550 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 
grasped his profound wisdom, by which he was enabled to perform 
‘the great deeds for which he was entitled to the perpetual gratitude 
of the people. 
The god of longevity and his eight genii are everywhere repre- 
sented throughout China and play an important part in the daily life 
(pl. 2). <A table with eight seats is designated as “ the table of the 
eight genii” (fig. 3). 
Reception halls are furnished with four tables, each with two seats; 
that is, again, eight in all. At the end of the hall there is a handsome 
broad sofa, for the two most distinguished guests, representing the 
two principles, male and female, which are inclosed in the circle. 
As symbolical of eternity, purity, highest wisdom, and truth some 
handsome article is placed in the axis of the room; a vase, a piece of 
mystic carving, or a mirror, a handsome picture, or written sentence 
is hung on the wall. These make an exact representation of the 
sacred number 9=8 plus 1. Ancient China had 9 Provinces, that are 
represented by bronze vases. Present China has 2x9=18 Provinces, 
that are often identified with the 18 Lohan, the disciples of Buddha. 
This ancient symbolical number 9 constantly recurs in their archi- 
tecture; for example, the altar of Heaven at 
Peking is so constructed that the two uppermost 
platforms consist of rings of free-stones, each 
divisible by 9 (9, 18, 27, etc., fig. 5). 
Besides this, one is constantly finding com- 
binations of 3 and 9, 3X3=9 is very much used 
_ in the temple plans illustrated in figure 6, that 
shows the ground plan of a temple in the center 
ie. Tacs seni’ of which the sanctuary is placed. The reverential 
approach and adoration before the gods in the 
temples consist of a kowtow repeated 3%3=9 times. The numbers 
10 and 12 are easily deducted from the ground number. Five 
doubled equals 10, combined with the male and female. The four 
quadrants, each divided into three parts, combining the energetic 
system of 3 with the harmonic system of 4, as 3X4=12; by further 
multiplication and combination we have 24, 60, and 360, the degrees 
of the circle, which was known to the Chinese ages ago. By such 
division of the numbers there results from the diagram of 8 the 
countless variety of phenomena that are personified as gods and 
placed in the temples and houses to represent ideas. 
This is a wide, special field, and here attention is invited only to 
the rhythm that is derived from the theory of numbers. 
These numbers that may be said to be derived purely mathemati- 
cally (the Chinese are great mathematicians) are confirmed in nature 
as duality of sex, two eyes, ten fingers, and their relation to the visible 
order of the universe, the months, the zodiac, stars, etc., that introduce 
the lacking numbers 6 and 7 with their cosmic significance. This 
