There is a simple logic which has serious implication for current tomb Feng Shui. Read on.

Many have wrongly defined Feng Shui of Yin premises as that of Feng Shui of tombs. A little history is necessary to clear up the confusion. The ordinary people began to use permanent tombs only during the Han dynasty and after. Previous to this, the dead would be mourned at temporary unmarked tombs for three to six years and the tombs then abandoned and forgotten. Ancestor worship for the dead would continue through ancestral tablets at home or at the ancestral temples.

• These temporary tombs never had any Feng Shui. It is important to realise that Feng Shui of Yin premises already existed at ancestral temples before there were permanent tombs! The then Feng Shui of Yin premises was independent of Feng Shui of tombs.

You will be surprised why the ancients abandoned the temporary tombs, along with whatever bodies and bones of the dead! More of this later.

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All the restriction of Feng Shui of Yin premises to tombs is a grave error, as the tombs could not receive proper Feng Shui without the ancestral temple.

It is vital to note that the ancestral temple must be located within a Ming Tang, the site which must have the physical landform of the "Four Animals". This is the reason why traditional graveyards often have South facings. Omission of the "Four Animals" features and its South facing will doom all Feng Shui applied to tombs, for Yang Yun Sung warned that the omission will create an inauspicious "Kung Wang" condition:

• Also having high mountain that is Xuan Wu, the Xuan Wu dropping (crouching) place is the four animals' gathering place. The gathering place is the place Lung gather star, where four animals do not visit is emptiness. On the Kung Mang Lung place do not go to find hsueh, even though having hsueh also easy to die and extinguish. Han Lung Jing 53-55

The tomb derives its auspiciousness from the auspiciousness of the Ming Tang within which the graveyard is located. Many current tomb Feng Shui practitioners use all sorts of tricks to replace the ancient requirement for the "Four Animals". Ancient masters like Yang Yun Sung especially criticised those who tried to use various sorts of Compass techniques to declare that the site was auspicious.

Besides the violation of the physical requirement for the "Four Animals" features, current tomb practitioners have also left out critical rituals associated with ancestor worship in the Feng Shui of Yin premises.

• Just to illustrate, in ancient times, the ancestral tablet was far more important than the temporary tomb. One could forget the temporary tomb, but it would be unpardonable to forget the ancestral tablet. Now that the temporary tomb grew into the permanent tomb, the physical tomb still cannot surpass the importance of the ancestral tablet.

It should be noted that the ancestral temples were the most important premises in the country, even as Confucius testified:

• "When a superior man, [high in rank,] is about to engage in building, the ancestral temple should have his first attention, the stables and arsenal the next, and the residences the last." [Li Chi, Bk. I, § 11, Pt. I, 9. Cf. "Shih King," Pt. III, Bk. J, Ode III, and Legge's note, S.B.E., Vol. III, p. 384.]

The logic which has serious implication on current tomb Feng Shui is now explained here and should be properly understood!

The "Tu Hsien ", the ancestral tablet, is a unique potent object, whose role in Feng Shui of Yin premises is ill-understood. When the ancestral tablet is dotted, the ceremony is supposed to invite the soul of the dead to reside in the tablet. When the tablet is brought home or to the ancestral temple, the soul of dead is invited to follow suit. That is, the soul of the dead is supposed to be at the home or ancestral temple, not at the tomb!

• If that is so, why should the soul of the dead linger anymore at the tomb?! Hence, at Qing Ming, when people visit the graveyards, are their ancestors' souls there? Are not their souls with the tablets at homes or the temples? Quite illogical, is it not?

  In reality, the physical tomb is there, but it is now essentially "empty", as the soul of the dead is no longer there.

  This was the reason why the ancients abandoned the temporary tombs. This was because they knew that they had brought the "souls of the dead" to their homes and temples. There being no more "wandering souls" at the tombs, why should they continue to maintain them? Abandoning the tombs was the correct thing to do!

  • This aspect also has significant implication in the Chinese philosophy of the Soul.

It is necessary to realise that the ancestral tablet is always far more important than the physical tomb. During the early periods, ancestral tablets were treasured, but tombs were abandoned. In emergencies, the family would give priority to retrieve the ancestral tablets and who would try to cart the tombs away?

Now, the Feng Shui of tombs is supposed to enable ancestors to help their descendants. As the "souls of the dead" are now at home, should not Feng Shui be directed to the ancestral hall in the home or the ancestral temple, rather than the tomb? The dead will not be enjoying staying at the tombs when they are actually at home or the ancestral temple! The lack of comprehension of this fact is why current Feng Shui of tombs will not have much power to bring about the blessings hoped for - the efforts are directed to the wrong place.

The confusion over the Feng Shui of Yin premises contributes to much quackery in the art of Feng Shui and astrology down the ages. Clients can be confused and frightened by charlatans into payments of unnecessary great expenses.

Those interested should try to recover the whole original Feng Shui of Yin premises to obtain the blessings traditionally associated with such Feng Shui. There is a great mystery as to why people should visit the graveyards. There is also a great mystery why people should pay more attention to the ancestral temples. We will explain the real reasons in our courses, plus many aspects missing in current Feng Shui of Yin premises applied to tombs.

Ancestor worship is vital in Feng Shui of Yin premises. Get the genuine article!

• During the time of the earliest ancestor worship, there was yet no tombs. Ancestor worship is always connected with the home altar or the ancestral temples, not tombs

  Ancestral worship at Confucius' tomb was performed despite that the tomb is empty!

  
  

• During the 1700s controversy with the Vatican, Manchu Qing Emperor Kang Hsi defined ancestor worship as a direct worship of Supreme God, Shang Di or Tian, where dead ancestors were venerated but not worshipped. That is, in ancestor worship the real deity worshipped is God Himself – the dead do not receive worship. The Roman Catholic Vatican and most Christians err in not realising the significance of Kang Hsi's definition.
  • The Vatican actually misinterpreted that the Chinese ancestor worship is alike to the Catholic veneration of saints. However, while not banning the veneration of saints, the Vatican banned ancestor worship.

    In the Christian Bible, many passages noted terms like "God of Abraham, Jacob etc." The worship was only to God but never to Abraham and the patriarchs. This is what the original Chinese ancestor worship as defined by Kang Hsi is about!

  
  

  

• The "Tu Hsien", the ancestral tablet, means a return to the first ancestor who is God. It signifies that the dead has returned to be with God! This is actually in line with what Confucius stated, that when a person dies, his Shen goes back to Heaven of which it is made of, and his po returns to earth. This is also what the Christian Bible stated in Ecclesiastes: "The spirit goes back to God who gave it and the body return to dust of which it is made up."

  Confucius stated that if a society does not perform the Rites it is dead. By "Rites", Confucius actually includes ancestor worship. Confucius was merely recording down a Divine warning that those who do not perform ancestor worship will be rejected by God!

  From ancient times, this ancestor worship revolves around 3 levels: daily worship, worship at 1st and 15th days of the lunar month, and the four major seasons. The lunar months and seasonal worships were also adopted in the Old Testament and the ancient Jews!

We have organised our Feng Shui and astrology research-based scientific courses to be in line with the original lofty aims of determination of kingship and great leadership. Such courses can be very useful for the modern corporate leaders. You want to learn this kingship Feng Shui and astrology?

Do contact us. Be more than the current masters: enroll in our unique advance course on Feng Shui of Yin Premises.

Look up related articles:

• TRUTHS AND MYTHS IN FENG SHUI OF YIN PREMISES: Part 1. Riddle of Confucius' Tomb
• TRUTHS AND MYTHS IN FENG SHUI OF YIN PREMISES: Part 2. Myth of Accuracy in Tomb's Facing Direction.
• TRUTHS AND MYTHS IN FENG SHUI OF YIN PREMISES: Part 3. Most Important Requirement in Tomb's Feng Shui.
• TRUTHS AND MYTHS IN FENG SHUI OF YIN PREMISES: Part 4. Lost Component of the Ancestor Worship.
• LOST SECRET OF FENG SHUI OF YIN PREMISE.

A SERIOUS MISSION: