Page 365 - A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols BIG Book

A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols 358
Thirteen irteen

shi-san

The Chinese developed two numerical cycles – the Ten Stems and the Twelve Branches,
and by definition each of these excludes 13. The number appears in Indian number
mysticism in an ‘unfavourable relationship’ to other numbers (this is because the Indian
year was originally divided into 12 lunar months, which meant that at the end of the lunar
year a 13th month had to be intercalated; significantly, this month was called ‘Lord of
Troubles’). The expressions ‘Thirteen Points’ or ‘Thirteen Tai-bao’ are used as
expletives. Tai-bao was originally a title given to a high official at court; it came to
mean a big-time crook.
Thirty-six Thirty-six

san-shi-liu

Shi-huang-di, the first Emperor, built up his Middle Kingdom on the basis of the
number six: he squared six to get his 36 provinces, and his retinue consisted of 36
carriages.
The 36 provinces formed the centre of an earth which was imagined as a flat square,
round the edges of which there lived 36 ‘barbarian’ or foreign peoples; each side of the
square was coterminous with nine of these peoples, or, as the Taoist philosopher Huai-

nan-zi (179–122 BC) worked it out, 10 in the West, 6 in the East, 13 in the South and 7 in
the North. Either way, the figure of 36 was arrived at, as logic demands.
Legend has it that in the Tang Dynasty (618–907) 36 scholars were magically done to
death by the Taoist high priest and then deified as gods of plague.
A South Chinese tradition says that towards the end of the Ming Dynasty (c. 1644)
360 scholars in the province of Fujian committed suicide rather than submit to the
incoming foreign Manchu Dynasty. They were deified as gods of plague. As part of their
ceremonial cult, a boat is elaborately decorated and then pushed out to sea: this is
supposed to keep epidemics at a safe distance.
Three Three

san