Sexagenary Cycle and the “Book from River Luo”

Now we know the Sexagenary Cycle is being used by the Chinese astronomers to record time. We are also told that the Sexagenary Cycle is also related to Chinese metaphysics in every aspect. The question is: how do they relate?

To answer this question, let us first take a look at the “Book from River Luo”, or in short “Luo-shu” (洛書). It was said that a turtle, carrying the Book or having the Book marked on its shell, arose from River Luo (洛水) when the Emperor candidate Shun (舜), the successor of Emperor Yao (堯), was about to harness the River Luo back in around BCE2250. The purpose of this fairy tales is to legitimate the divination power of this Book mostly by ancient metaphysicists. It is in fact a 3-by-3 magic square in today’s modern mathematics.

Because the number 5 is at the centre of the square, the interesting things are: (1) the sum of numbers in every horizontal lines, vertical lines, and even diagonal lines are all equalled to 15, and that (2) the sum of any opposite pairs are equalled to 10. With 5 at the centre, it has to be so.

The Chinese metaphysicists believe this magic square exists with a reason, and no matter what the reason is, the order of these numbers in the square must be a prophecy of how human beings in the Earth should communicate with the supreme beings in the Heaven. As much, the Sexagenary Cycle is brought into the magic square, and thereafter becomes the basic of Chinese metaphysics including Tai-yi (太乙), Qi-Men-Dun-Jia (奇門遁甲), and even Feng-shui, etc.
If we use directions to represent the order of the numbers, start with 1, we will have two different presentations, where C stands for the Centre:
In sequential order: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 or N-SW-E-SE-C-NW-W-NE-S
In reverse order: 1-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2 or N-S-NE-W-NE-C-SE-E-SW

In order to make the Sexagenary Cycle and the “Luo-shu” works together, Chinese metaphysicists fill the magic square in reverse order with the Sexagenary Cycle as shown.

Why is this so significant? What is its applications? I’d rather let you think about it first.