The Lo Shu Square

According to ancient Chinese legends, a giant tortoise surfaced from the River Lo in central China around 4,000 years ago. The ancients found a pattern on a tortise shell (see extreme right picture). There were circular dots of numbers that were arranged in a three by three nine grid pattern on it's shell.

The pattern of numbers in any given direction - horizontal, vertical or diagonal add up to a total of 15 (see middle picture above). This is equal to the 15 days in each of the 24 cycles of the Chinese solar year.

The significance of the arrangements of the numbers on the giant tortise feature prominently in the following:

1. The Chinese system of time dimension also takes into account number 9. Time is divided into 9 ages, each lasting 20 years. Three 20 year ages make up one period. A full cycle takes 180 years. Each period is assigned a number, from one to nine.

2. The origins of The Eight Types of Houses Theory makes use of the Pa Kua or The Eight Trigram of the I Ching (Book of Changes) to look diagnose a home.

3. The Lo Shu square became the basic theory of The Flying Star School of Feng Shui.

 

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