phuong-truc-chitran

COUNTRY

China
– The character 田 means “field”
This started form how field plots in China are traditionally in square shape and it became a typical image of the field.

– The character 中 means “middle”
A line in middle separates a rectangle into 2 perfectly squares, representing

– Square represents the earth/physical world/human world, in the contrary with circle standing for heaven/holly world.

• Temple of earth with square architecture

• Temple of heaven with circle architecture

• Iching coin – a lucky coin said to bring luck and wealthy for people who carry it with them

The square inside a circle means the harmony of earth and heaven. Human carrying “heaven” and “earth”, the whole 3 elements go together create a “lucky aura” that brings wealth and money.

Vietnam

This is a kind of traditional sticky rice cake in Vietnam called “bánh chưng”. It has square shape and is served during New Year holiday together with “bánh dày”, a circle shaped sticky rice cake.

Vietnamese myth had it that the cake shaped in a square represents for the earth while the cake with circle shapes represent for heaven.

In Ancient time people believed that the earth was a flat square and heaven was like a gigantic ball. To celebrate and honor the harmony between heaven and earth, they created “bánh chưng” and “bánh dày” and served them during Vietnamese new year holiday

RELIGION

Islam
– Square is the symbol of the heart. Each side of a square symbolizes an aspect:

• angelic
• devil
• human
• divine

It represents the duality in everything, encouraging the balance.

Hindu
– Square representing the natural orders of universe, typically showed in all the four elements around us:

• 4 directions: North, East, West, South

• 4 seasons: spring, summer, autumn, winter

• 4 cosmic elements: suns, moons, planets, stars

• 4 prime elements: fire, earth, air, water

• 4 common phases of human life: birth, child, adult, death

Buddhism
– Stupa, a mound-like structure used as a medication place for Buddhists. A Stupa always consists of 5 parts represent 5 elements: a square as base stands for earth; above is a circle stands for water; the middle part is triangle represents fire, next is a crescent moon represents air/wind; and top of all is a point stands for space.

Problem:

– Solve the sudoku
– Fill the sudoku with numbers from 1 to 8 so that:
all rows

columns (looking from the right and the left of the cubic)

blocks

contain all 8 numbers and no number repeats.

– Try all white. grayscale (shadow). colored papers.
– numbers. pattern. plain color.

Sudoku is a number-placement puzzle type of game based on Latin square. The player will try to fill the square with numbers so that each number only appears exactly once in every row and column. But with more restriction than Latin square, sudoku usually has more rules about how a number can only appear once in a certain area.

A typical and traditional sudoku is a 9×9 square with 9 3×3 square blocks inside. With some given numbers in the grid, typically there’s only one unique solution for that puzzle.

typical given sudoku

solution

Nowaday there are variant kinds of sudoku, some is the combine of sudoku and other number puzzle games, and of course with more restrictions and rules.

Sudoku Cube

Stardust Sudoku

Septoku

White Knight Sudoku (18 Knights)

Argyle Sudoku

Sum Line Sudoku

Cubic Sudoku

Sudoku Parquet

………

Maybe because square shape usually gives people a sense of logical, balance, fixable, honest,… it was seen a lot in many strategy games and mathematical formulas that require highly concentrating and focus.

I. Games:

- Chess

- Xiangqi (Chinese chess)

- Shogi (Japanese chess)

- Tetris

…

II. Mathematical squares

1. Magic square
Magic square is a square in which numbers are arranged in a way that all rows, columns and both diagonals sums up into a same amount.
Ex:

The use of magic square can be traced as far as 2800 B.C in Chinese with the legend magic square “Luo Shu”

Symbols of magic square order 5 (5×5) was used a lot in Christian art, in church decorating and church doctors’s costumes…

2. Latin square
Latin square is a square in which n symbols (usually numbers or colors) are arranged in a way that each symbol appear exactly once in all rows and columns. No unit should repeat again in a row or column.
Ex:

Latin square can often be found in architecture decorating like stained glass, window frames, clothes pattern…