GEOMANTIC TERMS
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To ensure the correct flow of water through a site the geomancer makes use of two ancient patterns commonly known as xiantian ★ A and houtian ✶ which refer to two different arrangements of the eight trigrams2. Since the trigrams also symbolise eight major compass points the xian and houtian are, in fact, two different methods of organising space. Geomantic practice requires that water flows from its zhengqiao wei trigram in the xiantian to the position occupied by the same trigram in the houtian. For instance, water originating in the qian #(E) trigram, which in the xiantian is correlated with the north, must flow towards the southwest, that is towards the compass point occupied by qian in the houtian. One must, however, remember that geomantic compass points are the reverse of ours so that north is south; east, west; etc.) Moreover, in its journey from xian to houtian water must always flow in front of the chao (which see).
Since geomancy is a directional science it has coined a number of terms for the twenty-four compass points and the four quarters. Three of these terms, namely shan ↳, xiang 6, and zuo, have been systematically misinterpreted since J. Edkins' day.
Shan has consistently been taken to mean “site” which is only true in those rare cases when it is used as an abbreviation of shan-long. In all other instances shan means "compass point" so that shi’er shan + refers to the twenty-four compass points and not to twenty-four sites.
Xiang and zuo are two esoteric names for two of the four quarters. Just as qinglong ✯✯ stands for east and baihu éʼn ✯ for west, xiang means south and zuo north. But it must be stressed that these terms do not necessarily refer to actual compass points but indicate the back, front, left and right sides of a grave.
Like other parts of the earth, geomantic sites are also subject to cosmic influences but a detailed explanation of all stellar influences would go beyond the scope of this paper. (Readers interested in the subject are referred to B. Frank's study of the jiugong Лg and E.H. Schafer's Pacing the Void, T'ang Approaches to the Stars. University of California Press, London and Berkeley, 1977)
Two sets of so-called stars play a role in geomancy but, for the most part, these are not real celestial bodies masquerading under esoteric names but purely imaginary entities conventionally referred to as xing or stars.
* Much effort has been expended to explain how the xiantian changed into the houtian but none of the explanations are entirely convincing One of the best known is M. Granet, La Pensee chinoise (1934), reprinted Albin Michel, 1968, pp. 167 sq.