Number Culture in Chinese

In our daily life, we are surrounded by numbers, ID card numbers, passport numbers, cell phone numbers, license plate numbers, birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and so on, which, in a sense, can be used as the identifiers of a certain individual. As mankind enters the digital age, we inevitably have to deal with all kinds of numbers every day. There are some numbers that we cannot choose, while there are some numbers that can be chosen according to personal preference. People in the selection of independent choice of numbers, often favor those "lucky" numbers, such as "six", "eight", "nine "and so on, and try to avoid those" inauspicious "numbers, such as" four "" thirteen "........ Numbers were originally used to count, there is no good or bad, praise or blame, good or bad. But with the development of language and culture, people are constantly enriching its connotation, add its expression of color. Therefore, in addition to the function of counting, the numbers also derive many cultural meanings, forming a rich and colorful digital culture in the Chinese language.

I. Categorization of numerical culture

We divide these numbers into the following categories:

Harmonization

Numbers are counting tools, but because of the pronunciation of some words in the Chinese language is the same or similar to the word harmonization, it has the same meaning. The same meaning as the harmonic characters. For example, when people choose numbers, they often choose "eight", "nine" and other auspicious numbers, not "four", "seven" and other unlucky numbers. "and other unlucky numbers, which is caused by the harmonics of these numbers. "Eight" of the harmonic is "hair", take "fortune" meaning; "nine" of the harmonic for the "long", take "long" meaning; and "four" of the harmonic is "death", "seven" of the harmonic is "death", "death", "death", "death", "death", "death", "death", "death", "death", "death", "death", "death". "Seven" is the harmonic of "gas", phonetically, it sounds unlucky. There is "two hundred and fifty" this word, often used to ridicule some silly, reckless people. Ancient silver, five hundred is a letter, two hundred and fifty is "half a letter", "half a letter" and "half crazy" resonance, therefore, "two hundred and five

Two Double Numbers

The numbers one, three, five, seven, and nine are singular, also known as yang, and two, four, six, eight, and ten are double, also known as yin. In Chinese culture, it is widely believed that even numbers are auspicious. Therefore, Chinese people tend to choose even-numbered months and days when choosing a wedding date. In some areas, even the dates of funerals, earth moving, moving house, etc., also choose the even-numbered days of the lunar calendar, that is, two, four, six, eight, ten and so on. The number "four", it is an even number, but also with the "death" "thing" pronunciation is similar. In the choice of license plate number and cell phone number, usually avoid this number, but in the choice of date, sometimes also choose this number, this is because the Chinese people in the choice of date, in order to figure auspicious, usually review the almanac, choose a lucky day, that is another traditional Chinese culture on the choice of numbers on a constraint.

Numbers in Three Common Sayings and Idioms

For example, the phrase "one five, one ten" refers to counting by fives, and it is used to describe a narrative that is told from beginning to end without missing anything, and the phrase "not three, not three, not three" describes a person who is immodest, and the phrase "not three, not three, not three" describes a person who is immodest. "Describe a person is not decent or unlike," "a push six two five" describes ignore, a push away. "Two and one add as five" refers to the same thing equally divided between two people, "three under five remove two" describes the work dry and sharp, "regardless of three seven", describes the work is not well-considered. "No matter what" describes not thinking things through, and "no more than ten" means almost the same. Although these Chinese sayings and idioms contain numbers, because they have a complete and solidified meaning, these numbers have lost their original function of expressing numbers.

Four imaginary numbers and probability

The application of the number of the process, so that the number of references to produce some changes, we can take this use, as the application of the number of a kind of derivation, the production of imaginary numbers and probability. They still express the concept of number, just does not refer to an exact number, but a fuzzy number. In Chinese, it is common to use one or two to indicate a small number and thousands or ten thousand to indicate a large number, which creates a fictitious usage of numbers. For example, "one day, a thousand miles" describes fast speed and big changes, and "one day" and "three autumns" in "one day's absence is like three autumns" are both imaginary references. Both "one day" and "three autumns" in "one day's absence is like three autumns" are vague references to the missing of friends or lovers.

Five from historical stories

For example, "seventy-three" and "eighty-four" are two numbers. We all know that Confucius and Mencius in ancient China, one died at the age of seventy-three and the other at the age of eighty-four. Because they were sages and the founders of Confucianism, the influence of Confucianism on later generations was far-reaching, and the influence of these two sages on later generations was also tremendous. Therefore, later there is such a saying "seventy-three, eighty-four, Yama does not invite themselves to go", that is, seventy-three and eighty-four years old is an old man's a hurdle to the old age, especially afraid of seventy-three years old and eighty-four years old this year, which formed the special meaning of these two numbers.

Second, the mechanism of Chinese digital culture

Chinese digital culture is rich and colorful, and there are a lot of reasons, we think that the most fundamental reasons are the following:

First, the characteristics of the Chinese phonetics

The syllables of the Chinese phonetics are composed of vowels and rhymes. Rhymes. In Chinese, there are twenty-one consonants and thirty-nine rhymes, which combine to form four hundred and ten syllables, and there are three thousand five hundred commonly used characters in our daily life. These 3,500 commonly used characters correspond to 410 syllables, so there are especially many harmonic characters in Chinese. Coupled with the fact that there are more monosyllabic words in the spoken Chinese language, there are many monosyllabic words that are similar to the pronunciation of the ten numbers from zero to nine. As we know, monosyllabic words have relatively complete meanings, so these numbers have the same meanings as the monosyllabic words they harmonize with. In this respect, this is the most important reason for the richness of Chinese numerical culture. For example, "zero" harmonizes with "灵", "一" is pronounced as "yāo" in colloquial language, and "to" harmonizes with "要". "to" harmonizes with "to", "two" harmonizes with "love", "three" harmonizes with "umbrella", "scatter" harmonizes with "umbrella", and "zero" harmonizes with "spirit", "Three" harmonizes with "umbrella" and "scatter", "Four" harmonizes with "death", "Five" harmonizes with "nothing", "Six" harmonizes with "death", and "Six" harmonizes with "death". "Six" harmonizes with "Roku", "Seven" harmonizes with "Qi", "Qi", "Qi", "Qi", "Qi", "Qi", "Qi", "Qi", "Qi", "Qi", "Qi", "Qi", "Qi", "Qi", "Qi", "Qi". "Eight" harmonizes with "Hair", and "Nine" harmonizes with "Long, Wine".

The psychological characteristics of the Han Chinese people

1, tend to good luck and avoid disaster

In Chinese history, there have been countless wars and disasters, which formed the desire for peace, health, happiness, happiness, hate wars, disasters, death, disease, such as the general psychological state of the nation. This has led to the formation of a general national psychological state of longing for peace, health, happiness, and detesting war, disaster, death and disease. The psychology of seeking good fortune and avoiding disaster influences and restricts the Chinese people's communication activities, and this psychological state exists in all levels of the Chinese people's communication activities, on the basis of which the norms of communication activities have been formed, and the cultural phenomenon of seeking good fortune and avoiding disaster and the rhetorical phenomenon have been formed. When people choose numbers, they also follow this mentality, choosing lucky numbers and avoiding unlucky ones.

Chinese numerical culture is based on mental association, and with the help of Chinese phonological features, those numbers that sound good have become the first choice in people's daily life, while those inauspicious numbers are often shunned by people. For example, October 10, 2010, is a "triple ten" lucky day, meaning "ten perfect", known as "the best wedding day in history", many people for the sake of pleasing Many people in the country for the "colorful", are busy in this day to get married. Similarly, the license plate number or cell phone number tail number, choose "eight" more and more people, because "eight" in the colloquial language, and "fortune" resonance, so people can easily produce psychological Associations. On the contrary, the car license plate number, no one wants to be with "four", "four" and "death" harmonic, and now traffic accidents occur frequently, no one wants to incur such trouble. In some provinces or regions, if the last four digits of the cell phone number have the number "four", the cell phone bill will have a lot of discounts to attract customers.

2. The beauty of symmetry and harmony

People generally like double digits, and double digits have the meaning of "symmetry" and "harmony". Chinese vocabulary, there are "good things come in pairs", "four flat eight stable", "six six Da Shun", "ten perfect ten beautiful" and other symbolic The word "good" can be seen in the people's favor of the even number. In the Chinese view, everything develops according to a hierarchical structure of "one becomes two, two becomes four, and four becomes eight", so even numbers naturally become lucky numbers. However, in the British culture, except for the number "thirteen", people believe that the odd number is the lucky number. In Russia, "six-six-six" is the most unlucky number, meaning "devil".

Further exploration, I believe that this is also affected by psychological factors. We know that the human body torso and the five senses, under normal circumstances is symmetrical, symmetry is natural, resulting in "symmetry is beautiful. From the male and female pairs of marriage system to the social life of the pursuit of good things, double happiness, from the architectural structure to the arrangement of indoor objects, etc., most of them are symmetrical.

The Development of Chinese Digital Culture

With the development of the times and the changes in social life, digital culture is also evolving. Zhang Qingchang also talked about in the article "15 numbers of the Chinese language", the Chinese people use numbers, a moment with a momentary trend, which is not to say that the other number is not used, just that the number has become a momentary hobby.

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

One of the original numbers, with a new content

For example, the number "38", originally referred to March 8 every year for the women's holiday, and later used to refer to the "38 style". In Hong Kong and Taiwan, this number is a curse word, cursing a person, regardless of gender, "San Biao", "stinking San Biao", "dead San Biao" are all very unpleasant words. It is also said that "San Baji" is specifically used to scold women, meaning "this woman is frivolous, reckless, crazy and not dignified enough". With the spread of Hong Kong and Taiwan movies and TV dramas, this word has gradually become popular in mainland China, and it has also given rise to the word "eight women", which is often used to refer to the talkative people.

The number of positive and negative colors has changed

The number seven. This number, in Russia, Korea, etc., is an auspicious number, but the Chinese people do not like this number. But with the development of social life, "seven" has a new meaning. "Seven" with "up" harmonic, take "rise" "rise" of meaning, especially business people, very Look at this number, license plate number, cell phone number tail number, often choose "seven".

The number "two". "Two" is originally an even number, is an auspicious number, the Chinese word "good things into two", "double happiness" and so on. But on the other hand, words containing the number "two" are more pejorative, such as "two knives" to refer to a half-knowledge of a certain work, low-skilled people, "two-streamer" means The word "dilettante" refers to a person who is idle and not doing his job, and "dolt" refers to a person who is rude and reckless.

The numbers "38" and "2" above have brought about grammatical changes due to the development of their cultural meanings. The number "thirty-eight" has changed from a number word to a noun, and "two" has changed from a number word to an adjective. This is something that should be brought to our attention.

Summary

Chinese numerals contain such a rich and colorful cultural content, and develop with the development of society. It is of great practical significance for us to excavate and sort it out. First of all, the preference of certain numbers can reflect the psychological level of people in a certain social period. In social communication and business transactions, choosing those auspicious numbers can cater to people's psychology of avoiding misfortune, so as to make daily communication and business transactions go smoothly. For example, when choosing certain dates or the number of gifts, try to choose those auspicious numbers. Secondly, with the expansion of international communication, cross-cultural exchanges are becoming more and more frequent. The study of Chinese numerical culture can help foreigners who come to China to study or engage in business activities to understand the special meaning and overcome the obstacles in language communication. In addition, even Han Chinese may not be able to know the meanings embedded in numbers. Therefore, it is very meaningful to study the culture in numbers.

Culture in numbers is constantly evolving, and the study of this phenomenon should be followed up.