Chapter 8 Summary

Yu Lung is a prosperous gentleman of 40, in a Western-style office inside a very Chinese house. Paul produces his half of the bills and Yu spreads out six sheets of rice paper covered with circles and Chinese writing. They show a remarkable conjunction of forces. Three of the four men are dead or soon to be and the fourth is active in their fates but in no danger himself. Yu explains that horoscopy predisposes rather than predestines. There are also "geomantic" factors involving the five natural elements; none of the doomed men is in harmony with the world but under the influence of Ma Tham Vong, a malevolent ghost that makes violent death inevitable. Yu assumes one of the three is a powerful foreigner, who had been predisposed to Ma A Phien, the "opium ghost." Without particulars on other individuals involved, Yu cannot...