Basic feng shui series
Lo shu
by Jayashree Bose

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The Lo shu is quite similar to the He Tu, except that the layout of the dotted patterns are different. The white dots in the image are yang numbers, whereas the black dots represent yin numbers. This is similar to the He tu pattern. On closer examination you will notice that after every yin number, a yang number follows, which is again followed by a yin number and the cycle continues. The He tu has ten dotted patterns, whereas the Lo shu has only nine. A reproduction of the image of the Lo shu is given below.

The Numbers
Similar to the He tu in the Lo shu the yang(white) and yin(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. But unlike the He tu that has two central earth numbers the Lo shu only has one viz. number 5. On a closer look odd (yang) numbers 1,3,7,9 appear on the four cardinal directions and even (yin) numbers 2,4,6,8 are placed in the four sub-cardinal directions.

The Lo shu is also drawn as 9 grid numeric chart. The image is as below.

The sum of all the numbers in this grid whether diagonal, vertical or horizontal is equal to 15. The relevance of the number 15 is that it is the number of days it takes from full moon to new moon. The 24 Chinese seasons (Jie Qi) follows this lunar pattern and the days are approximately divided into 15 each.

Supposing, the centre number 5 is not taken into consideration then the numbers opposite to each other add up to 10. (Note - In the He tu it was the difference of 5 whereas in the Lo shu it's the sum).

In the He Tu we saw the cycle of production whereas in the Lo shu it is the cycle of destruction. Following an anticlockwise direction from the centre earth (5) destroys water (1,6) destroys fire (2,7) destroys metal (4,9) destroys wood (8,3) destroys earth (5).

The Lo shu is representative of the ever changing cyclical world.