Editing Geomancy (section)

===Chinese geomancy===
In [[China]], the diviner may enter a trance and make markings on the ground that are interpreted by an associate (often a young or illiterate boy).  Similar forms of geomancy include [[scrying]] involving the patterns seen in rocks or soil.

====I Ching====
[[File:Family Ba Gua.gif|thumb|The eight trigrams used in I Ching.]]
The Chinese divination practice of the [[I Ching]] has several striking similarities to geomancy.  It includes a series of binary trigrams (as opposed to tetragrams used in geomancy) that are generated at random, the resulting figures of which are taken in combination.  However, the figures are not added or reorganized as in geomancy, but are instead taken to form a single hexagram.  While there are 2<sup>3</sup>, or eight, trigrams, there are 2<sup>6</sup>, or 64, hexagrams.  This yields a smaller set of resulting charts than geomancy.

====Feng shui====
{{main|feng shui}}
In the 19th century, [[Christianity in China|Christian missionaries]] in China translated ''[[feng shui]]'' as "geomancy" due to their observations of local [[shamans]] and [[priests]] manipulating the flow and direction of [[Qi|energy]] based on aesthetics, location, and position of objects and buildings.  Although it stems from a distinct tradition, the term ''geomancy'' now commonly includes feng shui.  Similarly, the introduction of a similar Indian system of aesthetics and positioning to harmonize the local energies, ''[[vastu shastra]]'', has come under the name "geomancy".