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2.

The `` Lo Shu '' square as an expression of centrality

The concept of the Middle Kingdom at peace, strong and united under a forceful ruler, which had been only a longed-for ideal in the time of the Warring States, was finally realized by the establishment of a Chinese Empire under the Ch'in dynasty ( 221-207 B.C. ).

But this was only accomplished by excessive cruelty and extremes of totalitarian despotism.

Among the many severe measures taken by the First Emperor, Shih Huang-ti, in his efforts to insure the continuation of this hard-won national unity, was the burning of the books in 213 B.C., with the expressed intention of removing possible sources for divergent thinking ; ;

but, as he had a special fondness for magic and divination, he ordered that books on these subjects should be spared.

Many of the latter were destroyed in their turn, during the burning of the vast Ch'in palace some ten years later ; ;

yet some must have survived, because the old interest in number symbolism, divination, and magic persisted on into the Han dynasty, which succeeded in reuniting China and keeping it together for a longer period ( from 202 B.C. to A.D. 220 ).

In fact, during the first century B.C., an extensive literature sprang up devoted to these subjects, finding its typical expression in the so-called `` wei books '', a number of which were specifically devoted to the Lo Shu and related numerical diagrams, especially in connection with divination.

However, the wei books were also destroyed in a series of Orthodox Confucian purges which culminated in a final proscription in 605.