Feng Shui tomb/burials

[jen]

Does anyone know if there are any resources to translate the Feng Shui from tombs/burials? Maybe there's some kind of dictionary or guidelines?

For example "丁山癸向"

[gckimm]

Hi Jen:

Understanding grave directions is one of the most challenging tasks for those who have access to Chinese genealogies. But for our ancestors, the location and specific direction of a grave were so important that this information was included in genealogies along with names and dates of birth and death. A good location and direction brought happiness not only to the deceased but also to his/her descendants, while a bad location and direction would bring the opposite.

In the example you mention, 山 (literally, "hill" or "mountain") refers to the direction in which the grave is "sitting," while 向 ("toward") refers to the direction in which the grave (or the deceased) is facing. 丁山癸向 means "sitting south-southwest (SSW) by south and facing north-northeast (NNE) by north." Note that the two directions are always the direct opposite of each other. If they are not the direct opposite, then you know you have made a mistake in translation.

In all the years in which I have been working with Chinese genealogies, I have not found a really good source in English, or in Chinese, for that matter, about the positioning of Chinese graves. There is also the matter of the appearance or shape of the grave; for example, there is often a description like, "the grave has the appearance of a flying goose holding a letter in its mouth" (a real description of a grave of one of my ancestors). One of these days, I'd like to find a source that explains that.

Here is a list of the 24 compass directions, taken from The Elements of Feng Shui by Man-Ho Kwok with Joanne O'Brien (Barnes & Noble Books, New York, 1991):

癸 Gui NNE by N
子 Zi North
壬 Ren NNW by N
亥 Hai NNW by W
乾 Qian NW
戌 Xu WNW by N
辛 Xin WNW by W
酉 You West
庚 Geng WSW by W
申 Shen WSW by S
坤 Kun SW
未 Wei SSW by W
丁 Ding SSW by S
午 Wu South
丙 Bing SSE by S
巳 Si SSE by E
巽 Xun SE
辰 Chen ESE by S
乙 Yi ESE by E
卯 Mao East
甲 Jia ENE by E
寅 Yin ENE by N
艮 Gen NE
丑 Chou NNE by E

I hope this information is helpful to you and other forum members.

Greg

[jen]

Thank you so much gckimm. This is very helpful. Indeed there are descriptions about the shape of the tombs as well. If I ever find out the meanings behind them I'll let you know.

[jen]

Hi Greg gckimm, could you please help me once more. So what if there's double directions for a tomb?

形似蜘蛛結網, 庚山甲向, 兼申寅丙申丙寅分金

in the shape of a spider spinning a web, sitting WSW by W facing ENE by E...then the red part...

[wang]

This is a description of the fate of the tomb.

Geomantic geomancy is a very profound science.

This is the tomb location and orientation chosen for you by the master of geomancy.

[jen]

Thanks wang, I'm trying to translate this into english.