Chinese numerals culture

In daily life, we are surrounded by numbers, such as ID number, passport number, mobile phone number, license plate number, birthday, wedding anniversary and so on. In a

In daily life, we are surrounded by numbers, such as ID number, passport number, mobile phone number, license plate number, birthday, wedding anniversary and so on. In a sense, these numbers can be used as personal identification. When mankind enters the digital age, we inevitably have to deal with all kinds of numbers every day. Some figures are beyond our choice, while others can be decided according to personal preference. People tend to prefer lucky numbers, such as six, eight and nine, while trying to avoid unlucky numbers, such as four and thirteen. Numbers are originally used for counting, and there is no distinction between good and bad, good and bad, and good and bad. However, with the development of language and culture, people constantly enrich its connotation and increase its expressive color. Therefore, numbers not only have counting function, but also derive many cultural meanings, forming a colorful digital culture in Chinese.

First, the classification of digital culture

We divide these figures into the following categories:

homophone

Numbers are a counting tool. Because they are pronounced the same or similar to some Chinese words, they have the same meaning as homophones. For example, when people choose numbers, they often choose lucky numbers such as "eight" and "nine" instead of unlucky numbers such as "four" and "seven", which is caused by the homophonic sounds of these numbers. The homonym of "eight" is "fat", which means "getting rich"; The homonym of "nine" is "long", which means "long"; The homonym of "four" is "death" and the homonym of "seven" is "qi", which sounds unlucky in pronunciation. There is also the word "250", which is often used to refer to some stupid and reckless people. In ancient times, 500 taels of silver was a letter, and 250 taels was a "semi-seal", which was homophonic with "semi-madness". So "250" means "stupid".

Double even number

The numbers one, three, five, seven and nine are singular, also called positive numbers, and two, four, six, eight and ten are even numbers, also called negative numbers. In China culture, it is generally believed that even numbers are auspicious numbers. Therefore, when choosing a wedding date, China people tend to choose even-numbered months and days. In some areas, even the dates of funerals, ground breaking and moving are even the dates of the lunar calendar, that is, the second day, the fourth day, the sixth day, the eighth day and the tenth day. The number "four" is not only an even number, but also similar to the pronunciation of "death" and "thing". We usually avoid this number when choosing the license plate number and mobile phone number, but we sometimes choose this number when choosing the date. This is because when choosing a date, people in China usually look at the perpetual calendar and choose an auspicious day, which is another traditional culture in China that restricts the choice of numbers.

Numbers in three common sayings and idioms

For example, "15 10" refers to counting children in units of five, which is used to describe the narrative from beginning to end without omission. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.4" describes a person who is not decent and decent, and "pushing 625" describes ignoring and pushing away. "Twenty-one plus five" means that two people share the same thing equally. "Three times five divided by two" describes doing things neatly, "regardless of seven or seven" describes doing things carelessly, and "close to ten" has similar meaning. Although these Chinese proverbs and idioms contain numbers, they have lost their original function of expressing numbers because of their complete and solidified meaning.

Four imaginary numbers and approximate values

In the process of applying numbers, the meaning of numbers has changed. We can regard this usage as an extension of digital application, producing imaginary numbers and divisors. They still express the concept of number, but they don't mean an exact number, but a fuzzy number. In Chinese, one and two are usually used to represent small numbers, and thousands and ten thousand are used to represent large numbers, which forms the virtual reference usage of numbers. For example, "A Thousand Miles in a Day" changes rapidly, and "One Day" and "Sanqiu" in "I don't see you every day like Sanqiu" are all empty fingers, describing the thoughts between friends or lovers.

Five comes from historical stories.

For example, the numbers "73" and "84". As we all know, one of Confucius and Mencius in ancient China died at the age of seventy-three and the other at the age of eighty-four. Because they are saints and founders of Confucianism, the influence of Confucianism on later generations is far-reaching, and the influence of these two sages on later generations is also enormous. So later, there was a saying that "seventy-three, eighty-four, the devil came uninvited", that is to say, seventy-three and eighty-four years old are a hurdle for the elderly, and they are particularly afraid of seventy-three and eighty-four years old when they get old, which forms the special meaning of these two numbers.

Second, the generation mechanism of digital culture in China

There are many reasons for the richness of digital culture in China. We believe that the most fundamental reasons are as follows:

A Chinese phonetic features

The syllables of Chinese pronunciation are composed of initials and finals. In Chinese, Yi * * * has 2 1 initials and 39 vowels, which are combined into 4 10 syllables. In our daily life, there are 3,500 commonly used words. These 3500 commonly used Chinese characters correspond to 4 10 syllables, so there are many homophonic words in Chinese. In addition, there are many monosyllabic words in spoken Chinese, so there are many monosyllabic words with similar pronunciation from zero to nine. As we know, monosyllabic words have a relatively complete meaning, so these numbers have the same meaning as their homophonic monosyllabic words. In this respect, this is also the most important reason for the rich connotation of digital culture in China. For example, zero is homophonic with spirit, one is pronounced as yāo in spoken language, the other is homophonic with love, the third is homophonic with umbrella and scattering, the fourth is homophonic with death, and the fifth is homophonic with love.

Psychological characteristics of Han nationality

1, make money and avoid disaster

There have been countless wars and famines in the history of China, which has formed a general psychological state of people who yearn for peace, health, happiness and happiness and hate war, famine, death and disease. China people's communication activities are influenced and restricted by the psychology of seeking good fortune and avoiding evil. This psychological state exists in all levels of China people's communication activities, and on this basis, it forms the norms of communication activities, and forms the cultural phenomenon and rhetorical phenomenon of seeking good fortune and avoiding evil. When people choose numbers, they will also follow this psychology, choose auspicious numbers and avoid unlucky numbers.

China's digital culture is based on psychological association. With the help of the characteristics of Chinese pronunciation, those numbers that sound good have become the first choice in people's daily life, while those unlucky numbers are often avoided. For example, 20 10 year 10 month 10 is an auspicious day of "three consecutive ten", which means "perfection" and is called "the best wedding day in history". Many people in China are busy getting married on this day in order to win the lottery. Similarly, many people choose "eight" for the mantissa of license plate number or mobile phone number, because "eight" is homophonic with "making a fortune" in spoken language, which easily leads to psychological association. On the contrary, no one wants to put a "four" on the license plate number, which is homophonic with "death". Traffic accidents are frequent now, and no one wants to get into such trouble. In some provinces or regions, if the last four digits of the mobile phone number have the number "four", there will be many mobile phone tariff concessions to attract customers.

2. The beauty of symmetry and harmony

People generally like even numbers, which means "symmetry" and "harmony". In Chinese vocabulary, there are some beautiful words such as "yes-man", "steady", "great harmony" and "perfect", which shows people's favor for even numbers. In the eyes of China people, everything is developed according to the cascade structure of "one into two, two into four, four into eight", so even numbers naturally become auspicious numbers. However, in English culture, people think odd numbers are lucky numbers except the number "thirteen". In Russia, "666" is the most unlucky number, meaning "devil".

Further discussion, the author thinks that this is also influenced by people's psychological factors. We know that human body, trunk and five senses are symmetrical under normal circumstances, and symmetry is natural, which leads to "symmetry is beauty". From the pairing system of men and women in social life to yes-men and double happiness, from the architectural structure to the decoration of indoor objects, most of them are symmetrical.

Third, the development of digital culture in China.

With the development of the times and the change of social life, digital culture is constantly developing and changing. Zhang also said in the article "China People's 15 Numbers" that China people used numbers for a period of time, not to say that they did not use other numbers, but that this number became a temporary hobby.

The development of digital culture is mainly manifested in two aspects:

The original number has a new meaning.

For example, the number "March 8" originally refers to March 8 every year as a festival for women, and later it is used to refer to the "March 8" rifle. For example, in Zhou Libo's The Tempest, "that voice is March 8, and that voice is a string of beads". In Hong Kong and Taiwan, this number is a curse, and scolding a person, regardless of gender, "bitch", "smelly bitch" and "dead bitch" are all ugly words. Some people also say that "March 8" is specially used to scold women, which means "this woman is frivolous, reckless, crazy and not serious enough." With the spread of TV series in Hong Kong and Taiwan, this word has gradually become popular in Chinese mainland, and the word "bitch" has been derived, which is often used to refer to people who love to talk.

The colors of the two numbers have changed.

The number "seven" is auspicious in Russian and Korean, but people don't like it very much in China. However, with the development and change of social life, "seven" has a new meaning. "Seven" and "Qi" are homophonic, meaning "Xiong Qi" and "Ascension". Especially business people are very optimistic about this number, and the license plate number and mobile phone number often choose "seven".

The numbers "two" and "two" were originally even numbers and auspicious numbers. Chinese words include "yes-man" and "double happiness". On the other hand, words with the number "two" are more derogatory. For example, "Erhandao" refers to people who have little knowledge of a certain job, "loafer" refers to people who do nothing, and "idiot" refers to rude and reckless people. The number "two" has recently taken on another meaning. It is generally used to describe a person who can't distinguish between occasions, doesn't care about importance, speaks without thinking, and does things without considering the consequences.

The above-mentioned numbers "March 8" and "Two" have also brought about grammatical changes due to the development and change of their cultural significance. "March 8" changed from numeral to noun, and "two" also changed from numeral to adjective. This should attract our attention.

Four. abstract

Chinese numerals contain such rich and colorful cultural connotations, and develop and change with the development of society. It is of great practical significance for us to dig and sort out this. First of all, the preference for certain numbers can reflect people's psychological level in a certain social period. In social communication and business transactions, choosing those auspicious numbers can cater to people's psychology of seeking good fortune and avoiding evil, thus making daily communication and business transactions go smoothly. For example, when choosing certain dates or the number of gifts, try to choose those lucky numbers. Secondly, with the continuous expansion of international communication, cross-cultural communication is becoming more and more frequent. The study of digital culture in China can help foreigners who study or engage in business activities in China understand its special meaning and overcome the obstacles in language communication. In addition, even Han people do not necessarily know the meaning contained in the numbers. Therefore, it is very meaningful to study the culture in numbers.

With the continuous development of digital culture, the research on this phenomenon should also be followed up.