Lianshan Tomb

Legend says the Three Ancient Changes, the Lianshan, Guicang, and Zhouyi, were not merely books of divination. The Lianshan begins with the Gen trigram, which represents mountains. Its original meaning was "using mountains as the warp and rivers as the weft": a map of mountains and rivers charting the ley lines of the Nine Provinces.

During the transition from the Xia to the Shang, the royal court established the Directorate of Star Observation, responsible for the forces of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity. Generation after generation, its members used feng shui to survey the Nine Provinces, selecting the positions of the eight trigrams and the central palace to identify nine great ley-line sites. They built underground palaces at these sites and sealed the Emperor's jade seal, the bones of a saintess, and the essence of bronze in them, each guarding one of the nine locations and binding the destiny of the mountains and rivers. These became the Lianshan Tombs.

The Lianshan Tombs are no ordinary burial grounds. The tombs are a "lock," not a "house." Once all nine are opened, the ley-line forces of the Nine Provinces will return to chaos. A golden age could be transformed, or an age of turmoil could end in ruin. That is why the court has kept them shrouded in secrecy for a thousand years. The histories preserve only a single prophecy: "Where the Lianshan Tombs lie, rivers and mountains sleep as one. Those who open them will prosper; those who unlock them will bring calamity."