ABSTRACT
Identifying an ideal site obviously required field research. Lai, who had gone to Buluo and become ill, remained there until he was well enough to go into the mountains with his clients to study the typography as he searched for a burial site. Possibly he took with him a geomancer's compass with circles which helped to correlate the location of the planets, the seasons and directions, yin yang, the sixty-four hexagrams, and so forth. Further complicating the search was the belief that the characteristics of the burial site should be attuned with the particular personality of the deceased. Since it was rarely possible to find the perfect natural locale, alterations might have to be made in order to achieve the auspicious yin yang equilibrium: planting trees or placing boulders to the north, constructing a pond to the south. Geomancers might employ charms to strengthen the favorable forces. The reverse side of the equation was that the fengshui of a site could change; it was always a system in flux. Cutting down a tree, constructing a building nearby, and other changes could affect the balance; the sixty-year cycle of Chinese astrology required new calculations.
