River map (河图)

In many books they will tell you a fairy tale about the creature which is spotted at the china yellow river with spots on the back on this animal. And this is how the river map is created.

This river map may look very simple but when you really study it, it is more then meets the eye.

In the olden classic xì cí chuán(系辞传) written by Confucius (孔子 551BC - 479BC) there is this context.

天一，地二；天三，地四；天五，地六；天七，地八；天九，地十。

Direct translation on this which mean heavenly 1, earthly 2; heavenly 3, earthly 4; heavenly 5, earthly 6; heavenly 7, earthly 8; heavenly 9, earthly 10.

So what does it means?

This is to show us that all the heavenly numbers are odd numbers and the earthly numbers are even numbers. To us in this modern time, it is no big deal, it is just odd numbers and even numbers but this kind of knowledge at that time is a great finding. And there are even more...

In another classic known as Classic of History (shàng shū 尚书) there is another context known as :

天一生水，地六成之；地二生火，天七成之；天三生木，地八成之；地四生金，天九成之；天五生土，地十成之。

Direct translation means heavenly 1 give birth to water, earthly 6 is concluded; earthly 2 give birth to fire, heavenly 7 concluded; heavenly 3 give birth to wood, earthly 8 is concluded; earthly 4 give birth to metal, heavenly 9 is concluded; heavenly 5 give birth to earth, earthly 10 is concluded.

So what does it means?

By spilting the above 10 numbers into 4 different group.

Group 1 known as the heavenly number. (Odd number group)

Group 2 known as the earthly number. (Even number group)

Group 3 known as the birth number. (Birth number group)

Group 4 known as the produce number. (Produce number group)

Heavenly	Earthly
1	2
3	4
5	6
7	8
9	10

Birth No.	Produce No.
1	6
2	7
3	8
4	9
5	10

Another informations that is hidden in this river map is an astrology chart.

During the 4 different season, the north star will have a different outlook, during spring, the tip of the north star will point to the left, summer it will point to the top, autumn it will point to the right and finally during winter it will point to the bottom. This also explain why 3-8 is wood element, and also why it is 3-8 is on the left of the river map diagram. The 4 seasons also tell us that when the river map is created, our forefather already understand that time factor exist.

Have you even cross your mind how is the five element produce? How is it invented?

It came from the river map.

Looking at the picture we all understand that 1-6 produce water, 2-7 produce fire, 3-8 produce wood, 4-9 produce metal, 5-10 produce earth. The idea of the five element comes from this picture. Because everything in this universal there is a need to have a heaven, earth, create and finally an outcome. That is why there is the heavenly number, earthly number, the birth number and finally the produce number. Beside all this, this river map also have direction concept in it. 1-6 is North, 3-8 is East, 2-7 is South, 4-9

is West, and 5-10 is center. In chinese context in the olden days, they already have the center concept therefore 5 directions is use and not only 4 directions. This also tell us that during that time, they already have the space concept. As we all know that fengshui is also the study of time and space. This is why in fengshui why do we need to know about the river map.

Many people ask me why in fengshui the North is at the bottom, this is because this formula is created by people staying in the northern hemisphere, that is why the everytime when they look at south, it will be on top because they are standing at north, therefore north is at the bottom.