Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Photography and portraiture - Chinese character culture is extensive and profound. Do you know the original meaning of Chinese capital numbers?

Chinese character culture is extensive and profound. Do you know the original meaning of Chinese capital numbers?

In Chinese characters, numbers are divided into uppercase and lowercase, one two three four five six seven eight nine ten is lowercase, and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten are uppercase. In fact, this 10 capital figure has its original intention. One is singleness, the other is betrayal, and the third is another way of writing ginseng. The original intention is to join, and the boss means to act rashly. Wu originated from the old saying that the land is high level and the gas is lacquer tree or lacquer. It comes from having teeth as a rake and shameless as a slap. The original meaning of nine is black and beautiful stone, picking things up.

However, there is also a saying that originated in the Tang Dynasty, and was widely used in the whole country after being improved by Zhu Yuanzhang in the Ming Dynasty. Why are numbers capitalized? In fact, this is a way to prevent people from tampering with lowercase numbers and to prevent corruption and fraud.

Anyone familiar with history knows that Zhu Yuanzhang hated corrupt officials the most, so he was very strict with corrupt officials when he was in office. Therefore, it is stipulated in the laws and regulations of the Ming Dynasty that every year, officials from the household department should be sent to all parts of the country to collect accounts. The amount of money and grain collected and the amount of money at all levels should be consistent with that of the household department. If there is any discrepancy, they should be returned and re-declared. However, because the place is far from the capital, in order to save time, the blank account book will be stamped with the official seal. If it is returned, it will be corrected directly. So it is also profitable for some corrupt people. Many people collude with superiors and subordinates, making false accounts with blank account books, and taking bribes. This kind of cheating on the emperor was discovered by Zhu Yuanzhang, so nearly tens of thousands of people, including the perpetrators, were all put into prison.

In order to nip in the bud, Zhu Yuanzhang not only strengthened the crackdown on corruption, but also took some effective measures to prevent it, such as changing the recorded amount of money to first, second and third class. , into uppercase words, one, two, three and so on. Capitalized numbers were invented by Wu Zetian in Tang Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, in order to prevent corruption and fraud, Zhu Yuanzhang unified the figures recorded in coins into capital figures and listed them in laws and regulations. A small number, with a history of more than 1000 years, represents the painstaking efforts and wisdom of countless people throughout the ages.