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MAURICE FREEDMAN
53. Graves and dwellings are placed in accordance with such elementary principles and by means of an elaborate scheme of ideas based upon and extending them. But fung shui is not only Winds and Waters. Other principles are involved. The stars must be taken into account. The geomancer's compass shows, by the number of circles on it, a given sum of criteria by which a site is to be selected and oriented. Over and above all this, there comes from the tradition of the Book of Changes an idea of the cosmos (of which man is an intrinsic part) in a perpetual state of flux; that which is so at one point in time is not so at another. Things, and the fortunes of men with them, change. So that within cycles of time, definable by well-recognised principles (the sexagenary system of 'stems and branches' among them), the virtues of any site may change, however expertly it was chosen in regard to the ‘landscape'. Geomancy becomes a body of learning the complexity of which is represented to the layman by the compass, the books, and the experience of practitioners. Ordinary men know a little, and they know that they do not know enough to rely in important matters on their own judgment. The fung shui lo, as he may be called behind his back, or the fung shui sin shaang, as he is addressed, enters the scene. And he is very much in evidence in the New Territories. District Officers meet him from time to time. The field worker with a little patience can enjoy his company.
54. The complexity of fung shui is a guarantee of its continued credibility. If it works it works. If it fails to work, a neglected principle, an ignorant geomancer, an undetected alteration to the landscape can be held responsible. From the point of view of the outsider geomancy may seem completely irrational, but once grant that man, dead or alive, is part of a universe with which his fortunes are inextricably interwoven, and the reasoning of geomancy can be seen to fall into a logical pattern. And the surviving strength of the appeal of fung shui to the minds of Chinese rests precisely on what seems to them to be its reasonableness; the more rational the minds the greater the degree of rationalisation produced to support what only extreme rationalism rejects. Fung shui is not like most of the rest of Chinese religion; no reliance on the will of a deity is involved; there are no gods to serve and placate; it is not superstitious for it is based on self-evident propositions; the principles which regulate the cosmos are fixed, known, and subject to exact treatment by experts who, in the performance of their duties, are like