Numbers — Symbol Database

One is the beginning and the undifferentiated — the number before division, associated with the origin of the counted series.

Two is the pair — yin and yang, heaven and earth, the number of everything that comes in complements.

Three is the number at which the tradition says the myriad things appear — the generative number par excellence.

Four carries a divided reading: it is the number of the directions and seasons, and it is also avoided because it sounds like death.

Five is the number of the system itself — five elements, five directions, five colours, five virtues, five grains.

Six is associated with smoothness — the word sounds like the word for flowing, which gives it a favourable reading.

Seven carries a divided reading: it is the number of the seventh-month festival and of the weaving maiden, and it has funerary associations.

Eight is the most reliably auspicious number — its sound is close to the word for prosperity or increase.

Nine is the number of extreme yang and of completeness — and because it sounds like the word for long-lasting, it is also auspicious.

Ten is the number of completion in the counted series — the full set of stems, and the round ending of the decade.

Twelve is the number of the earthly branches, the zodiac animals, the traditional months and the double-hours.

Twenty-four is the number of the solar terms — the division of the year that governs the agricultural calendar.

Thirty-six is a traditional number of plenitude — six squared, and a conventional count in the narrative literature.

Seventy-two is the larger of the paired conventional counts, and also the traditional number of the five-day periods in the year.

One hundred and eight is the number of the traditional bell strokes and of the narrative outlaws — a number with both ritual and literary weight.

Hundred is the conventional number of totality — hundred surnames, hundred schools, hundred years of life.

Thousand is the conventional number of great quantity — thousand-li journeys, thousand-year plans, thousand-character classic.

Ten thousand is the number of the myriad — the tradition's term for everything that exists, and the source of the word for longevity.

Sixty is the number of the sexagenary cycle — the combination of ten stems and twelve branches that the traditional calendar runs on.

Zero has no traditional symbolic role — the counting system runs on the empty place rather than on a zero as a number.

Thirteen carries no particular reading in Chinese tradition — it is a number without accumulated meaning.

Forty-nine is the number of the yarrow stalks used in the classical divination procedure — a technical rather than a symbolic number.

Fifty is the number of the divination stalks before one is set aside, and the number associated with the cosmic total in the classical account.

Sixty-four is the number of the hexagrams — the complete set produced by pairing the eight trigrams.

Eighteen carries a mixed reading — conventionally auspicious from its eight, and separately the number of the Buddhist hells.

Twenty-eight is the number of the lunar mansions — the divisions of the sky the tradition uses to track the moon's position.

Double six is a modern phonetic construction — six repeated for smoothness, used in dates and prices.

The double ninth is the ninth day of the ninth month — a specific traditional observance with its own practices.

Eight's contemporary dominance — in phone numbers, addresses, licence plates and opening dates — is a modern development built on an old sound association.

The five-element scheme assigns numbers to the elements, which is why certain numbers carry an elemental rather than a phonetic reading.