《英语泛读第二册numbers-and-omens原文及翻译》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《英语泛读第二册numbers-and-omens原文及翻译（7页珍藏版）》请在金锄头文库上搜索。
1、 Numbers and Omens There is a set of famous streets in Gaoxiong City in Taiwan, China, which all begin with numbers. They are Yixin (One Heart), Ersheng (Two Sacreds), Sanduo (Three Mores), Siwei (Four Upholds), Wufu (Five Fortunes), Liuhe (Six Realm), Qixian (Seven Virtues), Bade (Eight Moral Prece
2、pts), Jiuru (Nine Wishes), and Shiquan (Perfect Ten) streets. This sequence of auspicious street names gives people a warm feeling when they hear it, and bring more than a little luck to the residents.Many foreign visitors cant help but exclaim that the Chinese are really creative, and can line numb
3、ers up so “auspiciously”.Chinese not only use numbers to appeal for good fortune, they also bring them out to chew people out: “You 250fool, you do things neither three or four without any order or out of touch, and still you dare to say that Im 13 points stupid and 3-8 scatterbrained.”Although it i
4、snt really possible to know where these came from, one thing is for sure: numbers are intimately related to the daily life of Chinese!中国台湾的高雄市有一组有名的道路，都是以数字起头，它们是一心路、二圣路、三多路、四维路、五福路、六合路、七贤路、八德路、九如路、十全路。这一串吉祥的路名让人听了感到温暖，并给沿街居民带来不少好运气。许多外国游客赞叹不已，说中国人真有创造性，竟能够把数字排列得如此“吉祥”。中国人不仅用数字求好运，还用数字骂人：“你这个二百五（呆子）
5、，你做事不三不四（不上规矩），你还敢说我是十三点（愚蠢），说我是三八（心不在焉）。”尽管不可能真的了解这些用法的来源，但是有一点可以肯定：数字与中国人的日常生活密切相关！Origins in the Book of ChangesIn antiquity, people kept tallies by trying knots, and only employed numbers and words later on. From natural phenomena and life experience, people came to recognize the signs of change
6、 in a particular matter. For example, there was the ancients saying that “if the moon has a halo it will be windy, and a damp plinth foretells rain.” It is inevitable that there will be misfortune in life, so people began to adopt ways to attract the auspicious and expel the malicious. Add to this t
7、hat people have psychological activity and the ability to link things together in their minds, and a whole set of auspiciousness-attracting and evil-expelling habits took shape.源出易经：远古时期人们结绳记事，后来才使用数字和文字。 通过观察自然现象、积累生活经验，人们逐渐能够认识万物变化的预兆，比如，古人说：“月晕知风，础润知雨。”由于生活中不可避免地会发生不幸事件，所以人们就用各种方式祈福驱邪，加上人们的心理活动和联
8、想能力，于是就形成了一整套祈福避祸的风俗习惯。The I Ching or Book of Changes is a compilation which records the experience of people in ancient times with luck and divination. In the Book of Changes, each number has some significance: one is the tai-ji or “great supreme”, two is the “two rituals”, three is for the “three
9、powers”, four for the “four directions”, five is for the “five pathway”, six stands for the “six realm, seven for the “seven rules of government”, eight means the “eight trigrams”, nine is for the “nine chains”, and ten is the ten depictions”. 易经记载了古人预测吉凶祸福的占卜活动，易经中的每一个数字都有一定的含义：一为“太极”，二为“两仪”，三为“三才”
10、，四为“四象”，五为“五行”，六为“六合”，七为“七政”，八为“八卦”，九为“九星”，十为“十干”。We often say “three yang make good fortune” to describe the hope that misfortune will be held at bay and good luck will follow. It is a saying often used at the New Year and symbolizes a new beginning and finds its origins in the Book of Changes. Yan
11、g is the positive force and there is enormous Yang and very weak Yin (Negative force) in the first, second, and third of the nine trigrams. So the three Yang are very positive.我们常说“三阳开泰，以期远离凶险，万事亨通。这句成语源自易经，常常在新年里使用，表示新的开端。阳是宇宙间的正气，在九爻的第一爻、第二爻和第三爻中，阳已经远盛于阴，所以三阳的阳气极盛。Someone feels that numbers have n
12、o connection with fortune good or ill, says that the only significance numbers have is what people ascribe to them. Trying to say that a given number is either auspicious or ominous is mere superstition. Still, unlike the Western sensitivity to the number 13, Chinese have a whole philosophy built up
13、 around numbers, which is spread or experienced in real life. 国际道教基金会主席李恒力（音译）认为数字和祸福并无任何联系，它们的意义是人们强加上去的，硬要说一个数字吉利或不祥，只不过是迷信而已。中国人不像西方人那样只对数字13敏感，他们对数字有一整套观点，体现在日常生活中。Gods can be alone, but people cannotOne is number marking the beginning, and also has the meaning of “independent” or “alone”. 神仙可以孤
14、单，人却不能孤单：“一”是表示开端的数字，同时含有“单独”或“孤单”的意思。In Taiwan people prefer even numbers which symbolize “fortune comes in pairs. They are more wary of one, three, five, seven, and nine. Because the character for “odd” in Chinese (dan) also means “alone”, people are not very fond of it. But although people like e
15、ven numbers, the gods can be alone. Thus in odd-numbered months holidays have been stipulated to help people get by, from New Years (first day of the first month on the lunar calendar) and Tomb Sweeping Day (third day of the third month) to dragon Boat Festival (fifth of the fifth), Chinese Valentin
16、es Day (seven of the seventh), and Old Peoples Day (ninth day of the ninth month in the lunar calendar).台湾神学院神学教授童凤婉（音译）指出，台湾人偏爱双数，因为双数表示“好事成双”。他们对一、三、五、七、九等单数比较谨慎。由于单数的“单”字在汉语里有“孤单”的意思，所以人们不大喜欢这个字。虽然人们喜欢双数，但神仙们却可以孤单，因此单月里定下一些节日让人们庆祝，从新年（农历正月初一）和清明节（三月初三），到端午节（五月初五）、七夕（七月初七）和重阳节（九月初九）等都是单数。At weddings, when Chinese people give “red envelopes” with gifts of ca
