Extracted from Feng Shui Times
On a summer night in the year 880 CE, Yang K'un-sun put down his writing brush, waited for the ink to dry, and placed the book that he had been writing into a cabinet. The book was his latest treatise on k'an-yu (or the feng-shui of landforms), and in it, Yang identified landforms where "kingmaker" burial sites could be found.
For many years, Yang had visited the graves of the ancestors of founders of dynasties and had examined carefully the patterns of the mountains and valleys that surrounded these burial sites. He was loathed to document his research - if the book were to fall into the hands of ambitious people, the country would be plunged into civil war; if the reigning emperor knew about the book, he and his family would be executed for treason. ( In dynastic China, to identify "kingmaker" burial sites was to plot against the imperial order.)
Yang remembered what his wife had said when he had talked about writing a book on the feng-shui of "kingmaker" burial sites. "It would only give us trouble," she had told him. Now he wished that he had taken her advice, but it was too late - he could not bring himself to destroy a book that contained his life-long research. "It would be a pity," he thought, "if this information is not passed onto future generations."
He poured himself a cup of tea, opened the window of his study, and gazed at the night sky. There was no moon and the sky was clear. Yang K'un-sun slowly scrutinized the patterns of the stars and the positions of the planets in the constellations. When he saw the omens imaged in the dark sky, he broke into a cold sweat. The celestial pattern told him that a rebel army would sack the capital, and the leader was a person who knew about his research on kingmaker burial sites.
Years ago, when Yang K'un-sun was an astronomer at the imperial court, he had met a man named Huang Ch'ao. Although Yang was an urban sophisticate and Huang was a laborer, the two men shared a common interest in the arts of divination. Yang tried to teach Huang the basics of k'an-yu, but Huang did not appear to have an aptitude for learning: he was slow; he had a bad memory; and he had trouble making logical deductions. And since Huang was barely literate, Yang had to use diagrams and mnemonics to help his friend understand the principles of k'an-yu. As their friendship continued, Yang found himself talking to Huang more and more about "kingmaker" dragon veins and burial sites. Normally, Yang would have been more cautious, but Huang Ch'ao's dullness made the feng-shui master believe that his friend was an honest, if naive, man.
How could Yang K'un-sun, a master of both celestial and terrestrial divination, have made a mistake in judging Huang Ch'ao's personality? If Yang had a "weakness", it was his positive view of human nature. He believed that each person has a spark of goodness, and that given the proper guidance, this spark could be developed to its full potential. Kind and generous, Yang gave freely to the needy. He built homes for orphans and widows, supported poor scholars, paid the debts of destitute farmers, and distributed food and firewood to starving families. Throughout Chang-an (the capital), he was known as "Yang the philanthropist." Yang's friends warned him to beware of unscrupulous people who would take advantage of his generosity, but the philanthropist's optimistic view of humanity made him focus on the positive rather than the negative side of people's personalities.
Thinking of his friendship with Huang Ch'ao, Yang K'un-sun could not help but shudder. He had not only explained the intricacies of "kingmaker" landforms to Huang but had also taught him the theory and method of "p'ai-lung" (prioritization of dragon veins). The theory of p'ai-lung maintains that valleys are as important as mountains in delineating dragon veins. In his research, Yang found that mountain ranges with similar shapes can have different feng-shui depending on the pattern of the surrounding valleys. He therefore concluded that the dragon vein is defined by the relationship between mountains and valleys, and that valley features should be used to "prioritize" the power of dragon veins. This was a revolutionary idea in Yang's time: his contemporaries still classified mountain landforms independent of the surrounding geographical features.
The p'ai-lung method is not only central to selecting "kingmaker" burial sites. The most powerful (and most dangerous) thing about the "p'ai-lung" method is that it can be used to build "kingmaker" residences and "kingmaker" towns and villages. Thus, by applying the principles of "p'ai-lung" to a residence, one can become the founder of a dynasty within a lifetime. In a stroke of genius, Yang K'un-sun had taken the principles of the feng-shui of natural landforms and applied them to the feng-shui of residential architecture and urban design.
That night, after viewing the stars, Yang K'un-sun made plans to leave the capital. Six months later, Huang Ch'ao entered Chang-an at the head of his rebel army. Huang went immediately to the court astronomer's residence to look for the k'an-yu master and his treatises. Unable to find Yang and the books, Huang Ch'ao ransacked the house and burned it to the ground.
Huang Ch'ao did not enjoy his triumph for long. Less than a month after the uprising, a captain of the imperial guard presented a bloody and mutilated head to the emperor, claiming that he had killed the rebel leader.
A year later, on a snowy night, a man in a ragged robe, his face hidden by a straw hat, knocked on the doors of a Buddhist monastery and asked for shelter. He had a gruff manner, and his hands were rough and calloused like those of a laborer's. That night, in the year 882, Huang Ch'ao the rebel leader became Huang Miao-ying the Buddhist monk. Huang shaved his head, made the monastery his home, and sat in zen stillness for nine years. It was said that Huang Miao-ying attained enlightenment at Nan-ch'an Monastery, became its abbot, and spent the rest of his life using the k'an-yu skills that he had learned from Yang K'un-sun to help the poor. Sidebar - Biographical note of Yang K'un-sun.
Yang K'un-sun (Yang I) lived toward the end of the T'ang dynasty (618 - 906 CE). Historical records tell us that he was a court astronomer and geographer. Yang's greatest contribution to k'an-yu was his theory and method of p'ai-lung, which are used today by both the San-yüan and Hsüan-k'ung schools of feng-shui. In considering geographical features in their relationships instead of in isolation, Yang brought the discipline of feng-shui to a level of unmatched sophistication. He wrote numerous treatises on p'ai-lung, dragon veins, water dragons, and the selection of burial sites.
Huang Miao-ying was also a famous feng-shui master of the late T'ang dynasty. He is regarded by many as the successor to Yang K'un-sun.
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