The Art of Geomancy's Reverse-Stick Method was written by Xie Heqing, courtesy name Juezhai, also known as Yuyuanzi. He was the author of the transmitted works The Divine Treasure Classic and The Heavenly Treasure Classic. This book deals exclusively with methods for choosing burial sites. It consists of thirty-six chapters, each beginning with a rhymed verse in four-character lines that summarizes its main points. Three additional sections, on mountains, plains, and miscellaneous observations of the four surrounding features, explain water and mountain methods in detail and contain many profound insights.
The commentator, Gao Mao, had the courtesy name Shimi and the sobriquet Wangjing. According to the Index of Ming and Qing Jinshi Examination Records, Gao Mao was from Tongliang, Sichuan. He passed the imperial examination in the third rank, in 135th place, in the jichou examination of the eighth year of the Jiajing reign (1529). He served as a Court Astronomer and Clepsydra Keeper, an eighth-rank official responsible for water clocks and for observing the stars at dusk and dawn, as well as striking bells and drums to announce the time. A master of geomancy, he explains Xie Heqing's thirty-six Reverse-Stick Methods one by one, analyzes them in detail, reveals the subtleties of the method, and carefully exposes the errors in its examples of divination. Gao Mao's preface shows that the book was completed in the renchen year of the Jiajing reign, the eleventh year of that reign.
