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

河圖洛書是中國古代流傳下來的兩幅神秘圖案，是中華文化、陰陽五行術數之源。傳說伏羲時期，有龍馬從黃河出現，背負“河圖”；有神龜從洛水出現，背負“洛書”。伏羲根據該“圖”“書”畫成八卦，就是后來《周易》的來源。但現代科學一般認為它們是遠古時代人民按照星象排布出時間、方向和季節的辨別系統，蘊含了深奧的宇宙星象之理，因而將它們譽為“宇宙魔方”。

河圖和洛書分別是中國古代的天文與地理方位圖，被廣泛應用于中國古代科技。這兩幅圖包含著基本的自然數之間的算數邏輯關系，兩者之間有著必然內在聯系。河圖的“河”指的是銀河。河圖最初的原型是一條白色旋轉的龍，將銀河畫成白龍，圍繞著中點運轉，而這個中點是北極星。這幅圖在后來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圖。洛書是脈絡圖，是表述天地空間變化脈絡的圖案，包括水平空間、二維空間，以及東西南北四個方向。

河圖洛書的影響體現在中國傳統文化的各個領域，漢語中的“圖書”“圖書館”等詞匯就源于此。2014年11月，河圖洛書傳說被列入中國國家級非物質文化遺產。