1[5] According to the Zhuangzi, “Man’s life is due to the

conglomeration of the qi; and when they are dispersed death

occurs” (Zhuangzi 22.11; Needham II:76). Wang Chong, the
Later Han dynasty skeptic, elaborated on this idea: “As water
turns into ice, so the qi crystallise to form the human body,”
and “That by which man is born are the two qi of the Yin and
the Yang. The Yin qi produces his bones and flesh; the Yang
qi his vital spirit.” (Lun Heng, chap. 62; Forke 1:92; Needham
2:369). The term “vital sprit” (jing shen) does not occur in the
Book of Burial.

1[6] This passage distinguishes two major classes of terrain

that are required for locating the presence of qi. Each class is
manifested in a pair of mountain forms— qiu or “hill” and long
or “crag,” on the one hand, and gang or “bank” and fu or
“mound,” on the other. Hills and crags are characterized by
the presence of rock formations, banks and mounds by the
absence of rock. Regardless of the composition of the terrain,
the goal of the diviner is to locate the system or chain of
forms that would be evidence of the flow of qi. This system is
described in anthropomorphic terms—“ “bones” or ranges of
hills and crags, and “(arterial) branches” or ridges of banks
and mounds. Like arteries or veins in the human body, a
metaphor used in place of branches later in the text (see
III.A.1), these geological systems protrude as banks and
mounds or run hidden underground. The experienced diviner
can locate the submerged veins by following the flow of
exposed terrain.

[7] See VIII. A.

[8] See IV. C.