中西方关于数字的迷信文化比较 The Superstition about Numbers

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  晴天来撑伞宝 (未知世界) 楼主 2015-06-04 02:14:31

  Superstition-related Numbers in China From the old China period to now, “8”has been considered as the luckiest number by Chinese people for thousands of years and nowadays,“8”is welcome all around China. When people purchase telephones, buy houses or vehicle license plates, they hope to buy luckily a group of numbers in which at least one “8” is included. If there are two or more “8”, this number combination will be thought to be a lucky one. Not long before, in some places of southern China, a common car with a license including a set of “8”is worth about several hundred thousand yuan, which is even higher than the value of the car itself. As far as I know, a luxurious hotel paid 200,000 yuan for a so-called lucky telephone number which is composed completely of “8”. Besides, the worship of “8”can also be found in government of China. As it is known to all, the world famous 29th Olympic Games-Beijing Olympic Games of 2008 drew attention of all the people in the world. Its opening ceremony was decided to begin at eight past eight on August 8th, 2008. No matter the lucky “8”can bring fortune to China or not, Beijing Olympic Games was held smoothly and successfully at last. Does the number “8” bring good fortune? Nobody dares to say that simply, because everyone knows that the great success of Beijing Olympic Games is the reward of all the efforts of Chinese people. But from another viewpoint, we must admit that superstition of number is influencing the way of people’s actions.

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  晴天来撑伞宝 (未知世界) 楼主 2015-06-04 02:15:56

  Besides the favorable“8”, there are many other numbers conveying superstitious color and they are concerned by Chinese people. Though living in a modern society, where science and technology are developing quickly, people still have superstitious thoughts when referring to numbers, worship or taboo. No matter what they want to do, they will meditate thoroughly about numbers before action to avoid the numeral taboo. In this situation where the numeral superstition is becoming popular, it seems that every Arab number has been endowed with a symbolic meaning of fortune or misfortune because of the homophones. For example, “1” (whose Chinese pronunciation is “yao” )equals “要” (whose Chinese pronunciation is also “yao”)(would like); “4”(si) equals“死”(si)(death); 5(wu) equals “吾”(wu)(I); “6”(liu)equals“溜”(smooth) and it is further extended to “顺”; “6” also equals “路” because it has another pronunciation “lu” because of its complicated form “陆” which is read “lu” in Chinese; “8”(ba) which has a similar pronunciation with “fa” equals“发” (fa) (money-making); “9”(jiu)equals “久”(jiu)(permanent).

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  晴天来撑伞宝 (未知世界) 楼主 2015-06-04 02:16:50

  Consequently,two or more single number with pure initial meaning are combined together and therefore, they become a kind of particular incantation, which possesses the magic power to control people’s fate, such as the numbers like “518”(wu yao ba) with its similar pronunciation ‘wu yao fa’— means that I will make money, “168”(yi lu fa—it means that making money all the way),“918”(jiu yao fa—means that someone will make money very soon),etc. It is very common that telephone numbers including “4”,“3”, “7”can be bought easily in a low price, while those including “6”, “8”are regarded as lucky numbers, therefore, they are usually sold at a higher price.

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  晴天来撑伞宝 (未知世界) 楼主 2015-06-04 02:17:19

  Some hotels taboo the number “4”,so the managers cancel “4”from the serial number of floors and call the “4th floor” “3A floor”.

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  晴天来撑伞宝 (未知世界) 楼主 2015-06-04 02:18:37

  Not only the common people have superstitious actions, the government even believes superstition, too. Two years ago, some transport department made a manifesto that all the vehicle license plates couldn’t contain “4”.The action was thought to be kind-hearted and considered as human manage. In addition, many governments selected 18th, May or 18th, June as the day of holding conference of free talks or sales exhibition.

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  晴天来撑伞宝 (未知世界) 楼主 2015-06-04 02:19:20

  These phenomena mentioned above appear ridiculous, but the superstition thoughts exist in people’s minds from the ancient period and have a long history. Take “6”as an example, “6”is favored greatly by Chinese people. It is one of the most popular numbers in China, so Chinese always tried every way to make numeral “6”appear in their life. In many feudal dynasties, such as Tang and Song Dynasties, there were “六部”(which formed the central government in imperial times ,i.e. Board of personnel吏部, Households戸部, Ministry of Rites礼部, Ministry of War兵部, Ministry of Justice刑部,and Ministry of public works工部),“六朝”(six dynasties ,i.e .the Wu吴,the Eastern Jin东晋,the Song宋,the Qi齐,the Liang梁,and the Chen陈),and “六艺”(the six arts :rites礼,music乐,archery射,charactering御, reading and writing书,and arithmetic数) Ancient people selected the sixth, sixteenth and twenty-sixth of lunar calendar as the wedding day. This practice still remains nowadays.

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  晴天来撑伞宝 (未知世界) 楼主 2015-06-04 02:19:59

  西方

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  晴天来撑伞宝 (未知世界) 楼主 2015-06-04 02:20:53

  Superstition-related Numbers in Western Countries Superstitions do not exist only in China; the superstition-related numbers are also popular in western countries. However, these numbers have quite different superstitious implications in different cultures. For example, the western people regard the even numbers as unlucky while odds numbers lucky (except “13”, In some English-speaking countries, people will not have dinner or travel in 13 members because they think 13 people will bring them bad luck. Even in some buildings the 13th floor or the room of number 13 can not be found, or be replaced by 12A.And the 13th row will be omitted in the cinema, airplane, train, etc. Numeral 13 is regarded as a taboo word in English.), because in their opinion, the even number hides departure. For example, when the English people let hens hatch young chickens, they always make the total number of the eggs odd number. If the total number is even, it is said that the eggs will go bad or cannot produce young chickens. The Russian even go farther in this aspect: they believe that odd number symbolize belief and even numbers bring about disasters, so number of wedding flowers must be odd but the number of flower for a funeral should be even.

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  晴天来撑伞宝 (未知世界) 楼主 2015-06-04 02:21:50

  Though English people do not favor even numbers, “eight” is still considered to be commendatory because the Arabic writing form “8” consists of two “0”(zero), which has the indication of steadiness, friendship, harmony and consummation. The sign “∞” is the symbol of “infinity” mathematically. The number “eight” implies success, happiness, and perfect satisfaction because the horizontal form of “8” is like the infinitive sign. The number “8”is the symbol of Gods love. In Kentucky of the United States of America, there is a small town named “88”(eighty-eight) and the August of each year is the holiday set by the law. The cake for the opening celebration is eight inches long and eight inches wide. So even numbers are not always taboos in English culture.

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