DAO DE JING & NUMBERS IN TRADITIONAL CHINESE CULTURE

Martin Q. Zhao2/5/2014

Topics

Intro: Chinese Characters for Numbers Traditional Chinese Calendar: Lunar or

Solar? Numbers Used in the DaoDe Jing (Tao-

Te Ching) BaGua: Understanding the Changing

World WuXing: Ancient Systems Theory Other Phenomena Q&A

Chinese Characters For Numbers

一二三四五六七八九十百千万亿兆

Zhuan style

說文小篆(100 AD)

Bronze inscriptions

金文(1300 BC)

Oracle bone script

甲骨文(1300 BC)

Chu style on Slips/Silk

楚系簡帛(300 BC)

Chinese Calendar: Lunar or Solar?

A Lunisolar System: it’s both lunar and solar Every month starts on a new moon day: both

new moon and full moon days are observed New Year=Spring Festival (2nd new moon after

winter solicit) Mid-Autumn Festival=full moon in the 8th month

24 Solar terms ( 节气 JieQi) are observed and marked in calendar: essential for agriculture The first solar term is start of spring ( 立春

LiChun), which falls on Feb 4 (yesterday!) this year.

二十四节气 (24 Solar Terms)

冬至一阳生

How to Match Up the Dates?

We need to do some math here: 1 tropical year is 365.25 days 1 synodic month is 29.53 days 12 synodic month is (12 * 29.53 =) 354.37

days Leap months are used to match up the

“lunar” years with “solar” years: 7 leap months are needed every 19 years

There will be two Mid-Autumn Festivals some years! (1976)

7 * 29.53 = 206.7159574

19 * (365.25 – 354.27) = 206.7159574

天干地支 (Heavenly Stems & Earthly Branches)

Years and days are tracked using 甲子, the 60(-year) cycle, which combines the two

The 12 Earthly Branches are used to name 时辰 (2-hour periods) of the day and months.

旬 (10-day period) can be seen as Chinese week to track days–off .

六十甲子(The 60-year Cycle)

Horse

天干 地支

Timeline Of Chinese History - Neolithic Cultures

680k-780k BC

Peking Man

21k BC

prehistoric pottery shards and rice grains

Longshan Culture龍山文化

3000 BC

Nanzhuangtou culture南莊頭遺址

8500~ BC

forty-seven pieces of pottery

Timeline Of Chinese History - Legendary Rulers

Three Sovereigns ( 三皇 )3000?-2700?BC

Fu Xi

黃帝The Yellow Emperor

伏羲 , the first of the 三皇

Five Emperors ( 五帝 )2700?-2200?BC

堯Yao

舜Shun

Timeline Of Chinese History – Early Dynasties

Xia Dynasty2200?-1600?BC

春秋Spring & Autumn Period772 -481 BC

战国Warring Kingdoms Period403-221BC

Shang Dynasty1600?-1046 BC

Zhou Dynasty1046-256 BC

道德经 (DaoDe Jing) & 老子 (Lao Tzu)

Two parts ( 道 and 德 ) 81 (37+44) chapters About 5000 words

Lao Tzu By Legend

It has been one of the best known mysteries: Who he was; when and where he was born.

Three stories according to the Records of Grand Historian by Sima Qian (ca. 145-86 BC): A contemporary of Confucius (551-479 BC). Li ( 李 )

Er ( 耳 "ear") or Dan ( 聃 "long ear"); or Lao Laizi ( 老莱子 "Old Master")

The Grand Historian and astrologer Lao Dan ( 老聃 "Old Long-ears"), who lived during the reign (384-362 BC)

As the legend goes, Confucius had met Lao Tzu and asked about rituals from him.

郭店竹简 (GuoDian Bamboo Slips, 300 BC)

Unearthed in 1993

马王堆帛书 (MaWangDui Silk Texts, 168 BC)

Unearthed in 1973

DaoDe Jing in the World

“It is a famous puzzle which everyone would like to feel he had solved”

The Tao Te Ching has been translated into Western languages over 250 times 20 or so English translations available at Mercer

It’s hard to translate: Antiquity(language, grammar, punctuation,

context) Cultural differences

Titles like “Dao of Programming” is second only to those like “HTML Bible”

道 (Dao)

The Tao

Name,concept

Nothingness,

emptinessExistenc

e

10,000 things,objects

Subtlety

Heaven & earth,

the world

Beginning

The Tao that can be expressed in words is not the true and eternal Tao… (Tao:1)

The gate of all

mysteries

These Two:

What are they???

012…∞

有无相生 (Existence & Nothingness Begot Each Other)

Everything in the world has its counterpart Beautiful ugly, good bad, difficult easy,

existence nothingness, long short, high low

Positive negative electricity, matter antimatter, particle void

According to the Dao, there is at once being and nonbeing, which are but different names of the same thing compliment opposites

八卦 (The 64 Variations Based On Trigrams)

Based traditions older than the Primordial BaGua is attributed to 伏羲

(legendary ruler, 3000? BC) Manifested BaGua is attributed to 周文王

(King Wen of Zhou, 1050 BC)無極生有極、有極是太極、太極生兩儀、即陰陽 ;兩儀生四象 : 即少陰、太陰、少陽、太陽、四象演八卦、八八六十四卦

From WuJi (the Non-Existence) comes YouJi (the Existence), which is TaiJi.The TaiJi produces two forms, named Yin and Yang.The two forms produce four phenomena, named Lesser Yin, Great Yin (the Moon), Lesser Yang, Great Yang (the Sun).The four phenomena act on the eight trigrams (BaGua), eight eights are sixty-four hexagrams.

八卦 (FuXi "Earlier Heaven" or Primordial View)

Used in Taoist cosmology to represent the fundamental principles of reality, seen as a range of eight interrelated concepts.

八卦

同人 (Concording People)

Hexagram 13 is named 同人 (tóng rén), meaning "Concording People“, "fellowship with men" and "gathering

men". Its inner trigram is ☲ ( 離 lí) radiance =

( 火 ) fire, and its outer trigram is ☰ ( 乾 qián) force = ( 天 ) heaven.同人于野，亨。

利涉大川，利君子貞。

Fellowship with Men in the open. Success.It furthers one to cross the great water.The perseverance of the superior man furthers.

Dao begets the One.The One begets the Two.The Two begets the Three.… (Te:42)

The Three begets all things in the world.

道生万物 (The Dao Begot Ten Thousand Things)

As the Romans said: “il mondo non è costruita in un giorno”. So how is the world of 10,000 things created according to Dao De Jing?道生一，

一生二，

二生三，

…三生万物。 What is the next line?

Why does it sound so easy?

The One consists of Two in opposition (the Yin and Yang).The Two begets the Three.The Three begets all things in the world.

0→1→2→3→…→∞

An Example from Software Design

Software system = virtual world Need to design three types of objects

道生一， 一生二， 二生三， 三生万物。

Tao begets the One;The One consists of Two in opposition (the Yin and Yang);The two begets the Three;All things connote the Yin and Yang. (Te:42)

(Cont’d onnext slide)

A Virtual World With 10,000 Things

Customer

SalesRep

CustomerForm

SalesRepForm OrderFulfillControl

OrderControl

CustomerEntity

OrderEntity

ProductEntity

System Boundary

Actors

The Usefulness Of Nothingness

Thirty spokes share one hub. It is just the space (the Nothingness) between them that makes a cart function as a cart. (Tao:11)

见素抱朴 (Keep Being Simple In Nature And Mind)

The five colors make man blind;The five sounds make man deaf;The five tastes make man lose his sense of taste;Riding and hunting make man wild w/ excitement;Rare goods goad man into stealing. Thus the sage does not satisfy his eyes with colors but satisfies his belly with enough food.He discards the former and takes the latter.(Tao:12)

X五色令人目盲；五音令人耳聋；五味令人口爽；驰聘畋猎，令人心发狂；难得之货，令人行妨。 是以圣人，为腹不为目，故去彼取此。

Why so many Five’s?

Coincident?

五行 (Wu Xing, Five Phases)

The "Five Phases" are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.

In Oracle bone script甲骨文 (1300 BC), with one exception.

WuXing Vs. Five Regions & Five Colors

五色土(dirt in 5 colors from all of China)

WuXing Vs. Five Sounds (like in Musical Notes)

The xun ( 埙) is a globular, vessel flute from China, one of the oldest musical instruments in China and has been in use for approximately seven thousand years. Earliest versions no holes. They can make only five notes.

宮 商 角 徵 羽/gong/ /shāng/ /jué/ /zhǐ/ /yǔ/

do re mi sol la

七音十二律 (7 Note Scale & the Shí-èr-lǜ) The ancient Chinese defined, by

mathematical means, a gamut or series of Shí-èr-lǜ (called the 十二律 12 lü) from which various sets of five or seven frequencies were selected to make the sort of "do re mi" major scale familiar to those who have been formed with the Western Standard notation.

Calculations For The 12 Lu’s

古音十二律 史記文字 三分損益 史記數字 西方音名 十二平均律

三分損益與十二平均律偏差（ % ）

黃鐘 八寸七分一 81 81 C 81 -

林鐘 五寸十分四 54 54 G 54.0610 0.11

太簇 七寸十分二 72 72 D 72.1628 0.23

南呂 四寸十分八 48 48 A 48.1629 0.34

姑洗 六寸十分四 64 64 E 64.2898 0.45

應鐘四寸二分三分二

42.6667 42.6667 B 42.9083 0.56

蕤賓五寸六分三分二

56.8889 56.6667 F♯ 57.2757 0.68

大呂七寸五分三分二

75.8519 75.6667 C♯ 76.4538 0.79

夷則 五寸三分二 50.5679 50.6667 G♯ 51.0268 0.90

夾鐘六寸七分三分一

67.4239 67.3333 D♯ 68.1126 1.01

無射四寸四分三分二

44.9492 44.6667 A♯ 45.4597 1.12

仲呂五寸九分三分二

59.9323 59.6667 F 60.6814 1.23

黃鐘（ C）： 81；林鐘（ G，derived from 2/3 of 黃鐘）： 54

Chinese Characters For WuXing

金木水火土 Why in this order? It was 木火土金水 in I Ching.

Zhuan style

說文小篆(100 AD)

Bronze inscriptions

金文(1300 BC)

Oracle bone script

甲骨文(1300 BC)

Chu style on Slips/Silk

楚系簡帛(300 BC)

WuXing and the Planets

金木水火土 are used to name the five planets:

金木水火土

WuXing and Other Phenomena

WuXing and Other Phenomena (con’t)

WuXing: Framework for a Systems Theory Fivefold conceptual

scheme used to explain a wide array of phenomena from cosmic cycles

to the interaction between internal organs, and

from the succession of political regimes to the properties of medicinal drugs.

WuXing And The 10 Organs

WuXing vs. the (Greek) Four Elements

The classical Greek elements were concerned with substances or natural qualities Leading to a tradition of “dissect and

analysis” (the white-box approach) The Chinese xing are "primarily

concerned with process and change,“ Leading to a culture emphasizing “balance

and harmony” (the systematic and black-box approach.)

The Blackbox Approach

孔德之容，惟道是從。道之為物，惟恍惟惚。惚兮恍兮，其中有象。恍兮惚兮，其中有物。窈兮冥兮，其中有精。其精甚真，其中有信。

The Forms of great Teh (virtue)Exclusively depend on Tao.Tao as a thingIs vague and indefinite.Vague and indefinite,It presents images;Indefinite and vague,It embodies substance.Distance and dark,It embraces semen-like essence.The essence is a genuine existenceThat can be tested as true. (Dao:21)

知不知上 (Admitting not knowing is the best knowledge)

Attitude matters Be open-minded

Why is it hard to know? observe

知，不知，上，不知，知，病。

Knowing one’s ignorance of certain knowledge is the best attitude;Not knowing certain knowledge yet pretend to know is a bad attitude. (De:71)

視之不見，名曰夷；聽之不闻，名曰希；搏之不得，名曰微。That which we look at and cannot see is called plainness (“Yi”). That which we listen to and cannot hear is called rareness (“Xi”). That which we grope for and cannot get is called minuteness (“Wei”). (Dao:14)

道法自然 (Dao Follows What’s Natural As Its Model)

Since it’s so difficult to define the Dao, so Lao Tzu named it the Great { 强为之名曰大 }

Relationships among the four greats {Dao, Heaven, Earth, King [of men], or simply man) are then shown.故道大 , 天大 ,

地大 , 王亦大 .

域中有四大 ,而王处一焉 .人法地 , 地法天 , 天法道 ,道法自然 .

That is why I say: Tao is Great; Heaven is Great; Earth is Great; and King is also Great.There are four things that are Great [in the universe], of them King (of man) is one.Man takes Earth as its model; Earth takes Heaven as its model; Heaven takes Tao as its model; Tao takes nature as it model. (Tao:25)

自然而然 (It Is What It Is)

And then what is Nature? Can I humbly say that Lao Tzu suggests “It

is what it is”?

三才 : 天地人 (3 Cai’s: Heaven, Earth, And Man)

易經 | 說卦 : (I Ching/Explanation) explained the origin of 64 (= 26) Gua’s:立天之道曰陰與陽，立地之道曰柔與剛，立人之道曰仁與義。兼三才而兩之，故易六畫而成卦。

The Dao of Heaven subscribes

Yin and Yang; The Dao of Earth subscribes Supple and Stiffness; The Dao of Earth subscribes Humane and Justice; Draw Two from each of the Three,That’s why it takes 6 strokes for the Gua’s in the Book of Change. (I Ching/Explanation)

The Connections btw WuXing And BaGua

六合 (6 Directions Or 6 Couples)

上下左右前后 (Up, Down, L, R, Front, Back)

6 2-month periods 1st (yang, 30-day) and 2nd (yin) 3rd (yang) and 4th (yin, 29-day) And so on

七星 (7 Stars)

The Big Dipper 二十八宿(28=4X7 mansions)

Chinese constellations

九宫 (The Nine Squares)

数九 (nine counts of nine)

The Concluding Chapter: Chapter 81

信言不美，美言不信。善者不辯，辯者不善。知者不博，博者不知。聖人不積，既以為人己愈有，既以與人己愈多。天之道，利而不害；聖人之道，為而不爭。

True words are not embellished,The embellished words are not true.A good man does not quibble;He who quibbles is not good.A man of true learning does not show off his learning;He who shows off his learning does not have true learning.The sage does not store up:Helping others, he is helped even more.Giving to others, he becomes richer still.The Tao of the heaven benefits rather than harms all things;The Tao of the sage is to give rather than rob the people. (Te:81)

9 X 9 = 81

Q&A

References

The Book of Tao and Teh (Chinese-English), translated by Gu ZhengKun, 2006

Chinese Mystery Culture & Numbers (in Chinese)http://www.360doc.com/content/11/0112/11/3114071_85948738.shtml

Wu Xing ( 五行 wŭ xíng) on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Xing

Chinese Text Project (with Chinese & English sites), http://ctext.org/pre-qin-and-han/zh