ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that numerology is the secret underlying thread at the core of Chinese medicine. Numbers and their relationships in calendars and divination have formed a space-time structure able to encompass periods of unity and innovation within the territory we associate with China. Numbers were the basis of calculations of rhythms and cycles, in the stars and constellations and in the changing circumstances of everyday life. Medicine and divination developed in parallel: the medical arts of prognosis and diagnosis were essential to medical practice and were originally based on the physician’s mastery of numerological and divinatory practices. This chapter offers a brief overview of the chronological appearance of key numbers relevant to Chinese medicine: from the four directions of the Shang, to the duality of the Warring States, the state integration of five in Qin and Western Han, finally ending with the re-emergence of six in the Eastern Han.
