Two numerical arrays have arguably been symbols of the Central Plains culture that flourished as the Chinese took their first steps towards developing a civilization.

According to legends, Hetu, an array of 10 numbers resembling the Eight Triagrams, appeared as a horse jumped out of the Yellow River with the pattern on its back, and Luoshu, a 3x3 magic square of nine numbers, was revealed when a tortoise emerged out of the water in the Luohe River with the array on its shell.

Interpreted as supernatural signs of order in the universe, the two arrays allegedly inspired early ancestors of the Chinese to draw up a constitution, titled Hong Fan Jiu Chou to rule the country, and to develop a system of philosophy as recorded in Book of Changes (Yijing).

The culture that developed more than 3,000 years ago on the reaches of the Yellow River and the Luohe River and centered in the country's Central Plains has been named "Heluo Culture" by historians and archaeologists, who expect studies to shed light on the origin of Chinese nationality.

Research on the Heluo Culture has attracted great attention in the past decade partly because the Hakkas are enthusiastic about seeking their families' origin, which they believe to be in the Central Plains, from where they left because of wars and settled in today's south China's Fujian, Taiwan and Guangdong provinces, and also overseas, said Xie Chongguang, professor with Shantou University in Guangdong.

It is also spurred by important archaeological finds made in the last decade on the reaches of the two major rivers, said Liu Qingzhu, director of the Archaeological Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"Our studies show Heluo Culture is the core culture of early Chinese civilization," he said.

His words were echoed by Li Xueqin, director of the Department of History of Tsinghua University.

Li, who is in charge of a national project to seek the origin of the Chinese people, has put the emphasis of the project on archaeological research in the Central Plains since it was launched in 2000.

Archaeologists have revealed the prosperity of the Central Plains more than 3,000 years ago as they excavated ruins of three major cities. They include at least one capital, of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC) respectively in Anyang, Yanshi and Zhengzhou in Henan Province, and allegedly the ruins of the capital of the Xia Dynasty (2100-1600 BC) in Yanshi in Henan.

(China Daily January 18, 2005)