In New View Over Atlantis (1969), John Michell points out that a knowledge of what Alfred Watkins called "ley lines" in England survived in China right up to the modern day.
He writes:
Stories of the magic location of sacred sites are not confined to Britain, but refer to a geomantic tradition once universally known. All over the world the centres of spiritual power were discovered by means of a system which combined science, astrology and intuition. Above all, in China, not only was every sacred building magically sited, but the Chinese geomantic principles are known; for the practice of divining the sites of houses and tombs was carried on well into this century. 59
He goes on to explain:
A hundred years ago the practice of Chinese geomancy first became generally known in the West through the complaints of European business men, who found inexplicable resistance to their rational plans for exploiting the country. Continually they were informed that their railways and factories could not take certain routes or occupy certain positions. The reasons given were impossible to understand, for they had no relevance, economic, social or political to the problem of laying out an industrial network. The Europeans were told that a certain range of hills was a terrestrial dragon and that no cutting could be made through its tail. 59.
Interestingly enough, these lines of "dragon current" were believed to be generated not only by the geological formations and alignments of energy in our own planet Earth, but also by the influences of the Sun and the Moon as well as the five planets. John Michell explains further:
In China until recently, as long ago in Britain, every building, every stone and wood was placed in the landscape in accordance with a magic system by which the laws of mathematics and music were expressed in the geometry of the earth's surface. The striking beauty and harmony of every part of China, which all travellers have remarked, was not produced by chance. Every feature was contrived. The main paths of planetary influence, determined by thousands of years of astronomy, were discovered in the landscape, the smaller lines that ran between them reproduced in the crags and fissures of the earth. These were the lines of dragon current or lung-mei. The various parts of the earth each fell under a particular planetary influence passed down through the lines which ran above them. Besides their lunar or solar, yin or yang, characteristics, certain lines were related to one of the five planets, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury or Saturn. These planets correspond to the five materials, wood, fire, metal, water and earth. Their colours are yellow, red, blue, white and black. Other correspondences link the planets with the materials of the body, with the internal organs, and with the fortunes of men. Even the shape of hills should conform to their astrological position. Steep mountains with sharp sides and peak pertain to Mars; those with top broken off to Jupiter. Hills under Saturn have a flat summit, those under Mercury are low and dome shaped, and hills of Venus are dramatically high and rounded. 62-63.
The entire discussion, as well as John Michell's insightful elaboration on the topic and startling conclusions, is well worth reading in its entirety.
For previous posts which touch on the subject of earth energy lines and the influence of the planets upon our lives, see also: