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Part II, Day 1 - Flatland Dragons
Last update: 22nd April 2008 11:36am (GMT+08:00)
Reported by Sherwin Ng.
21st April 2008 (Monday)
Story has it that Confucius' burial site had been pre-selected by King Wen.
Many disciples were baffled by the decision - the site is relatively flat, and there was no river flowing thru the area. Without substantial mountain and water, how could there be good Feng Shui? Confucius pacified everyone by explaining that 'a river will be presented to him in due time'. Upon his passing, Confucius was indeed buried at the intended site, and later, so was his grandson.
Some hundred years later, Emperor Qin came into power and burnt all Confucius's books in order to unify the country. Realizing that the teachings of Confucius was difficult to wipe out, the emperor decided to attack the Feng Shui of Confucius' tomb - by digging a long drain outside.
As King Wen the Yi Jing expert had intended, the new water flow now 'activated' the Qi of the area. The name of Confucius and his teachings live on till today. In fact, every generation of his descendants were Dukes and scholars. The grandson of Confucius, Kong Ji, later became the teacher of Mencius.
Part 2 of the China Excursion brings us to Kong Lin (Kong Family Burial Park) to find the burial site of Confucius (Kong Zi), as well as other members of the Kong family.
The park is a huge land filled with purple-white flowers and clean-cut tombstones. Coupled with today's 10 degrees Centigrade breeze, the feeling was ethereal. But back to Feng Shui - along the way to Confucius' actual tomb, we stopped at a few other descendants' tombs - 72nd generation Kong Ling Chi, playwright Kong Sheng Ren, daughter of Qian Long who was married into the Kong family, and a 64th generation Kong family member.
Pre-dynasty burial methods were simple - a huge earth mound was used to bury the body. No tombstones or memorial plaques were used then. Also, while methods like the 'Dragon Gate 8 Formations' are suitable for flatland areas, it is a relatively new Feng Shui method yet to be discovered back then. So back to classical Landforms Feng Shui, only this time, we apply it to flat areas - a huge contrast to Part 1 of the excursion were we climbed mountains to find dragon veins and spots.
The tombs of Confucius, his son, and grandson were near toward the middle of the park. As we toured the area we realized that while the land looks flat, it is not completely flat. At certain points the ground raised up. Joey later pointed out that this is called the 'Flatland Plum Blossom' - imagine petals being scattered all over. While this formation is not powerful enough to form Meridian Spots, they function as clusters of Qi. More importantly thought, these little hills collectively make the low-land Literary Arts star - producing brilliant scholars and philosophers.
 Not convinced that Confucius' burial place had enough mojo, we headed to his birthplace after lunch.
Called the Fu Zi Cave, it is known as Confucius' birth area as well as possible early residence. Surely this site would leave some Feng Shui hints as to how and why it was able to borne a sage. While we were unable to see much from the cave itself, we moved up higher to track the Dragon. Not an easy one to spot, the 'Carp Celebrating the Pearl' formation basically means that the dragon vein comes from a specific direction and stops to a special mountain formation (which looks like a pearl, of course). To qualify as a 'Carp', the Prawn Whiskers, natural water ways, form the tail of the carp. To further augment this configuration, Pen Holder mountains are also seen near the Carp - literary success.
Much like the life story of Confucius, the 'Carp jumps across the Dragon Gate and becomes a Dragon'.
Our final site of the day - the tomb of Confucius's parents at Liang Gong Forest.
Common with most Flatland Feng Shui sites, many student saw nothing at first - the surroundings were too unassuming! Again, Joey came to the rescue, but not before a 15 minute hike to find the 'Yin' (protrusion) within the 'Yang' (open land). We soon saw that Table mountains do exist on Flatland - you just have to look further and a little carefully. That part done, we tracked the wheat fields to the lowland where water gathers into a river. This allows us the type of mountain we are dealing with as well as the location of the Water Mouth. One might think that the tomb does not receive much/any Qi - but in fact, it is receiving 'Reverse Water' from the higher land!
The only slight lamentation one might have today is the lack of the Greedy Wolf, Military Arts, and Huge Door mountain stars to give that extra Feng Shui boost...
Tomorrow it's a 5 hour climb up Mount Tai.
Reported by Sherwin Ng.
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