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 

 (pi. 2). A table with eight seats is designated as " the table of the 

 eight genii " (fig. 3). 



Keception 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 





fig. 3.-The eight genii f w hich the sanctuary is placed. The reverential 

 approach and adoration before the gods in the 

 temples consist of a kowtow repeated 3X3=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 



