Hetu and Luoshu

Hetu (Yellow River Chart) and Luoshu (Luoshui River Script) are two mysterious diagrams passed down from the ancient times as the origin of the Chinese culture and the theories of yin-yang and five elements. Legend has it that in the period of Fuxi, a dragon horse surfaced in the Yellow River carrying on its back a mysterious diagram, known as Hetu, while a turtle surfaced in the Luoshui River carrying the other, Luoshu. Fuxi drew up bagua, or the eight trigrams, based on the two diagrams, which became the basis of Zhou Yi (Changes of Zhou) written later. In modern times, Hetu and Luoshu are generally believed to be the astronomical systems invented by the ancient Chinese to identify time, directions, and seasons. They are called the "magic cube of the universe" for the patterns of the universe and the stars and the profound principles contained therein.

Hetu and Luoshu, one being an astronomical diagram and the other a geographical one, were widely used in ancient Chinese science and technology. Both containing basic arithmetical logic, they are inherently linked. The He in Hetu actually refers to the galaxy, which was originally designed like a white dragon revolving around a central point – the North Star. Later this diagram evolved into two dragons, one black and the other white, and gradually became the Taiji Diagram familiar to the people of today.

Luoshu outlines the changes of heaven and earth and everything in between, including the horizontal space, the two-dimensional space, and the four directions.

Hetu and Luoshu have exerted great influence on the traditional Chinese culture. For instance, the Chinese words like tushu (book) and tushuguan (library) have stemmed from them. In November 2014, the legend of Hetu and Luoshu became a national intangible cultural heritage of China.

河圖洛書(shū)

河圖洛書(shū)是中國(guó)古代流傳下來(lái)的兩幅神秘圖案，是中華文化、陰陽(yáng)五行術(shù)數(shù)之源。傳說(shuō)伏羲時(shí)期，有龍馬從黃河出現(xiàn)，背負(fù)“河圖”；有神龜從洛水出現(xiàn)，背負(fù)“洛書(shū)”。伏羲根據(jù)該“圖”“書(shū)”畫(huà)成八卦，就是后來(lái)《周易》的來(lái)源。但現(xiàn)代科學(xué)一般認(rèn)為它們是遠(yuǎn)古時(shí)代人民按照星象排布出時(shí)間、方向和季節(jié)的辨別系統(tǒng)，蘊(yùn)含了深?yuàn)W的宇宙星象之理，因而將它們譽(yù)為“宇宙魔方”。

河圖和洛書(shū)分別是中國(guó)古代的天文與地理方位圖，被廣泛應(yīng)用于中國(guó)古代科技。這兩幅圖包含著基本的自然數(shù)之間的算數(shù)邏輯關(guān)系，兩者之間有著必然內(nèi)在聯(lián)系。河圖的“河”指的是銀河。河圖最初的原型是一條白色旋轉(zhuǎn)的龍，將銀河畫(huà)成白龍，圍繞著中點(diǎn)運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)，而這個(gè)中點(diǎn)是北極星。這幅圖在后來(lái)演變成了一黑一白兩條龍，逐漸成為了今人熟悉的太極陰陽(yáng)圖。洛書(shū)是脈絡(luò)圖，是表述天地空間變化脈絡(luò)的圖案，包括水平空間、二維空間，以及東西南北四個(gè)方向。

河圖洛書(shū)的影響體現(xiàn)在中國(guó)傳統(tǒng)文化的各個(gè)領(lǐng)域，漢語(yǔ)中的“圖書(shū)”“圖書(shū)館”等詞匯就源于此。2014年11月，河圖洛書(shū)傳說(shuō)被列入中國(guó)國(guó)家級(jí)非物質(zhì)文化遺產(chǎn)。