Basic feng shui series
He Tu - The river map
by Jayashree Bose

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A mystical story envelopes the formation of the He tu, which literally translates as 'River map'. The story goes that Fu Hsi saw a dragon horse (Qi lin) emerge from the river He carrying a piece of jade on its back. The jade fragment had a pattern of dots, which Fu Hsi studied to form the He Tu. Given below is a reproduction of the river map -

The Numbers
On the He Tu the white and the black dots form combinations. The numbers 1 and 6 combine to form water; 3 and 8 combine to form wood; 2 and 7 combine to form fire and 4 and 9 combine to form metal. The numbers 5, 10 are central earth numbers and must co-exist in order for a reaction to take place.
The numbers 1,2,3,4 are also known as birth numbers and 6,7,8,9 as result numbers. The difference between a birth and result number is 5(that is a central number). In every combination there is one yang number (white dots) and one yin number (black dots).

On closer inspection, it can be seen that the elements (formed by the combination) follow a clockwise path of the productive cycle. Therefore if we start from the center 5,10 - earth produces metal (4,9), produces water (1,6), produces wood (3,8), produces fire(2,7) coming back to earth (5,10) again.

The seasons are assigned as follows - autumn is 4,9; winter is 1,6; spring is 3,8 and finally summer is 2,7. In ancient text the numbers allocated to the seasons correlate with the numbers on the outer layer of the He tu. Therefore winter is 6, spring is 8, summer is 7 and autumn is 9.

If we take into account directions, 4,9 would be West; 1,6 would be North; 3,8 would be East and 2,7 would be South.

Numerologically, if we ignore the center numbers then both the white dots (yang numbers) and the black dots(yin numbers) add up to 20. The yang numbers all comprise of odd numbers 1,3,5,7,9, whereas the yin numbers all comprise of even numbers 2,4,6,8,10. Notice that opposite each yin number there is a yang number and vice versa. Example - opposite 3 (yang number) there is 4 (yin number) and opposite 8 (yin number) there is 9 (yang number). If we look at the he tu as layers, the outer or first layer comprises of the numbers 6,7,8 and 9 whereas the second layer comprises of the numbers 1,2,3,4 and the core (center) comprises of the number 5,10.

The He tu is a perfect example of balance between yin and yang and represents an ideal world. It is believed that harmony can only be achieved when there is a balance between the two forces.