(4) Lo Shu Square.
Pankaj Khanna
9424810575
(4) Lo Shu Square
Which one is older: Hindu Kuber Yantra or Chinese Lo Shu Square? You already know about Kuber Yantra with the Magic Square, Parsi Mohalla and also about Me, Mom and the Murphy Radio;)
It's high time we discussed about Lo Shu Square too. The world believes that Lo Shu is the oldest Magic Square but they can't stop me in believing that Kuber Yantra is far more sacrosanct and maybe more ancient too!
Still to be fair, let me do justice to such a cute, adorable and profound Lo Shu Square! So here goes the Lo Shu story or the myth or the legend:
Born sometime around 4,000 years ago in ancient China, this 3×3 magic square has dazzled Emperors, Monks, Scholars, Artists, Mathematicians and anyone who enjoys numbers that behave so nicely and obediently!
The story begins on the banks of the Luo River, where Emperor Yu, a man already having a terrible day trying to control floods; saw something unusual. Out of the swirling water appeared a turtle, and not just any turtle! This one came out with built-in Wi-Fi… okay, okay, no! But it did emerge with a strange pattern of dots on its shell.
These dots formed a grid that no one had ever seen before. The emperor’s jaw dropped. The royal ministers' jaws dropped. Seeing their jaw dropping reactions, even the turtle might have dropped its jaw if it could do that!
This pattern was seen as Heaven’s message about harmony and balance — and became a sacred symbol in Chinese numerology and Feng Shui.
This pattern became known as the Lo Shu (Luo River Writing or Luo Book). It wasn’t just decorative. It was the world’s supposed to be the earliest recorded magic square: a square where the numbers in each row, column, and diagonal all add up to the same total: 15! Such balance! Such symmetry! Such elegant numerological vibes! No wonder the ancient Chinese treated it like a divine cosmic message!
The nine numbers (1 to 9) inside the Lo Shu Square behave with utmost discipline. No matter how you group them, three in a row, three in a column, or even diagonally; they obediently total to the same sum! Try such discipline with humans and you’ll get chaos, but numbers? They just delight you!
The Lo Shu Square didn’t remain just a cute turtle 'tattoo'. It grew into a cultural and philosophical symbol. Daoists (Followers of the Chinese philosophy of Taoism) used it to explain harmony between Heaven, Earth, and Humanity. Feng Shui masters used it to balance energies. Astrologers used it to interpret cosmic patterns.
Basically, if you had a problem, someone somewhere would say, “Put a Lo Shu in your house.” This was the oriental multi-purpose remedy a bit like our belief in Kuber Yantra.
From this humble 3×3 square began a whole dynasty of Magic Squares across cultures: Indian, Arabic and European. Even the Great Mathematicians like Leonhard Euler/ Benjamin Franklin/Ramanujan admired this family of number-grids centuries later. (More about them in due course.)
But the Lo Shu remains the first VIP member! Perhaps the First OG (Original) Influencer in the world of numerical design!
Interestingly, the Lo Shu’s magic sum, 15, is also the sum of any row in a Tic-Tac-Toe game where X wins… unless you play the game like my Mother who used to keep drawing in the corners only for the obvious reason!
So today, when you see a magic square, remember: it all started with a stressed-out emperor, a flooded river, and a turtle who casually brought Mathematics on its back! Why only maths, it is believed in Hinduism that whole world is resting on the back of a turtle.
So maths in the form a Magic Square can definitely rest on the back of a turtle.
Every row, column, and diagonal in the 3×3 Lo Shu adds to 15 ( Sum of 1 + 2 + … + 9 = 45, divided by 3). Interestingly, 15 is also the number of days in the lunar cycle — an ancient link to timekeeping and calendars.
In Chinese cosmology, the Lo Shu is associated with 5 at the center denoting Earth. The four corners representing Heavenly directions.The diagonals representing yin-yang balance.
(Yin and yang is an ancient Chinese concept of duality where opposite, yet interconnected and interdependent, forces balance each other to create harmony.)
Thus Lo Shu has been a sacred pattern for temple floors, altars, and astrological charts in China for Centuries.
The Lo Shu is ancient, elegant, mystical, and slightly comic; just the way good legends should be. More legends in the form of Magic Squares to follow...in the coming weeks !
Pankaj Khanna
9424810575
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मेरे कुछ अन्य ब्लॉग:
हिन्दी में:
तवा संगीत : ग्रामोफोन का संगीत और कुछ किस्सागोई।
रेल संगीत: रेल और रेल पर बने हिंदी गानों के बारे में।
साइकल संगीत: साइकल पर आधारित हिंदी गाने।
कुछ भी: विभिन्न विषयों पर लेख।
तवा भाजी: वन्य भाजियों को बनाने की विधियां!
मालवा का ठिलवा बैंड: पिंचिस का आर्केस्टा!
ईक्षक इंदौरी: इंदौर के पर्यटक स्थल। (लेखन जारी है।)
अंग्रेजी में:
Love Thy Numbers : गणित में रुचि रखने वालों के लिए।
Epeolatry: अंग्रेजी भाषा में रुचि रखने वालों के लिए।
CAT-a-LOG: CAT-IIM कोचिंग।छात्र और पालक सभी पढ़ें।
Corruption in Oil Companies: HPCL के बारे में जहां 1984 से 2007 तक काम किया।
