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MAURICE FREEDMAN
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the big business man in his mansion. How far there was in traditional China what sociologists call social mobility is a matter still in hot academic debate; but there can be no doubt that in the kind of Chinese setting of which the New Territories is a twentieth-century sample men were morally entitled to take steps to raise themselves and their descendants—by scholarship, by the accumulation of riches, and by the religious pursuit of good fortune.
56. When a person dies he is first buried in a rough grave from which, after a few years, his bones are removed to be placed in an urn. All, or nearly all, men and women pass through the cycle of burial and removal up to this point. The urns are stored, but those belonging to families for whom geomantic burial has become important and possible are at some point put into new graves. These are the omega-shaped tombs which are so prominent a feature of the southeastern Chinese countryside. They are constructed according to fung shui and may take years to prepare, because the choice of a good site may call for a protracted search and the correct time for entombment may be long delayed by both practical difficulties and religious restrictions. The geomancy of burial is concentrated about this second internment, for although fung shui may well enter into the selection of the first grave and the siting of the urn, it is then of secondary importance, since virtue flows essentially from that which is intended to be a permanent habitation.
57. Sooner or later the geomantically sited grave will bring prosperity to the descendants of the man or woman buried in it. If it does not, then alterations may be made to it or, in the extreme case, it may be moved, 'sooner or later': the geomancer is not usually prepared to tie himself down to a guarantee of quick results. Indeed, with that keen selective scepticism marking the way in which they scrutinise their religion and its practitioners, Chinese joke about the latitude that geomancers allow themselves. 'Like a geomancer', a Cantonese saying goes, 'who cheats you by predicting within eight or ten years.' (If one's own ancestor's grave shows results in, say, five years when the geomancer has stipulated a waiting period of ten years, it is a matter for self-gratulations and gratitude; but somebody else's patience with the passing of the years may be a matter for jest). The lapse of years is necessary for the collection and concentration of the Breaths; they settle in the bones, and in a particularly successful case cause them to glow. From the bones this virtue passes to the living descendants, not in
224
MAURICE FREEDMAN
-
the big business man in his mansion. How far there was in tradi- tional China what sociologists call social mobility is a matter still in hot academic debate; but there can be no doubt that in the kind of Chinese setting of which the New Territories is a twentieth- century sample men were morally entitled to take steps to raise themselves and their descendants—by scholarship, by the accumu lation of riches, and by the religious pursuit of good fortune. 56. When a person dies he is first buried in a rough grave from which, after a few years, his bones are removed to be placed in an urn. All, or nearly all, men and women pass through the cycle of burial and removal up to this point. The urns are stored, but those belonging to families for whom geomantic burial has become impor- tant and possible are at some point put into new graves. These are the omega-shaped tombs which are so prominent a feature of the southeastern Chinese countryside. They are constructed according to fung shui and may take years to prepare, because the choice of a good site may call for a protracted search and the correct time for entombment may be long delayed by both practical difficulties and religious restrictions. The geomancy of burial is concentrated about this second internment, for although fung shui may well enter into the selection of the first grave and the siting of the urn, it is then of secondary importance, since virtue flows essentially from that which is intended to be a permanent habitation. 57. Sooner or later the geomantically sited grave will bring pro- sperity to the descendants of the man or woman buried in it. If it does not, then alterations may be made to it or, in the extreme case, it may be moved, 'sooner or later': the geomancer is not usually prepared to tie himself down to a guarantee of quick results. In- deed, with that keen selective scepticism marking the way in which they scrutinise their religion and its practitioners, Chinese joke about the latitude that geomancers allow themselves. 'Like a geomancer', a Cantonese saying goes, 'who cheats you by predic- ting within eight or ten years.' (If one's own ancestor's grave shows results in, say, five years when the geomancer has stipulated a wait- ing period of ten years, it is a matter for self-gratulations and gratitude; but somebody else's patience with the passing of the years may be a matter for jest). The lapse of years is necessary for the collection and concentration of the Breaths; they settle in the bones, and in a particularly successful case cause them to glow. From the bones this virtue passes to the living descendants, not in
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