Burial Methods: Twenty-Four Sand Burial Techniques

To observe a dragon, observe where it arises; to understand an acupoint, understand where it halts. Arising is movement giving birth; halting is stillness and death. Yet in the dead place one seeks life again — this is what is meant by 'vital breath.' Thus by examining the subtleties, one exhausts the great principles. Symbolize the object and derive the method; follow the feeling and derive the principle. Deduce the divisions and convergences to determine depth; clarify the adding and subtracting to maintain control. Leaning, collision, capping, adhesion — in body, momentum, feeling, and intention, an error of a hairsbreadth leads to a deviation of a thousand miles.

CARRYING AN UMBRELLA: The incoming dragon has urgent qi, the vein rushing straight through the center. Without a nipple-formation, the qi-acupoint adheres to the right side, receiving laterally and leaning against the rear. The left arm extends long while the bright hall opens wide — like a person carrying an umbrella. One should open the gold-well shallowly; too deep will cause harm. Imported earth should be added to fill the burial ground solidly. This will assuredly produce lasting wealth and nobility. CORRECT BURIAL: The incoming dragon crystallizes after three or four nodes. The acupoint's momentum is neither steep nor urgent, with wrapping and protection well-ordered on all sides. The goldfish waters converge in a ring; the hall-qi is clear. One should set a correct acupoint, open the well, and place the coffin to receive the true qi. The mound should be heaped high, oriented toward the central response. Within half a cycle, both wealth and nobility are complete. OPENING: A stubborn Great Yang metal-form without texture or waves — one must open a deep pit to create a nest, approximately centered on the main hall. Where the goldfish waters converge, set the acupoint and bury with a suspended coffin, extracting the small, warm, moist qi from the center. This is called 'opening metal to extract water.' Development will be slow but enduring, without decline. SUSPENDED COFFIN: The incoming dragon-vein is urgent without respite, yet has divisions and convergences. The acupoint forms in deep mud. Open to the solid ground and upon finding solid earth, construct a large pit-chamber inside with brick and stone. Erect four stone pillars within the chamber and suspend the coffin downward. Before the chamber, connect to a gold-pool, releasing the water of the three auspicious directions. Then heap earth to form the mound, thereby connecting to the vital breath. HEAPED MOUND: The incoming dragon has both a cap and a seat — urgent above, gentle below — a 'falling vein.' Therefore on level ground a protrusion arises, with stone inside the protrusion that cannot be excavated. As if borrowing the outer city-walls, open the gold-well shallowly, bury correctly with surface earth, and heap earth into a mound. This is land that first brings wealth, then nobility. LARGE AND SMALL BASKET-SCOOPING: The incoming dragon has feeling, with the head high but the acupoint offset. A lateral arm suddenly rises as a round metal-form. At the head's entry-point, there is mouse-flesh receiving the acupoint, with a water-star responding externally — the principle of metal-and-water generating each other. This is the 'large wrist' receiving obliquely. One more descent then another small metal-form rising, with the intention of welcoming the hall and honoring the ancestor — this is the 'small scoop' receiving correctly. HORSE-MANE SEAL: The incoming dragon's high ridge has a cavity, within the cavity a protrusion. Bury correctly at the protrusion's summit. One must excavate from in front of the acupoint, swallowing inward below, and set the acupoint beneath the protrusion. Do not open a deep pincer-pit — set the golden bones shallowly in the well. Otherwise, an upright coffin is auspicious. After burial, heap the mound. The original earth should remain undisturbed, with the horse-mane seal barely exposed. Do not construct brick or stone masonry that would damage the protrusion. TURNING DRAGON HONORING THE ANCESTOR: The dragon's momentum is urgent and hard. Passing through a barrier-gorge, it generates a hook and turns back. The vein crystallizes from the turned face, honoring the ancestor and welcoming the hall — the entire clan turns with it. It pays audience to the subtle and profound; do not insist on distinguishing true from false. The acupoint should be elevated, with the gold-well opened deep. This is called 'gold ascending to water; the tomb ascending to sand.' RIDING THE DRAGON: At the dragon-spirit's terminal point there is an abrupt, jutting formation. The fronting case presses against the forward sand and the acupoint is exposed — its qi does not gather. The rear dragon accumulates in layers; the grass-snake ash-line and crossing-vein are clearly visible. The acupoint must be set by retreating rearward and planting high. Ride down atop the dragon, sink a deep well to place the coffin, and fill in the bright hall to complete the creative transformation. GRASPING AND PULLING: The incoming dragon descends steeply and urgently into the acupoint. There must be feeling, though the hall-qi is pressed and narrow. External mountains and external waters cross-knot on left and right. Viewing the outer hall laterally reveals a broad and expansive qi-vein. Receive the acupoint laterally, lifting it into position. Open the well neither too shallow nor too deep — carefully calibrate the tailoring. Heap earth for cultivation, with male and female pressed close to the body — pulling the rear and grasping the front. After burial for one cycle, the family will produce wealthy and outstanding men generation after generation. POST-STATION REST: The incoming dragon follows a high ridge with a tight vein. The acupoint's presence seems both to exist and not exist. One must ascend [...] to view the dragon before the true configuration becomes clear. The peak must shed its metal-water curtain and descend to a small formation in the middle of level ground. The entry-point has the quality of spreading cushions, halting carriages, and resting horses — a post-station. Open the gold-well deep at the crossing-point center, build the mound high in masonry, and tailor according to method — the wonderful principle will manifest of itself. AXE-FIGHTING: A straight dragon rests against danger with no wrapping or protection. Yet on left, right, front, and back there are ghost-and-luminary formations. The dragon flips its body and works laterally, linking mountains and gathering water to receive vital breath — the feeling is like axes raised in mutual salute. The forward audience-peak refuses approach. Contemporary masters recklessly attempt to measure this, but because the momentum comes straight while the reception is horizontal, it is inherently difficult to comprehend.

CARRYING A VALLEY: The incoming dragon crosses horizontally, turning and dropping its vein. The acupoint-feeling has the quality of a bee-waist formation, matching the Heavenly Wealth double-headed metal pattern. With a correct support behind, plant directly in the center of the upturned palm. Do not open the well too deep — let the coffin be swallowed one-third down. Too deep will injure the acupoint. If the front barrier contains the hall-qi without leakage, fortune will last forever. But if the sand and water truly depart, it is inauspicious. HOLDING A CHILD: The incoming dragon is urgent above and gentle below, with male and female crossing each other. The hall-qi is clear, the responding case rises elegantly. Dragon and tiger press close before you. To set the acupoint: above, pierce through the dragon-tiger waist; below, capture the converging water. Embrace horizontally — like a person holding a child. SWALLOWING DOWNWARD: The incoming dragon's momentum falls straight then slants, swaying and bending in reception. The acupoint method should swallow inward, opening the well to gather true qi. The rear responds with its joy-peak; the front welcomes its audience. This is a magnificent city of inexhaustible great wealth. Though the acupoint-feeling is high, bury on the forward side and additionally erect an empty mound — this is called 'Swallowing Downward.' There must be a responding support for it to be auspicious. EJECTING BURIAL: The incoming dragon descends in a posture like dewdrops flowing on grass — breathing out pearls. Any intrusion will scatter the true qi. One can only adhere along the trace, opening a small gold-well, building a low brick mound-wall. If the water does not flow into mud and there is an elegant response ahead, it is assuredly land of great wealth and nobility. FLOATING BURIAL: The incoming dragon enters at hand with a low, level disposition. The flanking supports rise above. Within the acupoint there must be a curved nest concealing true qi — four waters do not disturb it, eight winds do not blow on it. Open the gold-well shallowly and place the coffin correctly; the method requires no adjustment. Add imported earth for cultivation, building the tomb thickly, so that warm qi connects and the true vein flows in fusion — then wealth and nobility arrive immediately. SINKING BURIAL: The incoming dragon has high sentiment but low protection. The descending qi necessarily penetrates deep. The gathered qi's audience-response has feeling, but the barriers are not yet fully sealed. The acupoint should be driven low and level so the flanking supports become the correct framework. Open the well to swallow one-third of the coffin; tamp solidly on all four sides to prevent the affliction of eight winds shaking. This is truly land of enduring generations. LEADING THE OX: An Earth Star dragon crystallizes at the acupoint. At the entry-point, two summits suddenly rise. The left and right mountains extend two arms, crossing each other with repeated elevations. The audience-greeting has feeling. Two modes of travel, at varying depths and heights — according to method, open a square gold-well and place the coffin, borrowing from both sides. The responding joy-peak divides the shoulders and joins the feet — like leading an earth-ox by its tether. The subtle principle of yin and yang — few people understand it. One protrusion's feeling can yield two acupoints, like the triangle atop a qilin's head. SEEKING FULLNESS: The incoming dragon's qi is gentle. Though it crystallizes a pearl-block or slope-acupoint, large and small are uneven. The small face has tight claws and teeth but does not form a proper configuration. The large side is full and plump with divisions and convergences — the profound and subtle can be pursued there. Set the acupoint at the full place, opening a wide gold-well with the coffin sinking deep. Build the mound-wall small, supplementing the small side. Capture the hall-qi's level expanse — though called 'seeking fullness,' it achieves balance. WOUNDED HUNGER: The dragon arrives, crossing veins with node after node clearly visible. Below the cap there is metal; below the metal there is horizontal earth. It seems like an acupoint but is not quite. In the center there is a curved depression or a winding pool — neither shallow nor deep. Mediocre practitioners will certainly have doubts. But if host and guest are mutually compatible, then though the acupoint has flaws, burial has its method: plant against the spine, sink a small well to receive the coffin, build up the rear and cultivate the front to supplement creation's work. Though called 'wounded hunger,' it does not hunger. COLLISION ACUPOINT: The incoming dragon has steep feeling. The hall is shallow below the seat. The departing water pinches at the feet, dragging and flying to this place — many doubts arise. The feeling and momentum can be taken, but one must establish a different standard: open the pincer wide, collide broadly inward, swallow the coffin and drive it down into the collision-acupoint. Crouch and observe — one sees only the outer hall broad and expansive, the outer sand thorough and sealed. Avoid the inauspicious to embrace the inauspicious — even a false site becomes a spiritual burial ground. PLANTING WOOD TO SPROUT: The incoming dragon descends straight like planted wood — also called a 'long Dark Warrior beak.' Even if there are proper flanking supports, one absolutely must not plant at the head's end-of-vein — one planting means failure. Interrupt at the mid-rest; there must be a knotted-wood formation. Open the well at the thick and plump place, placing the coffin with three parts offset for reinforcement — this naturally holds the meaning of 'sprouting.' Still, imported earth must be used to build up properly and correctly — then the root is firm and branches and leaves flourish. DRAWING A BOW: The incoming dragon's summit tilts and turns into a depression. Seek laterally for a plump protrusion, releasing and sending the dragon's left and right arms in curving arcs — like drawing a bow to shoot an arrow. The central response is clear. At the mouse-flesh point, open a shallow well to place the coffin — like fitting a straight arrow to the bow's grip. The force can reach far. The responses occupy both sides; the coffin-head must converge, the coffin-feet must diverge, borrowing the protective power of the bowstring. This is the ultimate principle. The fronting case must curve like a drawn bow for it to be auspicious — a reverse-bow is inauspicious.