⚠Some characters within the circular diagram are faint or heavily inked, making precise transcription of the numerical values challenging.

The Radiant Phoenix Delivering the Heavenly Scroll

Left is three, right is seven; two and four are the shoulders; six and eight are the feet; five dwells in the center, representing the Five Elements of Earth and Fire.

[Circular Diagram]

[Central Vertical Column]

☰ The trigram for Heaven (Qian)

Three-Nine

Nine-Five original: 九五 (jiǔ wǔ). In the I Ching, this refers to the fifth line of the 'Heaven' hexagram, symbolizing the "flying dragon in the heavens" and representing the supreme position of a Sage-King or Emperor.

Five

Two-One

☷ The trigram for Earth (Kun)

Wind (Xun)

Heaven (Qian)

Mountain (Gen)

Water (Kan)

Thunder (Zhen)

Earth (Kun)

Lake (Dui)

Fire (Li)

This page depicts the "Radiant Phoenix Delivering the Heavenly Scroll," an auspicious iconographic scene found in texts on the I Ching (Book of Changes) and ancient cosmology. The circular diagram combines the directional arrangement of the "Earlier Heaven" Eight Trigrams with the numeric magic square of the Luo Shu. The text in the margin provides the classic mnemonic for memorizing the positions of the Luo Shu numbers. Below the diagram (in the original illustration), a phoenix is shown gazing up at the sky, signaling the arrival of divine wisdom or the reign of a virtuous ruler.