The Lo Shu square

The legend

As the old story goes, China was drowning in a great flood. While the engineer king Yu worked to tame the rivers, a turtle climbed out of the Luo River with a pattern of dots on its shell. Count the dots in each section and you get the numbers one through nine, arranged in a three by three grid.

The name means something like "the writing of the Luo River." It is one of the oldest known magic squares in the world.

The Lo Shu square, drawn in NynLyf's nine tile colors.

The math

• Every row adds to 15. So does every column, and both diagonals.
• Five sits in the middle, which is also the middle of one through nine.
• The odd numbers make a cross. The even numbers take the corners.
• Using each number from one to nine once, it's the only three by three magic square there is. Every other one is this square rotated or flipped.

Try it: 4 + 9 + 2 is 15. 2 + 5 + 8 is 15. 8 + 1 + 6 is 15.

Where it shows up

In Chinese tradition the square is tied to the eight trigrams arranged around a center, and feng shui uses a version of it to map the areas of a home. We aren't here to sell feng shui. We just think the people who drew it knew something about shapes.

Why a three by three grid works for a life

Nine boxes are enough to hold everything and few enough to see at once. The grid has a center, so it has balance. And three rows of three can carry a meaning of their own.

In NynLyf the rows are you, your people, and your ground:

No square is more important than the others, the same way no line of the Lo Shu adds to more than 15. When one tile goes quiet, a cat named Nyn goes and lies down on it. You can read more about three, nine, Egypt, Pythagoras, and the cat in the story of 3 and 9.

Questions

Is NynLyf based on feng shui?

No. We borrowed the shape, not the rules. Nothing in the app tells you which direction to face.

Is the Lo Shu square the same as a sudoku?

No. A sudoku grid is nine by nine and each number appears once per row, column, and box. The Lo Shu is three by three and each line adds to the same total.