Numerical Linguistics (I)
By SEBASTIEN ROUSSILLAT
MY French fellowmen often marvel at the Chinese people’s aptitude for mathematics. Certainly, I have friends from China who love numbers with the kind of passion usually reserved for the sacred.
Numbers and the Chinese characters that represent them occupy a unique place in Chinese culture. Numbers have rich linguistic connotations, and their meanings are of significance to China’s indigenous cultural and religious traditions. An understanding of Chinese numerical linguistics affords us a glimpse into the Chinese psyche.
一 (yī), one, is in many cases related to union or genesis. The Taoist classic Daodejing contains one well-known theory of genesis relating to the integer. The Tao produced one, it says; one produced two; two produced three; and three produced all things in the universe. Here “one” is presented as the origin of all beings. The Chinese idiom 一分为二 (yì fēn wéi èr) means dividing something in half. It also carries the dialectic wisdom that everything has two sides and that people should take a holistic, balanced view of life.
二 (èr), two, has three synonyms in Chinese – 两 (liǎng), 双 (shuāng) and 对 (duì). There is a Chinese saying 好事成双 (hǎo shì chéng shuāng), “good luck comes in pairs.” At Chinese weddings red paper imprinted with the character (xǐ) is a necessary decorative item. The specialized character is composed of two 喜 (xǐ), meaning “happiness.” People in love yearn for 二人世界 (èr rén shì jiè), “the world of two.” If you can come to terms with a rival over an issue, Chinese say 两全其美 (liǎng quán qí měi), “two sides make a beautiful whole.” But beware: if 二 is used to describe a person, it is highly derogatory, approximating to the English “fool.”
三 (sān), three, is depicted in the Taoist tradition as a powerful number, as it “produced all things in the universe.” Many Chinese traditions come in threes. For instance, Confucius once said that people benefit by befriending three kinds of people – the righteous, the honest and the learned. There are also three major philosophies in China – 儒 (rú), Confucianism, 释 (shì), Buddhism and 道 (dào), Taoism.
《三国志》(sān guó zhì), Records of the Three Kingdoms, concerns the interplay between three warring states in the third century. Based on this historical account, Luo Guanzhong wrote 《三国演义》(sān guó yǎn yì), Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in the 14th century, which today is regarded as one of the four classics of Chinese literature.
Starting with 四 (sì), four, the Chinese script moves away from simply “piling up” horizontal lines on top of each other to represent numbers. “Si” is regarded as unlucky in China and is avoided when possible – its pronunciation is very close to that of 死 (sǐ), meaning death. Some hotels in China will label their fourth floor “Floor 5” in superstitious caution. Number plates with a number “4” are avoided, and telephone numbers that lack “4” are generally more expensive to purchase. The number is comparable to “666” in Western superstition.
There are however many palatable instances of this “condemned” integer in Chinese linguistic culture. For instance, 四世同堂 (sì shì tóng táng), a family of four generations living under one roof, is a Chinese family ideal, which is the title of one of Chinese writer Lao She’s best-known novels. 四书 (sì shū), The Four Books (The Analects, Mencius, The Great Learning, and The Doctrine of the Mean) are the cardinal writings of Confucianism. 四大名著 (sì dà míng zhù) are China’s four great literary classics – Journey to the West, Outlaws of the Marsh, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and A Dream of Red Mansions. These constitute the most revered novels in Chinese history, and all four should be on the reading list of those who have more than a passing interest in Chinese culture.
五 (wǔ), five, can indicate a great number, or even “all” of a thing. 五湖四海 (wǔ hú sì hǎi), literally “five lakes and four seas,” is used to mean “all over the world.” 五脏六腑 (wǔ zàng liù fǔ), to be precise, refers to the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys, stomach, gall, the three visceral cavities of traditional Chinese medicine, the small and large intestines and the bladder. But more generally the expression refers to all inner organs. There is also a saying: 麻雀虽小,五脏俱全 (má què suī xiǎo, wǔ zàng jù quán), which literally translates as “the sparrow may be tiny, but it has a complete set of inner organs.” The expression is used metaphorically to mean something small that has all the properties of something bigger.
Abbreviating with numerals is very common in the Chinese language. For instance, the five mountains deemed the prettiest in the country – Mt. Tai in Shandong Province, Mt. Hua in Shaanxi Province, Mt. Heng in Hunan Province, Shanxi Province’s Mt. Heng (a different “Heng” in written Chinese to Hunan’s “Heng”) and Mt. Song in Henan Province – are simply referred to as 五岳 (wǔ yuè), the Five Mountains. Like The Four Books, The Five Classics, or 五经 (wǔ jīng), are also Confucian canons. The Book of Songs, The Classic of History, The Classic of Rites, The Book of Changes and The Spring and Autumn Annals were found on the curricula of all students in pre-modern China.
In China, there are five – not four – directions. The Chinese 五方 (wǔ fāng) includes “Center” in addition to North, South, East and West.
