Feng Shui garden layout with bamboo and grasses.

The Lo Shu:

The Lo Shu is mathematical chart and is one of the most ancient records of Chinese cosmological thought. According to the Chinese, Hsia Tou the Legendary and ancient character first discovered the Loa Shu. ("The 'Lo Writing')

Feng Shui Lo Shu Bamboo

'Hsia Tou', a great General and engineer had by imperial command of the Emperor been employed in designing and constructing ways of reinforcing and the banks of the Yellow River to control the seasonal flooding.

The story goes,

Hsia Tou' was taking a rest one day on the banks of the river Lo when he saw an unusually large turtle at the rivers edge. As he watched the turtle, he saw that there were some unusual markings on its shell this caught his curiosity. On closer inspection, he became aware of the significance of the numbers and copied them onto a tablet.

feng shui Lo Shu

This was to become the veryfirst Lo Shu ever recorded.

The uneven white dots represent Yang and the even numbers black dots represents Yin. The diagram above shows how the original markings appeared on the back of the turtle.

There are a few interesting things to take note of. You will see that the sum of each line of numbers is always equal to the sum of fifteen (vertical, horizontal or diagonal). If you ignore the number 5 in the centre, you will notice that the number that sits opposite each to each other equal the sum of 10.

With the exception of the 5 centre, the Lo Shu numbers are ordered so that after every Yang number, a Yin number follows, and, after every Yin number a Yang number follows..

Lo Shu is often drawn in the form of a 9-square chart with each square representing a direction of the compass 1-N, 9-S, 3-E, 7-W, 8-NE, 6-NW,4-SE 2-SW, 5-Centre (total 9 locations).

The Lo Shu is without question the oldest tool used in Feng Shui dating back around 2000 BCE.

The numbers on the Lo Shu are representative of many things; however, the most important of all as far as we are concerned is the fact that they indicate where different energies or Qi circulate and reside within our garden.

The Elements and the cycles:

Feng Shui the elements and bamboo

The five elements are known as the Wu Xing, they act as the agents for Qi, namely water, wood, fire, earth and metal.

Where these elements are in balance in your space the overall feeling will be far better.

Where an element is missing there will be an imbalance that may be causing a deficiency or a problem in your life or aspirations. Our objective is to reorganize our space so no one element dominates the other; it is to get the perspective, proportion and balance right.

Each Elemental phase is cyclic interacting with every other Element in a productive, destructive or controlling way.

Each element is associated to a form shape, direction, colour, season, weather, mood, planet, archetype, taste, action, emotion and Yin and Yang connotation. It is not within the scope of these pages to cover these in depth.

See Qi Concepts

Fargesia Nitida

The Sweet Rush or Sweet Flag

Carex . Milk Chocolate,

Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens'

Carex 'Silver Scepter'.

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[Celestial Animals][The Form][Garden Layout][Alignment][The Cycles][Your Feng Shui]

Laying out the garden with the Lo Shu

Now that we have determined the form using the Celestial Animals and have made as many improvements that we can within our budget and the bounds of practicality. And before we attempt to do a reading of the energies in the garden , we need to make a plan of our site. Accuracy is of course very important so you will need a good tape measure that is long enough to use effectively, and a hand held compass to determine the direction of magnetic north. You will find it much easier if you have someone, your partner or a friend to assist you.

You will need to make a rough but realistic sketch first and write down the perimeter measurements of the garden plot and the dimensions of the property. Graph paper is probably the best for this job. Once we have a plan of our garden and we know which way is compass north, then we can draw our Lo Shu onto the plan as illustrated in the diagram below.

The Lo Shu is the oldest tool used in Feng Shui. It is far to complex and involved to attempt to explain in these brief pages. All you need to know here is that each squares is responsible for a different Qi and aspiration in our lives.

There are five elements to be considered, Water, Earth, Metal, Fire and Wood. Each element with its associated shapes and colours. Each element has productive destructive or controlling influence on each of the other elements.

When planning our Feng Shui garden we need to study the table below and ensure that each square is planted or landscaped in a way that is sympathetic and complementary to the elements shapes and colours in order to maintain balance.

For instance take the North square; its Trigrams name is 'Kan' its element is water, its colour blue/black and its shape wavy or flowing. This is obviously for Feng Shui is a very good spot for a garden pond or water feature. it is also in a shaded aspect.

Perfect complementary plants would be Sedges, damp loving, very shade tolerant and with the right colorings blue and silver grey. Ideal plants would be possibly Carex nigra 'variegate,Carex 'Milk Chocolate,Carex 'Silver Sceptre. Bamboo the black and purple Fargesia Nitida also a shade and moisture lover. and of course there are a few grasses "The Sweet Rush or Sweet Flag and "Ophiopogon planiscapus" 'Nigrescens'

The Table of Elements: Table 1

The table below shows the association of each square of the Loa Shu with its respective elements, colours, shapes and aspirations for life.

No	Trigrams	Direction	Element	Colour	Shape	Fortune
1	Kan	North	Water	Blue Black	Wavy Flowing	Career Prospects
2	Kun	Southwest	Earth	Cream Beige	Square	Partnerships Marriage.
3	Chen	East	Big Wood	Pure Green	Tall Erect	Prosperity Growth
4	Sun	Southeast	Lesser Wood	Jade Green	Tall Erect	Wealth Rewards
5	None	Centre	Earth	Amber Yellow	Square	Prosperity Fame
6	Chian	Northwest	Metal	White Silver	Round Domed	Influence Networking
7	Tui	West	Metal	White Silver	Round Domed	Children Family
8	Ken	Northeast	Earth	Yellow Beige	Oblong Square	Education Development
9	Li	South	Fire	Purple/Red	Triangular	Fame Recognition

The Productive Destructive Controlling Influence: Table 2.

Now if we look at the table below we can see the influence each element has on its neighbour. These are called the cycles and determine the interaction between the different elements. By subtle manipulation of these elements we can influence and fine tune the energies within our garden. Lets look at a simple example.

Element	Fire	Earth	Metal	Water	Wood
Produces	Earth	Metal	Water	Wood	Fire
Destroys	Metal	Water	Wood	Fire	Earth
Reduces*	Water	Wood	Fire	Earth	Metal
Weakens**	Wood	Fire	Earth	Metal	Water
*Reduces by exhausting the element that is trying to destroy it
**Weakens exhausting the element that is trying to create it

Take for instance the East Square of the Lo Shu or the area in our garden that responds to it. We see that its element is wood, pure green, tall and erect and represents our prosperity and growth. A complementary plant to place here to maintain the balance and harmony of our garden may well be Semiarundinaria fastuosa. 'The Noble Bamboo' Tall elegant upright topped with lush green leaves.

Now look at Table 2 on the top row column 5 we see Wood in the elements. If we look down the column we can see the affect wood has on the other four elements when placed with them. It produces Fire, it destroys Earth, reduces Metal etc. However the East Sector host element is wood, our prosperity and growth area. What happens if we place another element in that sector ? Well look at the Wood elements in table 2 and follow it diagonally from the top of column 5 to the bottom of column 1, and you will see the effect of each other element has on wood in the first column on the left, i.e column 4 Water produces Wood. Column 3 Metal destroys Wood,.Column 2 Earth reduces Wood. Column 1 Fire weakens Wood. So it should be obvious that if we want to maintain prosperity and growth we Dont put that Semiarundinaria fastuosa in a metal container as metal destroys wood, our growth and prosperity. On the other hand a blue painted square wooden planter or an underplanting of blue geranium or periwinkle will stimulate our aspirations in the fortunes (prosperity and growth ) of that area. Try it you will be surprised you will find it is not only right it looks amazingly right.