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CAROLE MORGAN
terms to define. It has three different meanings:
1) It refers to the centre of a burial site, in other words, to the area enclosed by the two sides of the semi-circle.
2) It is used for xue (which see).
3) It may refer to the slope of the land.
Since long has so many meanings it is usually qualified by another term; thus:
#shanlong which refers to any knoll, hill or mountain on the site. It is itself qualified by the adjectives: huo ★, living; si ♯, dead; zhen, true; and jia, false; all of which refer to the nature of the shanlong.
★ shuilong refers to any depression which occurs on the site. *sha refers to the topography of the land on either side of the long.
Since these basic terms are often confused—the xue of one school being the long of another—the point to remember about them is that they all refer to the physical nature of a site.
The next series of terms refers to different areas of a site.
A tai is the spot where the yangqi No 4, of the mountains comes into contact with the yinqi, of the plain.
tang refers to the flat ground in front of the central long. Tang is subdivided into antang ★★ which indicates the centre, and mingtang ♬ † which describes the areas to the right and left of the antang.
chao refers to the flat ground in front of the antang.
diwu is any feature visible from the long such as trees, rocks, walls, houses, roads, etc.
When selecting a site water is also vitally important; literally so since the direction of its flow influences the number of sons born into a family. From a purely practical point of view, good drainage is essential to prevent water seeping into a grave and making the ancestors uncomfortable: were that to occur they would cease to promote the family's prosperity.
Of the many water-related terms only four need to be listed here.
** shuilu refers to the direction of the water's flow.
★ zhengqiao wei is the name of the point where water enters a site.
xiaoshui is flowing water.
nashui refers to areas where water may accumulate.
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