中英雙語話中國民風民俗 第41期:中國數字的起源

The Original of Chinese Numbers

中國數字的起源

Numbers came into use about 5 000 years ago in China. From "1" to "10"，to hundred,thousand,ten thousand, the number system was complete even in Shang Dynasty and the decimal system even started since that time.

約5千年前中國開始使用數字。從“1”到“10”到百，千，萬，在商代數字系統是完整的，並自那時以來，十進制開始使用。

Numbers are, in fact, originally coming from the early hunting practice. The ancients worship numbers as they do to the language,so numbers are always culturally connotative. People believe that some numbers can bring fortune and luck, and some may bring misfortune and even disaster to them. In China,the mystery of numbers has been much influenced by theconcept of Yin and Yang. Ancients divide the ten numbers into two groups： the odd numbers are Yang, implying "the Heaven,the male": while the even numbers are yin，implying "the Earth,the female".

數字其實最初是從早期的狩獵實踐而來。古人崇拜數字和語言一樣，所以數字始終是有文化內涵的。人們認爲，一些數字可以帶來財富和運氣，有的可能帶來不幸，甚至給他們帶來災難。在中國，數字之謎一直備受陰陽概念的影響。古人把十個數字劃分成兩組：奇數是陽，意味着“天道，男性”;而偶數是陰，這意味着“大地，女性”。