Chapter Ninety-Five: Reading Feng Shui

  Today, there are many brothers who rewarded me! Like Lonely, Slow Run, Iron Rod Blood Lion Beast Emperor, Snow Happy, wujia1230 and Honest Man 888. This chapter is Chapter 5, let's stop here for today! Thank you all for your support!

  The old village chief handed the documents to Wan Lao, and seeing that the villagers were no longer depressed but had a high morale, he was very happy. As the village chief, he always put the development of the village at heart.

  "Older brother Wan, are you planning on asking someone to build a house or what?" the old village chief asked.

  "Isn't there someone in the village who does this kind of work?" asked Old Wan.

  "Yes! Old Wu is an expert in construction, he has been doing it for his whole life. I wouldn't say it's exquisite, but the quality is solid." The old village chief quickly recommended Fifth Uncle Wu.

  Chu Jiaqiang knew that Wu Shu's uncle started learning civil engineering from his father at the age of 12, and began to work on his own at the age of 15. Now in his sixties, he has been building houses for more than half a century, indeed an experienced master.

  "Not bad! Fifth Uncle is reliable in handling matters, absolutely no substandard project." Chu Jiaqiang also chimed in.

  Wan Lao also knew that Chu Jiaqiang's fifth uncle was reliable, and nodded his head. He trusted the old man to handle things carefully, as people say: "A smooth talker is not reliable in handling affairs."

  He has been in this village for so long and found that Chujiacun is actually a place where heroes gather, discovering many excellent people who generally keep a low profile.

  Let's take this old construction worker, for example. Building houses and doing construction is as easy as eating a meal for him. The old teacher at the village primary school isn't an ordinary person either. Once, he saw a bloody scene of carnage from his opponent's eyes, which was very frightening. He heard that this person used to be a soldier, but it's hard to imagine what kind of killing god he was back then. There's also the old carpenter who doesn't like to talk much, but his woodworking skills are incredible. The old man who weaves bamboo baskets has an even more agile pair of hands, and the bamboo seems to come alive in his hands. Li, the old man who often comes over to play chess, seems to have a wonderful story as well. Then there's Chu Jiaqiang's Second Uncle, whose cooking skills are truly beyond words. Finally, there's one person that can't be left out - the legendary old Taoist priest, unfortunately, I didn't have the good fortune to see him myself.

  The land bought by Wan Lao is about two mu, and building a house only uses a very small piece of it. He plans to build a house with a similar shape to Chu Jiaqiang's old house, with the front door opposite the back door, separated by a courtyard in the middle, which feels great. In other places, he plans to build a yard and grow some melons and vegetables, which is considered an experience of peasant life.

  He had been in Chujia Village since he came, and saw that the old village chief and others were older than himself, but their bodies were very good. There was also a reason for this, they breathed natural oxygen every day and often worked hard, as the saying goes: life is in motion! So, the two old men had an idea.

  Two mu of land, a total of over 1,300 square meters. At the price of arable land in the town, calculated at 50 yuan per square meter, it would be over 600,000 yuan. This piece of land originally belonged to two households, Chu Jiaqiang and Chu Shengzhong, but Chu Jiaqiang occupied two-thirds of it. Chu Shengzhong, that is, the family of Chu Jiahao, got around 200,000 yuan. This made many people envy for a while.

  In fact, in this backward village of Chu Family Stockade, the locals don't need to pay for land when building houses. They just need to go to the town government to get a stamp of approval. If they want to build cowsheds or pigpens, they don't even need to ask permission. In such a remote place where the mountains are high and the emperor is far away, everything is simplified.

  The old village chief immediately went to find Old Five and carefully reminded him that he must handle the matter properly.

  The fifth uncle waved his hand and drove the chattering old village chief away: "Alright, tomorrow go take a look at the feng shui of that place for him. Stop nagging like an old wife, my ears are almost oozing oil."

  He wouldn't have scolded anyone if it weren't for the old village chief's hard work and dedication to the village's well-being.

  The old village chief had no way to argue with him, and said a few more words. Seeing that Old Five's face was almost black, he left with his hands behind his back.

  In the country, whether in rural or urban areas, building a house will pay attention to Feng Shui and will not be built randomly.

  The next day, Wu Shu brought a Luopan, which every Fengshui master has. He first greeted Wan Lao, then everyone moved to the empty space beside and started playing with the Luopan in his hand, paying attention to the surrounding environment, the distant mountains and water.

  In the architectural customs of houses, "feng shui" plays a decisive role. "Feng shui" generally refers to a kind of technique and skill that guides people on how to determine the location, orientation, layout, and construction of yin and yang houses, and Huai'an folk believe that only this way can bring good luck.

  The earliest recorded Feng Shui activity was called "Buzhai". There are many records of divination in the Yin and Shang dynasties. People call this activity of divining before building a house to determine good or bad luck "Buzhai".

  "Jiaqiang, bring me a hoe and also bring the scale." Wu Shu said.

  "Older brother, how is it?" Wan Lao immediately asked as soon as he saw the initial results, and he also quite believed in Feng Shui.

  The fifth uncle looked at Old Wan and smiled, "The feng shui here is not bad, it can be said that the feng shui of this entire area is very good. The old house was able to fall into this place, naturally it's a treasure land with extremely good feng shui in the village. Now let's measure some details, and when the time comes, we'll choose an auspicious day to break ground."

  Wan Lao was overjoyed at once, and this result was just as he had guessed from the start.

  The main content of divination is divided into two parts: time and space. Time includes the year, month, day and hour for starting construction; Space includes the selection of the location and scope of the building. Later, the method of divining a house was elevated to a "distinguishing direction, inspecting soil, observing water" method of inspecting a house. The main content of this method is: making a comprehensive inspection, examining natural features such as mountains, rivers, forests, etc.; measuring the land, determining the scope of the building site; measuring the shadow of the sun, determining the orientation of the building.

  The first "feng shui" was just seen by Fifth Uncle, this place was originally carefully selected by our ancestors, the feng shui is naturally good.

  Wu Shu Gong took the hoe and dug a square inch of soil from each corner of the house foundation, then weighed it with a scale. This is called "Xiang Tu", many places can't see it anymore, only some rural areas still inherit this method. The purpose is to judge the quality of the house foundation.

  "Nine two, what a great place! It's perfect for building a house!" Fifth Uncle exclaimed loudly.

  There are two methods for distinguishing soil, one is called "distinguishing by weighing" and the other is called "distinguishing by observing".

  "In the "Geotechnical Method", it is recorded: Take a piece of soil, square on four sides to one inch and weigh it. If it weighs more than nine liang, it's auspicious land; five or seven liang is moderately auspicious; three or four liang is inauspicious land (Note: This seems to be an error, possibly 'four sides squared to one foot'). Alternatively, use a dou of soil, crush the soil, level off the mouth of the dou and weigh it. For each dou, ten jin is top grade, eight or nine jin is middle grade, six or seven jin is lower grade."

  The method of divining the soil is simple, but it takes a whole day to see the results. On the same day, dig a hole one foot two inches wide and deep in the foundation. Crush the excavated soil and fill it back into the pit naturally, without treading on it. The next morning, if the energy is prosperous, the soil will bulge up, and if the energy is declining, it will be concave and ominous.

  Feng shui emphasizes the importance of natural landforms, while also paying close attention to the relationship between adjacent buildings in terms of their orientation and positioning. The overall requirement is that they should be reasonable and harmonious, avoiding opposition to the majority, i.e., avoiding having a house facing in the opposite direction to others. Feng shui calls this "crowd resistance", with the proverb saying "all troubles arise from standing out".

  If you go against the crowd, you will suffer unnecessary troubles. For the empty space in front of the house, it is not possible to be low on both sides and high alone, but rather high and slightly lower than others, and too low is also unacceptable. It requires orderliness and coordination in neighborhood relations, with a sense of harmony and mutual accommodation.

  Upon hearing the two words "auspicious land", Wan Lao and his wife burst into laughter, immediately giving Wu Shu a big red envelope. This is a rural convention, a symbol of celebration.

  The fifth uncle was also straightforward, picked it up and felt quite good, it seems that Old Wan had put a lot of money into it.