How to distinguish between good fortune and bad luck and taboo in geomantic omen of cemetery

"Look" means looking at graves, geomantic omen, good or bad luck and vegetation. Most experienced grave robbers are good at geomantic omen, and they must look at the terrain first wherever they go. Because the ancients were superstitious about geomantic omen, most ancient tombs were built on the "land of geomantic omen". For example, places close to mountains and rivers are necessarily places where tombs gather. In addition, the vegetation and even the soil around the grave are important basis for grave robbers to make judgments. For example, where there are ancient tombs, because the soil has been dug and trampled, the growth of crops will be worse than that next to it.

"Smell" means smell, and whether there are tombs in a certain place can be distinguished according to different smells. For example, in Qin and Han tombs, mercury and cinnabar are often injected for anticorrosion; However, the tomb walls after the Tang and Song Dynasties were generally painted with green paste and mud. The odor emitted by these special substances is difficult for ordinary people to detect, but grave robbers can always tell it keenly. Another meaning of "smell" is listening to sound. Generally, when a tomb is shaken, such as thunder in the air, it will make different sounds to the surface. Jiao Si, a notorious grave robber in Qing Dynasty, was good at finding graves by sound. He used to look for a cemetery when it thundered, and he could accurately determine the location of the grave according to the echo.

"Asking" means stepping on the spot. Grave robbers are generally eloquent, especially good at chatting with old people about the past and present. Wherever they go, they will visit local old people as fortune tellers or feng shui masters, and get information about ancient tombs by talking with these people.

"Cutting" is the most important link in the process of finding the ancient tomb, which has three meanings: first, after finding the ancient tomb, according to the terrain of the surface, accurately find the direction of digging the pit and enter the ancient tomb in the shortest distance; Second, after the coffin was opened in the tomb, the treasures of the deceased were not missed; Third, after contact with cultural relics, you can judge which dynasty it belongs to and how much it is worth.