r points to the south, it is summer, when Dippe r poi nts to the north it is Winter."

The 4 Animals divided the 2B ho.iu asterisms into four groups.It is likely that in addition the animals were themselves associated with specific constel l ations.ln the case of the Dragon and the Tiger it seems! that their constellations corresponded to the Western configurations Scorpio and Orionrespectively. It is then possible that characterisation of the animals of the eastern and wes tern quarters was influenced by Western Egypti an and Babylonian astronomical ideas which are more ancient than the Ch inese; certainly such a theory is strengthened by the obvious connection of Scorpio with ~ ragon and of Orion, the great hunter , with Tiger, the great spoil of the hunt. The Animals are thus cosmological creatures, not confined to specific earthly phenomena but at least i n the Han and perhaps later dynasties headeri ~'hole cate90ries of the animal wor ld and have manifested themselves in several other 1. Wi

I let ts , 1958, p. 273 .

THE SEASONS , THE OIRECTIONS: THE ANIMALS OF THE FOUR QUARTERS

157

ways ever s i nce~ Like celestial influences they manifest themselves f or feng-sbui in the landscape .and they do so in two ways. The first is as we have already des cribed; by standing in microcosm on the four sides of a site. The second i s by the medium of topographical forms peculiar to each of them and we shall end this section on the Four Animals of the Quarters by taking as example the watershapes \~h i ch are their medium. according to t he Wa.teIL Vltag ol1 :::Ltu.~.ic .

The Oragon ;s manifested by wa tercourses with one curve and/or branch.A grave surrounded by Oragon water t hus

•

brings weal th. honour and no grief. The danger of the Tiger is shown by thi s con f igura ti on LEFT

RIGHT

• in which the Tiger ho ld s t he corpse in his mouth and portends poverty and old age withoutchil dren. The Tiger can also be benefi cial. His intrin sic water - shape i s a configuration with two or three branches . thu s: 1. An obser vati on made by Du Base , 1886 . p . 433, ind Icat es t hat r eal anima l s of t he app ropr iat e categor y stood for the ir emb lem an i ma l and a ll i t symbo l i zed . He

sa ys : "One of the mos t unfortunate circums tances (in the feng- s hui of a grave) is f or a s nake or a turtle ( the north ) t o i s sue from a grave."

CHINESE GEOIWlCY

158

•

in which the embr ace of \~ater

brings posteri t y and will emanate

Red Bird and Tortoise

~/ealt h

the Tiger ' s

and never poverty.

feature less. The

~e d

Bi r d takes form in water-

courses \'I hich have 3 back-turns thus:

and the t hat ' males

~1;11

rob , fema les be lewd.

~o

interpretation of the diagram is

cl otfJes or f ood '. The Tortoise, or VUan

It'u as he is called in the !t'a.teJr. CltltgOH Ci.M6.iC. , has thi s shape:

and brings offi ce and constant happiness in the That the animal of

ho~ .

summer

should bring bad luck and winter good luck

seems odd unless we are expected to understand more than is ~/ritten in the c.t.lu~.i.c 's interpreta ti ons. For instance it may be that winter, the ti me of burial , and

the tortoise with its protec t i ng shell , fo ster graves , while summer is t oo Yang and i nappropr i ate for burial. A passage from rules that introduce the Y!Ulg C/uU makes a suitable conclus ion t o th i s section. It is evidence of the t r eatment of house (or site) as a microcosm ,with nragon and Tiger at t~e left and the ri gh t whether or not left and ri gh t are east and west. " Al l dwellings are ver y ho nourabl e which have on the l eft flowing wat er . ,,'hich is the Az ure Dragon, on the ri gh t a long path, which i s the White Tiger, in t he f r ont a poo l, "'hich is the Red Bi rd, and behind hil l ocks , "'hich are the Sombr e tia rr ior."

THE NINE STARS , THE ElEt£NTS , AND REMA INING SYMBOLS

159

Th e ni ne s tars, th e ele ments, a nd re mai ning symbols from the compass dia l

Of all cosmological forces in feng -shut perhaps the most direct ly ma nifested in the forms of the ear t h are the Ni ne Stars whi ch were the subject ot Ring 5 in Explana.t.(.cn 06 .the Compu.6. The Han lung c.hi..ng (CiM .6ic. , or manual, 06 the Mouing V~on) i s a work entire ly devoted to the propert ies of and forms taken by t he Ni ne Stars.A detai l ed examinat ion of this manual takes up a large part of Edkins' (1872) descrip tion of feng-shu i. One may presume that it was t herefore in current use when Edkins was in China. Such a presumption is supported by the fac t that an editi on of the manua l edited by K'ou Tsung was publ i shed in 1834 . Edkins gave the work no author and maintained that it dates from the seventeenth cen tury,The 1834 edition which I have seen purport s to be by Vang (Vang Vun -sung, founder of the School of Forms) and it is given in tleedham ' s bibliography (1962) ~/here authorship is also attributed to Vang Vun -sung and where it is gi ven an orig in ~ca AD 880. It seems therefore to be a work of importance in t he founding of feng-sh ui pract i ses as wel l as bei ng in use at the time from which date mos t of t he ~Jestern records of feng -shui i n operation , and it i s therefore worth our at tenti on.

160

CHINESE GEOHANCV ft.s the name of the manual il':lplies, t he Nine Star s a re moving stars , as -

trologi ca l bodies wh ich roam through the cosmos. The !Iine Sta rs.as Edk ins write s : "/Iovc through th e atmosphere and cause prosperi t y and adve r si t y of men. "

At t he same

Edkins gives them a de finite location in spilce Dipper plus two nearby sta r s . ~ihen they ar e moving

t; me .h O\~ever.

as t ile s even sta r s of the

t hey are invi s i ble , he says , but when they are visible t hey may be identified. The flan Lung Clung spea ks of the northern

the side

constell ati on and the north star and it is

furthe s t from the handle of the Di pper which points out the nor th sta r.

The Dipper is in the sky

throughout

t he

year a nd

~/e

have seen how it was e s ta -

blished in the Han dynasty that t he nipper annuall y s~lung round a full circle and that the quarter and poss ibly also t he co nstel la ti ons t o which its handle po inted were those appropriate t o the current ti me of year~ The s tars of t he nipper ar e t herefore at t he crux of Ch ine se cosmology and in their annual movement comma nd from i t s centre t he entire scope of t he cos · rnos. They are, so to speak , t he hands of the cloc k by which the ti me of year was told. Sma ll \~o nde r then that t hese s t ar s should t ake on a special importance fo r divination. The s ignificance of each sta r,the ty~e of influence it ~,;elds , is first of all i ndicated by its name. The seven star s of the ~ipper are:

11 4R T' ttn-lruzB ~

Covetous I\'olf

t, ChU-me.l!

~-* jj.

Chief Ga t e

LU-U. ' Wl

Sa lary (r ank ) Preserved

J! 1l-

lie-It- che.1t

Pur ity "d Up rightness (truth)

kit

31'=

P' c-c.hU/t

Breaker of Armies (or luck)

~

Ilb

Wen-ch 'u

CU lt ural Activi tie s

ik.

Ilb

WU-cJl ' U

~1i

"d t he remain i ng t wo s tar s

£ -till -:ti lnj

I

( if)

ita r y Activities

)c'

T.6o-~u

Left assistant

and

Yu-p.i.

Ilight assistant of the Celestial Emperor .

Each star has several kinds of i nf luence and ways of manifes t i ng it sel f in for ms of t he landscape. Th us Breaker of Luck is a hill formati on with t hree 1. See Can'oll ( 1962 , pp . 12-23)

for a f ull treatl"'\ent of this question .

THE NIHE STARS . THE EWUTS . AND RH'.AJN IHG SYMBOLS

16!

rounded heads , one rising above the others . like the folds of a flag ca rri ed in process ion. Below . there are ugly looking points like spears. It is a malignant star normally, bu t under special circumstances will help to acquire ri ches and rank. The three heads stand for the three pairs of stars in the Dipper (i .e . all but the one star at the tip of the handle . paired) but on high hills it will take t he form of six stars kno\~ n as the Six Palaces and called Sun !T'al. yang ~ ~ l , Hoon (T' tt-i !lilt -*.. rt ), Purple Breath (Tzu-cki ll,.J, Lunar Distur:bance lYueh-pu. Plan (Chi I . and Net ( Le l{l l . each with a different shape and with one of the 5 Elements alloca ted to it. This series of Stars with Elements is within the grand series of tline Stars which stand also for elements. as shown below. Covetous Wolf is lucky when centrally disposed and symmetrically formed, unlucky when lop-sided. Salary Preserved is marked by a flat-topped hil l wi th 3.4 or 5 outcroppings (called 'toes ' ) . but it may also be marked by nine other shapes. It allows men to reach low-ranking offi ce , but also has a slightly malignant character. Variations such as these are described and embroidered at great length in the Halt Lultg ClUltg. In order to know what were the most common single forms of each Star we must go to other manuals which include a section on them. One such to be found in the 1726 edit10n of the Imperial Encyclopoedia is the Yualt-ItU ch ' .ingIUUlg htt-i-chieh du ng (The 0riginal !laiden's Univers e - lit. Blue-bag -and Oceancorner Class i c). It gives the following:

}] t ).

it

Covetous Wol f

t

a shape not given in Halt l ung nearest is :

Chil!g

where the

Chi ef Gate

Sa lary Prese rved

This is the only complete variation from ijal1 lung ClUng wh i ch gives it a flat-topped hill and has this shape for Breaker of Luck.

162

CHINESE GEOHANCY

Breaker of Luck

Purity and Truth

called twtg-tou . 'dragon tower'

by HOJ't lwtgChing.

Cultura l Ac t ivities

seems to be a bird's eye

a rinQ of

t~;s

viewofsomethin~l;ke

formation

..,' or else of that

described

by Hrul Lwtg eking

for Salary Preserved. Mi l itary Activi ties

Left Assis t ant

Right A"'m",

~

Yuan.-tu'L names these the Changeable Consti tution of the

~ine

Star Sh apes.

THE NINE STARS. THE ELEMENTS . AND REMAINI NG SYMBOLS

163

It gives the earthly

shapes of the Elements under the heading The Proper Con st i · tution of the Five ?Ianct S hap e s.~ ppro pria t e l y enough, although there is some va riation bo t h in shapes given and in the Element significance attached to the Nine ~tars there is no variation in the allocation of shape to Element. which is as fo1101·ls :

WOOD

FIRE

*

£.

EARTH

WATER

By compa ring t he Element formations with those of the Nine St ars it wi ll be seen immedia te ly how El ements ar e disp layed by t he shapes of the latter. It should be noted. hOl~ever. that Elements are gi ven in a separate l i st because the shapes of boulders and hills are often interpreted according t o them without any Star s i gn ifi cance attached.No t on ly boulders and hills . but also wa ter for~tions are in t erpreted according to their Element s i gnificance. Thus the W~teA V~gon CtM ~ ,(c. gi ve s :

CHINESE GEOHANCY

164

\

0'

/

f or WOOD

f o r "lETAL

f or FIRE

for EARTH

for WATER

and gives many examples of the 'interpretation of combinations of these shape s .Fot

>-<

example:

shows either one Fire or two I~oods entering a '!etal wall. wh ich means that posterity wi ll be cut off for many generations (Fire destr oys Meta l, t·le t a1

destroys

Wood).~nd

shows Ilater entering nour for many

cta.,u.i.c

generations

("tetal

~letal

produces

whic!"! foretells prosperity and hoWater ) . In general the!lh.tell. DJUtgotl

says , .'ieta1 Water and Earth are lucky, Wood and Fi re are unlucky . ! It i s

perhaps in conformity t o the un luckiness of Fire that the St ar Purity and Truth, which has the shape of Fire and was . accordi ng to the Han Lung C1Ull9. valued high -

ly by the men of antiquity ,f s described by Explanation 06 the C0mpa4 6 as unlucky .

1. Yet anot he r variat ion i n t he

l uc ~

of

El e~n ts .

see p. 62 .

.

the ni ne stars, THE ELEMENTS , AND REMAINING SYMBOLS

165

Eitel (l873) gives a neat example of t he interpretationofElen-.ent shapes )es in mountains. The maln peak of Hong Kong island , he says , has a foothill and the two are shaped t hus :

which shows Fire under 11 Wood pi le. To t his were ascri bed the many ou t breaks of fire that then plagued Hong Kong. It i s not only to the Elemen ts that the Nine Stars are li nked. Etptana .tum or .the Compa.6-6 allocates to each of them one of the Pa Kua (The Eight Trigrams) by taking t he Left and Right Ass i stants together fo r one trigram. In addition it ascribes t he 12 bra nches and 4 of the stems sing l y or in threes t o the se same eight. It i s thus po~-6ibte t o reason out which points on the compass dial are allocated to the Nine Stars .points which have not hing to do with the positi ons of the Stars of the Oipper in fact. But the lo Ching Chivt text explaini ng thi s ring (5) of the compass dial does not elaborate on the Nine Stars' compass poin t s.other than the fact that it distributes t hem in a r ing round the compass dial.Neverthe less , it does incorporate a different system of Nine Star detect ion from that i n whi ch they are identi fied by For ms. It specifi es co nditi ons of water courses appro pr iate to the Ni ne Sta rs not as forms so much as the proper direction of fl ow , no ma tter what the point of the compass i s . It does this by anal ogy with the apertures of the human body and it i s therefore of some intere st as yet another example of the personifica t ion of the landscape Covetous Wolf is like the mouth

water can enter but should not go out

Cultural Act ivi ties " "

water should ne ither enter nor leave

on

m l itar y Activi t ies " " belly and Right Assis tant (naval )

water can enter but not come out

Ch ief Gate and Left Ass istant

" "

nose

water can both ente r and leave

Pure and Uprigh t

" "

eyes

,,'ut er cannot enter but can come out

CHI NES E

166

GEO~ANCY

Breaker of Luck is like the anus - water cannot enter but can come out Salary Preserved

"

" penis • water cannot enter but can come out

l' ... at this point in the circumference of the site' should be unders-

tood after each specif icati on).

has shapes manifesting hoiu asterisms. the Vang OWetling ~~ illustrates plans of houses around which not only the Nine Stars and the Eight Trfgrams and the Five Elements are disposed, but so also are other stars, branches and stems. I give one of them below. They are 1n fact closer to the cosmolog;cal type of feng- shuf , being mere extensions of the compass dial on the ground. It ;s easy to see how several types of activity. study. sleep . keeping the accounts,may be circumscribed in time and space by the ritual dictates of the :ompass or such plans. For instance , I heard of a Hong Kong Chinese whose mother lay il l in bed but as soon as he changed the bed's position into the right direction she recovered. ~eA V~9 0 n cta&6~

This diagram from the Yang Cha.i. is called 'Situated in the East , with the Court on the West, and the gate opening onto trigram Tu;', "If on the first «'ellg (layer or ring ) and the third « ' ellg the rooms ar e high and large - and on the fifth and sixth to ' eng also - it will lead t o great wealth and honour (numbers of to ' eng refer to the six central div isions in t he plan). If in the K'un trigram area and T' ien I (a constellat i on - fou nd both in the K'un area and in central division 5) , Chief Gate (one of the Nine Stars ) and the Earth Planet-element (both in central division 5 also); and in the Ken trigram area (diagonal ly opposite K'un), Mi litary Activities (one of the Nine St ars) , Long Life (presumably a co nstellati on, like T'ien I, and which links the Ken area to central div i sion 1) and Metal Planet -element the rooms are high and large, it will be a very lucky and profi table dwell i ng." We have now seen that every cosmo l ogical force in feng-shui is manifested on the ground. either by shapes or by the featur es at particular compass points of the walls of a house or the circumference of a site. It is as if the natural landscape and architectural environment were the medium of a cosmological language whose imagery ;s taken partly from astronomy. partly from l andscape and the animal world and partly also from the human body.The imagery and the cosmological forces manifested through the landscape do not themselves i ndi cate simple luck or bad luck. In themselves they do not even const itute a dis course by means of which specific fortune is in any way told . At a second stage of interpretation. which bases itself both on the landscape and on the cosmology and imagery appeared at the first stage . more specific metaphors for landscape shapes are in troduced, such as 'spears' for pOinted boulders. l10st of the coornentaries under

THE NINE STARS, THE ELEMENTS, AND REMAINING SYHBOLS

167

WEST

1l!l

!ill

I'~

"

W. 1'.

r~J i?!f ¥11

JI:

...

S~""14

low"

"l" _7-

.J.LI,.

'~

tl!i

MlHta r-y Actlvj !tu

."""

~~

{~4, ... ·

"5hould

hi~"

MET AL

~S

~

(.te .. 2)

,, ~

(ote ..

1:

(Ltre "ut thoro

!It ~SV3

the diagram in the Yang Cha.i are also on this second level, and it is at this level that speci fi c fortunes are told - specific , that is, to individual sites and feng-shui clients . In addition to those from the Yang Cha.i I have given some other interpretations at this leve l f rom feng - s~ui manuals. But they are in the manuals only as guid in g samples. The second stage of interpretation must by necessity to a large extent be left to the practising geomancer on site. A manual only gives guide- lines on how to detect the cosmological forces at work .

168

CH IN ESE GEotIANCY

Sy mbo ls fr om beyon d fe ng_s hui

So far I have dealt only with symbols wh ich are t he speciality of fengshui as distinct from ot her Chines e modes of t hought and other Chinese systems of div i na tion. But in the inter pretation of physical environmen t images fr o~ any other sphere of Ch inese thought may appea r without having been i ntegrated i nto t he. sys t em ,and they add variety t o t he divina ti on. I-lhile t he extent of this ec lec-

ti cism can only be appr ec i ated in full by refere nce to the gr eat number of actual feng-shui interpretati ons that exhibit it. examples of the appearance of extraneous symhols are t o a 1imi t ed exten t a 1so 9; ven in feng - sh ui manual s themselve s .

vaan-nU . for in stance, after i ts table of Nine StaA and Five Element forms has a th i rd and l as t t able whic h i t calls P~6ied PatleA~ :

Is called 'Three towers of the flo,,'e r y vault ' ,

' ~ ine-brained

(headed) hibiscus' ,

' 1Ieaped sca l es pattern',

SY~BOl S

169

FROM BEYOND FENG-SHUI

' Drum of poin t s '.

' Nine heavens flying white' ('flying white ' is also the name of a stroke in cal l igraphy) .

' ccntipede joints'. ~

-r'.'

' Three crinkles (or curl s of smoke) of r eeds and flower s '.

' Wang (king) charact er pattern'.

Certa in ly these are 'pur i fied ' in that t hey do not offer immediate di vination significance.Only the pattern shaped l ike a character (Wang) offers anything like this (e .g. the promise of se rvice nea r the emperor). Chinese written languag e has so much graphic variety that its for ms may easily be seen in t he li nes of a 1 andscape , !tla.teJt VJUlgo l1 ha s shapes corresponding to the characters:

170

CHINESE GEOMANCY

ho"

which it calls 'jade hook' and

~Ihich

means

prosperity for men, and attainment of regional office 'one' 'unique' which foretells becoming a great officer

and many others may quite as easily have been included. EHel (IS73) has examples of other shapes: a couch shape means premature or violent death for

sons

and

grandsons; an upturned boat shape means that

daughters will be i1, and sons in prison. These extraneous symbols are likely not to occur to the feng - shui prac titioner unless they offer ifllTled i ate insight into the case at hand.Thf'Y are entire-

ly random and their working can only be shown as I said above by reference to records of particular cases and I will simply give a few by way of description. Accordi,ng to Eitel Kong . which was seen by

again. a cur i ous roc k on a hill near Wan-chai . Hong

~Jesterners

a prostitute. responsib l e for all prostitution

~lOrsh i pped

as Cun IU.i..Ung Abel . suggested to the Chinese Hong Kong's irMIorality . Those who lived from

it.

De Groot (p. 980) tells Hhy the

people

of Ch 'uan-chou erected its fa -

mous twin pagodas. Ch'Uan-chou is shaped like a carp and l'ias suffering in fortune while a town near Ch'uan - chou which is shaped like a fishing net had become prosperous. The twin pagodas were built t o snarl the net. Lin Vueh - hwa (1947) "A lucky site was found (for the grave of the grandfather). The geomancer set his compass on a spot a t t he head of the hill from which there was a view of broad farm land below. He e xplained that the hill looked like a mouse wit h its head extending into the farm land where crops were growing. The si te was accordingly called A ~Iouse Facing a Barn. A man's descendents should be very r ich and prosperous with such a lucky si te chosen."

These are random secular symbols. Others. from re lig ious and mythological beliefs ,such as Kuan-yin or Monkey, have also been seen Va tes (IR68) gives the

follo~ling

case

in the landscape.

which illustrates well how feng - shui 's own

symbolism is adapted ..1\ few years ago . when the rebels left the city (of Shanghai) . the feng - shui 's professors vlere employed to discover the cause of the disturbance, and consequently the cause of the local rebellion. Thei r attention was directed t o a large new temple within the north gate called the Kuang Fu temple. It was buil t by men from Kuang-tung · and

Fu-kien. and t .1e largest doner was a brothel keeper.

Such men are ca 1 led 'b lad tortoi se' . The professors found that the tem-

SYMBOLS FROM BEYOND FENG· SHUI

171

ple was shaped like a tor t oise travelling south (from the north gate). It was bounded on the four sides by a street and water, with a stone bridge at the four corner s represen t i ng the four feet of a t ortoi se. There was a stone br idge just in front of the temple door representing his head , and two wells at the door, representing the animal's eyes, and a large tree in the rear, repre sen ting his tail turned up . What is more it had been Kuang - tung and Fu-kien men who had taken the city, and from the north gate just at the rear of the temple at that. The temple could not be pulled do~tn as it was the home of spirits. The remedy was to put ou t the tortoise's eyes (fill the two wells) and to change its name. The great bulk of evidence of these random symbols is in records ,not in manuals.From this we may deduce that their incl usion in feng·shui interpretations i s on a quite different plan from t~ose symbols w~ich form the discourse of the manuals. With the former we are at the most inexpert and popular level of interpretation. P.nything th e physical environment suggests to you may become significan t in the light of appropriate circumstances . The suggestion itself is indeed probably first evoked by those circumstances. An upturned boat will be seen by a fisherman anxious about storms , for in sta nce. The net and ca rp symbolism of Ch'Uan -chou . a por t - would not have occurred i n an inland community.On the other hand , the specifica ll y feng-shui symbols , ~Ihich I have described from t he manua l s , occur in any circumstances. Unlike the extra neous symbols, they exist before the specific case. Each case must be interpreted according to at least their crudest principles - the north·south axis, say, or having a view in front - whereas the case itself suggests the extraneous symbols. Because th e landscape may be diagnosed according to the specifically feng-shui system of symbols before a site is chosen fora particular housecrgJ'8ve, a nd jus t because the system ha s been elaborated by the manuals into a coslOOlogy which offers infinite twists and variety of interpretation for anyone site , feng-shui experts are employed. They are the link be tween the manuals and the popular conception of feng-s~ui. r.t its crudest the popular conception is merely of something called feng-shui exerting a mystical force on the course of lives. less crude is the attempt to diagnose this force by seeing random shapes in the landscape which it informs. And the cases of just this crude level of interpretation best illustrate the function of feng-shu i as something analogous to a language whose essential vocabulary and grammar is contained in the manuals,disciplined by experts, but which is unconscious ly extended in its common usage by ad - libhing and by borrowing from other areas of belief.

PART FOUR

OPERATORS: FENG-SHUI'S PLACE AMONG CHINESE IDEOLOGIES AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

-.

172

CHINESE

GE~ANCY

The convenience of 1~bel1ing as feng-shu; all the symbols and sets or symbols which have been described is justified by Ch inese usage . The average Chinese concerned with feng-shui. and all Chinese not entirely imbued with Western values are at one time or another so concerned.thinks at first only of a power in hi s lffe called (eng-shui.He might after more thought be able to talk more specifically about Azure Dragon and White Tiger, about Yin and Yang and the Five Elements,about Ch' ; and about T';en and Ti, but they are not combi ned or sub-categorised outs ide the manuals.So 'feng-shu f' is a vague , single force behi nd which is understood other single and simp le sets of fo rces and behind them it i s understood that there exists a comp lex scheme referred to in the patter of the expert. When we speak therefore of feng -shu i's pla ce among Chinese ideologies and religi ous beliefs,we understand at the same time a single concept and an organ ization of concepts. ~nd we are able to go further and speak of a ~el4tio~hip between feng-shui and otheA Chinese ideologies , be they religious, magic or just metaphysical.

OPERATORS

173

Feng-shui is not a closed set of ideas. Its symbols are not used exclu- . sively in the diagnosis of house and grave sites. Sepa ratel y, t hey may be seen in many other contexts,just as symbol s from other ideologies appear in Feng-shui interpretations . A motto inscribed on side gates and room doors col lected in Tient sin and Fuchow (Doo l ittle 1872 , Vol. Il , part III section V) says: "AbW"ldant favour comes from the North Pole" (·i.e. the Emperor ' s pa l ace, see p. 238). Another: "The fragrance of green plants comes up from the Southern hills." Others mention sunrise and the east as the source of brilliance and bounty. "Happi ness, like the water flowing at l ength to the eastern sea long life, like the pine on the southern moW"ltain not growing old." One from the pillars of a hall goes: "A single vein of Yang harmony comes up from the earth (Ti) ; ten divi sions of happiness and emolument come from heaven (T'ien) ; the purple breath (Tzu Ch'i) comes in the east." Al l of them express hope of good fortune in terms of or caused by ~atu­ ral phenomena which are also symbols in the feng-shui scheme . Indeed such mottoes are expressions of the kind of thinking that may in the first place have produced feng-shui. Respect for trees and the symbol i sm of evergreen foliage frequent ly occur outside feng-shui and are in any case a semi -autonomous adjunct of the fengshui scheme (see p.128). For instance at the Ch'ing ~ing festival (a spring festival at which families and lineages congregate fo r the annual cleaning and re· newal of the ancestral graves)pine branches are picked and inserted into roofs or pinned on clothing as symbols of the ascendancy of Yang . Evergreen timber is the best for coffins . The willow t oo is a symbol of Yang because they are homonyms . The co lours of the Five Elements and seasons form a crucial part of the li Ch ' un (Beginning of Spring) festival. At it an effigy of an ox is taken out to meet the spring . By the colou r of its head the weather for the comi ng seasons is manifested,the forecast being based in the first place on consultation of the Imperial aimanac. Thus if the head is yellow there will be great heat in midsummer, if green there will be sickness in spri ng,if red there will be drought in summer, if black there will be rain in winter, if white there wi ll be high winds and storms in autumn. In each case except winter the forecast is of the unfortunate eventuality most appropriate to the seaso n symbolised by the co l our~ 1 . John s ton , 1910 , pp . 180-181.

174

CHINESE GEOMANCV

Seating positions around the table are somet imes named by the EightTri grams in the same way as at other times they are characterised by t he Eight Immortals. The leader of the Pa Kua (Eight Trigrams) Secre t Society . at the beginning of the Ch' ing dynasty . saw himse l f as an incarnation of l'a; Chi, t he Great Absolute. had 8 di sc i ples to spread his sword and 8 divisions of t he society , 4 Wu and 4 Wen 1. Many other instances of the occurrence of feng-shu; symbols in other context s could be collected . It is wrong in fact to describe them as symbols~ ing from the feng-shu; scheme specifical ly. Their incidence in a multitude of contexts shows the prevalence of concepts like the Five Elements and colours, Yin and Yang, and t he Pa Kua, and the symbolisation of heaven and earth . the seasons and the four quarters , as independent face t s of a widely accepted cosmology. The feng -shui scheme should therefore be understood as a poi nt i n the development of Chinese metaphysical thought around which such concepts and symbols have clu stered and been arranged . A good homogenous source for the study of Chinese religion arema -chang . ~u-chang are prints sold throughout China , in provincial towns and villages as well as in cities , on which are illustrated Chinese deities and sp i rits that are locally popular and needed for every kind of ritual occasion , from regular fe sti vals to praying for rain . A second sou rce , for the study of Chinese magico- relf gious ideas, are charms and talismans. With almanacs and manua ls as sources for divination of various kinds, ma-~hrutg and charms and talismans fairly well cover the whole range of Chinese metaphysical t hought at the most applied, that is popula r, level, I discount the philosophical works of Confucia nism and Ta oism for being t he fruits of intellectua l speculation many stages beyond the direct application of ideas to concrete social action. The bulk of Buddhist literature , the sutras and their commentaries,are similarly not considered because they also were the property of a small elite cut off from the genera l populace. The three sources chosen themselves mark out three distinct areas of Chinese metaphys i cs. Ma-chang are for the worship of deities and spirits. Charms and talismans are for protection from spirits and demons. Almanacs and divination manuals are guides to the world of ultimate causes. In the first two, men are directed from the secular world to a world of spi rit s whereas with the last,men are

1. See Chlang , The Nien Reb~n , pp . 27-29 for a reference to the Pakua' s mi litary organi zation by emblems of t he 5 element s and colour s .

GEOHANCERS, PRIESTS. RITUAL ELDERS AND DIVINERS

175

still concerned primarily with the secular world while having recourse on occasion to the spiritual world. This is exemplified by a distinction between experts i n the manipulation of ma-chang . charms and talismans. and those in the manipulation of di vinatory knowledge. The former are priest s . The latter are lay, amateurs or employed on the same terms as experts in any other lay field.tlore will be said about the terms of employment of feng-shui experts l ater on. The point I want to make here is t hat feng -shu; may be seen in two basic relationships . firstly as against ideas about a sp i ritual world, secondly as against ideas about divination to ul t imat e ca uses of the secular wor ld. A third group of operators of metaphysi cal be li efs must be introduced here to make a third contrast with feng- shui.lt is that of the elders in the kinship system who are also the ritual leaders in an cestor worship . lastly , we will have to relate feng -shui to Confucian ethics .

Geoma ncers, priests. ritual elders a nd diviners

The most common name of the feng-shui expert is ~eng-4hui h6ien-4heng. H4ien-4heng is not trans l atable; it is sometimes rendered as '."1r:' but that would be too bold i n this case. It is a term of respect which is used f or instance when addressing one ' s teacher. Other names have been recorded. Johnston (1910) talk s of Yin-Vang h4ien-6heng ; Peplow (1931) ann Kulp (1925) refer to necromancers when discussing geomancy. There are a variety of functions, from which a geomancer may choose to li se. He may , for instance, deal only in the sit i ng of 9raves. Or else he specia may be known and emp loyed for hi s special diagnostic skil l in detecting imbalance

176

CHINESE GEOMANCY

of cosmological forces or the existence of oM. .~~ and kuti

JlL and

in the recom-

mendation of appropriate cures for already sited and built graves and houses. The Chinese geoma ncer is an environment doctor and may be a general practitioner or a specialis t in certain disorders. Johns t on ' s Yin-yang h4ien-6heng. for instance. seems to have acted only as a supervisor at funerals. A more general practitioner of geomancy would elsewhere be employed to perform t~e same function. But we should not confuse geornancers in general with priests. A priest

in China was either part of an institution of worship, the temple. or else he was an unattached but full time ritual expert. His pay came out of the same fund that financed the building of the temple and provided it with property to ensure a continuing income or else it was from his fees for conducting ceremony. The government, but in most c!ses private donors and local corporate groups - clans or villages - decided to find a temple to a deity which had become known for some desired pOl'ler and the readiness with which prayers made to it were answered - prayers for rain for instance. Priests l ived on its property and/or on fees paid them for religious services, casual or at the regular festivals. Geomancers were not attached to inst ituti ons of worsh ip . A rich family, or lineage, may have kept a geomancer exclusively for its services , providing him with his entire livelihood 1 • Geomancy may be a fUll-time occupation providing a substant ial income 2 or it may be the part-time occupation of a man otherwise employed. It i s not clear from the evidence at hand hO~j exactly the geomancer is paid. It seems that he is not given fees or salary and that geoma ncy is therefore not considered a profession. Rather, the geomancer is treated as a guest, a fulltime or occasiona l guest; he is given hospitality in the course of his services and on top of that receives gifts which may take the form of cash. The fullest account of the way in which a geomancer is paid appears in Wieger's (I9}3 ) translation of the Chinese Fun~ Cuoto~ 00 Ckih-£i P~ov~e.A case is there described in which a geomancer is employed to find a site for a fa mily graveyard . A first site chose n by his client is rejected, so is a second but the thir d is judf/ed!pXl by the geomancer. All this takes a number of days during which the geomancer stays in his client's house and is lavish ly feasted. When he leaves he is given enough silk for a p'ao (a long outer garment), stuff for an ordinary robe, a pair of boots. a cap and about ten strings of cash. The terms of his employment seem to reflect an ambiguity in the role of 1 . Reported to me personally by a Chinese from the New Territories . 2. Reported t o me personally by a man who had done f ieldwork in the New Te rr i to r i es.

GEOMANtERS . PRIESTS , RITUAL ElDERS AND DIVINERS

177

geomancer.He i s paid with hospitality. gifts, and cash . He is not part of an institution ohlorsh ip but neither i s he part of an established profession . The value of hi s practice is not fully r ecognized as is med i cine or house- building. On the one extreme he is employed by the state. The Peking Gazette for January 14th, 187 4, for instance,recommends that a certain Kao Ssu - lung be promoted to 'fourth button rank' of t he civil service "for his geomantic services in the construc ti on of new Imperi a1 Tombs". On the other extreme ed i cts are promu 19a ted condemn i ng th e practice of geomancy because it delays buri al and causes discord. He shares wi th the pr iest an att itude of the bureaucrati c elite t oward s his ideology that is ambivalen t . In the Confucian classics, the elite, those who are employed by the state and are enlightened , do not for themselves believe in any other-world ly significance of ritual. Hsun - tzu , the most assertive class ical exponent of this atti tude ,wrote t hat for the gentleman (c.hiil1-tzuj; )sacrifice is a ' human prac t ice' while for the common people (h.6.{ao j e.I1 .),.A.- literally 'small people') it is 'a ser.ving of t he spirits '. Ri tual f or the enlightened i s symbolic action giving controlled release to strong emotions. But it is extremely rare even in the Con fu cian Cla ssics,let alone among the li t era ti themselves. that the existence of spirits or the supernatural is denied outri ght. The best known example of thi s was expressed by Confucius himself. in the Analect4 where he says that the chun-tzu keeps spi rits at a distance . Since Confucian orthodoxy was adopted by the last two dynasties in Chinese hi story as a state orthodoxy . this ambivalent atti tude toward s the sp iritual world was bu il t i nto its adm i nistrati on and civil servants. No centrally organized religion was al lowed to ex i st. Where reli gious action interfered with state administration i t was condemned and puni shed .!

-t

Geomancy and belief in spirits were both considered as popu l ar ' s uperstition'. Popular 'superstition' was considered dangerous when it took on proportions that threatened smoo th civil admi nis tration but it was nevertheless Illt only tolerated on Cl popu l ar leve l, geomancers and priests were employed by emperors. The geomancer himself 'as sumes all the airs of the lit erati and gentry ' (De Groot, 1897, p.l0l0 ) dressing l ike them and producing quotations in classi cal Chinese that an uneducated Chi nese has great difficulty in understanding . Geoma ncers consider themselves as scientists , definitely not as acting in a religious ro le.Geomancy is pa rt of t he ~ r ts and Divination section of the Imper ial Encyclo paedia; another section is entirely devoted to Relig ion. Perhaps the most convenient way to understand the role of the geomancer I. See C. K.

Y~nQ

in

F~irbank

(1957) .

CHINESE GEOHAHCY

178

in contrast to priests and the world of spirits and demons, and also in contrast with secular ritual leaders. is to examine his role at a death. Johns ton (1910) for Weihaiwei says that

the geomancer or Yin-yang ft.s.ie.n-.&heng selects the moment

for starting the funeral procession and for lowering the coffin as well as the pOSition of the grave.Gamble (1953) for Ting-hsien in Hope; Province says that he "was called upon to locate a

would be

suitable

grave, to set the day when

the feng-shui

propitious (Le. the day on which burial should take place) " and to lo-

cate the coffin in the grave (p. 390). Very similar functions were performed by geomancers in S.W. China . o.e. Graham (1961. pp. 42 ff) describes them in some detail and his account also tells us something of the relationship between geo mancer and priest. The procession having reached the grave -pit and offerings having been made in it. the geomancer: "v"y",~arefully chose the exact place to put down the coffin. He used the to-p 'an.~~ which has a compass (in it) and was extremely careful to put the coffin in just the right direction. A red string was pinned exactly in the center of the lid from end to end. Another red string was hel d in the air above the lid and by means of the to-p 'an aligned in exactly the right direction; then the coffin was moved until the lower string was exactly under and parallel to the upper string. This process took about an hour, several men cooperating . It was extremely important for the coffin and the corpse to lie in exactly the right direction to make the feng-shui the best, for that would determine the future prosperity of the Lei family and its descendents." "Before filling the grave, rice was thrown on and over the coffin and incantations pronounced by the professor of feng-shui. The incantations included the fondest wishes of the family - may the descendents increase and multiply, become rich, have many sons, be happy, and become officialS. The ri ce that is thrown is called 6u.-twlg-mi4&llt;¥'pecause throwing it is supposed to be a means of ca lling the mountain dragon to come to the coffin and the grave so that the feng -shui will be good and all will prosper." "Three days after the burial the descend ents of the deceased and a Taoist priest go back to the grave. They burn a deed as a ceremony of pur chasing the burial place and (as a) report to the rulers of Hades." We see then that the geomancer cou l d recite incantations to a being much as the mountain dragon. but that a priest was needed to report to Hades. The priest i s an intermediary between two worlds. The geomancer is not an intermediary.merely a guide, expert in the powers that affect thi s world . The offerings and actions which he supervised were executed in order to place t he living in a good relationship with those powers . The priest was needed to look after the affairs of the deceased in the other world. It is just because geomancy has to do with this world that it cannot really be called religious. Writers on Chinese geomancy describe as if it were a para~ox the function of geomancy for the I'>enefi t of th'! living in ritual situations that are supposed to be for the dead. It is not so much a paradox as the fact that three complexes of belief have converged at a single occasion and are linked by it. Death in China l inks ideas about ulti mate influences on life and the real world, ideas about the mean ing of the deceased for the

GEOMANCERS , PRIESTS, RITUAL ELDERS AND DIVINERS

179

living. the co ntinuity in time of ki nship links and hence the whole apparatus of ancest or worsh ip. and ideas about the nature of another, a spiri t, world. The Chi nese believed that every person has at least three souls (there were some who gave an equivalent spiri tual entity if not a soul to each part of the anatomY of a person). On death one of the three souls wou l d remain with the body in the grave.It was thi s sou l which benefitted fr om feng-shui. A second soul inhabited the ancestral tablet which was erected in the domestic shrine of the deceased ' s househo 1d. ' Oott i ng' the ances tra 1 tab 1et. a ceremony we 1comi ng and ensuring that the soul came to it,wa s done by a high-ranking officia l for the weal thier families of Hong Kong according to Peplow ( 19~I. p. 1100) or by a 6eng-~hui h4.ien-~heng for the poorer families . It was not done by a priest . Worship at the domesti c shr ine was conducted by the head of the household. The third soul went to the other world , for trial in the courts of purgatori, and, for th i s soul only a priest was needed. The fact that the entire kin group congregated at the funeral described by Graham,at which the chief mourner was Mthe most powerful permanent resident of the city" and head of t he largest local lineage, is a function of ideas associa ted w1th ancestor worship. Not only is its focus on the living but it also limits those who can benefit from the feng -shui of the grave to the agnatic descendents of the deceased - i.e. to those present in and represented by the congregati on. It has often been sa i d that the other world for the Chinese is merely a mirror of this world . Ch inese religion as a whole is not the subject of this book and I am not going to discuss at all ex~austively the truth of this statement. I wil l j ust say that it has some validity, as we will see , but that it is certainly not a simple mirror image; that onl y se l ected aspec t s of the real world have their equivalents i n the other world; that for in stance on ly certain of t \)emerarchical features of Chinese politi ca l structure find their pla ce in the organi zati on of spirits; and la stly and mos t crucially that there are a number of stage s het~een the real world and the purely other world which makes it difficult to know exactly where on the continuum of transforma ti on we can expect to begin to focus on a true mirror image . This will be demonstrated in the next section . Here, t he deed burnt by the priest at the funeral wi tnessed by Graham serves us well as an example of this other-worl d ambiguity and brings attention t o the las t kind of 1. For an early observation of the belie f i n t hr ee sou l s see Yates ( 1868) and fo r a Chinese accoun t of the courts o f hel I see shih tien Yen chun (The Te n Courts o f Hel I ) pa r t l y t ra nsla t ed In Wieger' s Mo4dl Tenet4 and CU4tO~ 06 China . The thi r d court amongst ot her ~ ff ences punishes ' those who , investigating fengs hui , have been t he cause of people not ~kin9 f unerals i n due time '.

180

CHINESE

operator which

GEO~ANCY

want to consider - the horoscope diviner.

First, the diviner: - The deed announces that the burier has fulfilled his filial duties in all respects, it then gives the year, month, day and hour of the deceased's birth and death.The hour,day . month and year of the deceased's birth and death are also entered on his tablet in the domestic shrine. Dates are written in pairs of sexagenary characters and altogether for one date make up eight characters, pa. tzu /'" .Pa. tzu is the cOllmon name for a system ofdivi nation to which we referred when describing the rings of sexagenary characters on the compass (pp. 70 -71). The eight . characters of t he birth date of the deceased determine at which points of the compass it is auspicious to site a grave. They have to be in harmo~ wi t h the sexagenary characters on the compass itself. Quite independently of the compass , the date of birth of the deceased and in particular the branch character fO r his birth -year (or birth -day according to the school of divination used) determines the day on which burial should take place. The branch , characterised by its associated animal, shou ld be in harmony with the branch c~ar ­ acter of month and day.There are a great variety of ways in which the harmony is measured.As an instance of one of the simplest I give below one reported by Dore, but would refer to Chao ~e i- pang (1946) for a de tailed description of The Ckine4e Scien~e 06 Fate-Calculdtion as he cal l s it, in wh i ch he outlines a great many ways in which the characters of the birth -date combine with each other. let alone harmonise or conflict with those of another date. Oore (1914. Vol. I p. 35) gives a table of what he calls the "Cyclic Animals at variance with one another" :

!f

Horse

Such lists are

is enemy of

Sheep

Rat

Cock

Oog

Tiger

Serpent

Harc

Dragon

Hog (pig) ............

Monkey

give~

in almanacs ,and almanacs are the stock in trade of 6eng - ~hui h4ien-~heng . It is they in all cases who in fact choose the day of the burial. They may for that matter also be called in to decide the date and hour of a wedding ceremony , the moment of entry of the sedan chair bearing the bri de into the groom's house. and the direction in which the bride is to face when first entering and sitting in her room (Hs U, 1949. p. 93) . It is not in fact clear whether the person who decides time and tlirection at the wedding acts as a 6el1g -~ lttu

GEOMANCERS , PRIESTS, RITUAL [If)(RS AN O DIV INfRS

181

or a pa tzu diviner. Quite poss i bly either will do. In any case the pOint I am making is that the ~en,9-~hui hAien-6hert,9 at least at the funeral i5 dOing the work of a pa tzu diviner , choosing a future date on the basis of the deceased ' s pa ~zu.We saw when examining the compass that a number of methods of divination dovetail ~Iith feng-shuLPlainly the functions of pa ~zu diviner and geo mancer overlap and we will have to be careful not to be too radical when we come to distinguish between them. hAien-~heng

.....

To return to the deed, it asserts t~at a lu ckY time and place have been divined for the burial and that the ground has been paid for . It declares that the animals of the quarters are in correct relationship to the site,as are astrologi cal bodies , the eight trigrams and 'the earth department ' . Graham's translation does not make it clear' whether the deed is addressed to the rulers of hell or to the soul of the deceased. Perha ps thi s is a true reflection of the original. It is quite probable that both should be addressed since it i s a deed ca rried by the soul to the rulers. "Afterwards" , it ends, "this will be a bur ia l ground forever ,so t hat the nine palaces (of heaven) will give (sponsor the) birth of honoured sons. Then the eight trigrams will protect your children. The buried corpse cannot be expelled. No one can invade the old tomb. If there are spooks or demons or a property owner who comes to occupy this grave ,let the dead person who receives the ground (of burial ) . with thi s deed report to the goddess of heaven and let him {the usurper} be examined and punished according to the law." Usurper s of land already in use and diagnosed as good in feng -shul are reported by De Groot as being a menace around Amoy. They were cal l ed 'mo untain cockroaches' and would resell parts of the much-to-be-desired land thus causing conflict between the deceived buYers and those whose feng -shui had been encroached upon and distur bed by the new grave. Among spooks and demolls. according to the deed,are equivalent mountain cockroaches, and the deed appears to be a precaution against usurpers in both worlds. The deed is 'issued' by what it cal ls the 'yin-yang department'.We have seen that it also refers to the 'ea rth department'. It is not clear whether the 'department' referred to i s of the livi ng world or of hell or whether the same 'depa r tment ' affects both worlds. The last possibility, a compromise , may be nearest to what the Chinese helieve to be true . The ambiguity of this pOSition is probably true also of much belief in geomancy . Both t he nine palaces of heaven, which are not part of the essential feng-shui scheme ,and the eight t r igrams. which are, affect the we l l-being of the deceased's sons in t he living world. The palaces are unequivocally part of the other world. Does that mean that the eight trigrams are also other-world ly? The answer in this test case for the rel i giousness of feng-shui must rest on the

182

CHINESE

GE~CY

answer to another quest i on.Oo the eight tr;grams affect the fortunes of the other world as do undoubtedly t he inhabitants of the nine palaces and the goddess of heaven? r have not the material with which to answer this last quest i on but si nce such material would probably be a story in which someone in the other world ~ affected by the eight trigrams. it s absence would seem to answer the question tentatively in t he negative . The eight trigrams and the powers of feng-shui, then, much as does the dragon . lie across the bou ndary between the two worlds, t hey are both natural and numinous but they di rect their energ ies onto the world of t he living and not onto the souls. demons and deities of the other world .

•

•

•

We have contrasted the geomantic operator with the operators of ideologies contingent to hi s.It is ti me now to cons ider the cont ingent i deo l ogies sepa rately and their rel ati onsh ip to feng-shu; in more detail.

Feng·shui and the other world

Before gOi ng any further it should be made clear that when I have refe rred and wi ll refer to the world of ' sp irits' I do not necessarily mean the worl d inhabited on ly by what the Ch i nese call ~hen ~ ,usually t rans l ated as

FENG-SHUI ANO THE OTHER WORlD

183

' spirit'. What I mean t o imply by the 'world of sp irits ' or the 'sp irit ual world' or t he 'other world ' i s a world believed by many Chinese to exist separately fr om the world ' which we experi ence with our phys i cal senses.This separate world is in habited by beings who do indeed affect the physica l, or liv ing world as I have called it, but t hey have essentially no phys ica l presence although they can inha bi t one when enteri ng the living world. The Chi nese h ~ve several names fo r t hese beings . Some of them are specific . some are interchangea ble . To mention a few of the most corrrnon: po a~ and hun ~ are the names fo r the two main and mos t widel y recognized soul s. Po on death remai n near the body , and hun go to purgatory and then possib ly to paradise. Ti or chiin ~ or fwng "lA ' - and a large number of other suffixes - are ' deities'. ShOt are sp irit s . Kue.i.t are demons. The terms 4hen and kue.i are very broadl y used. On the one hand 4hen are the dragon or good influences in nature and kue.i the 4ha or other bad natural in fluences. On the oth~ hand entfre ly ot her-worldl y beings such as the spirit of the house . are called 4hbt and the t or t urers in the courts of hell. kue.i. I shall attempt to sort out some of the gradations of th is ambiguous stage of transi ti on between the two worlds.

t

#

A good documentary source of popu l ar Chinese religious bel iefs are,as I have said the /M.·duutg I~ ~ . C. B. Day made a large col lecti on of them from Hangchow and a broad surrounding area of central coast al China. Hi s book on them (1940) i s reall y a descript i ve ca ta logue with introduction and not an anal ysi s of the deities and ot her bei ngs commemorated on the ma-chang. In the appendixe s l i sti ng them they are cl assified as follows. The amount of bei ngs for each class are gi ven in bra ckets . Earth spirits

costne

(~6)

Atmospher ic forces ( 15) Sky powers (54)

Househo ld gods (9) Genii of family events (29) Deified human protectors (37)

TUTELARY AND PATRON Patrons of agricu l ture in general (13) of ser iculture (13) of rural trade (12) of professions - such as druggists (7) of wealth in general (20)

184

CHINESE GEOMANCV

Gods that cause di sease and must be placated (2 4) Spirits of l ocal object s and places (22)

Generall y maleficient spi rit s (28) Genera lly benefici ent spiri t s (12)

Rulers of the underworld over-l ords (4)

ki ngs of t he ten Court s (10) offi cer s of the six adminis trat ive departments (6)

O1lIER-WORLDLY

a ssis t an t administrative offi cer s

( 2~ )

imps of torture ( 15 ) Gods :

Confucius

Taois t figures ( 11 some of which are gr oups of 3 , Sor 8)

Buddhists figures (18 some of which are groups of 4 , 18 , 24)

Triads and Pantheons (6)

I have grouped Day 's classes into more general categori es \~ hich need some explanation. To begin with it should be understood that. of course , all ef

t hese bei ngs are t he concern of and are believed to have an effect on t he living wo r ld . r have listed them in an order of concern and invo lvement wi th the living world so t ha t, if r may put it diagralTll1atically , if thi s line is the part of the OTHER WORLD furthest from th is world

and this line is the BORDER between the ot her and COS"'IC TUTELARY PATRON

OTHER WORLD RULE RS OTHER W ORLD GOOS

THIS WORLD

FENG·SHUi AND THE OTHER WORLD

185

Those furthest away are the mos t generalized and work on the living world through the ~st mediators . except at times that justify extreme interventi on. Cosmic beings at the other end of the scale almost overlap into thi s world. As objects of ~Iorship they are personifications of natural forces and categories . such as sky and earth . T'ien Ti. The fi r st t wo groups of tutelary de'i ti es on the li st are the most confined of the purely spiritual entities. Their effect is limited and of a low order , but they stand in a very intimate relationship to the living wor ld. For instance , T.!Iao .!Ihel1 Jl. ;jf.the god of the kitchen-stove. has a shrine in almosteveryl'Duse , and every major household event is reported to him. On New Year he himself reports to the ruler of t he other ~/Orld , the Taoist Jade Emperor usually ,the state of the household for moral j udgment. Deified human protectors are somewha t anomalous . The di fferences be tween their pO~lers are great. At one end of t he scale is Kuan U iU1 or Kuan kwtg Ilfj "'"t.,' ,God of War and of Wu in general (see p. 152 for the meaning of Wu), a famous general of the Three Kingdoms Period , who ranked in the Ch'ing state pant heon with Confuc iu s and the other major gods. At the other end of the scale are local military heroes to whom a temple is erected in the district of their activities in life and who are not ~Iorshipped fu r ther afield. In the middle are heroes such as Lu Pan . who invented irrigation pumps and had become a patron deity of farmers around Hangchow.

f

Recognition of the power of dei fied humans and their promotion in the ranks of worship are consciously manipulated by living human beings perhaps more than any other category of other-~/Orldly beings. Frequently in the Peking Gazette memorialists petition t he emperor and his administrators for the erection of a temple to someone remembered for good deeds and in whose name prayers have been answered. In fact promo t ion and abandonment of all tutelary and patron deities is very much in temporal human hands. They have no mo ral standing but are wha t C.. K. Yang (1957, p. 2eO) calls 'functional' deities , 'the product rather than the cause of established values and ideals'.It may be pointed out here that in general ~re is no organised congregation of the r'aithful in terms of religion , such as Taoism or Buddhism ,or in terms of single temples or single deities. The choice of vlhich deities have shrines or should be inc luded in a temple and the decision of worshippers to attend t hem are eclectic . As Ya ng (p. 2B2) says:

186

CHINESE GEOMANCY

"The re lat ionship between worshipper and priest or t empl e is an 'overthe-counter' dea l, and the \<"orshipper feels free to shop in the religious market according t o his taste and convicti ons ."

Unless it is by a decision to worship a certain god for the rest of one 's l ife in gratitude for a particularly beneficial intervention ,no tutelary or patron , or cosmic deity for that matter . ;s worsh i pped in principle.

The relationship between wor shippers and such deities is me~cena ry . The worshipper is buying .;n the ritual currency of incense aroma , delicious tastes of offerings, and respects, good fortune in general or in particular aspects of his l ife whiCh he believes by repute the deity can influence. At thelTDstgeneral leve l of fortune is the l araest category of patron deities , the gods of wealth , .u, ' a,i. J hen ~t ~i'. and the three stars of fortune which stand for the three most generally des i red fortunes among the Chinese : ~u. 4i ,happiness , tu .f!t , a good salary and official position , and Jhou .lf , long life. Almost as numerous as wealth gods are those that ensu re easy birth and the birth of sons , hope for which should be included with the basic good fortunes sought after by the Chinese. They come under Day's category 'genii of family events' . In addition , at thi s grade are gods of disease who must be placated for fertility and the happy outcome of birth . Ue now come to the unnamed group of beings on the list; a group t ha t r have not placed on the diagram for reasons that I hope to make apparent below. The beings in this group could come between the cosmi c and tutelary ca tegories in that t hey directly affect the living world in specific ways and at specific points in time. But they are not spiritualisations of natural categories or forces so much as supernatu ral beings that can cause events in nature spatially both unconfined in their occurrence , as in t~e case of the gods of disease and of beneficien t and maleficient spirits and confined , like the spirits of local ob jects and places. They are thus extra - natural entities who have been neither hu ma ns as ha ve the hero protectors nor specifically connected ~!ith any particular huma n activity. And they differ in another way from the t utel ary and patron catego ries. The alternatives expected of tu t elary and patron deities is maintenance of a status quo considered to be profitable ,or return to this status quo, ~Ihile this unnamed category of beings cause good fortune or misfortune not to be expected in the corrrnon nature of t hings. The spiri ts of local objects and places are, I should explain ,beings who are believed to inhabit any spot where accidents might occur. Thus there are spi -

FENG- SHUI AND THE OTHER HORlD

1B7

rits of bridges or , in an instance given by Day, 6hih-chieh 6hang-6 zu , demons of stone-corners on which one may bark one's shins and in or ~ with whos e name one can then curse.

ilb

The 'maleficent and beneficent spirits' are sometimes servants of t he underworld's mi ni stries of exorci sm. These ministries , the courts and departments , their rulers, officers and servants constitute a world that no longer has direct connections with the living world, something like a mirror image of China's civil admin istration from emperor dO~1n to magistrate. The servants of the departments at t he centre of admi ni stration may be bribed by the souls of the departed with the es sence of paper 'spirit ' money burnt for them by their living descendants . just as t heir mortal equivalents can be bribed wi th real money . Out even at this part of the other worl d, the part least involved with t he natural living wor1d , its structure is by no means a complete equivalent of Chines e social structure.Certainly its political system is hierarchical. Its dei ties may be taken as other-wor ld ly equivalents of the offic ia ls of the civil administrati on. They govern soul s which are spiritual essences of past members of the Chi nese popu l ace. But thei r admini stration i s above all else a system for ~~ ­ gement and pu ni s~ment . The other world is a most elaborate equivalent of legal administration, and administration that is also used for the maintenance of order but in whi ch ot her aspects of civil administrati on such as tax-collection do not exist. Paradise is the top half of this extreme other world , ruled by the same ultimate deities as rule purgatory. It is the place of ultima te reward for sou l s who have acquired sufficient merit in life and have worked off all misdemeanours after death (and,if Buddhist , in rebirth ). It is a part of the other world structured far less clearly than is purgatory. Outsi de Buddhist scriptures such as the Amithaba 6utAd , there are comparatively far fewer accounts of life in paradise than of life in purgatory or stories of the adventures of deities in the liv ing world. One of the few well known descriptions is in t he novel H6i yu chi , and the stories which come fre,n i t of ~lo nkey . Monkey , or the Monkey king' s other - and this - worldl y achievements were known to the average Chfnese ,with whom t hey were very popular , t hrough theatrical performances given at the regular festivals of local deities and sponsored corporatel y through vill age temples. In fact these stories tell little about the life of their rulers the deities. The defties do certainly live in a structure that mirrors the structure of the imperi al court of China , pa laces, gardens and all,but 1t is not found necessary to give any details of the 6oul 's li fe in paradis e.

188

CH INES E GEOI·WlCY

In qui te another way the structure of living society is imposed on the beings of the other world . In China every town has its deity , the Ch'eng -huang yeh n~ II~ ~ ~ At' • god of walls and moat (ch'e~g in fact means both wall and town) . I'.;> And the ch 'eng huang of one town is less important than the ch'eng hurutg of a town that ;s the capital of an administrative area, that includes the lesser town. Be -

low towns are villages. all of which have their local earth deities, T'u-Ci kung .:l;e. /A" . And below these are the household gods. Thus each of the soci al units 1n a pyramid from house to capital city has its ritual focus. The deities concerned may be responsible to the Jade Emperor and the ruling deities of the other world but they are not part of a separate structure of that world. such as I have tried to suggest is the case with the rulers of hell and paradise . They are, on the contrary,deities appointed to positions which are extensions of the living social order. I have gone to some trou ble to erect a model by which Ch inese religious beli efs can be seen as a relationship between a world consi sting of living Chines e ~nd their physical and social environment and another world which they believed to exist beyond it. It is not a model I have seen used by the Ch inese themselves. I have constructed my model of t wo worlds because showing where feng-shui fits in i t as I sha ll now do should tell us a great deal about what kind of powers fengshui symbols express for the Ch inese.

I do not mean to give the impression that Chinese ideas about the other world are for~d in the abstract and even at their most remotel y imaginative have no connection wi t h physical reality. The who le progression from Jade Emperor to cosmic for ces and dragons is stamped on the physical world itself. A deep cavern could become sacrosanct as an entrance to purgatory.Mountains like T' ai-shan were believed to be the abode of the highest deities of t he other world and pilgrimages to them were organised at village level, as reported by Smith (1899 . pp . 141142 ) . To go seeing sights i n nature, usually dramatic mountain formations, was a habit cul tivated by t hose with enough leisure t o indulge in it . Local mountains became famous. Freak i sh wea ther and miracles were attributed t o them or to beings dwelling in or on them. Often t hese beings were dragons. Taois t and Buddhist temples and monasteries when not in towns and vil lage s woul d be high in the moun tains and forests. Pagodas ~!ere erected at strategic places t o help concent rate the already powerful influen ces of the mountai n or the sight from it .And t heir erection was t he bu siness of expert s in feng- shui, because the influence of mountains and the 1'.~le of natural magnificence became kno~tn and systemati sed as feng-shu;. This progression is of course hypothetical in the absence of suffi ci ent data on the

FENG-SHUI AND THE OTHER WORLD

l B9

way feng-shui and Nature are conceptualised. I offer it as a possible way in which feng -shui may have been linked with entirely spiritual concepts which in turn would confer upon feng -shui a numinousness. Chinese literature has stories, like the English Erewhon and King Sclcmcn ' o Min~,of forgotten societies, utopias come upon by accident behind a waterfal l or in the intricacies of a mountain range. and never found again. Frequently these secret inaccessible places were glimpses into the Taoist paradise , the land of the immOrtals. who were also t hought to dwell on mirage i slands or on the tops of high mountains.Two very different kinds of association, however, converge here and we should be careful not to confuse them. On the one hand mountains are the link with the invisible beings of another world . On the other hand mountains are either themselves 0':,. the crusts of concentrations of great natural forces. The difference is that while the dragon is a conceptualization of the great natura l force and of the mountain formation itself, a deity like Ti -toang Il.hng J~ ti.~, saviour of souls from hell, may occasion~lly inhabit the mountain sacred to him, Chi.u Hua. ("Ni ne Flower" }mountain,but he is not equated with it or confined to it. A characteristic difference bet ween the conceptualization of a world of Nature and a world of religion, as was pointed out by l~vi - S trauss in La Pen6~e Sauvc1ge and in Tc.tenK.6m, is that the latter is always hierarchically structured, while the former is, as it were, on a horizontal plane. Religion is an epitome of socia l processes while Nature is a concept of processes. Psychologically speaking religi on is within and dependent upon society, whereas society itself is dependent upon Nature and Nature is external to it. The symbols which have been described as those basic to feng -shui manuals are no~ set in a structure that bears resembla nce to a social structure, except for the Right and left Assistants among the Nine Star s. A structure of great all-inclusive forces like the Yin-Yang cycle and the interaction of the Five Elements which have within them more l imited processes in minor cycles cannot be called hierarchical in any sense. It is a structure of interactions, all of which are examples of the great basic processes seen either in a li mi ted time and space or generalized in scope,and the basic processes themselves interact on equal terms.We draw the conclusion, then, that feng -shui 1s typically part of a conceptualization of Nature. It is quite distinct from a religious conceptualization, and this conclusion is supported by our previous observations that the powers of feng-shui are directed exc l usively into the living world. Having drawn this concluSion, however , we must now recognise that in

190

CHINESE GEOMANCY

Chi nese thought there i s an area in which t hese two distinguishable types of con ceptualization overlap. A ready example of it i s astrology . Of all the thing s in Na ture the stars are the most remote and unsensed.Thought about th em suffers from emp iri cal i nterference and rectification less than speculation about other aspects of the physical environment and they are thus most easily internalized.Wen Ch 'ang ~ ~

• God of literature, who 1s patron of examinees . the literat;. and tho se who can hope t o join them. is 1n Cheki ang a fusion of a deified human. Chang Yatzu known as a brilliant writer. and one of the stars of the Dipper. The stars of the Dipper in l'an9 times were each associated with one or other functionaries of government. Th is i s a perfect example of a religious being , structured as we have l ear nt to expect upon human society but incorporating also a natural body. So in the other direction,in feng-shui,two stars of the Dipper as government functionaries, the left and Right Assistants, are found in a structure which includes the other stars of the Dipper as cosmic forces appropriate to a conception of a Natural being. Ano ther characteri stic difference between t he worlds of Religion and of Nature is that the beings of the former are anthropomorphi c while for the latter, in the cases of processes which are thought of as beings, they are most typically zoomorphi c. Furthermore, religious beings are worshipped, natural ones not. Nevertheless we have in the area of overlap ma-ehang which portray the dragon, a lOOmorph, as an unambiguous mandarin . Such portrayals of dragons are most frequently of so-ca lled dragon-kings, beings who are classed in the list of deities from Day as Spirits of local Objects and Pla ces , and are worShipped. They are spirits of rivers, seas or poo ls in which men and women might fall and drown, drawn to the wa ter-bed where the dragon-king holds court . We find in addition that among the ma-chang of the cosmic deities, and especially those in the class called by Day ' atmospheric forces', here are many personifications and much worship not only of T'ien-ti , Nature itself. but al so of a great many feng-shui categories . T~us there is a ma-chang for the 28 h&iu asterisms and 108 other Stars and another celebrates the six household gods.Li.u Shen -::-;:;if. gods of the six direct i ons , N SEW . Up and Down. Thus feng-shu i verges on the religious. A critical characteristi c of the central and most refined structure of the relig i ous world , which I have called the Other World , i s that i t incorporates moral judgmen t. The Jade Emperor and the ruler s of hell are judges and the soul s are treated according t o t~e merit they achieved in life. The question of morality in feng-shui is closely bound up wit~ the definition of the concept T'ien . As was described in Part 2,a third or half of the cOlTlpass cosmology belongs to T'ien..

FENG-SHUI AND THE OTHER WORLD

191

But it is an enormously ambiguous l'lord (see p.36). As an amoral , natural and non religious entity T'ien was fused with ethics and an anthropomorphic , fatalistic concept of Heaven by the Confucian philosophers from the Han to the Sung dynas ties, philosophers who \'/er e responsihle for constructing on the bas i s of the VinVang School and the School of Naturalists the very cosmology wi t hin which fengshu i operates. C.K. Vang (in Fairbank. 1957) illustrates this fusion well by not making the distinction himself between a natural category and an ethical and an thropomorphic concept. He begins (on page 269) by descr i bing how the early Confucians took into their sys t em concepts of Heaven (T'ienJ ,divination and the t heory of Vin-Vang and the Five Elements , 'a logical system of thought by themselves', which ' begins with Heaven as the personified supreme governing force of the universe - hence the helief in Heaven as the predeterminor of human fate and the conception of predetermination of fata l ism. Divination and the theory of Yin-Yang and the Five El ements', Vang continues , ' arc both devices for peeping into the secret course predestined ftrr the human worl d, so as to he lp man attain well-being and avoid calamity. Closely bound up with this effort to glean information fr om the secrets of heaven and fate are the interpretation of portents from extraor dinary phenomena of nature,the concept of fengshui and the degeneration of these efforts into other fo rms of magic and animism.' This personified concept of T'ien , bound up with the notion of fate (1IK.1tg 4p-) ,wa s already to be found in Confucius' Am:te.ec.U and in Meltu'.u6 . Thus the t\~O sys tems were easily integrated.After the Han dynasty, Yang says (p. 276) , the Yin- Yang and Five Elements theories ' centered on the supernatural theme ofjnteraction between Heaven and ~'an It ' ielt- jelt hb.w.ng J:.... A;ffJ )'. Late r in the article he classifies feng - shui as a 'specialised religion'. NO~I it may be true that some types of divination are based upon a concept of T'ielt as arbiter of miltg (fate). But , while feng - shu; can be used to predict the future, I cannot remember having read the word miltg in any of its manuals. Luck or bad luck ~/ere the concepts used and they are not religious concep t s or in any way associated as is IIK.l1g with T'ielt as a moral arhiter.l ~/Ould go so far as to doubt whether in fact the pre-Han dynasty theories of Yin - Yang and Five Elements themselves incorporated a concept of T'ielt as arbiter of mil1g ,before being incorpora ted with an ant hropomorp hic T'ielt by the Han Confucians. These theories,like fengshui which was to use them, were of course 'devices for peeping into the secret course' of events in order to 'attain well-being and avoid calamity' , but the course of events was con ta ined in the theories themselves . It was the course of the cosmic currents , a natural i st theory, not the course of fate predetermined by a Judge. a re ligious theory . ."nd ~Ihile the religious t heory may have been expressed as 'interaction between Heaven and Man (t 'ien- jen Ju..umg) ' , in feng - shui the natural1st theory is expressed as intera cti on betl~een Heaven . "1an and Earth, a

192

CHINESE GEOMANCV

cosmological tripartite division. Feng -shu; is also called Ti-ti . Law of the Earth . while at its most theoretical level on the compass T'i.en

]en

~e ~ave

and

n

seen that

are maintained

as equals on the same plane. the more applied the theory becomes the more it i s concerned with earth; heaven only 1n so far as it i s manifested 1n ea rth; man not at all because the theory is itself a way in which man may manipulate earth. TiLi . then. covers the whole of feng-shu; theory and may be , indeed 1s, contrasted with T'ien -li . Law of Heaven. De Groat ( la97 , pp. 1013- 1014) reports that geoma n-

cers around Amoy explained failures in their predictions and answered doubts about their efficacity by saying that. while they cou ld t horough ly fathom Ti-ti , their influences were in every respect dominated by T'ien -li. The author of Han Lung eking adds to his commentary on the Star: "With all the advantages derivable from Covetous Wolf, without pureness and honour no person , even if he acquired rank, would attain the highe st rank s ." This is the T'ien of Confucian ethics. One of the basic princip les for efficaceous geomancy ,q uotes De Groot,is that without virtue {te {~ J the most propitious ground is doomed to impotence and inactivity because of the refusal of T' ien-li to cooperate. A site diagnosed as good by a geomancer, may not benefit its owner because T'ien has caused a stream on the site to change course, or some rocks to fall .The slightest displacement can ruin i ts feng-shui. In other words a 6eng-6 hui h&ien-6heng can explain the unchanging fortune of a client to whom he had promised hope on the basis of a good site , by going to it and finding some slight change of its character (which is always possible) and attributing it to T'ien-li and hence to some mi scond uct on the client's part (never deniable). But this only goes to emphasize the separation of feng-shu; from T'ien and morality . As C. k. Yang himse lf writes of feng-shu1 and re lated beliefs, they 'do not impose broad soc ial doctrines or rules of conduct that possess general vali dity in social life.Rather,they represent procedures for the utilitarian control of natural or human forces.' Of special interest here is that Yang includes in this observation thE worship of gods such as Kuan Ti and t«a.ng Miang (Goddess of Fertility) which in Oay's categorisation are, respectively. a deified human protector and a genius of family events. And Yang would also include what we have ca lled cosmic deities. as animistic cult objects.

JtJt

These gods, the Cosm ic and Tutelary and Patron deities, are, according to Oay also (p . 117) :

193

FENG-SHUI AND THE OTHER WORLD

"Almost entirely related to the satisfactions of earthly needs and comfort s , the attainment of the completely good life in this world", as contrasted with the welfare of souls in the otoer world. Manuals of feng -shui do not impose rules of conduct beyond the current placing of buildings and graves. To gain the end desired of a cosmic or tutelary deity no rule s of conduct are specifiel'l either , beyond those of the correct ritual of the worship itself. Judgement and me rit, consideration of conduct unconfined to specific occ~s i ons come into play onl y with what we have called Other-world ly deities, the deities that rule purgatory and parad i se. It is therefore the least ambiguously other-worldl y part of the other world that we have on all counts to distingu i sh from feng -shui. It is also this least ambiguous part of the other world, the most hierarchical and the most near ly equiva l en t of the socia l structure, that we had rigorously t o distinguish from a natural wor ld . To refine the model of two worlds then, we can designate fengshui as This -wor l dly,but we have to divide This World into Nature and Society and put feng-shui into Nature, thus OTHER

THIS

Feng shui NA11lRF. SOCIETY

• We have already had examples of how natural and feng -shui categories are personified and become deities in the overlap . Even Vin-Vang can be personi fied to the extent that an incantation can be addressed to i t. And it must be stressed that the conceptual dist i nctions I have made may well be blurred for the Ch inese who are feng -shui believers at the same time as being worshippers of dei ties, who daily use the ambiguous word T'ien and refer to the ambivalen t dragon which ,as spring and fertility,is most easily transformed into a deity, Lung-wnng , dragon - ki ng the god of rain . Willem Grottaers (1945) published a survey of village temples in southeas t T~-t ' ung.north Shans i prOVince, in which he noted (p. 188) that almost every village had a temp l e to this Lung wnng and that they were always the biggest temples to be found. The Chinese villager by no means confines his anxiety about the weather , or for that matter all the other things that

ilt.!.

194

CH IN ESE GEOl-'AN CY

determine t he course of his life but are out of his cont rol, to feng - shui.Wor sh i p at temples,to tut el ary, cosm ic and local de i ties i s towards the same ends as consultation of a geomancer. They are alternat i ve mea ns.

We saw how clea rl y dis ti nguished were the fu nc tions of priest and geomancer at the funera l repor ted by Graham, the former being brought i n t o look aft er the dead so ul wh en the latter had looked after the f ortune s of the living descendents. Bu t here . wh ere relig ion and geomancy overlap, it is possible that t heir functions also overlap. Properl y t he priest should be concerned with a'1 matters of ritua l t ha t involve supernatural beings and spiritua l life . Yet Oor~ (Appendix to Vol . I, 1914) reproduces Buddhistic charms meant to ward off minor creatures f rom purga tory in t he N, 5, E, W, of living homes , and because they are Buddhist it would seem possible that a priest be emp loyed to establish them. And in the fen g-shui manual Ya~g Chai , the whole of the last section is taken up with th e charms and spel ls appropriate t O,for instance, houses sited t oo near monasteries or temp les, or houses whose inhabitant ' s chi ldren have had no success at schoo l.They are explicitly fo r occasions when the normal 'strengt h', as Ya~g chai calls it ,of a situation is not suffic i en t to ward off ' sic knes s , in j ury and cala mity' becau se of demons or becaus e t here is a ' bad omen' in the hou se or because of 'harmful earth spirits'. In such cases 'only a charm can guarantee peace' . Cha rms are accompa nied by specifications of poti ons t o be prepared. the kinds of wood on whi ch they should be wr itten, the si ze of the slab and the type of writing ink . They invoke supernatural being s such as the Thunder god and even the Jade Emperor.A very common charm to be seen throughout Ch ina is the octagonal Eight Trig ra m diagram sometimes with the Yin-Yang sign in the middle, at other times with a mirror there instead to ~Jard off evil ,spirits. Henry (1885, p. 138) reports that : "At the sides of many hOllses may be seen small pillars of wood,stone or plaster with t he words ' T ' ai-~ha~ dares to resist ' meaning that t he good influences of T'ai - ~han,one of the most c elebrated s acred mountains of China, are evoked against e vil spirits."

He ment ions that images of Kuan ti serve a similar purpose. Boards with images of tigers,just as an image of Kuan ti, god of war, are also said to &i ghten off demons. Henry equates the evil spirits and demons with 'secret arrows', and of course all these precau ti ons merge with the ordinary fen g-shut precautions which we have already discussed and which are referred to by Edkins (1872 , p. 294) when he says that ; "Every house entrance in Peking has its devices for preventing straight

FENG- SHUI AND THE OTHER WORLD

195

access . The path mus t wind and many methods are emp l oyed to save the house from unwel come int rus ion .. . fo r ins tance a y.{.ng-pu or shield wall is er ec t ed be fore a house door . .. the idea of a winding ent rance to a house ar ises fr om the desire t o keep men at a di st ance as well as demons and t o make a l imi t between what is public and "'ha t is pri vat e." So we have the whol e gamut of precautions t aken at one end on a supernatural and at t he other on an en tirel y natural level.And it is parti cul arl y this area of feng- sh ui in which the manuals ment ion ~ha (nox ; ous breaths) and ~uu (demons ) , ch '.i. (life- breaths) and ~hett (spirits) almost interchangeably , and consequently in which the pr i est's and the geoma nc er' s functi ons might easi ly overlap. In the Yal1g CIULi., however, there is a strong se nse that charms are used only when natural controls are surpassed or dis ru pt ed and ar e no lon~e r effective. "'fter a charM inv okina 'twelve annual spi rit s of the earth depart ment to kill (evil spiri ts)tha t pester the home ' it specif ies that ' all charms are t o be written on peach board of one foot and two inches , in red,by a Taoist priest and sacrifice for l uc k is to be made at t he place of in jury '. So it would Seem that , whil e the charms are 1i sted in a feng-shut manua 1, and some ~eng -Mtu,i. hJ.i.elt-~h e l1g might be considered capabl e of admini steri ng t hem . the norm i s for priests t o be ca ll ed wh ere other-worl dly and un- or super-natura l eventualities ar e involved. Day (1940, p. 90) quotes an instance tha t wou l d. i f I am ri gh t. be typi cal . It wa s reported t o him from a village cal led Pai -Kuan that . in the ca se of serious illness . the fami ly calls in the blind fortune - teller to decide by means of his geomant1C compass(to-p'an , he 1S presuma bly a geomancer as we l l as a div iner then ) which of the household gods of the s ix directions (see p. 192 above) needs to be quieted. Then the litc-~hi.h ,Tao i st pr iest.is ca lled in to do the qu ieting ritual. Chinese geoma ncy is not relig ion and 'its practitioners are not religious functionaries. When , as is reported . they consider themselves as natural scientists and literati and scorn reli 9ion and priests they confirm our plotting of f eng-shu; cr udely in Thi4 Wo~ and in NdtuAe . As De Groot reported. geomancers are respected by their cl i ents as members of the literate elite and are borne to the site in sedan chairs. The power of their instructions and of the ir subject must re st ultimately on a genuine belief that Yin - Yang and the other processes of feng-shui are behind all natural and cosm i c events and that human l i ves as well as mountains and trees are subject to them. But it may also be that some of the pOWer of feng-shui categories in the minds of t hose that have not read the manuals

i1t.-:l:-

i s based on their personifications as deities worshipped in temples and invoked in charms.

196

CHiN[SE GEOl'.ANCY

Feng-sh ui and ancestor wors hip

The group of beneficiari es from the feng-shu; of a grave are recruited on the principle of descent. Those that benefit f rom the feng-shu1 of a building are recruited on the princip l e of locality. Bu t in the case of a house thi s would in all likelihood coincide with a fir st descent group - a family or extended family. In the case of a vill age or a building or monument , suetl as a temple or pagoda. that

invo l ved

the

corporate

interest of all its inhabitants it might in

south China also coincide with a descent group - a local lineage . And th is wou l d certainly be true in t he case of the feng -shu; of an ancestral hall . In all these cases the principle of descent ;s unillneal and agnatic,the same as that by which al l kin groups in China are recru ited for the worship of ancestors. Thus, an en tfre lineage or its representatives might make offerings at the grave of its apical ancestor, and these are the same people that will benefi t f rom the feng-shui of that grave. There are benefits to be derived from proper ances tor worship , and those who receive t hem benef it also from feng -shuf by the same pri nciple of recruitment . The bl ess i ngs are , moreover, of the same general kind: financia l suc cess , scholarly success , and the birt h of sons to ensure the cont inuity of the group . These are the constant desire of Chinese in all circumstances . It is the

fEHG- SHUI AND ANCESTOR WORSHIP

197

means by whi ch the bless ings are ob t ained that we should therefore examine. The objects of ancestor worsh i p are beings in the other world.Ances t ral ri t ual i s divided into two kinds; that which takes place i n the domes ti c shri ne of the house hold and that wh ich takes place in ancestral hall.In t he dom est i c shrine are pl aced t fJetahletsofancestors up to a limited number of generations distant from those li vi ng 1n the househo ld .One of the three souls of the ancestor l ives in the tablet, another is at his grave , th e other is in purgatory. Worship , which takes place on the 1st and 15th of every month as well as at the death date of the an cest or and at the Ch'ing Mi ng and New Yea r festivals.is very close to life. Food , cooked and cu t uP. is supplied with chopsticks before the tablet. The so ul mus t be l ooked after much as was the ances t or when he or she was elder ly and chief of the nouseho ld .H i s soul is respected in much the same way as is seniority and wi sdom.But priests do not officiate at ancestor worsh i p, possibly because the ritua l leader,the head of the household, is already def ined by the very structure of the group and its object of worship. Ancestors may give advice and vague protection from calamity in this life. Should the soul be neglected he will become a 'hungry ghos t' and will wreak vengeance not only on those that neglected him but wil l join the ranks of demons t hat bedevil the lives of all and sundry. The soul or ghost does not act on a moral basis;he either does everything for the sake of his kin or is genera lly vindictive .."s a ge.nVtaUy vind ict i ve agency, ~e i s t he object of interventi on by priests. The tab le t s of ancestors beyond a limited number of generations are destroyed, and if the ancestor is deemed important enoug h and the household can afford the fee a new t abl et i s made and put into the ancestral hall of his lineage or sub-lineage . Worship here is of a far less intimate kind. The food offerings are coo ked but not cut up and no chopsticks are offered. In fact the indiv idual ancestors are not addressed. It is the ances t ors as a group who are worshipped. There is very little consideration of thei r state as souls. Their worsh i p is pro jected far l ess upon the other world t han upon the history of their se l ves when li ving, the honours wh i ch t hey gained and which are cher ished fo r the importance they give to the standing of the l iving lineage. Bl essings derived from this worship are not con tra sted with mi sfortune on its neglect, and they are mainly for the achievement of more honour. While t he so ul i s not a rewarder of good and puni sher of evil,jt does not , as I have said , ac t on a moral basis, respect for ances tor s is an extension of the respect for el ders and the entire principle of fi lia l duty central t o Confucian ethics and hence imperial Taw. The worship itself 1s thu s virtuous. It is a regularl y and often repeated act i on. In contra st , bur ial according to feng-shui is a unique acti on , superfi-

198

CHINESE GEOMANCY

cia 11y part of the worship and care of the ances t or, but in itself specificall y for the sa ke of his descendents . Accord; n91 y. the benefits to be derf ved from fengshu1 are much more expl i cit and unambiguously directed onto the living than ar e the blessings from properly worshipped ancestors. Being more explicit and tangible. they are also more acutely des ired and much subjec t to envy and selfishness.Feng shut benefi t s are not bound up with broad social doctrines and rules of conduct as 1s ancestor worship . They are uti l itar ian and their pursuit tends towards the atomisation of groups, whereas the ethically based worship of ance stors has the OPPOSite tendency. Sol idarity in worship ;s not hindered by the desire fo r bl es sings since in its case they are either other-worldly or generalized . Where choice exists in ancestor worship.that is to say in the selection of which ancestors are to be honoured in the ancestral hall. the criter ia are! di stance of more than a certain number of generations;the honours attained by t he ances t or in his life; the wealth and s tanding in lineage politics of the famil y entering him , their desire to link themselves to other units in the lineage via him and t hrough him to others more distant in the genealogy.The selection is based , therefore, on genealogical distance and on already achieved honour and wealth. The criteria for choice of ancestor in feng - shui are, on the contrary, closeness of ances t ry so that the benefits may be more intensely dis tributed , and aspirati on to honour and wealth in the future.Genealogical concentration of the past is socially binding in the present. Concentration on the future - of one's presen t self honoured and celebrated by a flour i shi ng progeny - is indfv iduat i ng in the present. Some of the consequences of this dichotomy will be discussed in the next Part.

•

•

•

FENG- SHUI AND CHI NESE DIV INA1 ION

199

Feng·shui and Chinese divination

We have noted how cl ose ly the Ei ght Character form of divination is integrated with feng -shut . The ubiquity of the branches, stems, elements and trigrams in all kinds of divination argues for our acceptance of feng-shui too as dilIination. The feng-shut. manua l s in the Imperial Encyclopedia are i n t he ..i. 6hu. (arts and divination ) sec ti on, po u.u ~ (naturalist) lIolume. Shu. is defined by L. Giles as dillination. Shu. c.hii:t #t;f: are, according to ~atthews' Oi ctionary ,geomancers or tricksters.Oool i ttle (1867, Vol. 2 pp . 33: ff ) li sts six methods of divination and prognostication, the most pop~lar of which in Fukien was , he says, the Eight Character method and the most expensive of which was feng -shu i. Another method was by the Eight Trigrams and the Book 06 Change6. The practit ioners of these methodS,when they did not also practise all the others, were of the highest repute. We have seen that of all methods of divina t ion it is just t o t he Eight Trigrams (and the 1 ChinQ) and the Eight Characters (and sexa gena ry characters in general ) t o which feng-shut theory is most closely bound.Having isolated these three we must first of all see how they differ from related practices , and t hen if and how feng -shui differs from the other two.

-i1#" #t

4tu

I made the proviso 'when they did not also practi se all other methods' beca use in all lil::e.lihood one man wo ul d frequen tl y have at hi s di sposal a whole range of di vi nation techniques inllolving more or less expertise, and costing mare

CH INESE GEOMANCY

200

or less accordingly , if he wanted to make a ful l- time liv i ng out of divinat i on. Fe; and Chang (1948, pp. 45-6) repor t that in lu- ts ' un , a vi llage i n Yunnan,there was one fully employed fort une - teller, but that he was frequently as poor as a begg ar ,and t hey give evidence (p . 257) that what they mean by a fortune -teller is a person at least one of whose functions ;s t o tel l the Eight Character horoscope of

the bride before a

~/edd i n9.

Kulp (1925, p. 285) describes a single person s i-

mil arly employed i n Sout heast Ch ina : "The vill a ge supports one man whose so le business is to reveal the wi ll of sp irit s t oward any particular project or deed that a pcrso~ may cont emplate i f it is of unusual importance . There seems t o be no difference between fat e and the

will of the spirit s.The fortune-teller charges fees for divining and enjoys a monopoly in the knowledge of necromancy."

Graham (1961, p. 112) describes a man called a twm l2.urtg ,bu ta lso call ed a Y.&!-Yang Iu..ien-&heltg and a Feng-&itu.i. Iu..ien-cheng , \~ho is magician , geomancer and priest of the (I.U ChittD , Society of 91ack Magic,(a society which subscribes to a se t of beliefs independent of Buddhism and TaoiSM) and who perfonns funeral s and other ceremonies for those that cannot afford proper priest s. He keeps an open house in \~hfch are herbs and medicines , the equipment for var i ous kinds of divina t ion,and images of several deities ,and such a ma n is to be found ' in any village . town or city in Szechwan ' province (p. 104). Obviously there are some basic dist inctions to be made even if the practices which were thereby separated out are performed hy the same one man. The fact tha t they are all performed by one man indicates only that his cl ients consider them all as ways of prognosticati on with greater or less complexity and reliabil ity. Or. i n the case observed by Graham . they lump together all the methods of dealing wi th the supernatural which are not part of the two great religions . It does not indicate that they see no distinction between the things tha t they lump toge t her. To begin with . we have already distinguished between pries t ly functions and those of the Y.i.n-Yaltg h6.ien-.&heng at the funeral Graham observed (p. 178 et seq. ) . Dennys (1876 ) considers under the heading 'divinat i on' all methods ofpro gnostication that involve spi r it media. and he does not consider feng -sh ui to be divination but one of numerous ' Superstitions as to various sub jects' and he agrees with Eite1 to call it a 'groping after a natural sciencc ' .Oore divides volume rv of his Rue.:vtc.hu into ClUnue Supe.I'UI.ti..ti.on into hlo chapters, the first dealing wi th 'Fo4iune-tellirtg . divination and omen.& ' the second with ' Vain ob&~ ­ vancu ' among which are geomancy, the use of the almanac. cyclic divination (by

fENG-SHUI AND OTHER

DIVINATION

20 1

the sexagenary chara cters) ,and astral divination. We have. then , a basic dis tin ction made by Dennys between predi ctions by reference to a world of spirits . and those by reference t o the natural world. and Dore makes the same distinction and furthermore isola tes roughly t he same kinds of divinati on whi ch we have seen are mos t closely built into feng-shui theory . The first distinction is crucial in the l1ght of our analysis of feng shui as belonging to ideas about t he natural world and not the world of spirits. Feng-shui is not a system of mag i c and neither is it t o be associated with divina ti on that uses the planchette. or sand and a st i ck in the hand s of a medium . or divination \~hich reads anything bel iever:! to be conrnuni cated by gods or the souls of dead kin or fr i ends through oracles. dreams. signs and omens. The 6 eng-~hui h4~en- ~heng i s not report i ng from an other-wor l dly vantage point.He is on ly readings signs in the se nse of being able to tell by superior knowledge from outward appearances what is the state of certai n profound and far -reaching processes behind them. Furthermore. his expertise is the result of education and not some in born or arbitrari ly ascr ibed divine gift. But this does not di stinguish Chinese geomancy from divinati on that uses horoscopes. the stars. l ucky numbers. 1ucky days , characters . the Booll 06 CltattgM , and the almanac - none of which necessarily introduce the concept of a spirit \'I'Orld . Having made a distincti on in means . we can now make a further distinction in terms of ends. Feng -4hui h4~en - 4h~ are consulted only at spec ifi c occasions among which t he most basic are death, marriage or building. Ch i nese geomancy must therefore he disti nguished from plain fortune-telling in which . say . a div i ner is asked about the future 1n general of a client without reference to a specific end or occas i on. But t his still l eaves us with no clear-out distinction between geo mancy and most of the methods of divination enumerated at the beg i nning of this paragraph - any of ~hich might be and in fact were consulted f or the same occasions as was geomancy.The simplest of them tell you plainly whether an act i on taken or about to be taken wil l have l ucky or unlucky results. The more specific the answer wanted the more elaborate is the method. All are methods of prognos tication. They are looking towards the future. either to tell on what da y to make ~ criti cal transaction or to tell what its out -come wi l l be . But wi th feng -shu; it ;s not necessari ly an event in the future that is at stake .Cer tainl y the state of feng-shu; i s div ined i n many instances to know wha t t he'1lroper pl ace of bu rial and bui lding shoul d be in the future. But feng-shu; is al so diagnostic. Misfortune has Occurred and a 6 eng-~hui. M.ien-t.heng is called in to diagnose what in nature or the cosmo s ca used and may continue to cause it.and to suggest a remedy.

202

CH INESE GEOMANCY

Feng -shu;;s considered to be a natural phenomenon, al l -embracing but still a phenomenon. When Chinese tried to explain it to Pepl ow (1931 . pp. 125 -126) in terms that they guessed he would accept , they called the avoidance of a house because murders had been committed in it and it was considered to be haunted, the avoidance

of

'its

bad

feng-shu;. So was the abandonment of a

ne~lly-built

house

which was malaria-rid den. I do not think that this was a deni al of medical diagnosis . Contemporary geomancers in Hong Kong use the analogy of electricity to describe feng-shui to 14esterners. and they are well aware of the existence of electricity in its cI·m right. Feng - shu i ;s a current like el ectricity. but it is more generalized. It is an ult i mate cause of both social and natural events like murder and malaria. The owner of the house himself caught malar ia and went to hospital for treatment by doctors in -Western medical science.A 6eng-.6hui M.ien-.6heng can be consulted at the same time, because feng - shui is believed to be a more ulti mate cause. There is an area of uncertainty beyond the explanatory pbwers of mo dern science in whic~ feng-shui cannot be denied and in which the metaphysical terms like Vin and Vang in which it is discussed are appropriate . Chinese geomancy shares these terms I.,. ith many forms of Chinese divination techniques. It shares with them also a concern to find the appropriate orientation of events in tune l'l ith the cosmos. But it is significant of its status as outside although affecting society that in urt'lan contexts where there is little that i s not the creation of man,where there is no landscape and where \~eather is far less significant than in the countrY-Side, it is the treatment of trees, their placing, the threat of their remova l or mutilation.that most frequently provokes disc uss i on of f eng- shui. He are to a large degree Justified in referring to geomancy as divination, but it differs from other forms of Chinese divination in that these other forms. and particularly the consultation of Eight Character horoscopes, are concerned to orientate events in time and to decide with which people to assoc iate in those events .and these are both primarily social considerations; while geomancy is con cerned with orientation in physical space , unavoidab ly a natural consideration. And l'lhere the other forms of divination calculate with no natural phenomena, except perhaps the stars, and begin straight off \.,.ith the me taphysical terms , geomancy's first concern is ~Iith natural phenomena which are only then related to me taphYSics and only thence to social events.

Thc:t Chi nese geomancy is for diagnosis as l'Iell as prognosis is a strong factor i n its usefulness as as area of referenLe for people in general, not j ust for the professio~tl geomancer. It is not confined to being a device for making decisions, as are the other forms of divination. It is a ~/ay of ana lysing and ex pla ining and just talking about past and present situations even where there is no felt need to make plans.

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203

Chinese geomancy does not necessarily involve an operator, and when talk of his clients,as I now will, I do not only mean to refer to those that consult geomancers but t o all those who refer to feng-shui.Thus we will find in many cases that a feng-shui diagnosis i s made and acted upon without consultatfon of a geomancer.

•

•

•

PART FIVE

CLIENTS: THE SOCI AL FUNCTION OF CHI NESE GEOMANCY

CHINESE GEOHANCY

204

The operators of geomancy were respected because they had knowledge t hat

was not available to ordinary people . "It was s aid that the geomancers who helped l ocate suitable graves must spend ten years before they could properly recognise the footprints of the dragon

and twenty years before they could master the art of locating peaceful graves . " (Gamb le, 1953. p. 393). Whether this is true or not, it is an indication of the

depth of knowledge ascribed to geomancers by their cli ents. For this reason they were treated and entertained as mandarins. But t hey were ~y no means beyond sceptical criticism.

:~1though

stories

~Iere

spread around of the geomancer's power and

success and also of his power to undo success if need be.rhymes l,ke this, trans lated, one were current in Amoy : The geomancer usually lies, POinting south , north , wes t and east. If in the mount ains there is the ground for a future prince or marquis Why does he not seek it out for his own father's grave?

But of course, everything in feng-shui is on the side of the geomancer. He can always explain failure by pointing out interference by neighbours in the si te which formerly promised success, or he can claim the i nterference of T'ien , neither of wh i ch he can be expected to predict.And therein lies hi s power. He can

CLIENTS: THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF CH INESE GEOMANCY

205

be doubted but never proved wrong. People realize that he may be making deals on the side with landowners for a percentage of the sale of land recommended by him as a good site for building or burial.They must know how much they are in his ~~r,but it is this very dependence, the very ascription of knowl edge beyond the comprehension of an ordinary man that makes the geomancer, and diviners in general, valuable because ~Ihat they are asked to do is to make dec i sions for other people. Once the intractable demands for the site of a house have been satis fied, demands such as the fact of hav ing to leave the old dwelling and of the limits of avai l able resources to build a new one, and the obvious demands of closeness to lines of communicat i on to markets, and to good land and so forth. there remains a large area of cho i ce \·,here the conditions are far less ponderable. In th i s area of uncertaint)l.. there are still a great number of places whe re the house migh t be built and a period of time at any pOint of wh i ch building cou1dstar>t . Cho i ce is either random or made according to a set of less physical and less immediately practical cond iti ons. Once this kind of choice is made. a few alterna tives still remain but cho i ce amon9 them i s easily governed by personal conveni erce.Feng-shui fills. the middle area of cho ice. It is a good working hypo thesi s to assume that it is invested with such considerati ons as relations \~ith neighbours and the more general anxiety of fitting in well. Since it is impossible practical ly to predic t whether one is going to get on well with neighbours and generally fit in. and yet one has.a strong des ire to do so, there i s an obvious advantage in transferring prediction to someone with normally unattainable knowledge. Appropriately, his terms of reference are, as we have read and as the client hears, entirely corlcerned with being ;n tune with the environment, natural , cosmic and architectura1.In the choice of graves , where physical conditions are far less limiting than in the choice of house sites, the less physical conditions come into pl ay that much more. The imponderables about which the client is anxious are largely soc i al ~nd I intend in this part to examine what were the soc i al conditions dealt with oy reference to feng-shui. I mentioned at the end of the last Part that feng-shui was referred to frequently without the presence of a geomancer.We can be more defin ite than that. \'Jhere a man is concerned with his OI~n si te, he is anxious about the reception he and it vii 11 receive.He is concerned entirely with the future .where he will choose se a site and the consequences of that choice. As he believes in the existence of feng-shui ,predictions can be made, and for them a geomancer is indispensible. But where a man;s concerned with t he siting of other people ' s graves and houses, usually because of t he ir effect on his , it is ':d tfl past actions or actions already

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in evident progress that he is concerned . In this case feng-shu; is referred to in order to make a diagnosi s and not a prognosis .The matter of concern i s already ~here

• fixed 1n time and space; the object of the man's anxiety is definite and a geomancer i s not essential. ~hereas. in the prognosis, there was no concrete point of reference on which to focus anxiety there was less certainty and 'it could

only be objectified by transference to another person. In diagnosis, where there is a concrete point of reference, objectfffcation is possible without the aid of another person. Hence. in the cases of feng-shui of which I have found records and have and will cite . all prognoses, all site se lecti ons. were made by a geomancer, but most diagnoses and disputes about feng-shui were conducted withoutgeomancers. The !Jeomancer must, if I am right about his relationship ~Iith clients, be flexible and wi l ling to adapt feng-shui sc ience to the case at hand, and there is evidence to support- thls.ne Groo t wrote (p . 102) that the geomancer is only an expert advi so r and must be controlled hy hi s clients, who have final choices of Site, respecting but sometimes rejecting his choices until they find the right spot. A geomancer from the New Territories was reported to me as saying that hi s knowledge was only as great as it needed to be. and that his job was to assure I tranquillity. If the geomancer is to be flex i ble and adaptable he cannot afford to cling to the word of ma nuals and the theory of feng-shui too consistentl y. Eberhard (1n Fairbank 1957, p. 47) comments in general on Yin-Yang and Five Elements natural philosophy that ' the margin for explanation within the framework of theory is very wide. There are few cases where the theory of the Five Elements is strict l y applied'. The geomancer 's knowledge is not str ict ly book learnt. Accordi ng to De Groot (p. 1011) he learns hy serving as a discip le or apprentice to a practising geoma ncer. Joh nston (1910, pp. 267 -268) records a case in Shantung in which a geomancer had announced that he based his learning not on books but on experience in Chefoo , in the neighbouring province. He was selecting the site for a graveyard. When the neighbours of the proposed site heard about it they did not call in a geomancer of their own but voiced their objec ti ons as follows: "We fail to see why the customs of the r.hiang-nan provinces souls be applicable to our province of Shantung". There is, then,a large and a variable pragmatic element in Chinese geomancy, but one which mus t be based on ideological foundations definite enough to direct choice.~lhile we have for this reason sea rched out the consistencyof the ideology in describing the contents of feng-shui manuals , we must also accept the inconsistencies .some of wh ich also r have pOinted out. Feng-shui ideology is dipped into. it ;s not used en bloc. It is a fund of terms used discriminately i n accordance with the needs of individual cases.

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207

Feng-shui a s ritual focus of local groups

In t he previous Pa rt we came across the hierarchy of deities fr om the God of the Kitchen Stove to the God of Walls and ~ats in a provincia l capital, I the temples to each of which served as the r it ual focus of the appropriate social unit, from household to province. Similarly 'the feng-shui of towns, ci ties. prefectures and larger area s '" can be improved by temples • pagodas , Feng-shui stones and Fcng-shui trees and can be affected for good or il l by the location of city gates and by other fa ct or s ' (Graham , 1961, p. 113). Thus B.C. Henry reports (1885 . p. 150) that in Canton 'of late year s much time has been given to the study of geomancy. Scho lars espec iall y have bus ied themselves Id th it. They have had the r-Io",-ery Pagoda repaired at great expense and regard it a s the "crown" of the whol e ci t y. ' And in CluneAe t?epo~i..ttl'uj for i!ugust 11337, article V gives a trans lation of a ' subscription paper' from Ca nton, appealing for funds for the repair of pagodas which ' have had a most happy influence on everything around them. causing the number of literati to he ve ry numerous and the productions of the soil most abundant ', in 'the region of the country southeast of the provincial ci t y which on account of its watercourses has an important influence on the fortunes of its inhabitants.' These pagodas. often dedicated to the God of Letters who is patron of those who are in or who hope that t hey or their sons may enter upon a career in civil service , are erected to concentrate the ch 'i of a district or to ward off ol~ .They may fail in this, indicated for instance by the death of scholars as the pagoda was under construction (see Graham, 1961. p. 113) and be abandoned. "Tn 1924 the magistrate of the Lan Ch 'i Shien (I-lsien , district ) issued a pr oclamation forbidding the cutting of Feng-shui stones lest ca l amity fall upon the people" (Graham, 192B, p. 34). I have already cited some cases of feng-shui

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GEO~ANCY

trees (pp. 127 -8) and the case of the temple in Shanghai (pp.170-1) focusing cor -

porate interest . Thus by means of two ideologies. one religious the other natural, the same soc ia l units frequently can and are provided with ritual foci. How do they differ? Other than that the Ch 'eng -hwtl1g yell and related deities refer to

another world . whereas the natural ideology, feng-shui refers to the processes of the same world as that in which the benefits desired are to be enjoyed, there is very little difference. The ends sought from gods or frOft.1 a good site are fre quent-

ly the same; attainment of a salaried post in the civil service , protection from malicious influences. The relationship of worshipper with priest is as perfunctoryand functional as that between client and geomancer. Fund s are collected for the erection of a temple to a deity that has proved powerful and become popular in much the same way as funds are collected for the erection of a pagoda or to reconstruct the gate of a city (see De Groot. p. 1044) for feng - shui. that is to say either by common appeal or through official channels. Bu t there is a difference that I regard as crucial in that it allo~ls so cial schism to occur in terms of feng-shui more than it can in terms of deities. Although ~Iorship of deities is for success in this wor l d. con tributions are made towaros the expenses of temple upkeep and the deity's annual festival in order to achieve 'merit'; merit to be credited in the books kept by t he judges .of souls in the other world.Funds are given for feng-shui. on the other hand. entirely in the hope of this-worldly success.Willingness to give them is dependent on the hope of individual benefit fr om the good feng -shui of t he overa l l socia l unit and the presence or lack of benefit is here and nO\'I , not half here and half in the other world. In addition. funds for deities. once the temple has been founded, are re gularly required.at least once annualy. Funds for feng -shui are required sporadi cally.at any time when it is felt that something shoul d be done to improve it: Of course social division can be expressed in terms of temple-worship . rival groups setting up their own temples.But r~gularity of festivals and other-I'lorldliness of goals make for division in to smaller groups for sel f-interest less than the goals and irregularity of feng -shui co-operation. And this is still assuming that there is for feng-shui some edifice or institution which needs upkeep as there ahlays i s a temple or shrine and a festival for a deity. In fact , of course, this is by no means always the case. The inhabita nts of a village.town or city may be conscious of its feng-shui. of a grove of trees outside the village. for instance. without a man-made focus such as a pa goda or a gate which needs funds . The inmates of the town , city or village then cooperate in support of it s feng -shui onl y on occasion of its being threatened from outsi de by some building that enc roaches on it. But internall y and still in the name of the feng -shui of the uni t. they may divide. Such was the case in a New

My informant was a cook in Coventry, England,but ,as he sa id, it was the (eng-shui of his home village , i n fa ct the village of his lineage, and not the feng-shui of' London or Covent ry that would affect hi s fortunes. He had been asked by relatives at home t o recruit support in objection to a plan which they said threatened the feng -shui of the village.The village was divided into two sections by a narrow strip of land. The older and larger section had once been t he entire vil l age , and t he vil lage headman and his council lived in it still. But land had run out on the old site and bui lding hega n on a new site some yards away that now held a population of approximately half the number of the old sec ti on. The home of my i nformant was in the new sect ion. The village was on a plain and around both secti ons were trees that my informant said were for feng- shu i. He was very vague about feng-shui (see p. 15) and cou ld not re l ate the trees to t he case at hand, nevertheless they indicate that there was a feng-shu; focus uniting both sec tions of the village. In the part of the old section facing the new stood a one-storey building which had been in i t s present owner ' s possess ion for a long time aS l a pig-stye . He now wanted to convert it into a dwelling and add a storey t o it. 'On hearing of these plans and of his already having purchased the necessary material s , the elders !6u. lAc I of th e new section complained to the owner. This was the first time , I was told, t ha t trouble had ar i sen between t he two sections. The elders claimed that it had been passed down over the generations that it would be bad for feng- shui if the pig-stye were made any higher. The con version was abandoned. While we were tal king.anot her Ch inese entered and my informant asked me not to menti on him to this man in connection with the feng -sh ui incident. This new man had been asked to recruit support for th e other side and . although he did not himself come from the village,his mother' s brother's son was on the village council and his family was very influential in the local district."\y informant knew no more about the case and 1 had no opportunity to research other sources . He was unwilling to admit to any serious di su nity in the village,but it seems to me that the feng -shui conflict was an expression,in a rudimen t ary form. of representation of the new section independent of the old village unity represented by the old section, even though the village headman was not directly involved. The new sec tion was by then large enough to challenge the old section on thi s level. It felt its own fe ng-shui threatened by an ac ti on whi ch the old sect ion plainly did not think would prejudice vil1aqe fenQ -shui . Johnst on ' s case of the alien geomancer menti oned above (pp. 205-206) i s also one in which intra-vil lage division occurred in the name of vil lage fengshui .This geomancer from the neighbouring province had been called in by a na tive of the village who had lost badly in his opium business , which he ran in the geomancer's home di stri ct. The geomancer suggested that he should move his family graveyard to a new site in the village. But villagers whose houses would have looked onto the graveyard cla imed that it was in the mi ddle of the vi llage and

!i... .:t

210

CHINESE G[OMANCV

Fe ng -shui as ri t ua l foc u s for descen t g roups

With descent groups we are dealing with the smallest social units de -

fined by Feng-shui. We have seen that in the case of graves, graveyards , ancestral halls and houses a ritual focus is provided by (eng - shui. At the same time it is also provided by ancestor worship and for the same soc i al units, all of them descent groups ranging from the smal l est, a grave, minima l ly a man and his ancestor, to the greatest. a grave, graveyard village or ancestral hall, maximally a linea-

ge . An ancestor's tablet unites a household i n his worship. The (eng -shu; of the house itself, or the siting and i nstalment of the kitchen-stove or the domestic shrine of a family within the household of an extended family. unites the nuclear group.The ancestor unites all his local agnat i c descendants on Ch' i ng Ming festi val in the cleaning and general upkeep of hi s tomb and the same group is united in concern for the grave's feng -shui. Peplow (1931. pp . 15-17) records a case of the maximum feng-shui co-operation around a grave. It was the grave of a man who in the Sung dynasty had settled and founded a lineage that became one of the most powerful in what is now the New Territories. About ten years after the Territory was leased to Britain some people from the village nearest the grave applied for land adjOining the grave site. Elders of the various branches of his descendants. who by now constitut e a large lineage. objected to the purchase of this land on the grounds that building would affect the feng -shu1 of the grave. They sent a joint petition to the Dis t rict Officer and the proposed sa l e was wi thdrawn. La t er .

FENG-SHU! AS RITUAL FOCUS FOR DESCENT GROUPS

211

when new roads were being constructed by the Publ i c Works Department and the line of one of them was planned to cross the site of the grave. the elders of the lineage.fearfng that it might affect the ' force of the movement of the dragon'. petitioned the Governor and the road was re-planned to cross in front of the site a si gn of good feng-shu1. Yet again. in 1923. a man dug earth to the west of the grave thereby affecting. it was claimed. 'the force of the movement of the coming dragon'. and a petition was sent to the Distric Off i cer who inspected the site personally and proh i bited earth-cutting in the area of the grave henceforth . Johnston (1910 . p. 120) retells a case of a man who wanted to open a on l and to which he had the deeds but which. if cut into. would. it was quarry cl aimed.break the bones of the dragon which influenced a near- by graveyard,Johns ton . who was magistrate. was petitioned to this effect by the family whose graveyard it was. They suggested that the quarry should be cut on the other side of the graveyard where cutt ing would be invisi ble (a good example of the aesthetic aspect of feng-shul). But there were no stones there for cutting. Both of the above are cases of co-operation in the feng -shu; of a grave yard. HsU (1949. pp.43 -52) describes the way in which feng -shui leads to division of the group focused on the graveyard . The way in which graves are dist ributed in a ya rd offers a good pOint for the comparison of ancestor worship and feng-shui in action. 'In principle'. Hsu says (p. 43). 'entombment should follow a certain order with respect to generation,age and sex. Seniority in generation and age entails entombment in the upper terraces; i f on the same terrace,a senior should be entombed at the left of a junior' . Thus father is above son, elder brother to the left of younger brother . husband to the left of wife. (We should remember that the graveyard is sited. accordi ng to feng -shui. on a slope). In the family shri ne the order of tablets adheres strictly to this princip l e. and of course the distribution of tablets in the family shrine has nothing to do with feng-shui, it is a field 1n which ancestor worship as an ideo logy is unchallenged.Theorderisstrict Iy hierarchical and is an illustration of the idea l structure of living kinship units. It is, in brief, a symbol of unity. The distribution of tablets in the ances tral hall is aga in a field in which the ideology of ancestor worship is not challenged by feng -shui. and there . admittedly, the order is somewha t disturbed. While the hierarchY of generations is rarely interfered with.sen i ority within generations goi~g up towards the left is often replaced by another principle which is to put the tablets of those who have gained most honour in their life towards the centre. Certainly this is disruptive. but only within the broader unchallenged hierarchy of generations. Moreover. the individuals who are brought out by this

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212

di sruption are dead, the criterion for the disruption ;s past achievement, and it i s brought out for the prestige of the l i ving as a soc i al unit. Unity here , too , then . is upheld.

HsU gives a number of reasons why the hierarchical principle is disrupted in graveyards . Cost of land and the limitat i on of space see that every avail able plotof the graveyard ;s used and if more space has been left in past genera-

tions on the upper terraces, then the later generations will avail themselves of it.Secondly, as in the ancestral hall, those who attained hi gh honours and finan cial success are given prominence . Thirdly, drops in family fortune may mean relax-

ation of pr i de in the graveyard and the will to keep up order and appearances. But more than these three, what disturbs the proper arrangement of graves is, he says (po 47) feng-shu.ot ; 'the practice of individual competition' in which 'individua l tombs are arranged according to geomancy'. This is ' competition within the same graveyard' , Hsii exp lai ns, where 'the idea seems to be t hat the "better" the parents are situated the better thei r immediate descendents will succeed in worldly affairs .... The location of each t omb is considered individually by the geo~ mancy reader (i.e. the 6eng-4hui h6ien-4heng) to obt ain the best geoman t ic advantage of the entire graveyard ' . Of course unity is also possible in terms of feng - shui: "A fine grav~yard is a source of pride . On one of the regular visi ting days the head of the family is prone t o show his guests around and describe how after a struggle he finally succeeded in securing such a graveyard having very good 'wind andwater'.'~HsU. p. 52). r am not saying that feng-shui ideology is disruptive, merely that in its case an ideology has been constructed which allows for disruption and disrup t i on can therefore be expressed through it. In the terms of ancestor worship segmentation can be expressed , sub- lineages assert their financial independence of t he mother lineage by setting up their own ancestral halls (see Freedman , 1958, pp. 47 ff). but it cannot express the autonomy of the individual. Feng-shui can. Competition for places in the geomantic sun is in the last resort every man for himself with no consideration of his place as part of a larger social unit.! have already stated in ideological terms how feng-shui tends towards individuation by being oriented towards the future while ancestor worship is oriented to the past (pp. 198-9 above). Stated in sociological terms, the hierarchical ideology of an cestor worship expresses in the first place the authority of the older generation and the respect and obedience expected of juniors. In the second place it expresses the succession of a next younger generation to authority on the death of the representatives of the older generation. ,a nd its expectation in turn of obedience from its juniors. Emp irically speaking the junior succeed to authority ~/ithin the

FENG-SHUJ AS RITUAL FOCUS FOR DESCENT GROUPS

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home and at least ritually within the lineage , and to the rightfu l ownership of family property. There or other , divisive factors which wil l be discussed short ly. Here I want t o contra st t he expression throug h ancestor worship of receiving sta tus and wealth, as it were from the pas t, wi t h feng-shu; wh i ch expresses hope for wealth and honour on t he ind i vidual's own independent account and i n the future. If we now take the nuclear kinship uni t in Chi na, the family, and see whi ch are the points of potenti al conflict and schism within it we sha ll see how ances t or worship in pra cti ce and as an ideology ma i nt ains solida rity in spite of t hem while fe ng-shui gives expression t o t hem . The relati onship bet\~een contiguous genera ti ons in the agnatic line in China is in accordance with t he cl assic case of patrilineal descen t groups. It is aSYJ1lTle tri cal ; authority and ownership of family property are vested exclusive ly in the oldest mal e represe ntat ive of the mos t sen i or generat i on. The relati onshi p of son t o father is typ i cal ly one of str ic t respect and awesome distance. As he reaches ma nhood and hi s father approaches old age, the son i s still expected to ma i nt ai n absolute obedience t o a man whose st rength and ability are waning rela ti ve to his own. He may have to obey the word of, and at the same ti me look after , a fathe r who is entirely i nactive ,and also to recognize this father's ri gh t s over property ,the upkeep and exploita t io n of I"Jhi ch i s in fact entirely the work of himsel f and his brothers. The Imperial Ch' ing dynas ty penal code brings ou t in sha rp relief the subordination of t he junior generat i on . Parricide , which i s t he killing not only of father but also of grandfather ,and of father ' s brother and their wives, is the mos t heinous offence in the book. Impiety, wh i ch is negligence of , disrespect of, and informa t ion against senior s , is the second most heinous offence. The son could break with his father altogether to avoid th is subord i nati on. But he does not do so because in a family with property it is in his int eres t s to loo k after the family property which on his father's death he will 1nherit; and perhaps the subordi nati on is more acceptable si nce t he son expects one day t o succeed t o the superior position himself. So the first point of conflict in the family i s between father and son , compounded by t he laws of inher itance which at t he same time act to prevent a break. The bond is streng t hened by penal sancti on. And the hierarchical ideal buil t upo n thi s bond i s upheld in ancestor wors hip . Now feng-shui contains no con tradiction of this hi erarchical ideal , in fa ct it uphol ds it t oo; its influen ce

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runs from the grave down the same agnati c lines of descent and one of its most important blessings is the begetting of a large male progeny. But if we imagine the ideal hierarchy as a triangle. the difference between the two ideologies ;s that in ancestor worship the subject is looki ng up into the past from the base of the hierarchy . from the point of view of a son , wh i le in feng-shui the subject is looking down into the future into the apex of the hierarchy, from the point of view of a father to be.Feng -shu; concentrates, then. on the person who is tending to break the relationship, the son, looking away from the father into the future. The father-son relationship; s in sharp contrast to the affection and intimacy that marks the mother- son relationship. The son stands to inherit nothing from his mother. Yet in feng-shui . burial of mother more than the burial of father in a promising grave where . as often occur . they are separate . is likely to benef i t the son. In wealthy families where the head of the household may have more than one wife . benefits from a mother's grave do not have to be shared with halfbrothers as they would from a father's grave~ It is a sad fact that in the domes t ic life cycle of a woman in China. when kin relations were strict ly organised on the agnatic principle. she enjoyed the peak of her power only at the time of her dea t h. It was one of the very rare occasions when a woman and man had equal rights. Leong and Tao (1915, reprint 1923. footnote to p. 8) note that children gave equal mourning t o both parents. The funeral described by Graham , which I have cited at length (pp. 1789) and which was carried out with full and detailed ritual. was for the mother of the most powerful man in I-pin.The care taken over the feng -shu i of her grave was a case of a r i ch man concerned to safe -guard his prosperity. At the beginning of her progress to supremity in the household of her husband a woman has had to be daughter -i n-law.ru l ed in the domestic affairs which are her whole life by a mother- in-law. Their relationship para l lels that between males of contiguous generations. The focus of the tension between them is the man who is son to the one and husband to the other. Once the daughter - in - law has borne he r husband sons she is on the road to being wife of the head of a family herself and is likely to have as strong if not a stronger hold on the loyalty of her hus 1. As kindly brought t o my att ention by Dr . M. Freedman , there is good reason t o believe t hat the percent age of women varied direc tl y with the wea lth of the fami ly . The re would be no need for t he weal thy , in order t o have one mout h less t o feed , to ki ll or give away daughter s bo rn to them . And t hey cou ld af ford pol ygamy , for which the necessary excess of women would be those t ha t had ma rr ied up from less wealthy fam i lies .

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band as his mother can claim.We cannot at the start assume affection between hus band and wife , as we can between mother and son , in a society where arranged mar riages are the norm ; but in time familiari t y and the bi rth of children are likely to foster it. Thus through her son the mother is challenged by her daughter-in law. Moreover , t he only unques ti oned bonds of loya lty and affect i on a woman can expect in her husband's household are , in the t ypical case, from her chi ldren. Her concern for the welfare of her children is a concern that excludes the rest of t he family and i s likely to aggravate rivalry between her husband and his brothers ove r an inher itance t hat will be shared equally among them - a rivalry that be tween themselves is t o some extent resolved by affection for each other and for their mother. neither of which is shared by their wives.Confucian o rt hodo~ . and the C~~ic 06 Filial Pi£t y and the Ch'ing dynasty code in particular. plus the hi erarchica l ideology of ancestor worship all promote t he ma intenance of the bond between brothers. It is incidentally also upheld empi ri cal ly by the economi c advan t age of their combin ing forces. Oiv ision between broth ers i s expressed through ancestor worsh i p by t he i r setti ng up independent domestic shrines with in the tnJse hold and finally in separa t e households. Rut t his i s not sch i sm. it is segmen t ation. By the ve ry ancestors they worship they are made conscious of t he l arger descent group that li nks them in theory and in fact at least at sub-l ineage l evel in worShip at the ancestra l hal l . Whereas i n the self and future interests which feng-shui promotes. compl ete severance is implied even if in fact it is often imposs i ble to avo i d sharing the feng-shui of a site wit h one ' s brother s. Before going on to show how f eng -shui ideology further distinguishes, between brothers , I should like to pOint out that in the above discussion I have, relying on the evidence of the record s at my disposal. been assuming that feng shui very cl osely reflects a woman ' s complete severance from her natal lineage on ta king up residence with her husband in his father's household. For i nstance. De Groot (1897. p. 1029) writes that a woman's f ortunes are affected entirely by the fen g-shui of the graves of her parents - in - law . It woul d be interesting. however . t o inquire in parts of Ch ina where affinal links are given greater importance (see Gall;n 1964) . whether f eng -shui was un l ike the orthodoxy of ancestor ~Iorship enough to reflect thi s and have its influence pass down to some extent t hrough women.Considering the fact that feng-shu i has strong local variations and no cen tral orthodoxy it might very well be the case that it reflects local variations of kinship organ izati on. The whole question of how much feng-shui ideology varies with local social structure shoul d be central to any detailed field study.But the accounts of it that we have are inadequate.When they are in the context of a close description of a part icular corrrnunfty in China they are brief and generalized , - and when there are more detailed descriptions of geomancy t hey are in books writ-

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ten before social anthropolog ica l concep t s became current and observation of social processes single -minded enough to give -a comprehens ive picture of a cortmun ity and the operation of geomancy in it. Returning now to the typi cal and generali zed Chinese family, feng - shui ideology as it stands in the manuals is well suited to express brothe r conflict. Even i gnoring the cycles of change in the conditions of a site and treating it as st atic , it can still never be perfec t on all sides and in all its aspects in the three planes of the cosmos. It is by the imperfections of sites that Chinese geo mancy is set in motion. The peculiar imbalance of every site i s the unique fortune of the individual client and of each one of a group of clients . For one thing, each client has a different horoscope and therefore a different reaction to the bearings on the site of the rings of sexagenary character s on the compass dial. But, even taking the site in isolation without its dwellers' horoscopes, the ring of the eig ht tr;grams on the compass most clearly separates brothers . As we saw on pages lB -83 , six of the trigrams stand for sons and daughters , distributed differently, what is more, in their heavenly aspect (the Former Heaven sequence) and in their earthly aspect (the Later Heaven sequence). So the siblings are, as it were, located in segments ranged in a circle around the grave of their parent. An imperfection on the site affects one or some of them and not others; some will benefit others will not.In the case of women benefiting from their parents-in-law and not their O\~n , t hat is only as wives. we can discount daughters. The tr;grams are then left to serve only as an expression of differentiation between brothers. Prospectively,in the planning of graves , as B.C. Henry's Chinese scholar observed (1885 , p. 143) , 't he brothers cannot agree upon a suitable place' . 'Different positions are canvassed as to their bearings upon different sections of the house , and the geomancer is at a loss to know what to do. Sometimes each brother will engage a separate professo , and years will elapse be fore the matter is settled the coffin remaining temporarily disposed meanwhile! For the filial delay , sometimes for many years , in properly burying ancestors because of feng-shui, people were punished in hell and by civil lal'l in this life (see De Groot 1897, p. 1017 ). Retrospectively, variance in the fortunes of brot hers can be exp l ained by the imperfections of their common ancestor's grave site. But in this case it ;s a 6ait long accompli and no dispute arises. So far we have confined ourselves to the internal divisions of the site of a single grave of an ancestor and to the single graveyard of a descent group. Oisputes are in fact more likely between descent groups who do not share a site , and they too may be expressed through feng-shui.They are always cases of sensiti-

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vfty in regard to the fortunes inherent in a site al ready established ,and involve accusations of encroachmen t or muti lation of it. Graham ( 1961, p. 115) cites such a case with a rather ludicrous ending. "About half-way between I - pin and Li -chuang on t he south side of the Yang-tse Ri ver (i n Szechwan province) i s a large rock t~at is the feng - shui s tone of the Lo family who l ive on the nort h side of the river and who formerly were very ri ch and powerfu l . It is said that when someone chopped wood at the home of the Lo family the rock would move (an interesting instance of the theory of cosmic resonance, pp.IIO- It ). Thi s stone was on the property of the Chang family who were jea lous of the prosperit y of the Lo family , so they hired stonemasons t o cut up the feng-shui stone. The Lo family went t o law about it , and the lawyers re so c l eve r that they prolonged the expensive lawsuit severa l years without reaching a decision. The two families therefore agreed to settle out of court by throwing silver ir. the river.The family that threw in the most sil ver would win. The Chang family threw in pewter, but the Lo famil y threw in a great deal of silver. After that both families were poor and the people attributed the poverty of the Lo family l arge l y t o the f;itt that its feng-shui stone had been injured."

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Individuation : conflict. competition and change

The case reported by Graham has plainly become someth i ng of a fa iry sto-

ry but I think i t contains enough truth to il lust rate a sa lient characteristic of t hose who i ndu l ge in feng-shu; conflicts . On three accounts those concerned with feng -shu; must already possess some degree of wealth; first . because they must be able to afford the expense of entertaining a geomancer ; second, because they do not feel financially obli ged t o let their dead be buried in the communa l buria l ground of the town or village , where they cannot select a pos iti on; third, the achievement of wea l th breeds anxiety t o ma intain it ,and feng-shu; manipulation ;s a sa l ve to this anxiety. The corolla ry of this is that those wit hout a mater i al chance of betterment in their fortunes are not interested in feng - shui. "You may see a family , poor and miserable , paying no heed to geomancy, suddenly become prosperous. Their whole attention is then turned to the search of thes e occult (feng - shui ) inf luences .... " (Henry , 1885 , p. 140). An extens i on of this pr i nciple i s t hat tho se who are in feng - shui conflict , are in competiti on . This i s to say, a group will not take action against another group in feng -shui unless it is in a position to challenge that group ' s inf luence or f ee l s cha llenged by it .We see also from Graham's story and from the case of the quarry told by Johnston (see p. 21 1 above) that what i s considered to be a geomantic site may go beyond the boundari es of l and owned by the group, whose fe ng-shu i interests are

INDI VlotJATION: CONFLICT. COMPETITION AnD CHAAGE

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invo l ved. Thi s is where the high dependence of feng -shui on vi sua l perception becomes soc ially si gnifi ca nt. A feng -s hui site is expandable. Everything within the visual horizon may be in t egrat ed i nto it and be considered to have an ef fect on the feng -shui of its central pOint,be it a house or a st one , or a grave or a graveyard. Not only i s it expandable but it is a single universe , measurable by means of the compas s from its cen tre and in fact bei ng in phys i cal envi ronment the equi valent of the compass dial. It then fo ll ows that everyth in g wi thi n this horizon shares , as it were, one source of feng-shui, and any interference in it is ei ther tapping that source or damag ing i t. The cases show th is principle, which is of course my own inference from what I see as the log i c of feng -shui and i s nowhere expli citly men ti oned in the ma nuals , to operate as fol l ows: First is a special case,in that it i s not so much a matter of the horizon s of the site itsel f but of those in whom the fortunes deriving from it are embodied, and it is they, and through them t he i r feng-shui,who arous e t he interests of another group.An instance of this is Graham's st ory of the Lo fa mily . An extreme in stance,mentioned by Dukes (1912), is t hat 'when a rebellion breaks , the first act of the authorities is not t o raise t roops but to send messengers to spoil t he feng-shui of th e rebel leaders by despoi ling their ancestra l t ombs.' Typi cal of the principle of expand ing horizon s is where t he feng -shui of two parties are felt by one or ot her to overlap and constitut e either a threat to the status quo or present a situat ion in which the st atu s quo can be changed t o the better . The ca se of the twin pagodas of Ch 'Uan -chou (see p. 170) seems to be an instance. The net-shaped t own was prosper ing at the exp~e Q~ Ch ' Uan -chou. I ~ other words , the people of Ch'Uan-chou expanded their horizons and cons idered that what could have been their feng-shu i was being exp loi ted by others./.loreover, t o return briefly t o the point made earlier about feng-shu i di sputants being i n competition, they must themselves have been in a position prosperous enough to cha llenge and t o compete because they had the re sources fo r the construction of t wo pagodas. In cases where the dispute may be brought to cou rt, the feng -shui challengers have to be r i ch enough to compete with the challenged in inf l uencing the judges .Confl ict where hori zons overlap is, of course, confli ct behleen neigh bours, and feng-shui ha s been notoriou s as a ca use of it. To quote again the dia logue made for a.c . Henry (1885 , p. 144) by his Chinese scho lar : "Q. - It is said that quarre l s and l awsui t s often arise about buria ll ots, breaking up families , exci ting bitter hostilities , and often causing the loss of li fe. Whence these evils ? A. - These evil s are due t o geomancy.Everyone wants the best, but peo-

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pI e are nume rous, and lucky sites few _,_ Quarrels and bloody fi ght s ensue, boundary stones are removed , the bones of the dead are dishonoured , and years are spent in litigation."

Weber ,ec hoing De Groot, notes (1951. note 12 to the text of Chapter IV) that : "Feuds against (sic) outsiders were occasioned by tax repartition ,death feuds and especia lly conflicts wh ich the feng - s hui provo ked among neighbours, "

It would. however, be rash to say how much and even whether feng-shu; ideology aggravated confl i ct. without much more detailed evidence than is at our disposal. It is false to attribute t o feng-shu; the power to cause conflict. ATl we can say is that it is an ideology that does not promote group above individual int~re sts as does ancestor worshi p because it expresses the interests of individuals first and second2rily of individuals as part of a group.I hope I have illustrated this by ci ting firstly cases both of division and of co-operation forfengshui and second ly by demonstrating that interest in the ideology is a process of subdivision in the direction of the individual standi ng in the present and looking for his own independent fortune. Th i s does not necessarily mean conf1ict,although of course where everyone i s out for hi mself conflict is likely.It is notable that all cases of di spute where the sites of both groups are in operation and are independent. (not .that i s to say. in the special case mentioned abOve and in the case of brother conflict Hhich is within the same site) all such disputes are of feng-shui in retrospect and do not involve a 6e~-6hui h6~en-6heng (see pp.204-5). They are usually occasioned by some misfortune, suc h as death. or someone fa lling ill. or just disappOintment over expected fortunes. ' Shoul d anyone suddenly fa ll i ll or die, his kindred are immediately ready to impute the cause t o someone who has ventured to make a change in the established order of things ' says De Groot (p. 1041 ) and he incidentally attributes to this the disrepair of Chi nese houses. Peplow (1931. p. 128) reports how the owner of a grave complained to the Di strict Off icer that a new grave adjacent to his sHe was being dug into the "dra90n's back". The District Officer had "more urgent work" on hand. Meanwhile a child in the neighbouring village died and this was given as proof that 'the dragon was very angry and .... if any more digg ing were carried out other l ives would be lost '. Digging was stopped and the new grave sited elsewhere. Conflict does not, however . occur in prospective feng-shui. that is to say where a geomancer is help ing t o select a site. In prognosi s . avoidance of conflict is sought. A site is des ired which does not impinge on and is not likely to be impinged upon by others. A great many of the warnings in the Yang Chai manual

INDIVIDUATION: CONFLICT,COMPETITION AND CKANGE

221

are to this effect. The site should be at a distance from the other buildings and if possible they should for safety be out of sight.Thus the geomancer in the case from Fun~ ~~OmG 06 Chihti PADvince (see p. 176) selects a site for a burial ground only after rejecting two others suggested by his client in one of which the "good breezes" were "monopolized by another property" and the whole was blocked by a nearby village. Even in an ur ban context it is often desirable for the sake of one's feng -shui to block the view of other houses by constructing screen walls at open gates. The effect of thi s desire to avoid conflict is to isolate one's interests and hence oneself. In any case it ;s a symbolic attempt to define the boundaries of one's in t erests.We have inevitably come back to the individuating functi on of feng-shu; ideo l ogy. Chinese geomancy is an expression of individua li sm by means of a unifying cosmology. Contradictory anxieties , on the one hand, for individual success in compe ti tion with neighbours and on the other to have harmonious relationships with neighbours , are resolved by ritualizing a decision crucia l to both into a body of concepts of a world beyond society.a cosmology that governs all things and men . It 1s a method of external self-i dentif ication. not merely in a stationary relationship to one ' s environment. Ch 'i phases. time cycles , envisaging the l andscape as alive . its l ines in movement . a dragon one of whose power s is to transform himself . all these are ideologica l mechanisms for expressing change . De Groot and others have reported feng -shu; as a tool of conservatism, of mai ntaining the sta tus quo. of resistance t o innovation . In support of t hi s they quote cases such as this: '~he first railway in China, from Shanghai t o the port of Wu-sung ni ne miles away. was purchased and destroyed by the Chinese on the plea that t he speed of the train destroyed the feng-s hui of tens of thou sands of people on both sides of the line" (Dukes. 1912). "When it was proposed to erect a fe w telegraph poles,when the construc tion of a rai lway was urged upon the Chinese government. when a tramway wa s suggested to utilize the coal -mines of the interior,Chinese officials would invariably make a polite bow and declare the thing impossible on account of feng-shui" (Eitel. 1873 . p. 1). ' But it is as possible and probably nearer the truth to say that fengshui is used to express both difficulty in accommodating cha nge and al60 the fac t of having a~dated it, No cases are given in enough detail or about people arti culate and knowledgea bl e enough about feng -shu; theory to show how t he mecha ni sms menti oned above ar e actua ll y used to express accolll!lOdation to change. To bi'l-

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l ance the cases of conservatism given above . I can only give in stances . which regrettabl y are as unspecific as the cases of conservatism are.but of accommodati on t o change and innovation which refers at the same ti me to feng -shui. Peking Gazette for July 28 . 1 ~80 . reports the imperia l sa nct i on of a scheme t o open coa l mines in Kirin with the warning to be ca reful not t o disturb in so doi ng the feng-shut of the nearby Imperial Hunting Reserves. Dukes reports that when selling land to forei gner s

the Ch in ese were

careful t o ass ign to them only l and that was believed to have bad feng-shu; and that they believed t he f oreigners to be ignorant about feng-shui. But Eitel himself reports that,when once the f oreig ners , in hi s case the Br i tish in Hong Kong, had become established. their sites chosen for a reservoir , and for government house and some trees pl anted by t he Colonel Surgeon were all good fen g-s hu i and showed t he foreigners t o be first class feng- shui adepts (p. 2) .

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I have , in the las t two Parts , referred to fen g-shui as an ideology, taking i deology in a somewha t confined sense of a set of concepts and symbo ls. I have not treated ideology in its more cOllmon sense as an attitude t owards existence , but it is now possib le t o speak of the ideology of feng-shui in thi s sense too. Feng -shui is concerned exclusively with thi s-wor ldly benefits and those men tioned in manuals are honour, wealth.a civil service career. domestic ha rmony. a l arge progeny extending the kinship group fr om ego into t he future f or many gene rati ons , peace, and t he avoidance of again exclusively thi s-worldly mis f ortunes. The misfortunes menti oned in t he ma nuals are diseases in genera l. eye- i nfecti ons and consumption being ment i oned specifically more t han once , mi scarr iage . the break - up of the famil y.separat ion , being far from home . orpha nage .windowhood . poverty . premature death. harm to posterity. Peculia r to feng-shui and perhaps to Ch inese fortune-telling in general as compared t o the f ortunes to ld i n almana cs. dream-books and palmistry in England i s the emphasis placed on kin so lidarity and continuity and the concern with status wh i ch is closely bound to state emp l oymen t. On the same comparison , what i s mi ssing in feng -shu; and t akes a large part in Engl i sh f ort une-te lling is any concern with the vagaries of love. the dark stranger. faithlessness and t he l ike. and t he romance of t he sea and foreign parts. No

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doubt this 1s partly accounted for by the fa ct that feng-shui tells fortunes for the owners of sites and they are always men , and the fact that China is an enormous land -mass and that sepa rati on and l ong parting are confined to China and do not involve going overseas. Feng-shu i is amoral. It assumes the right of ' the individual to benefit wi t hout placing emphasis on the social organisation within which he is to benefit. Benefits are t o be had without any supernatura l aid but by knowing . through divi nation, of the laws of natural processes where to place oneself in relation to them; ' riding the cJl '-i.' as the manuals say. The above is onl y the most directly applied part of feng-shui's ideology,the policy so to speak, and alone it is not so much a coherent philosophy as a general ideal of all that can be hoped for in this world. The order which consti tutes the basis of feng -shu; contrasts str ik ingly with the African forms of divination wh iC h we will look at in the next Part. It i s a natural order , and even though its application is confined to social si tuations it is not an order of so cial values. Its symbol s refer to a cosmology and not to a mythology . They stand for natural processes, not for archetypal social situat i ons. Feng -shu i deals with uncertainty, anxiety,and the unpredictable, with questions such as fo/i.Lt.tw hOu.4 e on .t ft-i. 4 tand taU, and be 6Jtu.U6ul? or 14 l.hio nW-c.omM. go.&rg t o hMm u.6 ? , by appealing to a belief in a natural and cosmic order.The order believed in is uni versal. It is not soda'l, but the social world i s subject to it. It is not a supernatural order such as would entail the concepts of Fate or predestination . A good site is where this order is unconfused. The manuals continually stress this in their concern with the clea r recognition of pa tterns,with proper balance, with elegance, and in the frequent injunctions to avo i d disaster. confus i on and con flict.

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PART SIX

GEOMANCY AND DIVINATION IN OTHER CULTURES

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In the Introduction I draw attent ion to the fact that Chinese geomancy would be defined more accurately as topomancy.lt is not divinati on by means of an earth or sand tray,which is the most common type of di vina t ion t o be described as geomancy . It i s divinat i on based on topographi ca l and arch itectura l

features. It

is man ti e, in that it not only divines t he hidd en truth of the present si tuation but may also be used to predict t he future. And this is not the case for African geomancy ,the geomancy of sand t r ays and al lied forms.Despite t hese ba si c distinction s .Afri can geomancy and Ch i nese geomancy have affinities as divinat i on techn iques that emerge the clearer for the very fact t hat the systems are otherwise so distinct,and it is therefore instruct i ve to review a selection of African geoma ncies , albeit briefly. But befor~ doing so we shou l d not forget to inqu i re whether there are forms of geomancy closer.to the Ch i nese type.

,

There i s the type alluded to by the Oxford Engl i sh Dict ionary in quot ation from Agrippa (see pp. 3-4 ) ,wbi ch woul d appear to be not so much a Forms t ype of divinati on like the Ch inese as div inati on from li nea r figures on the ground - a less stereotyped and less refi ned f orm of the lines and figures on t he sand tray. But the Romans had al so a method of siting simi l ar to the Chinese cosmologica l met hod. Survey ing the land from t he t op of an elevation. by means of a quar-

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tered device the quarters of the sky were projected onto the landscape and a sa cred quartered enclosure thus mapped out. Within this sacred enclosure the augur who had made it would see portents. This was a daily procedure of communication with the gods to ask their pleasure about important events - a very different matter to Ch i nese geomancy. But it was also used for the siting of towns and temples which had to have divine sanction and,as in the Chi nese case , the outer boundary , the wal l s and gates, and the axes of the enc l osure were of profound cosmic significance~

But thi s was not used to site houses or graves and parallels only the geomancy of Chinese town -planning, adherence to a North-South axis and the ri tual precautions taken acco rding to Animal significance of gates at the fourquar t ers . As far as I have been able to ascerta in , the only forms of topomancy outside Ch ina are in those cultures strongly influenced by Ch ina. Their geomanc i es are in fact off-shoots of Chinese geomancy. The way they vary fr om the Chinese model is in the first place significant of the character of their cultures.But what seem like variations from geomancy as I have descr ibed it for China from scanty sources ,may in some cases be indications of the way in which it is practised in parts of China where it has not been observed and recorded. Our records are , for the most part, from the coastal regions, and from Szechwan and Yunnan , leaving blank the greater part of central China. It was, moreover, from capitals in cen tral China, for instance Ch' ang-an (:S1-an) in the T'ang dynas ty and K' ai-feng in the Sung,that the administrators and diplomats and some of the craftsmen and merchants came who brought Ch inese culture t o the countries on its borders . The geomanCles of these countries may therefore preserve some of the characteris tics of T'ang and Sung dynasty Chinese geomancy in central China, but at the same time since the accounts of them are simplifications of Chinese geomancy, the elements to which they are reduced may also be the most popular and lasting parts of Chi nese geomancy as it was practised in more recent times .

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Japan

Chinese geomancy was introduced to Japan at an early stage of its development . in the T'ang dynasty before the ninth century AD . 'The dai l y life of Heian (8th-mid 12th centuries ) men and women in the middle and upper classes (includ ing the divine emperor) was governed by such considerations ( as geomantic

rul es)to an astonishing degree' (Sa nsom . 1958 . p. 213 ). Bernard Frank (1958) has described from Heian Japanese sources what this geomancy was and it reproduced In almost every detail Chi nese geomancy and its cosmology as I have described it except in one important aspect. It incorporated a Sh into household god and a god of highways who governed the directions.It does not appear that Japanese geomancy was ever used for the siting of graves. On t he other hand it was used to a much greater extent than in Ch ina for t he regulation of journeys.

The luck of directions gyrated in time cyc l es. At one point of time, at a certain transiti on overnight between two moon s ,it wa s even considered dangerous to turn from the home in any direction at all so that it was bes t to be away fr om 10me at a neutral place and to stay awake all night. Any journey had and has , according t o Norbeck (1954) ,to be planned geomantically and i n consul tati on with an almanac to coincide with a ti me at WhlCh the directi on of the journey was not unlucky. Norbeck writes t ha t geomancers were cons ul ted for the siting of houses (bu t not graves) or for the rebuilding of houses or parts of houses that had seen chronic mi sfortune. He chose the site of the house and the day t o be9 in construction .But he was not considered t o be a relig ious practitioner and a priest had to • be callea in t o pur i fy the site.He chose the position of the shrine of the household god and might prescribe that offe ri ng s be made to t he god of the ax ial directions but he did not supervise or carry out t heir worshi p. Geomancy and the almanac were based on a lunar calendar .Geomanti c decisions had , as in China,to take into consideration the client's horoscope. The horos cope, years, and directions were given animal names which coincide with the animals of the branches in China .

JAPAN

227

"Even a t the present time (1964) the cli ent us ually insists o n obser I'mlce CIf certa.in. rulesin the design (of a hous e) that wou l d guaran tee the help of the good Sp Iri t S and would not provoke the a ntagoni s m of the ev il ones ... (and he) would have the p lan checked by an expert in th is mystica l art."

This quotation comes from a long work on the architecture of the Japaniese house by H. Engel (1964. p. 92) . He describes (pp , 92-98) with more precision than does Norbeck the geomancy of Japanese houses, The main axis is not NorthSou t h. bu t NE -SW. This may well be a variati on from t he Chinese t o accommodate the different weather conditions that prevail in Japan, A toilet or any dirt . a gate or a storehouse on this axis will brin9 di sease and misfortune,A firestead in the NE br i ngs illnes s t o children.An extension of the house in the NE bring s outright destruction. A hill on the NE. however. is a shield from demons and a well to the SW brin9s wealth . This last i s very close to the Chinese. but ideas of pollution stem from Shin t o. While the Chinese manual Yang Chai gives plans of houses around whi ch geomantic symbols are distributed it does not give specific instructions about parts of houses such as the kitchen or shrine. We know . however, that geo mancers were consulted for the s pecifi c siting of these cruci al parts of a house hol d and it i s probable that at the least theoretically sophisti cated level ,where no geomancer was consulted for one rea son or another, their Siting followed prescriptive rules such as those given above f or Japan, Engel describes a Japanese geamantic compas s that was orientated from the centre of the site . if a new house was being planned, or on the head living room or t he central sacred pillar t o measure the geomancy of a house that was already built, The compass had 24 div i sions: 8 main divisi ons with two anima l divisions between each of the eight, 1 am not s~re how accurately Engel observed the compass,He gives no further specification of the ani mal divi sions. It may well be that 12 of them were branches and therefore animals and the f our remainin g were stems. He does describe in more detail what were t he 8 ma in divisions, They are the eight trigrams in the later Heaven sequence and with the si gnificance given them in the Book 06 Change6 . Gates are situated not at the ca rdina l points as in Ch ina, but on· what the Chinese manuals call ed the changing points. NE, SE , SW , and NW, and of course that is consistent with tbe Japanese NE -SWax i s. The animals of t he quarters are nowhere mentioned , and t his i s a major departure from Chinese geomancy, But the good and ev il sp irits men ti oned by Engel are lin ked with winds and breaths and Engel's summary judgement of Japanese geo mantic 'superstition ' is true also of Ch inese geomancy, He says (pp, 97-98) t ha t 'i f con s idered fr om the viewpoint of sun exposure, wind di r ection, bad weather· side etc . , the rule s seem t o be quite reasona b l e and helpful,'

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CHINESE GEOHANCY

Vietnam

Geomancy in Vietnam was and ;s even closer to the Chinese than is Japanese geomancy.No doubt this ;s partly due to the fact that from the second century SC to the tenth AO,with short breaks , Vietnam was governed by Ch inese adminis trators and received man~ Chinese immigrants . while Japan was never adm i nistered or i nhabited by Chinese. The capitals or citadels of Vietnam were constructed from the Han dynasty until the tenth century by Chinese generals and administrators according to principles that became part of feng-shui. But even after they left, capita ls and citadels continued to be constructed according to the same principles and apparently with the use of a geomantic compass . In an article on the construction of North Vietnamese c'i t adel - capita l s , Bezac'ier (1952) does not consider how early the compass was used,merely i l lustrating a Vietnamese one that he had seen .He is ,however , quite definite about some geomantic prescriptions that were used for the earliest and al so for all later citadel -cap ital s. A North -South axis was maintained , but not st rictly ' comme pour les capitales chinoises quiJ auivant le Tcheou- li (Chou. U) Jt1tait calcuU lOOticuleusement au moyen du gnomon J l7tIis Wle direction nord-aud appro:cim:ztive pouvant varier du nord-rwrd- e8t au nord-nord-ouest et meme du nord-est au nord-oueat ' (P.192) . The palace enclosure ,

unlike the Chinese ,was south of the centre of the city (the Chinese ,as in Peking, was in the north ) . But all the other geomantic elements enumerated by Bezacier governing the cities accord with the Chi nese: " Un t1Cl'an (presumably equivalent to the screen walls outside south gates of Chinese houses) afin de pl't1servel' la capitale . . •• des mauvais genies et des

influences pel"l'licieuses J et la pl't1sence indispensable du Tifl'l'e Blanc et du ~gon Bleu (e l sewhere he also mentions the Oiseau Rouge) ainsi que celle d 'une rivi~l'eJ toujOUl'S sinueuse permettant d 'aPl'Osel' conatamnent le champ rmgnt1tique" (p. 191).

Hanoi. Sa igon and Hu~ are planned according t o these beliefs which ful ly accord with the geomancy of Chinese town -planning prescribed,as Bezaciernotes, in the Chou. U . It may well have been only later that these pre script ions were applied to the more secular and individualistic siting of houses both in Vietnam and in China and it would be at the same time that the compass came into use combining the prescripti ons with other cosmological beliefs. A simi lar transition took place with the use of the Book 06 ChanQe6. at first consu l t ed only by kings and high ministers for matters of state i mportance , such as the outcome of bat-

VIETNAM

229

tles,and only later, after the addition of the commentaries and philosophical interpretati ons , consulted for individual fortunes . The

Vietnamese compass illustrated by Bezacier (p. 193 ) has only f our rings: 1 r ing of the eight trigrams in the Ea rly Heaven sequence is innermost as it is on the Chinese compass , then come 3 rings of the 24 points(exactly the same as the Chi ne s e 24) one central and the others swivelled round to East and West by one division to show eastern and western polar variation as Needham suggested for the Chinese compass . As on the Japanese compass, by reduction t he eight tri 9r ams are given paramount importance and it may be that we should give paramount importance to t he trigrams as symbols in the cosmological aspect of Chi ne se geomancy. Hickey (1964) gives a fuller account of contemporary practice of geomancy in Vietnam on the basis of observations made in a village 34 miles outside Salgon. Unlike the Japanese version it is used for the siting of tombs and graves as wel l as houses and parts of houses. In general , Vietnamese geomancy is 'to enable the individual to int erprete the portents of nature and thereby so to orient himself toward his physical surround ings as to attract favourable cosmological influences.AI I these things become important in constructing a house, planning the layout of the kitchen , and selecting the s ite for the family tombs' (p. 40). This mi ght well serve as a description of Chinese geomancy except for the attention to the layout of the kitchen , for which Hickey gives as an example the hearth placed at the West or Northwest of the kitchen to act as a barr ier to the entrance of the 'five demons'. As was observed in the Japanese case , thi s ' varia tion' mig ht only mean an omission of such prescriptions in the records of Chinese geomancyl. It will be noted that north-west and west are the unlucky direc tions, not north as in Ch ina.Hi ckey observes for houses a larger variation from the Ch inese ax i s than Bezacier observed for cities . The proper axis is one of many geomantic rules, called 'taboos' by Hickey , which he says concern the constructi on of houses of ordinary villagers who cannot afford the services of a geomancer (p. 41). There is no r,eason why such rules shou ld not have existed in China ,passed on ora l ly and to be observed in the field but not in the manuals of feng - shu i theory where the r ules are more generalised. "If possib le a house should face east,northeast or south eas t (east, and not south, i s in Vietnam the luckiest direction).TWo directions to avoid are wes t and northwest,both of which are associated with the 'five demons ' . A house should never face the side of the house next door, nor should it face the tr ifurcat ion of a r oad or a watercourse. If the plot of gr ound is such that one of the t aboo arrangements cannot be avoided, the villager purchases a thuang luong (an octagonal. board with 3 mirror at the centre obvious l y derived from if not the same 3S 1. But see the diagram , from Vang Chlti , on p. 166.

CH INESE GEOMANCY

230

The Pa KU3 t a l isman in China) which is hung from the crossbeam at the entrance to ward off evil spi rits 41) .

a ttrac ted

b y the unfavour ab l e posi tion o f th e house ." (p.

Variations from the Chinese. such as in the axis, and in the fact that the side of the neighbour's house and trifurcation are unlucky,are probably significant of the difference of Vietnamese from Chinese ecology. As in China, geomancers could not be afforded by the poorest vi llagers . All five of the geomancers known to Hickey had learnt their ski ll from their fa thers.Basic to the i r method, he says, was the identification of the Five Elements (the same five as the Chinese had) in the forms of the landscape. Th"e few indica -

tions he gives of the appropriate f orms suggests a method close to or identical with that wh i ch appears in Chinese manuals. Except perhap s for the emphasis on a single patron star acquired on bi rth by every ma n, Vietnamese cosmology is the same as Chinese. A lunar calendar of twelve animal months and years is used for almanacs and horoscopes. The animals are those of the Ch inese branches and are in the same order . The only subst i tu tions are a Vi etnamese ca t for the Chi nese hare, a mouse for a rat and a buffalo for an ox. The animals are grouped into sets of four and the compatibil i ty of the animal of a man's birth year with the year at hand thus varies from the same kind of calcu l ation carried out by the Chi nese. What is to be noted here, as i n Japanese calendrical calculations, is the great emphasis placed on the animals in the series of twelve. If I am right in taking J apanese and Vietnamese geomancy as a guide to what was most popular and lasting in Chinese geomancy then we should be inclined to take 1) the Eight Trigrams as the most important symbols of geomantic cosmology, backed by the di vision of sites into four quarters characterised by the An imals of the quarters , 2) the Five Elements as the most important symbols in the geomancyof l andscape forms , and 3) the 12 branch-animals as the most important symbols of geomantic astrology. Most noteworthy of all perhaps is the fact that n.e ither Norbeck nor Hic key observed any cases of conflict or competition in the name of geomancy in their community studies. But a verificati on of this and , if it were true ,for its si9pi ficance to emerge would require a comparison of Vietnamese and Japanese socie ty with Chinese; a study beyond the scope of th i s book.

AFRICA

231

Africa

A purely formal survey and analysis of African geomancy has been made by J. C. H~bert (1961). Although there are many forms, by making dots in sand , by throwing beads or by throwing nuts, they have in common the fact that they result in one of a standard set of abstract diagrams upon which the divination is based. They also have in conmon according to H~bert (pp . I72-184) , an evolutionary structure made of : I} philosophy or cosmology at the heart of which is a structure of four elements, ai r, fire, eart h and water - the same as the Greek, the European and Arab i c elements - linked to the four quarters of the universe. 2) Astrology based on the twelve signs of the zodiac, which also are the same as those used by Europeans and Arabs , plus in some cases four additional signs of the earth. 3) a number symbolism 4) mathematics - geometry and a concern with symmetry and ratios and the significance of odd and even. The se ts of 12 and 16 figure s of African geomancy made up as they are of lines and/or dots immediately remind us of the diagrams of the Boo~ 06Chang ~ . African geomancy has , in fact, a much closer aff inity to Chinese Book 06 Chang~ divination than to Chinese geomancy.The affinity has not escaped H~bert, although he makes of it nothing more than an attempt to see in the Eight Trigrams a basic structure of the four Greek el~ments , for which there are no historical grounds and which involves a false interpretation of T' ien as air and of lightening and the sun as fire. Nevertheless on a much more general level. which does not depend at all on a theory of historical contact, the divis ions of H~bert ' s evolutiona ry structure, whether or not we agree with the exact order in which they come, bears a close resemblance to the elements in the evolution I postulated for the 800~ 06 Change4 and its commentaries .and hence for a good deal of Chinese geomantic theory (see pp. 92 -96). Numerology . theories of balance . harmony . and ratios of odd and even (Yang and Yin) . astrology (the h&iu and the nine stars). a cosmology of quarters and Elements . are t he basic framework of Chinese geomancy as of Afri can

232

CH INESE GEOMANCY

geomancy.r1issing altogether from African geomancy, however, is the elaboration of

time cycles and the whole dynamic flux and change so essential to Ch inese geomancy and horoscopy. and this is at the root of one of the basic differences in the practice of the two. African geomancy is essentially an analysis of the moment , the present situation, while Chinese geomancy as well as this can predict the future. Again this marks a closer affinity of Book 06 Change6 divination with African geomancy.for the same can be said to differentiate the Book o~ Changeo method from Chinese geomancy. By the Book 06 Changeo an analysis of frozen moments;s possi ble. It can only predict by a transformation of the diagram for the present into another which i s then interpreted as a moment in the future, equally frozen. There is no flux, no measurement of time passing as t here i s in feng-shui. Passing now to the practice of geomancy in a Dahomey as studied by Herskovits (1938) , we find that the future,and incidentally that the geomantic figures gu figures even more closely, being similarly made up lines.

particular African society , the diviner never predicts resemble the Book 06 Chanof broken and unbroken

Before going on I should mention that what Hebert calls geomancy for Da homey as welT as for the other forms of Il.frican geomancy, Herskovits refers to merely as divination.Both are correct according to standard definitions ,but since I want from now on to consider Chinese and African forms not i n a detailed compari son, but as divination I will follow Herskovits. One essential difference must be disposed of before we can consider what is common to the two forms as divination. It is that all diviners in Dahomey and Yoruba cultures believe they are possessed by a god,Fa or Ifa, for whom they have to prepare themselves by abstinence to maintain a ' cool' and unconfused manner in which he helps them to see through deception. Fa, according to Haupoil (1943 , p. 5) , is 'l e dieu , ou le genie, de la diVination, 1 'intermediaire entre hommes et dieux'. The Dahomeyan diviner is called upon 'to advise concerning the proper action to be taken' at every point of crisis or stress, economic, political, domestic,or the natural crises of the life cycle and sickness. Having divined the cause of the cr i sis on interpretation of the diagram , the only course of action he advises is the appropriate sacrifice to be made by the client to the client ' s personal Fa and to t he god of the diagram , and he supervises this sacrifice. In this last sense Fa i s fate. wh i ch if known can be prepared for and even forestalled but,of course , never altogether avoided. In another sense the gods and Fa are consulted not because of any idea that they direct man's destiny but because, having lived longer and seen more they know the answers to any problems that men

AFRICA

233

may come upon.Whichever i s the case, African geomancy is intimately bound up with belief i n the s upernatural ,in another world of spirits and gods , and in some senses with be li ef in Fate, none of which is true for Ch inese geomancy. The Oahomeyan diviner , called bokono, is ' essentially a student , commanding a specialized body of knowledge concerning the supernatural world' (Herskovits. p. 214). For everyone of the sixteen diagrams that come up and for the ma~ hundreds of combina tions that are possible.he has a ~th or parab le which he makes applicab l e to the situat ion he finds his client in .The same bokono, but in the COte d'Esclaves . is described by Maupoil (p. 116) as 'd la foia devin ~ pr6tre, sacrificateur~ presc~ipt8UP d 'ordonnances et doseur de charmes, ~decin et parfois pharmacien' . let us apply this li st to the 6eng-4hui h6ien-4heng. He is diviner. he is prescribe r (of where to build and bury etc.).he is sometimes a provider of charms; but he is not a doctor or a chemist. if he makes a diagnosis he does not profess to make a cure; he is not a priest. his ski ll does not depend on a deity such as Fa; he ;s not a sacrificer. he has no sanction of ritual purity . ' Oiviner' is what the two have mos t in common, and stripped of all the other roles . what are we left with? In the first place they have in common the fact that they possess special knowledge.respected and needed by other members of their societies. But here we must pause again t o note a differen ce. In the Oahomeyan and Yoruba cultures this knowledge i s consulted only through the bokono. In, China it ;s only ;n prognoses that the diviners are consul ted.As we have seen , frequently in retrospective geomancy no diviner is consulted and the diagnos i S is made by the people involved in the situati on referring only to their inexpert knowledge. We have , then, to make the proviso that African geomancy is much more closely identified with a person than is Chinese geomancy. But I think that many of the features of African divination which we shall now descr ibe are true. t oned down. of the impersonal body of knowledge about feng-shui as well as of the 6eng 4/uU h6.ie.11-4heng . Feng-shui is consulted, as ;s African divination. at every crl S1S, more especially of course the crises of establishing a home and of death,but nevertheless also at times of conflict, at weddings , at all kinds of misfortune, at loss of business, at failure to rise and hope to succeed in the political hierarchy . It i s obvious that those who do not consult a 6eng-4hui h6ieh-4he.ng yet act on feng-shui, choose from its symbolism what is appropriate to their situati on. In the case of a prognosis . where there i s far less that is concrete and hence far more uncertainty , the client is less articulate and the diviner mus t

CHINESE GEOMANCY

234

make the choice of symbolism. He must therefore be quick to adapt himself to the client's situation. Being entertained by the client and going with him to choose the site would give the 6eng~6hui hoien-6heng an opportunity to guage his client's individual crisis or si tuation, his personal concerns and aspirations. Furthermore, having dealt in apprenticeship and i n practice with so many other cases and hence having seen so many other situations of crisis , and being also t he possessor of special knowledge. he is in the position of the traditi onal wise man. And this is how Herskovits describes the Oahomeya n bokono . The bokono is not a charlatan.He does not act without beliefs ;n the power of his symbols and in the diagrams , 'yet it is equally undeniable that in spite of the belief he ld by these men in the l ots they cast, they can and on occasion do manipulate their palmkernels so that the answer to a questi on will be one that t heir cli ent desi res' (p. 215).We see here a process very similar to that whi ch takes pl ace in Chinese geomancy ,a compromise between the personal s i tuation of the client and the body of rules and concepts to whose consistency he appeal s (see pp. 205 -206). As diviner and as body of symbols they help, as Maupoi l wri tes of the bokono, 'd raffermir clans le groupe socia~ qui ~ ' environne et recourt d ~ui , l 'indispensable dquilibre que rompent les vicissitudes de la vie ' (p. 678). If we take the 6eng-6hul h6ien6heng and

his clients as ' cr oyants' in the sense that they believe in the power of feng-shui and in the symbols of its cosmology , we may take also the following t o be true in the Ch inese case: ' PEychologue , i~ tient compte des sentiments de sa client~le.croyant , p~U8

que

savant , i~ ~i8se

la por te ouverte aux contradictions'

( p. 677).

The way in which this is done by the symbols alone is,it turns out,best desc r ibed for a system of divination which cannot be cal l ed geomancy at al1 iname1y, the ba s ket divinati on of the Ndembu investigated by Turner (1961) . The Ndembu diviner is consulted by a group of peop le. They consult him with a question about a crisis that is in mos t cases attri buted by him and by them t o social tension. This is the cl assic situation in Chinese geomancy.The Ndembu diviner as sesses the situation by observing the group and asking questions.He is ,as Turner says,essentially an in terpreter, he 'expresses in concrete vi sual terms what is unconscious and unpredic table'. He makes known what is unknown but always in Ndembu terms,in terms which refer to a body of beliefs subscribed to by all Ndembu and whi ch stand for Ndembu unity. Now, there is little of thi s mythological element in feng-shu i . Nevertheless , the body of knowledge referred to is a unity to which mos t Chinese subscribe and, in the same way as the Nd~u, by referring to i t the client finds his place in the universe. The situation is made known in universal terms that avoid the di r ect conflict and incompatabi l ity which a direct and unsymboll ca nalysis would have been unable t o avoid. Feng - shui, though it i s used in conf l ict, is

AFR ICA

235

fi'nall y a way of seeking compatability,of accOfll1lOdating differences. To do thi s , geomancer and client alike make the compromise to which I have referred, between belief in the universal symbols and their application as analytic tools to mark a specific situation. Turner ( p.! ) he l pfully treats this as a compromise between symbols and signs. The figures in the diviner'S basket,and the words of feng- shu i. are symbo l i c when they stand for the for ces div i ner and clien te l e be lieve in. As symbols they manipulate and mo t ivate the believer s. They are only signs when they stand for the confl icts and the tensions of the situati on at hand. As such they are man ipulated by the diviner and. in t he case where there is no di viner. by t he client. This is rough ly the same di stincti on as that ma de by Maupoil when he referred to the diviner as both croyant and savant. Croya nt and symbols fu se and resolve contradi ctions . Sa vant and si gns express contradicti ons. Afri can divina tion and Chine se geomancy al ike perform both function s simul taneously and it has been my ma i n purpose in comparing the two to bring out this essential factor which I take to be true of all kind s of divination .

• •

•

PART SEVEN

POSSIBLE CO CL USIONS

CH INESE GEOMANCY

236

Inconclu sive information allo~!s onl y t en tative conc l us i ons . Indefinite infonnation leaves t he ~Iay open t o a number of i nter pretati ons , app r oac hes and types of concl usion. I have examined di vinati on in Afri ca and will shortl y touch on

divination ;n other societies t o see

~' ~at

!
~!e

ca n

e)l~ect

of an

analysis of Chinese geomancy .T he evidence thil t we have of the pra cti ce of Ch ine se geomancy does not disallo\l such conclusions and I '11111 make them. But in doi ng so

I must bring

fon'lard

what I think are

t~ e

mos t impor tant of t he approaches t ha t

could have been used in a study of Chi nese o:;eorna ncy and 11hich Pli gh t profitabl y he used if and when more detailed informa ti on i s at our disposal.

An analysis such as I have been able t o attemp t is descri ptive . It had to start at t he most basic stage of assuning that nothing at all was kno~·m about Chinese ~eomancy. Thi s involved t he mere disclosure of the symbolis~ of fen g- shui from manuals - a descripti on under headi ngs in a seri es. This is certain ly not explanation.Neither is the anal ysis of feng -shui in operati on. Its structural pOSi tion in Chinese beliefs and a description of its effects in practi ce are at best an explanation of its pers is ten ce. but not of its existence. For such an explanation much more attent i on would have to be given t o its history and to the psychological roots of it s practice .

POSSIBLE CONCLUSIONS

237

An histori cal analysis of how feng -shui became a co-ordinated ideology would have made even clearer the distinction between the elements of its symbolism, already separated in my description into various sections. Siting according to a North-South axis came before and was i ndependent of Yin-Yang theory which wa s independent of Five Elements theory both of which gave rise to the theory of Ch'i breaths ,all three independent of the Book 06 Change4.Di stin ct from all these i s the astrological theory of k6.iu asterisms and the Nine Hoving Stars , the theory of the quarters and their Animals , the series of branches and stems and animals and the whole of almanac calculation. To go further we would have to know what the symbols in the various theories meant to their users at the various stages of incorporation into a single cosmology. But we do not even know, and cannot know without detailed field-work on the subj ect, what feng-shui symbo l s mean now to the Chi nese that sti l l practise it. Animals provide a homology that covers a great deal of feng- shui symbolism; there are animals of the quarters, of branches , of k6iu and of forms in the landscape. It might be of interest to analyse them in a series from househo ld to wild, and perhaps mythical , on the model of the animal categorisation suggested by LR. leach ( 1964 ) ~ But t his would be imposs ible without pri or knowledge of what the anima l s mean t o the Chi nese in their dail y li ves. And thi s applies virtually t o any further progress in the study of feng-shui symbolism. Turner has made (1961) a pnofound ana lysis of the symbol s of Ndembu divination and suggested some farreaching explanati ons of their ex i stence ,but he did so on the basi s of a detailed personal study of the symbols at work (see also Turner, Schi6m and Continuity and in C64tty4 .in the JU.twl 06 SociAl. Re.ta.tiolt4 ) . Leach's study of systems of cl assifi cati on made use of the findings of L~vi- S trauss (principally in la Pen6le Sauvage, 1962). On a very general level I used what I understand to be L~v i - S trauss' method when contrast ing feng-shul with Chinese religious beliefs . By necessi ty this was a very rudimentary attempt at discovering the framework of a Chinese system of classification. It is an approach t o feng- shui that can profi tably be developed. In fa ct. the work by Durkheim and Hauss (trans l . R. Needham 1963) whi ch fir st i so l ated the subject of classification for anthropological study included a secti on on Chinese clas sification ba sed largely on De Groot's account of feng-shui . An examination of their study and of l~vi-Strauss' modifications t o their theory provides some interest i ng departures from subjects already suggested in this book.

I. See p. 150 .

238

CH I NESE GEOMANCY

In comparing feng-shui with Chi nese religious be l iefs I dealt brie f ly with the view that the supernatural wor ld i s a mirror of Ch inese societ y. I ques tioned whether feng-shui be l iefs were hierarchical as was the str ucture of the supernatural world and.in another way , as was the socia l str ucture implied byancestor worship . Durkhei m and tlauss proposed that the development of a hierarchical organization of sOCiety first suggests the possibility of a~ form of classifica tion . The· social mode l is then used for the cl assification of nature and the universe and thi s possi bi l ity i s suggested by t he distribu ti on of human groups or cla ss es on the ground and by their adopti on of animal categories as totems. In time the classifications of society and of the universe become separate and indepe ndent . As an example of classification which had become i ndependent of soc i al organization, Ourkhe i m and '~au ss chose the Chinese classif i cation of the Tao (tla tural Universe) prov i ded by 'the astronomical, astrological, geomant i c and horos copic divinatory sys tem' (p. 67) , in fact all that I have described as and in relation to feng -shui.The theory of Ourkheim and '1auss is evolutionary. It supposes an elaboration of the most complex systems of cl assification from simple dualism. Thus in t he Ch inese case they proposed the following stages. The 4 quarters and their An imals are at the simpl est stage. Subsequently the 2H h4iu asterisms were grouped under them in 4 groups of seven. At a secondary stage came the elaboration of quadruple classification into eight basic categories represented by t he Eight Trigrams as described by the table on page 78. Like Hebert ( se e p. 23 1 ;b)ve),Durkheim and "auss treated the trigrams as ei ght elements, but reducible to the Ch ines e and not to t he Greek Elements. The hypothesis is in troub l e here beca use Durkheim and t1auss seem to accept the fact that t he Elements and the Tri grams were coincidenta l syst ems of classification at the same time as proposing that t he one was part of the other. In any case , both we re comprehensive systems of classification . Everything in sky and on earth was subsumed by them as a ' genus connot es the species which i t includes ' (p . 70). Out of t he Elements two more series emerged. A denary series (the stems) was based on a classifi cation of al l Five Elements. A duodenary se ries (the branches) \1as based on a classification of Four Elements with the fifth left out to stand for the centre. Many far-reaching objecti ons may be made. ~ urkheim and ~auss ignore the possib ility that . far from emerging from them or coincid i ng \~ ith the meanings gi ven them, the School of flaturalis ts in the Han dynasty arbitrarily made the Five Elements classify the tr igrams. ~ost unconvincing of all as an examp le of even a natural parallelism behJeen the t\~O systems of classification is the attribution

POSSIB LE CONCLUSIONS

139

of t he element 11etal to the trigram Ch ' ien (Heaven). The eight trigrams incorporate a basic dualism between Heaven and Earth (Ch'ien and K'un) and conta i n the germs of Yin- Yang theory, but this dualism i s entirely absent from the Five Elements. Aga in, far from rising out of the Five Elements, the denary series was or gan ized into pairs in order to fit in with the Five Elements classif ication. As for the duodenary series it has no intrinsic Element mean i ng ,nor even a propensity for classifica t ion by Elements , as we have seen in the complex efforts of compass symbolism to give them Element meanings.Besides, it i s much more likely that both denary and duodenary series were at first astronomical degrees. They were used to classify time cycles and the seasons and they link more plausibly with the Four Quarters. The Five Elements stand out altogether as a system independent of all others and were only later adapted to the Quarters and a series of Four i nstead of Five ,and then much more clumsily to the series of Eight Trigrams. Durkheim and ~1au ss make much of the link between duodenary series and Four Quarters in the classification of ani mals. Once more there is a major difficulty here in the fact that the animals of the Qua rter s do not appear to subsume the animals of the branches .For instance, branch-animal dragon ;s not in the Dra gon quarter. In general ,the objecti on to nurkhe im' s and '1auss's proposed evolut i on of Chinese symbolism is that from the homogeneity of the cosmology as they found it to be represented by the geomantic compass ;n De Groot (1892-1910) they assumed an antecedent homogeneous development . They ignored the contrary , more likely to be true,that each of the compass ' s component sets of symbols was, before integration to fen g-s hui science , a separate system of classification. The evolutionary process was not elaboration from a simp l e core but unification of a proliferation of autonomous systems. Now the strange thing is that they proposed this evolution at all, because the objection just made is perfectly consistent ~lith their main argument: that with the development of a social hierarchy a multipl icity of cate gorisations all on one level are combined into larger groupings under more gene ral classificat i ons leading eventually to a unity. Levi-Strauss had demonstrated (in Le To·tem.i4me AujoUltd'hu..i) that the or ganizati on of people into groups , and into hierarch i es within and of groups , took place simu ltaneously with, not before or after,the classification of nature. It was not its cause, but there \1aS a parallelism. Having made this necessary qualification to Durkheim and I'aus s ,t he parallelism of progressive unification is ~Iell borne out by Chines~ history. The idea of a sin~le nodal point of the universe, T' a; Ch i (see pp. 36-37), \'Jas conceived in the per i od roughly coincidental with

240

CHINESE GEOHANCY

the unification of several states to constitute the Han Chinese empire. The Emperor under whom China was thenceforward unified was even equated with T'ai-chi. Homogeneity of the ideal system of government was expressed by Confucianism, the same principles of articulation holding for the grandest and the least in the order~ works li ke the C1446ie 06 F~ Piety reasoned that relat i ons between Empe ror and subject were those between fathe r and children writ large.$imi l arly,homogeneous pr inc i ples of articulat i on were proposed for the unified cl assification of the cosmos. Yin -Yang ba l ance was manifested in everything; all interaction was i nteraction of Elements. In Le Tote.mi6me AujoUltd'1uU. levi-Strauss showed, in agreement with Ourkheim and tlauss,how the classification of flature or the Universe was used to identify relations between groups in society. In doing so he demonstra t ed that the emblems used came not from a hierarchical class i fication of nature but from a level series of categories related in ways homologous to the series of social categories. Each category and each group subsumed minor categories or species but they were not unified into a hierarchy of groups.The single hierarchy was conceived in religion but not in totemism. Now t have maintained that feng-shu; practice is a method of self-identification . One is differentiated from others by choice of location on the ground. In totemism collateral groups and their relationship are identified by a pa rallel natural series. Totem identification is ascribed and Sign ifi e s membershi p of a permanent groupi ng and set rel ati onshi ps with other groups in the same plane. By feng-shu; on the other hand a person or group i s identified not as one of a collateral series but as an ego -centred universe with status achieved or asp i red to and which may inpinge on other ego -centered universes. This is so certainly in the case of local groupings. In the ·feng-shui of burial, egocentricity i s extended into the future by rules of descent from ego. The compass is orientated from the centre of the site,the centre of the defined area of one's self-interest. The site itself is a projection of the compass, a miniature universe, and at its very centre is the Heavenly Pool and T'ai Chi. With feng - shui. then, we ar e dealing with identification not as part of a series but as a hierarchy. It is not totemism.The hierarchy constituted by fengshui and its cosmology is, however, a natural one and not a supernatural or religious hierarchy. There are other, religious hierarchies, for instance the classe s of Buddhist beings ranging from animals and purgatory up to paradise and the Buddhas.llore directly equivalent to the structure of the Chinese Empire is the rel i giou s hierarchy headed by the Jade Emperor. This is the one that most nearl y mirrors Chinese soc iety. We have , then , three hierarchies; a natural hierarchy. a

POSSIBLE CONCLUSIONS

141

supernatural hierarchy and a social hierarchy. In the pl an of his capital and by projection the ideal plan of his empire,the emperor is equated with T'ai Chi , the centre of the natural hierarchy.His equivalent also exists . however, in the popular conception of a supernatural world as the Jade Emperor. In his own worship of Heaven. the emperor himself recognises a moral supe ri or and we have therefore to take into account a fourth hierarchy.This last i s a moral hierarchy but it includes the social hierarchy as one in which living men are ranked according t o Con fucian ethics. These hierarchies are of course ideal constructions on my part from a co nfusion of ideas about nature. spirits and morality. Natural entities become spirits as we have seen. The Buddhist ideal hierarchy cuts across at least two of those I have constructed and may even suggest yet another hierarchy .one of sp irituality. I have proposed these hierarch ies as separable structures in order to cla rify the reality because 1 think each stands for a distinct criteri on of classification.The criteri on of Confucian ethics and the moral hierarchy informs both the soc ial hierarchy and, but les s so, the supernatural hierarchy. It does not inform the natural hierarchy. This is a hierarchy of organisation pure and simple and I referred above to its centre rather than to its top advisedly because I do not think it 1s a structure of superimposed cla sses but of increasing centralisati on ,of concent ri c seri es. In fact it should not be called a hierarchy at all and I have done so on ly to distingu i sh it from the lateral type of classification of nature referred to by l~vi- S traus s i n hi s analysis of totemi sm. Centralisati on is the principle upon which the Chinese empire was organi sed and it was as its centre but not as its top that the emperor was equated with l'ai Ch i. In a classifi cation where the criterion is amount of authority, the structure is. however, defin i tely a hierarchy and here again the supernatural hierarchy is an equivalent of the social structure with the emperor as tDp .The structure of the natural uni verse must be distinguished from both the supernatural and the soc ial, on the two counts that it is not articulated either by author ity or by Confucian ethics. As a convenient over-simplification we may say that the natural structure is a conception of the way power i s di stributed from a central source, as opposed to the way authority i s delegated from a source above~

• •

•

I . Author ity I take as the legitimate righ t t o use power.

242

CHINESE GEOMANCY

The above was an excursion to show the

frame\~ork

of one way in which an

analysis of feng -shu; could be extended us i ng more historical and semantic mate rial. Another

approach wh i ch vlOu l d lead us nearer to an explanation of the exis -

tence of feng - shu; beliefs and practice would be the psychological one. Again . I have i n the course of my descriptive analysis made some ve ry tentative moves in t his di rection. I have at times brought

attention to the purely formal . visual . indeed

aesthetic qualities of feng-shui practices. The fact that the forms of the land scape suggest certain types of movement and organisation, that they are further ident i fied as certain animals, or objects , is plainly a subject for the psycholo gy of projection and of selective perception. One of the assumptions made by psycholog i sts of projections i s that, gi ven an ambiguous st imulus , the subject projects onto it his own needs and impress (Bellak.in Abt, 1950, 1959 edition p. 9). Tests have been made , the results of wh i ch support the theory 'that memories of percepts influence perception of contemporary stimul i' (Be ll ak. op ci t, p. 10). This residuum of past experience i s called by the psychologists of projection the "appercepti ve mass".Other tests have shown how strong i s our propensity as humans to see patterns and log i cal structures even in mechanically randomised sets of images.

The shapes of trees. mountains , pools and streams are notoriously gesta l ts, highly emotive and evocative to the ancien t Greeks. and to Wordsworth as much as to the Chinese. Of course , nature cannot be cal l ed a random select i on of things , but the patterns and images seen i n it by poets, painters and feng -shui surveyors have little or nothing to do with its real structures . They are projections of the imagination. and the ac t ions taken according to them by feng -shui believers have only incidental effects on the phys i cal reality of the li fe of men in conjunction with t rees, rocks, watercourses and the weather . Of particular in t erest to the anth ropo l ogist, however, is that pe.rcep tion may be culturally determined , that a Ch i nese wi ll see something different in a rock from what we would.Where a European would see a crag as the head of a goat or Pan, the Chinese might see the head of a dragon. This is projection of symbols for which there i s a mass cOnsensus of recognition, and obviously we are deal i ng here with a matter ve ry di ffe rent from , the individual's projection of a stored perception, the si gnificance of which can on ly be known by him and those close ly acquainted with hi s history. Culturally

POSSIBLE CONCLUSIONS

243

determined projections cannot be put down to remembered perceptions; no one saw a real dragon;unless we postulate an inherited cultural memory of the saurian monsters man lived with in primaeval forests . Cultural projections are not simply pro jections of past perceptions and experiences that have become significant. They are symbols at one further remove. They are not themselves past experiences but 6tand 6o~ past experiences of each individual and similar experiences in other ind i viduals. The cut into the dragon's back . seen in some mutilation of a mou ntain ridge. is not a personal memory; it i s a symbol which classif ies a type of experience (of i nterference and clumsiness which result in los s and misfortune) . personal versions of which are recognised in the symbol by all those who project it. Perception itself is taught. Havi ng seen drawings or heard descript i ons of dragons and having been told that the mountain ridge has the appearance of one the child l earns to see the ridge as a dragon. The recounting of myths and moral tales to illustrate typi cal predicaments. experiences and situations met in life. i s another way in which culturally determined symbols are learnt. The recurrence of certain types of experience in some societies more than in others will result in the projection of cultura lly idiosyncratic symbols. Thus the kind of conflicts and situations in wh i ch feng-shui symbolism is used may be typi cal of and pecuiiar to China. Hence they form part of the explanation of the continuing existence of feng-shui symbols.All this must remain. however, as hypothesis and sketchwork for a more thorough investigation of what feng-shui symbols mean i n popular usage and how they are taught. One of the motivations for selecting a past perception for projection is that it was part of an experience that caused anxiety . And this can also be true of a symbol that is culturally recognised to stand for the type. of experience which includes the personally poignant one. I have maintained that feng -shui practices are motivated by anxiety. brought about by apprehension of change. by interfe rence or by the sense of challenge . The anxiety is brought about by a situation in which the subject knows he is not in con trol of factors critically affecting the circumstances in which he finds himself. In feng - shui the anxiety is related both to soc ial factors out of the subject 's control and to unpredictable and uncontrolla ble natural factors. such as the weather. I have shown that the Tiger is a symbol of the unpredictability and uncertainty of Autumn .and in discussing the importance of landscape as a symbol to the Chinese r made the obvious pOint of the peasants' dependence on uncontrollable natural forces. Until floodcontrol. irrigati on techniques and fertilizers can be trusted to ensure security of the crop,there will be fear of rivers . the lack of rain , and infertile ground.

244

CHINESE GEOMANCY

Equally uncontro l lable are the actions of people and groups outside one ' s own circle. When their acti ons are considered t o be in competition for the same rewards as one's own ,they are a threat if, as is likely. the reward s are not shared without deprivation. Choice of the site for a house i s choice of where t o make a living ,depe ndent on the natural conditions of the chosen locality. It is also the sett ing up of rel ations with neighbours with whom one mi ght be in competi ti on. House -siti ng i s the refore direc t ly concer ned with both of two major sources of anxiety.

Grave -siting is also thu s concerned but le ss directly. Death and buria l are remi nders of the unpr edfctabflfty of the natural forces outs ide one's control. The choice of grave - site by feng-shu i divinat i on is an attempt t o preserve one 's l ife from these negative forces. The s i tes of both graves and houses once establ i shed are the media for the subsequent expression and re so lut i on of crises of anxiety of the two major types . When there i s si cknes s or cr ops fa i l , a 6e»g-~hui h6ien-~heng might be asked what adjustme nts should be made to the environment . When two groups clash or feel threatened by ea ch other, they will claim that the feng -shut of the site has been damaged by t he other and that the offending innovation be removed. But why should thi s be a reso l ution of anxiety? Two linked procedures for allaying anxiety are used in Chinese geomancy . The first i s to fa bri cate a sense of control where there is no rea l control, and the second, linked to the first ,i s to regulari se the making of decision s in an irregulared uncertain fie ld of choice. First there is observation of the dependence on natural forces. Then there is observation of the regul arities of natura l for ces , the season al life cy cle,the directions of prevalent winds, the power of the sun and what kind of si te rece i ves it for the longest time. Then ways of measuring t he regularitie s are evolved. Bu t if there is no further ana lysi s into the causes of good and bad fortune the ways of measu ring , which are already mea ns by which predict i ons can be made and whi ch are therefore a form of control , themse lves become symbols of control. Those points on the measures whi ch mark po si ti ons in ti me and spa ce which have been observed t o be regularl y beneficial become symbols of good fortune . Thus the compass and its qua r ters and cycles t ake on symbo li c value. The accumulation of symbolic value i s also a mea ns of remembering which points of the compass and of time most consis tent ly were and will be benefic ia l. As the symbols are cons ide red t o be contr ollable , a semblance of con trol over the forces which they in fa ct on ly measure ; s fa bricated.Thus the act of selection is desc ri bed and underst ood as an act of man i pulati on. The si te i tse l f is a microcosm, its analys i s and selec ti on i s a co nt rolled recreati on of t he cosmos.From the obse rvati ons of regu-

POSSIBLE CONCLUSIONS

245

lari t ie s and the mea ns of meas uring them, a cosmology is conce ived consi st ing of t heor ies such as Yin-Yang and the Five Element s which account for the regul arities but which are nei t her tested nor disproved. They are believed to be true. The signs of measurement become symbols of t he for ces conceived of in the cosmologi ca l theories. When fUrthermore the images projected onto the landscape are be l ie ved t o be ma nifestati ons of the cosmo l ogica l forces,manipulation of them t oo will seem t o be ac tua l co ntrol of natu-r al forces and environment . If the productive natural force s are symbol i zed as a dragon they are con troll able , beca use the drago n may be preserved, offerings may be made t o him and his cuts hea led. If t he destructive natu ral forces are symbolized as arrows they may be deflected by sh i elds and sc reen wa l ls. For t he ma n deciding on a site f or a house or a grave there are a number of alternatives open t o him, t he cr iteri a for making the cho ice are uncertain and yet the decision itself is highly consequential. As the manuals indicate , the world is in great flu x. Princip l es must be found t o docket it. Just as the ma int enance of Li (Rules or Rites) and the rectifi cation of mean ings i n Confucian moral phi losophy are necessary t o keep man from confusion,so the compass which is the rul e of natural princi pl es docket s the gol den mea n i n the confusion of the physical world . It mechanises t he choice of site. The metaphysics of feng - shui create criteria for the selection of si tes where practical cr iter ia have bee n exhausted. In fa ct t he burde n of the decision to si te is taken away from the ind i vidual by its bei ng ritualized. It is made by means of divination, the symbo l s of whi ch are conven ti onally recog nized. Once the site i s chosen and t he owner establi shed in it there may come a time when he fee l s threatened by or in competition wi t h owners of neighbouring sites and t he urgency of the situati on goes beyond al l that he can usefully do about it. Aga i n t he practical cr iteria f or act i on and dec ision have been exha ust ed, and again action can be ritual ized by reference to feng - shui.The situation is expres sed in symbo li c actions such as t he cons t ruction of a pagoda or objection to the mutilati on of a fen g-shu i tree . Ritualization is a transference of t he decis i on from the individual on two counts. First ly , it i s action expressed i n symbols conventionally recogn i zed and therefore it i s given public st atus. Secondly, i t is made with reference to a me t aphys i cal system that governs all ot her acti ons and is th ereby no longer subject to him or personal failing s. It may be observed t ha t, at l east in choosing a si te,these two conditi ons would be sati sf i ed by recourse t o t he modern sc i ence of surveying.Granted th e need f or symbolic acti on ,why is it so clo sely bound t o si t eana l ysis? Apart from the fac t that the site and its choice are close con crete

246

CHINESE GEOMANCY

functions of the concern with property and self-interest and therefore appropriatesymbolization of this concern , t he re is another explanation.

Siting according to feng-shui purports to do more than place a house or grave in good ground. Not only does it guarantee the worth of the site itself, it predicts the future of the site's owners. It makes the decision with its full load of imponderable and personal factors. In scientific or rational thought signs are

used, and signs. as Turner distinguished them f rom symbols (pp . 234-5 above). are analytical tools.They stand for what is known and can be strictly defined ,whereas symbols are ambiguous. They stand for undefinable and incompletely known factors . Their virtue is that they can function as signs and at the same time their ambiguity leaves room for personal interpretation. Ch inese geomancy i s a sc ien ce of surveying in which symbols are used.They leave room for the non-objective factors , the personal circumstances of the dec i sion, its meaning for the decider. A non-expert and common sense choice will lead to a site that has a strong chance,practically and scientif i cally speaking , of being satisfactory. The measure of success is in any case vague, so the advantage of scientific and "rational" methods are not obv i ous. Vog t and Hymans (1959, pp. 193-202) make the first pOint with reference to the selection of a place to dig a well ,where scien tific geophys i cal divination is on ly a little more successful at finding water than divining by dowser . The crucial difference between the two types of divination is that in the scient ifi c method signs are demonstrably linked to the predic ti on made , whereas in feng-shui and water-witching there is no demonstrable l ink. But reasoning on these l ines is easily discounted when the percentage of success is just or nearly as high in the magical as in the scientifi c method. "No form of divination known to science can anticipate the future with 100% accuracy. All we demand of a divination device is that it predict outcomes better than chance and better than alternative forms of divination" (Vogt and Hyman, 1959 , p. 193). Since its recommendations coincide with common sense siting (see pp. 141 ff.), feng-shu i divination i s bette r than chance ,and it is not worse than the alternative scientific form of site-divination enough to be crit i cal . Buria l has less practical consequence than does the building of a house. It is itself almost entirely a symbolic action .There is less need than in the siting of a house to make a rational decision. But both are unique decisions made only once or twice in a life-time. Hence they are fraught with personal signifi -

POSSIBLE CONCLUSIONS

247

cance. Here, as I showed above, feng -shui being symbolic has the advantage over the scientific method. It is much more easy to make a "rational" decision where it is one that has been made a number of times before and will be repeated in the fu t ure. The advantage of the alternatives chosen in past decisions may be averaged out and be the basis for the present decision. This can only take place if the past decis i ons have been made personally by the subject or, if they were made by others, cou l d be checked by him and were not mere hearsay (as are a great many of the storIes that build up the reputation of feng -shui).lf the terms of the decision are to be repeated in the future ,it may also be calculated rationally to average out to the best advantage. Vogt and Hyman illustrate the difference between the unique and the repeated decision very succintly as follows. The decision to be made is between(a) earning 1 000 dollars a week indefinitely and (b) earning la 000 dollars a week or nothing according to the toss of a coin. If this is a decision whose terms are repeated in the future, then the choice can rationally be made for (b), which will average out at 5 000 dollars a week?But suppose it is a unique choice, made now and never again. IllI1Iediately the personal value of the 1,000 dollars comes into the decision. Am 1 rich enough to afford to lose them? What depends on my having them? The decision can now be made rationally only with great difficu l ty because the factors involved are not as quantifiable as are dollars per week.The signs that guide such a decision must now both "supply emotional reassurance and lead to decisive action in a moment of anxiety and concern" (Vogt and Hyman, p. 202). In other words they must be symbols .

•

•

•

An article (1963) by Park gives divination three possible functions: objectification , publication and legitimation of decisions. By objectification he means depersonalization of the decision. As I have described , this is done in Chinese geoma ncy by transference of the decision to a machine,the compass,to a third /

248

CHINESE GEOMANCY

person. the 6eng-4hui hoien-6 heng . and by reference to a cosmology . Externaliza tion also comes under this heading and is achieved in feng-shui by the very fact that its symbols are in and of the physical environment. Publicat ion in feng -shui is the expression of the decision to site or to defend one's persona l i nterests in commonly recognized symbols . This has the effect of referring the decision to what Park calls (p. 201) "universally shared conventional

understandings". giving occasion for the emergence of a public consensus on it (p.199). Divination is a dramatisation of the circumstances of a de-

cision for appeal to the public. The clearest examples of this in feng - shut are the cases reported by Johnston and Graham where the disputants bring to Court infringements of feng -shui which are clearly symbolic of unspoken rivalry. Dramatisation of conflict and competition is tactful,since the possibility of resolution is always left open on the same , symbolic , plane of action. Rivalry expressed publicly in direct and unsymbolic and therefore unambiguous and unguarded terms leaves less room for compromise. Symbol ization of conflict , competition or resis tance to change is not, then, the expression of an adamant position. The very decision to symbolize envisages the possibility of accomodation. A function of feng -shu i divination is. therefore. to formulate or crystallize the conditions that circumscribe the decision to site or to contest a Site; ' to make known the unknown' in symbo lic terms and show willingness for it to be governed or defined by publicly recognized terms. A decision ,which has al ready been made in i ntent, i s dramatized. Legitimation is also a function of symbolic action . The decision is. as it were, publicly sealed and certified by being expressed in publicly recognized symbols. It gives the decision public status. Park makes a mos t interesting observation on these lines with respect t o the Ch inese diviner. When a diviner decides on the dates of the various stages of a wedding or a funeral he is making a very real as wel l as a symbolic decision . He is in fact deciding the length of time which a family can afford to extend the costly display and ceremony. He judges the fa mi ly 's status for them; In the siting of a house or grave the 6eng-~hui h6~en­ ~ heng must similarly judge how long his clients can afford to entertain him . Their status is later expressed by reports of how tong and how much care was taken in the choice of Site, in the ped igree given the site by the 6eng-~hui h4~en-~heng's description of it (see Lin Yueh -hua quoted on p. 170) and by the self-evident beauty of the surroundings in which the house or grave is situated and j udged in the feng-shui of common usage. Thus a site is an emblem of its owner's present status, and, more private ly, the med ium for his aspirations. One element of legi-

\

POSSIBLE CONCLUSIONS

249

timation as Park describes it is missing in feng -shui divination . It is the addi tional authorization of a decision by supernatural sanction , supp l ied for example by the sacrifices ordained by the Oahomeyan diviner (po 233). This supernatura l sanction of the establishment of a grave or a house is,of course, not absent. But it is not the function of the 6eng -4hui h4ien-6heng. It is the domain of a sepa rate person, the priest or the ritual elder,at t he funeral in the case of a grave and at the foundi ng of the household shrine in the case of a house. It may be said the feng-shui of the site itself is more open to challenge just because i t is distingu i shed from the supernatural sanction ing of the house or grave at its centre. Having made this reservation, however, I conclude that it is useful to treat Chinese geomancy as divination and as the expression in symbols of a unique and hence personally critical decision. Retrospect ive f.eng -shui divinati on , the expression of conflicts about the feng -shui of the already chosen site, is merely an extension of the same concern with i dentification , preservation and bettermen t of self-i nterest that charged the origina l prospective decision •

•

•

•

Finally, it is appropriate to return to the questions which I put for ward when introducing this work.I said there tha t feng -shui was a way (a) of conceivi ng and perceiving reality and (b) of dealing with reality.Parts 2 and 3 were written with regard to (a), they were an attempt t o reconstruct someth ing like a cosmological model and then to follow through its application to reality . With regard to (b) . I opened the Introduction and have expanded at var i ous :subsequent junctures on t he expressive function of feng-s hui symbol i sm and the use of the l andscape as a medium. Identification of individual inte rests was the subject of expression. I was, in fact. crudely employing two analytic models; for (a) I used model compos ition itself as my analytic model;for (b) I treated feng-shui as di scourse ,the analytic model being l anguage. The two are, however , closely linked in the simple scheme of a model and its application or exposition progressively more

--

250

CHINESE GEOMANCY

embodied, first in the physical environment and then in social fortunes. On the closer analysis which we can now make i t becomes evident that the ma terial is more accurately treated as the same model being used to explain two fields of reality .In the first ,the compass and the cosmology of feng-shui are used as an ideal reconstruction and explanation of the natural universe . In the second, they and by extension the physical environment of the site itself are used as a model for the analysis of soc ial fortune. It i s left to us now to see how far it is in fact possible to analyse Chinese geomancy as a model and its exposition. Bearing in mind what was sa i d at the end of the Introduction, we may find that we have t o abandon the possibility of taking as a model my reconstruction from the manuals , in the face of too many inconsistencies and loop - holes in its conception and application. High on the l'i st of possible inconsistencies,ba rerely rationalized (possibly wit hout justification) by reference to the different planes of the cosmology, are the discrepancies between Element characterisat i on of the various series of symbo ls~ But I think we can agree that the feng-shui me taphysic i s a sel f-defining set of concepts. It is not bpen to contradiction except in its own terms, certainly not by being checked with reality. Geomancers always have a line of escape , within the terms of the metaphys;c. A site diagnosed as favourable can always be re-diagnosed as unfavourable because it can never be the cas e that no Elements in it are not somehow in conflict. No site is per fect and the system dictates no strict rules for the relative importance to be given to its thousand aspects. But the Elements and breaths do themselves provide a consistent articulation of the metaphysic. They seem to have constit uted an explanation of natural processes that could be believed implicitly by all Ch inese. As to the application of the metaphysical model to the soda l Situation, we found that anyone part of the metaphysic could be used in an analysis of a specific site and the rest of it ignored. No principles were imposed in the practice of feng-shui. In the case of a conflict , feng-shu; could be used to express both the conflict and its resolution,and arbitration was not made objectively, so to speak , by an appeal to the logic of the system. Feng -shui concepts could not be computed t o give the resolution of the two feng-shui situations of themse l ves.Only by a primary decision on the part of the disputants, for othe r than feng- shu i reasons, could a resoluti on be brought about, but it could then be sealed by reference again to feng-shul,made possible t hen by feng -shui's very flexibilityand lack of st rict logic. 1. See pp. 106- 107 f or ot her inconsist enc i es , anomal ies and loop- ho l es as wel l as the que stion whether f eng - shu i I s systtmat ic .

\

POSSIBLE CONCLUSIONS

251

We seem,therefore.to be somewhere between my two analytic models; fengshut is less model than language. A stricter use of the meaning of 'model' should clar ify the situation and for this purpose I will employ Slack's (1965) lucid account of ~todw and Me.tapholLlo. Professor Black has classified models into two main kinds. mathematical and theoretical. The mathematical model is a simplification of common sense hypoti2ses and statistically measured va riab les to make an equation. He calls this an expository model - a simile of reality. Feng-shui is obviously not mathematical. Its parts, and the reality to which it is applied, are card inal, set in order but not quantified. 50 we plump for the theoretical model , for t he use of which Black lists five conditions (p. 230) : 1. - We have an origina l field of investigation in which some but not all facts and regularities are known to us . In the case of Chinese geomancy.let us say that this field is the success and failure of man in social life, dependent upon the physica l environment.Feng-shui is not used to explain man's success in gaining his livelihood for his own sUbsistence. The fortunes predicted are more concerned with comparative level s of livelihood, with wealth and honour, with sickness that besets the size and future of one's family rather than oneself; in short , with socially significant fortunes. 2. - A fieed to be felt to (a) explain this unintegrated field of data 'Data' we may interpret as the histories of clients and all other people brought under feng- sh ui analysis - unintegrated because no causal connection between their various fortunes and no reason for the fluctuati ons of their individual fortunes are apparent (b) extending them by conjecture (cl connecting them with other hitherto disparate fields of knowledge 3. - lie descrihe another better known and integrated field .Th is is the field composed of the common sense of siting (North "cold , 50uth"\~arrn . wet and fertile),calendrical knowledge, and astronomy 4. - Explic it or implicit rules of co rrelation be tween this and the origina l field are available for tran slat ing sta tement s of

252

CHINESE GEOMANCY

the second into the first field.

The manua ls explaining the use of compass symbols most explicitly do this . On another level . correlat ion is provided

by the knowledge of man's dependance on the natural events constituting the second field . 5. - Inferences from the

assumptions

made in the second field

are translated by means of these rules and then chec ked against known or predicted data in the first . This is where feng - shu; fails as a model; inferences and predictions are made . but not checked back.

Feng-shu; is on t his count an explanatory device.but not for discovery. Feng-shu; exponents show no interests in 2 (b) or (c) or in 5. But there are further analogies between the use of feng-shu; and the use of theoretical models as recounted by Black. The characteri stic of the theoretica l mode l i s that the relationship between the two fields i s metaphoric.The model is 'a sustained and systematic metaphor ' (p . 2~6). 'The heart of the method (of explanation by means of a theoretical

mode l ) consists in talking in a certain way '

(p.229). A descripti on of the model is a metaphorical description of the original because relationships between the parts of the one are the same as , or are believed t o be the same as , the relationship between the parts of the other. Dragon' s bleeding drains the site, just as neighbour's competit i on for the same source of material welfare drains the chances of the feng- shui client benefiting from them. This seems t o be the proper sense in which to take what I have ca lled the express i ve function of feng -shui. Two types of theoretical model described by Black seem to elucidate this function. The first is what he calls the existential model , i n which one physical entity is used to explain another - this i s that; the lands cape or the site 1s the socia l success of the owner. The second is what he ca ll s the analogue model which concentrates on reproducing in another medium the relationships between the parts of the original. Feng-shui cosmology is eminently more about relationships than fixed entities; the phases of cosmic breaths and the interaction of elements may easily be and are in the manua l s themse lves personified into social phases and interacti ons. Concentrating on relationships ,the analogue model allows the widest va riety of content and therefore 9reat scope of interpreta tion . 'Analogue models furnish plaUSible hypotheses , not proofs ' . In a sense , the metaphorical content for the ana l ogue i s supplied by the

POSSIBLE CONCLUSIONS

253

l andscape, the physical environment, in other words by the existential mode l , in the case of feng-shui . Having gone thi s far in analysing Chinese geomancy as the use of a model it is worth remembering that we are not in fact dealing with a consciously constructed model as would be the case for a scientist. The universe, the la ndscape , the seasons are already there. Moreover, there is an empirical connection between this ,the second field, and the original field . The mode l is metaphysical; it is meta -natural-environrnent,where the original field is the social environment. We might say that the compass as an ideal reconstruct ion of the natural universe is a model of the model used to explain the social environment. For the metaphysics of nature apply as such directly to the fortune s of man.The model itself becomes the hypothesis it is supposed to furnish. The metaphysic becomes universal. explaining both nature and society .and, if it is one at all , the compass is a model for both . Nevertheless , it cannot be denied that the phys i ca l environment and theories os tensibly about it are used as a metaphor for the fortunes of man. A. Richards (the Pkit060phy 06 Rheto4ic, 1936, quoted by Black) says that the secre t of the connect i on made by metaphor is that it depends on the ~d ­ ers (interpreted in our cases as all those who discourse in terms of feng-shui) knowing the standard meaning of the illustrative mode. It is a 'system of associated commonp laces that are the common possession of the members of some speech cOfllllunity' (p. 40). This is precisely what feng- shui is. A number of clichl! ima ges - such as Azure Dragon or White Tiger - are used as symbolic illustrations of types of social character or events.Both symbols and events are commonplace. b~t . crucially. symbol and type of event are vague enough to allow specific and perso nal interpretation. J.

Perhaps what I have been striving after is something like but not the same as a model ,what Black calls anl!T chetyp~. This i s an understood field of reference ~Ihich provides the imagery for describing the origina l unknown field for i nvestigation. It is not a fully worked out system. and is used as a device for cl earing the jungle and leaving the way clear to more precision when used in a scientific context. It is what Blac k,taking the scientist's point of view . regards negatively as an aberration. But for us as investigators of what feng -shui is to ~ the Chinese this is positively Significant. 'The more persuasive the archetype. the greater the danger of its becoming a se lf-certifying myth' (p.242). Those aspects of the analogy sufficien t ly rich in implication last and have a following.

25 4

CHINESE GEOMANCY

It i s t hese

t hat become ' II\Yt ho l og1zed' t hat i s t o say t hey become c1icM s 1n the

stock of prover bi al l i fe 1s des cribed.

knowledge wh i ch cons t i tutes the met apho ri c system by wh i ch

Impl i ci t i n al l th i s is the his t ory of the format ion of a mode l . or its aberra ti on . t he archetype. A clear expos it ion of a hypotheti cal and generali zed evolut ion of an archetype , which mi ght we ll apply to the developmen t of feng-shui out of

cen t uries

of metaphysical

Black from a book cal led

Wo~

spec ul at ion . is gi ven i n a pas sage quo t ed by

Wypothe4 e4 by St ephen C. Pepper. 1942, pp. 91 - 92 :

itA man desi ring t o under s t and the world l ooks about f or a c l ue t o it s comprehens i on . He pi t ches upon some area of common-sense fac t and tries i f he can not under s tand other are as i n t erms of th is one . The o r igi nal area becomes then his ba s i c anal ogy or r oot metaphor . He descri bes a s best he can the charac teri s t ics of this area , or , i f you wi l l , di scr i minates i t s s truc ture. A l is t of i t s s t r uctur a l chara ct er isti cs becomes his ba sic concep ts o f explanat ion and desc rip t i on. We cal l them a set of c ateg o r i~s ..... He undertakes to interpr e t all f ac ts in t erms o f thes e categor ies . As a res ult of the i mpac t o f the se o t her f act s upon hi s ca t egor ies , he may qua li fy and j us t read the ca t egories so that a set o f ca t egori es commonl y changes and deve l ops. Since t he basic analogue or r oo t me t aphor norma l l y (and pro babl y at lea st i n part necessar i l y) ari ses out of common sense . a gr ea t deal of development and r efinement o f a set of categori es is r equired if t hey ar e to prove adequa t e fo r a hypothe s i s of unlimite d scope . Some roo t me t a phor s prove more fert i le than others , have gr eater powe r o f expansion and ad jus t ment. Thes e survive in compari son with the other s and gen er ate · the re l a t ive l y ade quat e wor l d hypothes i s . "

•

•

•

APPENDIX A

Appendix A

THE JOHN COU CH ADAtlS COH PA SS in the WHIPP LE ~IUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE , CA~IBRIOGE (p robably of the late eighteenth century)

255

256

CHINESE GEOMANCY

Equivalent Ring No. from lo ~ ehing Chieh

Ring No. 1

Heaven Pool

1

2

Trigrams in the former Heaven sequence

2

3

The 12 Branches

4

A distr i bution of the Nine Stars

5

5

24 names of stars and cons tellati ons found on the Ts'ui Kuan (Heading for Off ice) tab le

6

6

The 24 pOints of the Earth plate ( Inner Region) according to the Correct Needle in pure Vin and pure Vang colouring

7 , 3

7

The 24 periods of the Sol ar Ca l endar

8

8

(The 72 Dragons) Terrestrial Record of the Mountain-penetrating Tiger

9

The Nine Halls of Tun Ch ia

10

10

Inner Compas s Fen-chin

16

11

Orderly Arrangement of Equally Spaced Dragons (Sexage naries )

13

12

Nei-yin (Contained Sound) 5 Elements

13

The Nan Pl ate (Midd le Region) of the Compass according to the Central Needle (24 point s)

22

14

Mr Ts 'a i's Earth-penetrating Dragons (Sexagenaries)

31

15

Threes and Sevens Riding the and 36 divisio ns contain ing finer divisions of degrees table to Ring 25 of Lo-~hing

16

The New Degrees (360) adopted by the present (Ch'lng) dynasty

17

The equatorial extensions of the 28 Hsiu

28

18

The Heaven Plate (24 paints) arranged accordi ng to the Seem Needle

30

19

The Fen Yeh and the Tz'u Han

38 &37

20

The Fen -Chi n of the 3uter Compass

32

21

Ce le stial Record of the Fully- coiled Dragons (sexag enaries )

22

The Five Elements distributed for the equatorial extensions of the celestial sphere

Ch'; (the 24 points odd numbers to mark between the 24 (see Chieh)

26

257

APPENDIX A

Ring No.

Equivalent Ring !lo. from La-eking Cltielt

23

Degrees as determined in the K'a i - hsei period ( 1206 AD) 28

24

Fortunate and Unfortunate positions for Siting

27

25

The extens i on of the Hsiu in Oegrees for Divination

36

•

•

•

CHINESE GEOHANCY

258

Appendix B

list of the main Ch inese dynasties and their dates

1121

255

255

206

206

- Aa 220

Su i

589

618

T'ang

618

907

Sung

960

1280

Yuan

1280

1368

Ming

1368

1644

Ch'ing

1644

Chou Ch I i n

Han

8C

-

• •

•

1912

I

259

LIST OF WORKS CITED

List of Works cited

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othe~

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06 the

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6~om

Q~'<'g'<'nat4

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t

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~~ ~t IJ. ~

H6.ie~ Ho Ch ' ~-6hen Preclous Class lc) .

#j t,,;

:1;

Huang -ti Cha.i.-c.hing j{ by Wang ~Iei. fifth century.

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I.

~

it. 1-

t 'i: Il

I- c.IUe.n Fe."!!-6hu.i.. Pi Chue.h -Y; of Feng-shul).

1.

(Classic of !1oving the Dragon) by Yang I

Pao-c.h.Lng~ ~t1 ~f

Hu Ai Ha"•• ClUh-PM CIU.g ;lJJ cious Classic).

_~

# f Il ( Hsieh Ho's Lucky spirit

t

fN. (The

J""",rta 1 Hu Ai' 5 "ost Pre-

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ilii,.Jjil?j(

~~ (Simp lified Guide to the Secrets

--i; 4'--

Ii1 t 1f:. A (Imperial

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1f ~ J~ J.t ~'6

~ ~

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LIST OF WORKS CITED Kuo P' o Ku-pe..n nallg Ching ~~ j~ ~ in :\ntiquity) r eputedly f ou rth century .

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K' ung - olLih Ch ' ang - che 1/,'u.- h.o.iJtg Clzuo-mo Clteng-p.iel1 \kl1g -.t ' u. '§: ...G ~(ftJj(. .iE. fl}J (K ' ung- mih Ch'ang - che Five Pl anet, Vei n seising , Cor -

if.

lil

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t..;-; .#. *

1& ~

~ Jf.~

Ci SOU.-toWlg Kan-yii. TM.-Chu. .:} lany).

(LiaO-YU's 16 Burial

!.. 1l ~

Uu Chi Kan-yii ~Ian-ho.ing ~rl ri sms) liu Ch i l i ved 1311- 75.

~~

~~

l qLi

Rules or Pat -

Ssu -tsung ' s Geomanti c

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rfJ

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4i 1Jt A~~J'! (Three - pole Geomancy of ~t

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~~1.!

=i'

J;. (T~le lve

Inmortals) by

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(The#i .jIj.l~

(t.. "- #i"h' ~ f~ it i- :il3 ~ -ll- ~

1;'

(The Immortal Yang Tsai -nan and Yang Kung's Golden Drill Root Forms. Pa tterns and Burial niag r ams a nd Explanations).

t t $.-

YtlIlg YUII-oung Ch ' .ing-nan,9 Ao - clt.i.h ~A -ij- (Yang YUn-sung ' s Secre t "1eanings of the Universe) . a compos ite work which included Yang YUn-sung's Shih~h Chal1g- 6a .:::.~t J;. (Twelve St ave Het hod or Pa tterns) , Ya ng lived in the nlnth century.

#i try

t

YU Yiian ha T' ien-pao Chingl... Classic).

..1L

-t

Yiian-I1U CIt ' i..ng-lUll1g HcU..-c.hiao Chi.ng

f

J;..

..1L -Jt:

Girl's Universe and Ocean-corner Cla ss ic ) .

•

•

•

#i.f (YU YUan Tzu's Heaven- precious

t t

-;lij:

fA

#1

(T he original

d'imprimer sur les Presses de l'Imprimerie Nationale Lao Vientiane, Laos. D~p6t L4gal Z~me trimestre 1974 No. d'4diteur 007 ler tirage: 1 500 exemplaires Imp~~ml dU La04.

Achev~