Taste that soil under your feet!

The subject of fengshui is a vast subject, especially in the Yin House fengshui. One part of it is the identification of the soil for burial. The topic on Soil identification is mentioned in ”入地眼“ - Literally translated as Enter the Earth's Eyes. This fengshui was written by a Northern Song Dynasty monk called 静道和尚 - literally Silent Tao Monk.

In this text, he had written down his thoughts about landform fengshui.

As quoted in Wikipedia regarding the soil colour, "In general, colour is determined by organic matter content, drainage conditions, and the degree of oxidation."

In Chinese Metaphysics, the colours of the soil are classifed as red, yellow, green, white and black in relations to the five elements. Red and Yellow coloured soils are the best, green and white next and the black is a no-no for burial.

If the soil lines are tight and the colours fresh, then its a prosperous site. If the texture is tough, its in bits and pieces, easily scattered, then its an inauspicious site.

It was said in the past, geomancer would taste the soil to find out about the quality. If the soil taste sweet and smells good, it is a good soil to use. If the taste is dry, sour, bitter, the soil cannot be use. If it smells fishy/raw, then there must be water. If it is smelly, it must be mud, and cannot be used.

In today's technology, there are many studies on soil:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil
http://informedfarmers.com/the-colour-of-soil/

One do not necessary have to taste them to find out the quality. Nonetheless the study of soil is very much not only related to the farmers, but also for the living and the dead. Before we talk about harnessing the Qi, we might want to understand how the earth works. Different land, different soils and water produces different type of people. Different climates, geographical location as well will affect the colour of eyes, skins, hairs and the texture of our skin.

And though I touch on the topic of Soil, there are too many considerations involved. Such that I have no time to translate and share with the rest. But the purpose is to bring awareness of its importance though its only a micro part of fengshui. Hopefully, some day some master will share their experience or their teaching in English. Till then, perhaps we should go back to basic and start to learn more about geography?