The Chinese numerology most people actually encounter today has little to do with the Lo Shu's magic square and everything to do with how a number sounds when spoken aloud. In Mandarin and especially in Cantonese, the word for four, si, is a close homophone for the word for death, si, while the word for eight, ba or faat depending on the dialect, resembles the word for prosperity or "to make a fortune." Six sounds close to a word meaning smooth or flowing, and nine, a homophone for "long-lasting," carried strong imperial associations in classical China. None of this involves reducing a name or a birthdate to a single digit, the method Western numerology relies on; it is a matter of what a number sounds like next to other words in the language, an auditory rather than an arithmetic principle.
This homophonic superstition is not merely a matter of individual preference; it has been measured as a real economic effect. A peer-reviewed real estate economics study, examining housing transactions in a market where the homophone effect is well established, found statistically significant price premiums attached to units and addresses carrying the number eight and measurable discounts attached to units carrying the number four, evidence that the belief shapes actual market behaviour rather than remaining a private or merely decorative preference. Buildings across Chinese-majority markets commonly skip a fourth floor in their numbering, the same instinct that leads some Western buildings to skip a thirteenth, and phone numbers, license plates and wedding dates are chosen and priced with the same homophonic logic in mind.
Unlike the Lo Shu square, this is a modern commercial phenomenon with no ancient source, spread through market behaviour rather than formal doctrine.