Geographical Disambiguation: Same Sitting, Facing, Sand and Water—Yet Different Judgments

Question 69. Yesterday we toured three places together. Their sitting and facing, their sand and water, were all the same. Why is one said to bring slow wealth and slow decline; one said to bring wealth and rank, yet unfilial descendants; and one said to bring wealth and rank, yet impure womenfolk? I asked afterward, and all were so. From where does the judgment diverge?

Answer: The judgment is made precisely from form and configuration and from qi-principle. For the site where prosperity comes slowly and decline comes late: the incoming ridge is relaxed and level, and at the facing is again a dry channel. (Note: even if the facing head accords with prosperous water, if no gleam of water is seen, then whether it is a dry channel or merely empty low ground, prosperity will be slow and wealth small; and because the ridge is slow and the connection slow, even if the Ding star arrives at the sitting mountain, births of children will also be late.) For the site that is wealthy and rank-holding yet unfilial: the incoming ridge is coarse and forceful, and at the facing one again sees reverse water. (In Xuan Kong, the facing star is counted toward the facing head; whether water comes or goes, it brings wealth—great water, great wealth; small water, small wealth. Only water that turns back without feeling is held to bring unfiliality and widowhood.) For the site that is wealthy and rank-holding yet has impure womenfolk: the incoming dragon has a gap and a curtain, and the facing water again serpents in zigzag form; yet within the tiger's embrace on the right, all are fields cut by water. On the left hand, at Chen-Xun there is a single pond; on the right hand, at You-Xin there is another pond. Thus the outer configuration is fine, and the period is favorable, but the inner water is mixed, and the period is lost—hence this result. (Note: these three acupoints must have been buried in the Second Black period, sitting Ren facing Bing, combining the Seven-Star Robbing formula; all who face water prosper, yet at You-Xin the adjacent stars are Wind and Fire “Family,” purely yin stars; a pond in that sector, moreover water of an unfavorable era, will bring licentious womenfolk.)

The Sanhe school knows only life, prosperity, tomb, and storehouse, and looks only at where water comes and goes. Little do they know that water of declining periods may lie within, doing no small harm. Were it water of a matching period, it would be judged auspicious. The whole world is benighted—how can one speak with them?

San Fu's note: