|
In ancient times, there were no selection of auspicious days for burial.
|
No Auspicious Days for Burials
There are also evidence that, back in the Zhou dynasty, there were no such things as auspicious days for burial:
- Perusing the work entitled "Thesaurus of Mourning", Tsang shu, we find therein that if a burial takes place on the day denoted by the cyclic character Yih-hai, great misfortune will ensue. Now, we read in the "Spring and Autumn Annals", Chun Tsew, that some twenty important burials took place on that very day. This is another proof that in those times none selected the day for carrying out a burial. (Kennelley 1966. p.391. "Thesaurus of Mourning", Tsang shu states that burials to be auspicious should take place in hours denoted by the trigrams Qian and Ken)
The "Record of Rites", Li Chi, states that in the time of the Chou dynasty the mourning colour was red, and burials took place in the forenoon. Under the Yin dynasty the mourning colour was white, and burials were performed at noon. The Hsia dynasty on the contrary adopted black for mourning and burials were carried out in the evening. (Kennelley 1966. p.392)
The Commentaries of Cheng, circa 774-500 BC, remark... that burial ceremonies and rites connected therewith depended on the peculiar taste of each dynasty; nobody selected the hour, and people were buried either in the forenoon or the afternoon. (Kennelley 1966. p.392)
Days used for burial varied in significance but have no general Feng Shui auspiciousness.
The use of lucky and unlucky days for burial started around the Jin dynasty. In AD 265-420, Hsu-chun invented the method of lucky and unlucky days through a sexagenary cycle by means of the Ganzhi system. These lucky and unlucky days became a craze during the Sui dynasty (AD 620) and then the Tang dynasty. The planetary names were also introduced by Bu Kong (705-774), a major figure in esoteric Buddhism who enjoyed the patronage of the Tang Imperial court. Bu Kong's birthplace is unknown, being variously given as Sri Lanka and Central Asia. Bu Kong set down prevailing Indian astrological theories in his Xiuyaojing, written with the help of a Chinese disciple, Shi Yao during the 8th century. The Xiuyaojing analysed the influence of the stars on lucky and unlucky days and human fate.
Thus, during the Tang dynasty, the imperial Feng Shui masters knew there were no such thing in more ancient times as Feng Shui auspiciousness for days of burial. Feng Shui auspiciousness for days of burial is just a myth unfortunately applied in so many modern tomb Feng Shui practices by so-called practitioners who really know nothing.
All those Xuan Kong Da Gua, Liu Fa and even Pa Zhai Compass techniques to determine auspicious dates are just rubbish.
top
|
