A small tale is told in a book written by one of Mao's guards, Zhang Yaoci, as Mao presided over the chaos [during the Cultural Revolution] from his headquarters in Beijing. Mao's grandfather Mao Enpu had been buried in a special tomb, a "dragon's den", with the most powerful kind of feng shui; so powerful, in fact, that there were said to be no more than twelve such sites in all the world. Mao's father Yichang had been a wealthy farmer, and when Enpu died in 1904, Yichang hired the greatest feng shui master of the day to find one of these most powerful dragon's dens. Bu Guo Wu searched for 11 days and located the spot on a mountain called Tiger Resting Hill. When he did, he predicted that the flow of qi from the tomb would make Mao Zedong, who was only a boy of 11, a powerful man in China in 31 years' time, which turned out true to the letter. And with this mighty fortune, reasoned Chairman Mao — even as his Red Guard smashed and burned every feng shui shop and arrested every master who might find a dragon's den for someone else — with this would his future be secure.
Brian Dunning, Feng Shui Today Skeptoid Podcast #50 October 11, 2016
This, in summary is the tale which is presented below. The author believes this is the first time the full story has been translated into English, or indeed, any foreign language. It is called …
毛泽东祖坟风水传说–历史揭密
The Legend of Mao Zedong’s ancestral tomb— Revealing a historical mystery
The Legend of Mao Zedong’s ancestral tomb— Revealing a historical mystery
This is a heady mix of political intrigue, catastrophe, and fengshui— in some places feels like a magic-realist portrayal of 20th century Chinese history. It claims that the meteoric rise of Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-Tung) could be ascribed to Mao’s father siting an ancestral grave in an immensely lucky spot.
The translator is 99 % sure that this story is complete fiction. True, some characters like Mao Zedong ,Chiang Kai-shek and Bai Chongxi are real people. However, he doubts if they ever got up to what the story says they did. In a similar manner he doubts if Bu Guo Wu ever existed. Nonetheless this is a particularly valuable form of fiction. It shows how people in China had attempted to make sense of the near-miraculous changes to their country through equally supernatural means -- fengshui, fate calculation, physiognomy etc. To give an idea of how sudden the transition was, when the wright brothers flew their plane, there was still an Emperor of China, and Mao Zedong became a teenager in the year the last emperor of China, (Puyi 溥儀) was born
Before going on, I should speak for some moments on the Fengshui mentioned
To the Chinese, soil and rocks of the ground are like flesh of a living thing. A subtle energy, called Qi courses through them, just like blood. This Qi moves around in lines and collects here and there, much like blood vessels in a living thing. The "veins" are called the Meridians 脈, （lit. Pulse) and the places where it collects are called Xue (Hsüeh) 穴, which means "Lair" or "Den".
To the Chinese, soil and rocks of the ground are like flesh of a living thing. A subtle energy, called Qi courses through them, just like blood. This Qi moves around in lines and collects here and there, much like blood vessels in a living thing. The "veins" are called the Meridians 脈, （lit. Pulse) and the places where it collects are called Xue (Hsüeh) 穴, which means "Lair" or "Den".
If you built a grave in a suitable Lair, and bury your ancestor's bones in it, you and your descendants would absorb its power and prosper. (The same also applies for buildings in general; building them in auspicious sites allows their living occupants to absorb the energy). It is a job of a fengshui master-- like Bu Guo Wu, to discover such powerful sites. There are several methods of doing so. Bu Guo Wu uses the "Form school" 巒頭 (Luantou) of fengshui, which scrutinises the shape of the landscape. Other methods exist, like using compass directions and numerological calculations. In any case, the two schools do not conflict, and the competent fengshui master would use both.
Note on the text: The primary text was available at this weblink http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5d53c0210100tk4p.html), but the post has since been set to private.
The translator possessed a copy of a book entitled 名人高官與風水 by 不過午. ( hence Mingren/名人), with which he had amended The punctuation and text in the online version as and when necessary.
The author has been unable to find the source of Dunning’s anecdote. In any case this story and Dunninng’s vary in their circumstance: In Dunning’s story, Bu Guo Wu was commissioned to find the site; in this story, Bu Guo Wu gave it in gratitude to Mao’s father. In turn, the name and form of the fortunate site differ. If the translator does discover the source of Dunning’s anecdote, he hopes to translate it.
