I’m enjoying reading Stephen Field’s Ancient Chinese Divination, especially the insight into the early understanding of qi and how it flows.
I’m just reading his description of Form School fengshui. While its earliest written description is (in Yijing terms) relatively young (the Tang dynasty Book of Burial), the fundamental idea that qi flows through the earth in the form of water, like blood in a human body, seems to be much older. It makes me look at some hexagrams with fresh eyes.
For instance:
“From a fengshui point of view, terrain originates in the forces of alpine heights, slowly winds around as it decreases in altitude, and finally runs its course and finishes in the hills and knolls of the lowlands. When such a terrain can be traced from its highland origin to its lowland terminus, this is the optimum topography.”
That casts new light on the gentleness of Hexagram 23’s Image:
“Mountain rests on the earth. Stripping Away.
With generosity from above, creating tranquil places below.”
Stripping Away isn’t often a gentle experience – it tends to feel like ‘going under the knife’ (occasionally literally) and having layers of protection torn away. Yet the Image holds out a promise that if it happens with generosity, like the constant natural process of erosion – or the constant natural flow of descending qi – then it can create tranquility.
… and also, of course, the original reason to be interested in the flow of qi through the landscape was to bury the bones of your ancestors in a place where they could be imbued with vital force. Which makes it all the more interesting that Stephen Karcher thinks of 23 as ‘stripping away’ the flesh from the bones in preparation for burial.
Hi Hilary,
Thanks for the constant and diligent updates…I’m rebuilding my site by popular demand…
This post really hits a poignant note with me having to say farewell to a couple of very near and dear people in my life recently.
Although a number of Feng Shui Book were written according to the interpretations during the Tang Dynasty, much of the ancient practice was actually defined during the time of the original Duke of Zhou. If you note his (and his decendants’ burial places), they are firmly correlated to the classical feng shui forms. – Very much like location, location, location – the wealthiest or most powerful gets the best choice of course.
Another very curious practice seem to make use of burial site orientation according to the the patriarch or matriarch of the family.
Then, there’s the practice of using the time dimension, finding the best time for the official burial to occur.
But then what better way to say farewell to one’s own Grandmother who raised you with all her wisdom? BTW, the Chinese often use this event to tell the world this family is continued by her descendants.
Stephen Chua’s last blog post..Pardon The Dust!!!