Book of Burial

郭璞The Commercial Press · ChinaSep 2020

3.8

Word count: 15K words
Chapters: 6

Summary

The Book of Burial is a work by the renowned Eastern Jin scholar Guo Pu. Its full text runs to less than two thousand characters, yet it systematically sets out a theory of feng shui. Its five major theoretical highlights may be summarized as: first, the theory of riding the "vital energy" (shengqi); second, the theory of "storing the wind and gaining water"; third, the theory of "landform and configuration" (xingshi); fourth, the theory of the "four divine sands" (sishen sha); and fifth, the theory of "soil-quality standards."

Editor's review

The Book of Burial is extremely short, less than two thousand characters, yet it constructs the basic framework of traditional Chinese feng shui theory and is a source text that cannot be bypassed in understanding later geomantic literature. This edition uses the original edition published by the Commercial Press in the Republican period as its base text, preserving the old-style typesetting and wording, and thus also has reference value for studying the history of modern academic publishing and the transmission of feng shui knowledge. The five key points in the book—riding vital energy, storing the wind and gaining water, landform and configuration, the four divine sands, and soil-quality standards—are interrelated, and reading them shows how the ancients used concise language to organize a body of knowledge about site selection and environmental judgment. It should be noted that the date of composition and authorship of this book are still debated in academic circles; it should be read as a traditional divination text rather than an empirical scientific work, and need be neither revered as definitive nor rejected wholesale. It is suitable for readers interested in the origins of feng shui, concepts of architectural site selection, and folk-custom literature for focused study, and is especially suitable for reading alongside annotated editions or research monographs, to compensate for the obstacles to understanding caused by the original edition's lack of punctuation and dense terminology.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Academic readers studying the origins of feng shui and geomantic literature
Readers interested in traditional architectural site selection and environmental concepts
Collectors of facsimile editions of Republican-era original publications
Cultural researchers who need to cite early feng shui texts

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking modern scientific methods of environmental assessment
Beginners with no classical Chinese foundation who are unwilling to consult annotations
Practitioners seeking practical feng shui operational formulas

Reading tips

Read through once to understand the overall structure, then go section by section with an annotated edition to sort out the terminology.
While reading, note down the original wording of core concepts such as riding vital energy and storing the wind and gaining water.
Use works on architectural history or folklore studies to understand the text in its historical context.
On questions of authorship and date of composition, consult relevant textual research before making judgments.

About the publisher

The Commercial Press China · Founded in 1897

"Republic-era Commercial Press Original Editions" refers to original books printed by The Commercial Press during the Republican period, not a separate publishing house. Judging from the 300 titles held in the collection, its publishing focus centers on classical poetry and lyrics, literary appreciation, classic works, military texts, prose and miscellaneous writings, and Eastern philosophy. Representative titles include Wang Guowei's Renjian Cihua, Zhong Rong's Shipin, the lyric collections of Xin Qiji and Liu Yong, Sun Wu's The Art of War, and Lü Buwei's Xianshi Lan. Its author resources are mainly classical writers, together with modern scholars such as Li Jingbang and Guo Huaruo, whose collations and annotations are also represented, giving the list a character centered on original texts while attending to annotation and appreciation. Public information on the precise Republican-era catalog and printings is limited; this overview is based only on the titles held in the collection.

版权信息
正文一
正文二
正文三
正文四
正文五

FAQ

Is the author of The Book of Burial really Guo Pu of the Eastern Jin?

Traditionally it is attributed to Guo Pu, but academic opinion differs on the date of composition and authorship, with some holding that the present text was compiled and embellished by later hands. It should be read as a traditionally attributed text and judged in light of textual scholarship and research monographs, rather than simply taken as Guo Pu's own original work.

This book is less than two thousand characters; why has it had such a great influence?

Precisely because it is short, the key points it sets out—riding vital energy, storing the wind and gaining water, landform and configuration, the four divine sands, and soil-quality standards—are highly condensed and easy for later generations to cite and elaborate on repeatedly, gradually becoming the basic framework of geomantic theory. Its influence comes more from being continuously annotated and extended than from the detail of the text itself.

Is the Republican-era Commercial Press original edition suitable for ordinary readers?

The original edition preserves old-style typesetting, has no modern punctuation, and is dense with terminology, so ordinary readers face a certain barrier in reading it directly. It is advisable first to use an edited edition with annotations and an introduction to understand the meaning, then return to the original edition to appreciate its textual appearance, thus balancing readability and textual value.

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About the author

郭璞 Author

Publicly available information about Guo Pu's life and official career is limited: because of the great antiquity of the sources, his exact place of origin, birth and death dates, and educational background remain disputed and cannot be described in detail with confidence. What can be established are his transmitted works. The library holds seven of his titles, including the Er Ya Zhu Shu, the Er Ya Zhu (Old Commentaries on the Thirteen Classics), the Shan Hai Jing, the Mu Tianzi Zhuan, the Zang Shu, and the Xuan Zhong Ji. Guo Pu excelled in the study of glosses, names and things, and geography and natural history. His commentaries and sub-commentaries cite widely and define meanings with precision; they both clarify the classics and preserve a great many ancient words and senses, making them important aids for reading the texts of the pre-Qin and Han periods. His editorial work on the Shan Hai Jing and the Mu Tianzi Zhuan reflects a vision that connects myth, geography, and history, while the Zang Shu is a key text in the traditional literature of geomancy. Overall, his writings combine textual scholarship with broad antiquarian inquiry and have had a lasting influence on later classical studies, geography, and the culture of technical arts.