Number in the Chinese Tradition and the Chinese “Naïve” Picture of the World

Abstract

The subject of the article is the numerical culture of China, the meaning of numbers in the traditional and modern Chinese culture. When investigating issues related to intercultural philosophy, we should remember about the bearers of a certain traditional philosophy - people who grew up in a specific cultural and historical environment, who absorbed certain cultural, philosophical and worldview attitudes, manifested in everyday household traditions and views. One of the most important elements of Chinese everyday traditions is numbers, which, except for the division into even-odd (yin/yang), each have their own symbolic meaning, reflected in customs, holidays, gifts, interiors, etc. The study of cultural and philosophical roots of these phenomena will allow us to form a wider angle of view on Chinese rationality. Materials related to the traditional understanding of numbers associated with the Lo Shu square were studied, in particular, the numeric expression of ideas about the universe. Also, we considered some features of Chinese traditional architecture that reflect these representations, superstitions and some details of everyday life associated with numbers, folk holidays and important dates that arose in connection with the ordinary and traditional perception of numbers. An attempt has been made to trace intracultural worldview and linguistic connotations. It is shown that the traditional ‘numerical’ worldview is still manifested in areas related to aspects typical of Chinese culture - everyday life, arrangement of space (including feng shui), traditional medicine, etc. The belief of the Chinese in the magic of numbers is still quite strong. In some cases, the socialization of ancient texts has taken place, and we see how traditions cement the social space. It can be concluded that the modern everyday understanding of numbers among the Chinese, on which modern signs and customs are based, is closely connected with emotional perception, associative thinking, as a special kind of rationality, which can also be described as the rationality of everyday life.