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Day 1 [China Excursion-Extension] : An old tomb, a new tomb and a city!
By Jayne Goodrick |
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27 April 2006 (Day 1- China Excursion Extension)
The first day of the second part of this year’s China Excursion started with another morning call, breakfast, and on the road by 8. We travelled 2 hours to Yongling, where the tomb of the father, grand
father, great grandfather of Nu’erhachi, the first Qing Dynasty’s Emperor lay. This tomb was the first site audited by the first wave of MA students to China in 2004, so it was fitting that we started again at this first site.
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Having lasted for over 400 years it was no surprise then that it looked the same as it had the last time, but this time the students that had visited before were quicker, more confident and had a far deeper insight into the landform. Again as in all the audits there was the table mountain, there was the embrace, there was a ‘river running through it’, and there was the spot. The ‘flying goose opening it’s wings’ formation was still there, but this time we recognised immediately the relevance of such a structure.
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The embrace with the twelve lumps (one for each emperor of the dynasty) completed the tiger embrace. Previously the students had been unable to count 12 lumps and still there was whispering of “I can only count 9” “9? I only see 7!”
Under expert guidance, and with no haze in the air, we were shown exactly how to count them, how to see which emperor would be the most successful, which would be less so.
But the massive bonus we had this year was to be able to climb the Dragon’s vein and see the spot from behind! There were no other tourists to take into account and so we walked around
and behind the tomb to the back where we came upon a steep hill directly behind the tomb, with soft loose soil (as one would expect at such a site).
Joey went up first and advised that it was too dangerous we should stay where we were. Yeah right, Joey! We were up, slipping, sliding, grasping onto roots and branches but we ‘walked the dragon’!
Any haze that remained lifted; the spiral city encircling the whole area was laid out before us, as clear as the prostrating table mountain directly in front; the Bright Hall could only be missed by those too blind to see; the vein came down where we were stood. And the yin mountain yielded to the yang, in front of which the
‘Woh’ formation, the bowl where the tomb lay, marked the spot!
This experience cannot be bought. You had to be there, as the saying goes! We came down, babbling, laughing, joking, and off to lunch.
Next was He Tu A La, a site that had baffled me completed the first time. I was so confused then that I didn’t even realise that we were opposite the first site audit! As we had more time we took a tour of the whole city and stopped at the back, where we knew the vein must be coming in.
Again we climbed over walls, up through saplings, and on to the top of what turned out to be the table mountain to the main buildings of the village. “There it goes” said Joey; “Is it crossing the gap?”, “Yes!”
In less than a week the students had seen not one but two veins crossing a gap! And were able to recognise the wasp waist. This one was a real bonus as not even Joey had been up here and seen this before during his own site review session.
Fired up, we continued on to see the simplistic way of living hundreds of years ago. We looked at mud and straw huts, a horse in a stable, and simple wooden gateways. “This is where Nu’erhachi was born” I heard. Antenna’s started to prick up as Joey stood in the bright hall of the courtyard and succinctly explained how each of the 3 buildings was tapping into the Bright Hall.
He then pointed to the table mountain that was being tapped not only by the gateway but by the door Nu’erhachi’s birthplace. We had all turned into tourists and missed it!
As I stood at the doorway I was embarrassed at how “in your face” the
mountain was. It could not be missed. If you were doing your job, that is.
The explanation of the whole city was just as complex as 2004, but just as easily explained.
Time to go home. “Would you like another site? We have time” we were asked. Of course!
The final visit of the day was another bonus. The Yuan Shui Ling. A tomb made by Zhang Zhuo Ling for himself. It was to a tomb that was empty. This place had been built by a very famous feng shui Master for a Chinese Field Marshal (Zhang Zhuo Ling) during the time of the Warlords. But before it was finished the Field Marshal died in a train explosion, and for obvious reasons his burial never took place.
We were let loose with our luo pans and notebooks. “So, what did you find?” we were asked.
The tomb was facing Wu (South 2), which had confused us; the table mountain was 4 or 5 times the height of the tomb mound; the surroundings of the site were all flowing away; the frontage, which should have bright halls, had pulling nose qi; it lacked embraces; the sitting mountain from our position was too low, and as if all this weren’t enough, the whole tomb was surrounded by a lake.
There is a formation that can accept being surrounded on all sides by water, but it has to be formed like a lotus flower. This area was not.
The water at the front alone was cutting feet, and as any module 3 student knows, this is enough to obliter
ate any benefits you may have in the environment. "Gao dim!"
Satisfied that we were all refining and deepening our knowledge, and with confidence in our skills growing by the day, we left for home and a scrumptious dinner (yes, Chinese again, but delicious!), arriving back some 13 hours after leaving.
A good day’s work!
By Jayne Goodrick
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