Customer Reviews

Legacy of the Luoshu: The Mystical, Mathematical Meaning of the Magic Square of Order Three

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The Legacy of the Luoshu covers the story of the luoshu in China, both in legend and using historical sources. It tells how the luoshu and the magic square came to the attention of the West in the 17th century. The book explains uses of the luoshu in traditional Chinese culture, and also examines the use of the luoshu in other cultures, including Greece, India, Tibet, Japan, and the Islamic world. This book explains the mathematics of magic squares and how they are derived.

The Legacy of the Luoshu is 214 pages with many diagrams and illustrations. This includes some beautiful drawings from old Chinese books.

The author, Frank Swetz, is a professor of mathematics, who has written many other books, including others on Chinese mathematics. Even though he is a mathematician, his writing is very readible. The book has extensive footnotes, yet does not seem stuffy at all. In fact, you can feel the authors excitement as he discovers new details about the history of the luoshu. The author has a good grasp of Chinese culture, without any feeling of condesention.

If you are curious about history and how things work, this is a wonderful book! The first four chapters were fascinating; I just wanted to lie in bed and read them. The later half of the book is a great resource to which I will refer, although the subjects were less focused on my specific areas of interest.

If you enjoy learning about the intellectual and spiritual pursuits of classical Chinese culture, you will love this book. Overall, this is a very well researched book that is serious, yet fun to read.

If you are interested by magic squares and their history, then you will be interested by this book.
It describes with a lot of nice illustrations the history of the first known magic square 3x3, constructed by the Chinese, a very very long time ago.
Well documented book, with probably long hours of research done by the author.
New valuable information, never published before.
I wish a great success to this new Swetz's book.

Frank Swetz has done it again. In plain language he has given
the best description of the luoshu magic square that I have read.
The first half of his book is a detailed explanation of
how the magic square is an outgrowth of Chinese philosophy. Swetz very carefully explains the connection of the square
to the concepts of Yin/Yang, I Ching and Feng Shui. One can easily understand the cultural and mystical significance of
the square and its relation to cosmology and astrology.The
book contains excellent diagrams which are well documented
and copious endnotes.
The third quarter of the book gives an decent explanation
of why the square was not first developed in Europe. The
last quarter of the book discusses various miscellana about
the luoshu magic square. In all the Legacy of the Luoshu is
a fascinating read and a must for anyone who would care to
give a detailed explanation of its meaning.

In the Legacy Of The Luoshu, Prof. Swetz combines history with mathematics and culture to take the reader on a particular journey of understanding. He shows how mathematics evolves from human needs and provides insights into early scientific thinking.

The book is well researched and contains many interesting illustrations. Chinese beliefs concerning yin-yang forces and cosmological theories are explained and their connections with mathematics revealed. Swetz has spent many years exploring Chinese mathematics and I have enjoyed and employed his earlier research in this field.

In this latest book, he documents the Chinese discovery of the magic square of order three and traces the influence of this number square on other cultures. It is a masterfully told story by a skilled story teller.

As a former mathematics teacher, and someone interested in the history of mathematics, I found this most recent book by Professor Swetz to be very interesting and very professionally written. There is material in this book that I have not seen in any other sources. The book provides a great resource for anyone interested in the history of mathematics.

The Luoshu, or magic square with 9 boxes was of major importance in Chinese cosmology and was superimposed on maps and other spatial systems.

There is much about the Luoshu in English but this is the clearest treatment of the mathematics and so highly recommended for any interesting in this oddity of math and of Chinese philosophy.

The author is a mathematician, not a sinologist so the information on the Chinese cultural aspects is limited and based on secondary sources, often out-dated ones. Still this is a good place to start.

Mathematics educator Frank J. Swetz presents Legacy of the Luoshu: The 4,000 Year Search for the Meaning of the Magic Square of Order Three, an in-depth study of the diverse roles that the luoshu (a 3x3 "magic square" of numbers in a grid, where all rows, columns, and diagonals add up to the same sum) has played in metaphysical and spiritual traditions worldwide. From Chinese fortunetelling to Daoism, and fengshui, to Islamic astrology and Kabbalistic lore, the luoshu has perpetually reappeared throughout global human history. Extensively researched and illustrated with a handful of black-and-white photographs, Legacy of the Luoshu offers a unique glimpse into one aspect of the history of numerology, and is highly recommended especially for mysticism and metaphysical studies shelves.

Frank Swetz has done it again. In plain language he has given
the best description of the luoshu magic square that I have read.
The first half of his book is a detailed explanation of
how the magic square is an outgrowth of Chinese philosophy. Swetz very carefully explains the connection of the square
to the concepts of Yin/Yang, I Ching and Feng Shui. One can easily understand the cultural and mystical significance of
the square and its relation to cosmology and astrology.The
book contains excellent diagrams which are well documented
and copious endnotes.
The third quarter of the book gives an decent explanation
of why the square was not first developed in Europe. The
last quarter of the book discusses various miscellana about
the luoshu magic square. In all the Legacy of the Luoshu is
a fascinating read and a must for anyone who would care to
give a detailed explanation of its meaning.