An Anthropological Analysis of Chinese Geomancy

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vithagna

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CoLLectlo~

"CONNAISSANCE DE L'ASIE "

VoLum e 1

l~re ~djtlon

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

i

i

FOREWORD

i I

I ;

t I

I1 !I

!

I

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

\

•

i

I

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

I

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

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 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' to explain t he .. tob l lsl'llle nt 0{ Ihe

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
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;]


' +

. - . *,

• • •

0 0 0

,

• ••

:>''''''''0, ;11"';:",""0'1 ;:::::'+'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.'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. Tuenefi 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 \