A man whom we will call Chang Ying-mu brought an action against some of his neighbours for denying him the right to move certain of his ancestors' graves from their present unlucky site to one that had been specially selected for him after deep consideration by a professor of _yin-yang_ and _fêng-shui_. "I have been very unfortunate in business," he said; "I dealt in opium at Chefoo and used to get on very well; but this new anti-opium fad has ruined me. I came home recently and brought with me a _hsien-shêng_ who is a native of Fu-shan Hsien [the magisterial district in which Chefoo is situated] in order to consult him about my ancestral graves, as I had suspicions that it was due to the bad _fêng-shui_ of the graveyard that I had been landed in so many difficulties. The _hsien-shêng_ saw at once that the present site was very bad. He said that nothing could be done to improve the _fêng-shui_ and that I must move all the graves to another place. The spot he has chosen happens to be not far from the houses of Tsou Hêng-li and Tsou Yü-ch'êng and many other villagers; and they at once raised objections to the proposed site on the ground that they would see the graves on coming out of their houses, which they said would be unlucky. I suggested planting a row of trees between their houses and my graves, but they refused to accept this arrangement. I then offered to build a stone wall as a screen, and to write 'Happiness' and 'Long Life' in large characters on the side of it that would face the defendants' houses, but the _hsien-shêng_ objects to this as the wall would obstruct the free circulation of good _fêng-shui_ round my new graves. I have already acquired the new site by exchanging another piece of land for it, and now that I have got it my neighbours prevent me from using it." The defendants Tsou Hêng-li and others presented a counter-petition to the following effect. "The _hsien-shêng_, whose name is said to be Hsiao, is a stranger to our village and he is quite evidently a rascal. He falsely pretended to be skilled in _fêng-shui_ in order to swindle Chang Ying-mu out of his money. He told Chang that if he moved his ancestral graves to the new site indicated he would guarantee that Chang would acquire wealth and honours within the space of three years. We all raised the strongest objections to the proposal, partly because Hsiao was a rogue and partly because the new site was practically in the middle of the village, which is quite an improper place for graves. The luck of our village would certainly be damaged if part of it were turned into a graveyard. Hsiao's only reply to us was that he was learned in the P'ing-yang books of Chiang-nan and that we were children in such deep matters. We fail to see why the customs of the Chiang-nan provinces should be made applicable to our province of Shantung. We appeal to the Magistrate to rid us of this pestilent fellow and so allow our village to resume its normal life."