Digital Idea In Chinese Ancient Times And Its Influence On Ceremony And Convention

The relation between the idea of number in Chinese ancient times and the traditional culture is a quite complex question. On the one hand it is difficult to discuss it with few materials related with the time. On the other hand much more attention was paid to the study of numerals in Yi-jing instead of common digital culture phenomenon. While according to human being's practical experience, digital idea is closely related to the culture in the long history. The origin of the number resulted from many factors. From tribal society when people had dim feeling toward the numeral to the civilized mature period when digitalized concept were produced, and from the period when people simulated the digital and complied with that to the time when the ideas such as following the heaven and the earth, Yin and Yang were flourished, the humanity's abstract ability was enhanced and theory thought was becoming more and more deliberate. Also in this period, the humanity summarized and inducted some natural phenomena rules, thus formed a set of their own knowledge system. Then they utilized this kind of knowledge system in the ceremony and convention, affecting Chinese culture and life in several millenniums and even nowadays. Therefore this research is of great importance not only in theory but also in practice.There are five parts in this paper:The first part is the foreword. Here the number is categorized into two kinds, namely the ordinary numeral and the mystical one. For the latter, its mystical significance was imposed by the people on the ancients. In addition, the universe production pattern and how to choose the materials are also explained in this part.The second part is the digital idea in Chinese ancient times, mainly elaborating how the ancients applied the digital in their life and production and discussing several origins of the numeral. It seems that the origin of the numeral in the ancient time was multiplicative. Some numerals were connected to how people understood the nature and the cosmos. Some numerals were only people's daily expression. Others were closely related to what happened around the people, such as how people used body language. In the cultural vicissitude process, some numerals were attached many cultural ingredients, gradually weakening their old meanings.