Numbers have alway been an integral part of feng shui. The magic square/lao shu on the mythical tortoise’s back containedall the numbers from one to nine.

In Feng shui, numbers are divided into yin and yang. Even numbers are yin and odd numbers are yang. Yang numbers are considered to be more favorable than yin numers but balance is equally important. Hence, it is good to have our house number to contain both yin and yang elements than to be either all yin or all yang.

Chinese always have the following homophonic interpretations for each number:

One sounds like “honor”. Also sounds like “won”

Two sound like “easy”

Three sounds like “growth”

Four sound like “death”

Five sounds like “nothing”

Six sounds like ” wealth”

Seven sounds like “sure”

Eight sounds like ” prosperity”

Nine sounds like ” long life”

Once you understand the above, you will then understand why the Chinese likes number like 2(easy), 6(wealth), 8(prosperity).

However, what is interesting is if your house number is 24 which can be interpreted as “easy death”- well for Chinese belief but from numerology standpoint, 24 is a very good number.

Also don’t forget the number 4 which means death which is frequently avoided by the Chinese wherever possible. If you understand this, you will then sometimes, find number changed from 4 to 4A just to avoid the homophonic interpretation of “death”. How about in Hong Kong, where in 1988,the first year where the Hong Kong’s Transport Department began auctioning license plate number.The number “8″was sold for a whopping figure of $650,000!!! The license plate “2828″ which means “easy money, easy money” sold for more than $63,000.

It has always being a well known fact that in Chinese environments in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, houses no 8 being sold first and no 4 will be the very last.

Some feng shui experts also advocate:

• if you are choosing a new home, it is best to buy one with both yin and yang numbers as part of the street address and
• arranging the numbers on your letter box so that each number is placed slightly higher than the one before is a good idea except when the final digit is a four. [Arranging the numbers in this way tends to put most significance on the final number. If the final number of the house numberis four, arrange the numbers in a straight line to place equal emphasis on each number.]

Also, from the feng shui, there is the following relationship between the number and the direction, color and elements:-

Direction  Number  Color               Element

North          1             Blue,  black    Water

South           9            Red                  Fire

East           3,4           Green              Wood

West          6,7           White               Metal

Center      2,5,8         Yellow              Earth

If we look at the number in relationship to eight trigram:

Direction Number   Color    Trigam   Element

North             1         Black       K’an       Water

Southwest     2         Yellow     K’un       Earth

East                3          Green     Chen      Wood

Southeast      4           Green     Sun        Wood

Center            5           Yellow      -           Earth

Northwest     6            White     Chien     Metal

West               7            White      Tui        Metal

Northeast      8             Yellow    Ken       Earth

South              9              Red        Li          Fire

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Have you heard about the story of a rich Hong Kong businessmen who built a mansion facing the sea for his family?

However, after moving into the house, the family members suffered continuous bad luck. Within a few years, his offsprings died from illnesses. The wife too was seriously ill and the businessman lost much money in his business ventures.

He then engaged a geomancer to assess the feng shui of the mansion but he could not find anything wrong. A few months later the businessman’s wife passed away. Again he sought many geomancers’ advice but to no avail. Finally, he was recommended a geomancer by his friend. The businessman asked the geomancer to stay in the mansion for a week to assess the feng shui. Every day, the geomancer studied the house but he could not find anything wrong with it.

On the last day of his stay, the geomancer got up very early and carefully examined the surrounding environment of the house. At that time, the tide was very low and to the geomancer’s surprise he saw a rock in the sea facing the house. The rock was shaped like a hugh frog with its mouth wide open. He then informed the businessman to blow up the frog shaped rock. Unfortunately, the rock cannot be destroyed and the businessman also fall ill. The businessman managed to recover after he moved out from the mansion.

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In the Chinese horoscope, we have the  twelve animals namely the Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram/Sheep, Monkey, Rooster/Cock, Dog and the Pig . But where is the beautiful Cat and wasn’t it being chosen?

 

There are few versions to this legend:

 

• The Buddha invited all animals in creation to come to him, promising them recompense appropriate to his all powerful and miraculous kindness and generosity however almost all of them ignored the call of the Divine sage. Only the aforesaid twelve animals heeded the invitation hence Buddha offered each animal a year which would be dedicated to him alone through the ages.This year would carry the animal’s name, and express  his symbolic character and his specific psychological traits, marking the personality and behavior of people born during that year.

 

 

However, there is this interesting story about how these twelve animals are formed in the Chinese horoscope

 

Once upon a time, there is the Jade Emperor who wonder what the creatures of the earth looked like. He summoned his assistant to go down to the earth and order him to invite only  very interesting creatures to see him in the palace.

 

The assistant traveled to earth and gave his first invitation to a rat. He told the rat that when he sees his friend, the cat, to invite same to the palace as the assistant is confident that the Jade Emperor will be fascinated by the cat’s coat.

 

Along his journey, the assistant invited the ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster and the dog telling them to be at the palace at seven o’clock the next morning.

 

So all the invited animals prepared themselves and the rat dutifully went in search of his friend the cat. The cat was delighted to hear the news but since he was a deep sleeper, he made the rat promise to wake him up early the next morning. The rat gave his promise and return to his nest to sleep. But the rat couldn’t sleep and the more he thought about the cat the more jealous he become as he thinks that “ the cat is far too beautiful and will outshine him”. And he decided not to wake up the cat.

 

The next morning, all twelve animals were lined up for inspection in the palace courtyard. The rat was anxious to be noticed and so he sat on the ox’s back and played a flute. The Jade King was fascinated by this unusual creature and gave him first place. The ox was placed second since he had been generous enough to allow the rat to sit on his back. The courageous looking tiger was placed fourth, dragon resembled a strong snake on legs and so he was given fifth place,snake-6^th, horse-7^th, ram-8^th,monkey-9^th, rooster-10^th and the dog-11^th . As the king considered the pig as the ugliest he gave it the last position- 12^th.

 

As soon as the award was given, the cat ran into the palace pleading to the king that he has overslept and beg for another chance. But it was too late as the king had already made the decision on the twelve animals of the horoscope and their corresponding twelve earthly branches.

 

The cat accepted his fate but he could never forgive the rat hence to this day, you can see that whenever a cat see a rat it will chase and eat it.

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