According to the Chinese legend, the Emperor Fu-hsi (29th century BC)
was bathing one day when he found the footprints of a mysterious
creature in the sand. They were identified as those of a 'heavenly
dragon horse'.
On a similar occasion, the Emperor Yu (21st century BC) encountered a
'divine tortoise' with mysterious markings on its back. In each case,
the markings were taken at the time to be heavenly messages to the
rules about the principles of ordering the state. In later times (c.
5th century BC) the markings were interpreted as magic squares, of
great magical, mathematical and spiritual interest.
For centuries after this identification, indeed into the present
century, these squares were crucial elements of Chinese numerology,
used in imperial ritual, by necromancers casting spells and as the
basis for prophecies and horoscopes

From
NUMBER
From ancient civilisations to the computer
John McLeish
Flamingo 1992
