 | This article mayrequirecleanup to meet Wikipedia'squality standards. The specific problem is:Contains unidentified or uninterpreted Chinese characters. Please helpimprove this article if you can.(July 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Yellow River Map (Hetu) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 河圖 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 河图 | ||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Hétú | ||||||||
| Literal meaning | River Diagram/Picture | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Vietnamese name | |||||||||
| Vietnamese | Hà Đồ | ||||||||
| Korean name | |||||||||
| Hangul | 하도 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Japanese name | |||||||||
| Kanji | 河図 | ||||||||
| Hiragana | かと | ||||||||
| |||||||||
TheYellow River Map,Scheme, orDiagram, also known by itsChinese name as theHetu, is anancient Chinese diagram that appears inmyths concerning theinvention ofwriting byCangjie and otherculture heroes. It is usually paired with theLuoshu Square—named in reference to the Yellow River'sLuo tributary—and used with the Luoshu in various contexts involvingChinese geomancy,numerology,philosophy, and earlynatural science.[1]
TheYellow River (Chinese:Huang He) flows from theTibetan Plateau to theBay of Bohai over a course of 5,464 kilometers (3,395 mi), making it thesecond-longest river inAsia and thesixth-longest in theworld. Its ancient name was simplyHe before that character was broadened to be used in reference to most moderately sized rivers. The River Map has thus always been understood to be particularly in reference to the Yellow River and sometimes taken as a diagram of its course or the forces acting upon it.[citation needed]
The concept of theYellow River Map has a contextual apparatus associated with ancient Chinesecosmology. Various myths or legends are connected with the idea of mapping, involving correspondences between the earth, the sky, and/or abstract diagrams. The idea of a simple division of a flat/square earth into the very basic 3x3, (9-square) grid is historically attested in literature as early as theTian Wen's "Heavenly Questions", together with a suggested corresponding mapping solution for a round heaven/the sky (Hawkes, 136–137 [notes toTian wen]). This text from theChu Ci dates to pre-221 BCE. This basic grid is associated with the plan ofYu to control theGreat Flood of China.[2]
Myths of the Yellow River Map go back to earliest stages of the recorded history of Chinese culture.
Fu Xi or Fuxi was a half-snake deity andprotoplast who has appeared with his sisterNüwa in accounts of the creation of humanity and invention of civilization since at least the Zhou dynasty. Among the stories told about him is one in which, inspired by spider webs and other natural phenomena,[3] he created the River Map and then used it to devise thetrigrams that comprise the laterI Ching.
Yellow River floods were a constant occurrence throughout ancient, medieval, and early modernChinese history, sometimes covering entireprovinces and even shifting between the north and south sides of theShandong Peninsula. TheGreat Flood was a foundational myth of Chinese culture concerning a major flood said to have lasted at least two generations amid storms and famines. Chinese legend traditionally places it during the third millennium BCE reign of theEmperor Yao. The River Map typically plays an important role inYu the Great's eventual successful control over the flooding waters c. 2200–2100 BCE.[citation needed]
Thepersonification ordeity of the Yellow River holds the rank ofcount or earl (bo) in thecelestial bureaucracy and is accordingly known as He Bo. In some accounts, he is involved in providing the River Map.[citation needed]
Houtu (后土) is a male, female, or non-gendered divinity depending on the source, although the image of a Sacred Mother Earth deity is now common. Houtu is worshiped inChinese popular religion, with her birthday on the 18 day of the third month of theChinese lunar calendar. Sacrifice and prayer to Houtu are believed to be efficacious for problems of weather, reproduction and family, wealth, and boating safety on the Yellow River.[4] According to one account, when Yu the Great was attempting to channel the Yellow River and so avoid its flooding, he began by trying to open it to the west towards the mountains and away from the sea. Observing this, Houtu is said to have created and studied the River Map, after which she sent divine messenger birds to Yu to tell him to open up the river to the east instead. Yu's new dredging was a success, the flood waters drained into theeastern sea, and Yu's former dredging project toward the west was named the "River Wrongly Opened".[5] In this story, Houtu and the River Map were key to the successful engineering solution to the flood problem.
The River Map is attested to in theGu Ming section of theBook of Documents, one of its "new text" sections. Supposedly, the River Map was put on display during theZhou dynasty. However, this has also been interpreted to mean a depiction of the8 trigrams (bagua).[6] This incident is recorded to have been during the reign of the ZhouKangwang, who reigned either about 1020–996 BCE or 1005–978 BCE.
TheI Ching cites the River Map and the Luoshu.[1]
One way of analyzing theYellow River Map is by comparison with theLuoshu. Wolfram Eberhard says that the River Plan is proven "beyond a reasonable doubt" to be amagic square.[7] He connects it to themingtang halls of worship, saying that they share a division into 9 fields: these in turn are correlated with the 9 celestial objects—the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn,Rahu, andKetu—introduced from and according toIndian astronomy. Other sources emphasize these points for the Luoshu. Another interpretation of the River Diagram has to do with the5 elements (wuxing) and the5 Asian cardinal directions. Anyway, according toJames Legge the earliest versions appear to no longer be extant, with received versions going back only toSong dynasty (early Twelfth Century); concluding, "If we had the original form of 'the River Map,' we should probably find it a numerical trifle, not more difficult, not more supernatural, than theLo Shu Magic Square",[8] a companion piece to the River Map. Nevertheless, Legge finds it of interest in interpreting theI Ching.
First of all, Legge notes that the little bright circles of the "Map" correspond with the "whole" (yang) lines of theI Ching and that the little dark circles of the "Map" correspond with the "divided" (yin) lines thereof.[9]
| fire (火) 7 （extinction） 2（generation） | ||
| wood (木) 8 （extinction） 3 （generation） | earth (土) 5 （generation） 10（extinction） | metal (金) 4 （generation） 9 （extinction） |
| 1 （generation） 6 （extinction） water (水) |
| x | 7（west,西） | x |
| 3（south,南） | 5（center,中） | 9（north,北） |
| x | 1（east,東） | x |
| x | 2（west,西） | x |
| 8（north,北） | 10（center,中） | 4（south,南） |
| x | 6（east,東） | x |
Certain places in modern China useHétú (河图) as part of their proper place names. These include河图镇 (岳西县),河图镇 (保山市), and河图乡.