Luo Shu (Book of Luo)

Like the He Tu (River Map), the mysterious and interesting diagram of the Luo Shu (Book of Luo) has been the inspiration for many theories of feng shui.

Unnatural arrangement of dots found on the back of a turtle that emerges from the river Luo during pre-historic China.

According to Chinese legends, around 2250 B.C., there was a great deluge. Sacrifices were offered to the god of the flooding river to appease his anger.  Emperor Yu, who had a reputation as the tamer of floods in ancient China, sighted a turtle crawling out of the flooding river Luo, with the mysterious luo shu pattern in the form of  dots on its back. Henceforth, the luo shu has always been associated with the control of water and ultimately feng shui.

In modern times, the Luo Shu diagram is often represented in the form of a 3 x 3 magic square.

Luo Shu diagram as depicted in the form of a 3x3 magic square

Adding the 3 numbers in each row, column and diagonally yields the "magic number" of 15. The number 15 is significant to the Chinese as it is the number of days in each of the 24 cycles of the Chinese solar year. Since the number 5 is at the center and the totals are always 15, any two numbers opposite each other will always add up to 10.

Furtheremore, even numbers are located at the four corners of the diagram while odd numbers are found on the top, bottom, center and the two sides.