Guang An, China, April 15th, 2007 Fresh from our respite yesterday, we were raring to see how Feng Shui allowed one man to almost single-handedly transform the world’s most populous nation from an international recluse into the economic and political superpower it is today.  And first on our itinerary for today were the tombs of the grandmother and mother of Deng Xiao Ping – the very man who successfully `opened’ China to the world. Born on August 22nd, 1904 in Sichuan Province, Deng studied in France and the (former) USSR, before returning to China in 1927 to immerse himself in the then turbulent political scene of his motherland.  Married thrice, he ironically
never held any official position as the head of state or government, but served as the de facto leader of the People’s Republic of China from the late 1970s to the early 1990s.  Although maintaining tight control of the Communist Party of China’s socialist policies, Deng is credited as the impetus behind China’s rise as one of the world’s fastest developing economies.

We reached the first two tombs at 8:30 a.m. after a 15-minute downhill track, and proceeded to go about assessing the place’s Feng Shui.  It was immediately evident to everyone that the area surrounding both tombs was in the form of a Pun Di (a bowl-shaped, sunken landform), and that the Basic Armchair Formation contributed towards the Yin House Feng Shui of the place.  At Joey’s further prompting, we realized that for a man like Deng to be conceived there, it would have taken much more than a Basic Armchair Formation…and gladly took our time exploring the hill.  Having done the necessary, we regrouped for the follow-up discussion with Joey, where he enthralled us with a heart-warming story of kindness and gratitude:

It seemed that once upon a time (don’t we all love these `fairy tales’!), Deng’s grandmother provided food and lodging to a famished and sickly wandering old man.  Having regained his strength and health in time, he repaid his benefactor’s kindness by selecting a piece of land to be used by (only) the grandmother, her sister and her daughter (Deng’s mother)…telling the grandmother that her kindness would be repaid with an usury of interest for saving his life.  And the rest…is history!  

Well, back to reality…and Feng Shui.  Joey asked if anyone had noticed the Wu Xing Sheng Dian (Five Star Arrive At The Palace) Formation – a unique landform feature given the surrounding area where the mountains weren’t relatively that high.  In addition, there was a Stone Vein Formation, which accounted for a central `Quan Shan Mai’ Formation’s vein release.  The right embrace held this seal, with a Nobleman Star located in exact correspondence with Deng’s birth details (aha…that was Feng Shui and BaZi coming together!).

Completing the real-life, auspicious Feng Shui features of BOTH tombs were more (!) Stars and Structures…usually only found in classical texts such as Ren Zi Sui Ci and Yi Long Jing.  Only one word could describe what we saw: IMPRESSIVE.  (And since we’re always on the move, this diary of logs only accounts for some 10% of what we’ve seen, heard and experienced throughout this Excursion…truly mind-blowing, eh?)

Satisfied and yearning for more, we proceeded to Deng’s ancestral home – the house in which he was born and raised.  And where we redeemed whatever pride we’d `lost’ when we tried fitting formulas to suit landforms (instead of vice versa) in our earlier audits.  This time, many of us successfully applied Ba Zhai and Flying Stars to assess the house’s interior and soon discovered why its Feng Shui was good, but wisely realized that since the Flying Stars and Eight Mansions for every house facing the same direction – during the same period – anyway are the same, there must be other factors contributing to the emergence of a prominent personality from a particular house!  Acknowledging a lesson well learnt, Joey shared with us that Deng’s former home was located on a `Three Stages Combining Water’ Meridian Spot, with a Luo Tor rising mountain and the nearby E Mei An Shan further consolidating the place’s Feng Shui quality.  To emphasize his point, Joey then led us to the posterior of the house to explore the passing of the Qi within its structure.

So in the space of one morning, we already had a thorough Yin House audit, and Yang House audit under our belts.  But yet another treat awaited us in the form of the tomb of Deng’s father.  When we reached it, we naturally began to compare this tomb with the ones we’d audited earlier…and it soon became apparent that the elder Deng’s tomb had poorer Feng Shui, compared to the other tombs.  Perhaps, had this particular tomb `enjoyed’ better Yin House Feng Shui, Deng would have risen to power much earlier in his life (in fact, Deng was sidelined by Chairman Mao for quite a while in his tumultuous political career, before reaching the pinnacle of authority).  His daughters were successful (explainable by his ancestral home and tombs that displayed prominent `Bai Hu’ (White Tiger) Sha Embraces) but unfortunately, one of his sons struggled through life.

Since we’d been such good, clever boys and girls (haha!), Joey directed our coach to Cheng Du, where we spent an even more pleasant afternoon shopping around for bargains, before feting ourselves to dinner.  We visit Le Shan…and its Grand Buddha tomorrow and that, by any standards, promises to be one helluva (pardon the jargon!) trip!

With these exciting thoughts in mind, we closed the curtains on Day 6 – end of log for today.