Agriculture and the Lo Shu

THE HOLY FIELD 

“The Chinese, from the first day of their known history, appear as an agricultural people.”

- Marcet Granet, The History of Civilisation , p. 139

The mathematics of the Luo Shu helped to establish order of the cosmos and helped form the numerology of the calendar.  The Luo Shu and another numerical system known as the Yi Jing were used in prognositication and divination to help understand the adjustments humankind would have to make to anticipate the coming changes. 

The Luo Shu had within its framework the formulas for understanding Time and Space as well as a system that encompassed Heaven and Earth, male and female, yang and yin, odd and even, the four cardinal directions and the four intermediate directions, and lastly, the circle and the square.  For the early Chinese, the Luo Shu symbolized the universe in microcosm and was a most powerful cosmo-magical symbol to assist humankind in harnessing the lifeforce of the Heavens. 

The numerology of the Luo Shu helped to identify the number of days in a week, the number of weeks in a season, the number of days in a season, and the number of days in a year.   All of these numerical relationships can be found in the 27x27 Luo Shu Magic Square.  Perhaps this can shed some light on the mythological connection of the Luo Shu with the Ming Tang (House of the Calendar) and the four seasons. 

The significance and importance of mathematics to the Chinese development of agriculture is also demonstrated in the symbols the Chinese use for the word agriculture, which in Chinese is:

From Williams, Outlines of Chinese Symbolism & Art Motives

Jingtianzhi     -     a system of agricultural land division so that eight farms and the state (center plot with central well system) share a 3x3 grid of land. 

This is the Chinese character for well (water source) and is pronounced jing . This is an important “key character” in the word for agriculture, as it denotes the fields for grain laid out along the lines of this character. The character also is symbolic of the division of nine pattern referred to as jingtianzhi as well as the Luo Shu pattern of nine. 

The other symbols in the word that Williams uses for agriculture are as follows:

symbol for grain, also based on the key symbol denoting tree.

symbol for plow, based on the key symbol denoting tree:

symbol meaning to do over again.

This system involved implementing the use of the jingtianzhi , which translates to: “the well field system of the holy field of nine squares.”  Also known as the Jing Tian system, the well field system has been regarded as a philosophical land distribution scheme that represents the ideal agricultural relationship between the state and its farming peoples. 

Eight square sections of land would pivot around the central section of land which served several purposes. First, the communal well would be placed in the center section and provide water for all nine sections of farmland.  Secondly, the eight surrounding families would contribute to raising crops on the central plot and this would represent tax revenue for the state. 

This pattern of nine is so sacred to the ancient Chinese that it was incorporated into the annual ceremonial ploughing by the emperor to welcome spring and to insure good fortune for the upcoming season. The ceremony became known as “meeting the spring”. Although the tradition has long since ceased, the image of the emperor engaging in the “first” ploughing of the sacred field was popular as a subject in Chinese art history.

THE PHILOSOPHICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF (SOME) CHINESE CHARACTERS 

This Chinese character symbolizes                 This Chinese character means strength
the dykes of the rice fields or paddies     

                                    MAN -  NAN                                       

Combines the characters for strength and field            

When the two characters for field and stregth are combined,  the word for man - nan -  is formed.  The literal meaning for man, in Chinese, is labour or strength in the fields, based in part for the word for Heaven - also tian (different character).   Philosophical meaning:  Man is the connection between Heaven and earth by understanding the solar cycle and the four seasons.  

                        
       Mi                                          Qi
Rice                     1.  Life giving force  
                                  2.  The twenty-four solar periods

The character for rice was of such esteem that it was part of the character for the undefineable Qi, pronounced chi, referred to as the life force, manas, soul, breath, energy, the vital material force, or anima.

The glyph can also mean the twenty-four fortnightly periods that make up the solar cycle.  Each period corresponded to a 15 degree motion of the sun in longitude on the eliptic.  This also corresponded to 15.218 days.      

Therefore, the glyph for Qi makes correspondences with:

1.  Agriculture
2.  The Calendar
3.  The Vital Material Force

  North Star  -   Pei Tou

The North Star was also known as the Great Bear and was the most important star in the Chinese astronomy system.  The character contains the symbol for peck, which is a weight measurement for grain. This is another example of a glyph representing an important star (Heaven) with correspondences to agriculture.

THIS IS A SAMPLE FROM A CHAPTER IN NUMBER, TIME, AND ARCHETYPE.
THE BOOK INCLUDES MANY MORE EXAMPLES OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL CORRESPONCES CHINESE CHARACTERS MAKE WITH THE HEAVENS, EARTH, AND THE CALENDAR.  OF SPECIAL INTEREST ARE THE USES OF THE GLYPHS FOR SUNDIAL, GNOMON, DIVINATION, AND THE HEXAGRAMS. 

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