| There is anotherspecial word “Fourscore” which means eighty. An example can be found inAmerican president Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: Fourscore and sevenyears ago our fathers brought forth on his continent, a new nation, conceivedin Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal(Lin Mingjin Huo Jingen, 2003).
“Seventy times seven” is a phrase from theBible. It has a special meaning. Peter asked Jesus: “Lords, of another memberof the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seventimes?” Jesus answer: “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy times seven”(Lin Mingjin Huo Jingen, 2003) . Nowadays, this phrase means boundlessforgiveness.
2.2 The Chineseexpression
In Chinese,numbers can represent somebody or something. For example, “略知一二”“说不出个一二三来”，“一二”and“一二三”refer tothe situation and the reason of some affair. When cursing someone：“那人是二百五，十三点。”That means the man is crude and rash. It is said that “二百五”is a quarter of a former coinage unit, and is not useful.“十三点”comes from the strokes of a Chinesecharacter “痴”which means foolish. “老二、老三……”can be used as appellation, indicating the seniorityamong brothers and sisters.
There is a kind ofChinese medicine called “三七”. “About thesource of this word, the explanation in 《本草纲目》isreasonable:‘或云本名山漆，谓其能合金疮，如漆粘物也，此说近之。’‘山漆’has the similar pronunciation as ‘三七’. The strokes are fewer, and easy to write” (Wu Huiying, 1990).
The above numeralwords are often used in spoken language. There is another point that is worthmentioning here. In Chinese, we can find the similarities between the shape ofthe character and the things the character refers to. For example, “一字眉，三字纹，八字胡，十字架”. The shape of the things referred to havebeen connected with figure of strokes of Chinese characters ingeniously.
3 Theexpression of “proportion”
In English, thereare “nine-tenths”, “ninety-nine out of a hundred” and “ nine times of ten”. In Chinese, there is “十之八九”.The English phrases, such as: “ten to one”, “fifty-fifty”, “six of one and half adozen of the other” or “six and twothrees”, they have the corresponding phrases inChinese: “十拿九稳”，“五五开”or“对半分成”and“半斤八两” (Chen Wenbo Dai Chen, 1993).
4. ModeNumbers
“Mode Numbers” are also called “MysticNumbers”. The influence of “Mode Numbers” on language is a special phenomenon.What are “Mode Numbers”? The American anthropologist Winick, Charles explained:a kind of numbers, which are often used on different occasion in specificculture. The embodiment in culture of “Mode Numbers” will be reflected in thelanguage. Language is the carrier of culture. Chinese and English, as therepresentatives of Eastern and Western culture, reflect the characteristics oftheir own culture. From the discussion of “Mode Numbers” in English and Chinese,we can have a deep understanding of culture. The typical Mode Numbers are among“one” to “ten”. But attention is also given to “twelve”.
4.1 Seven
“Seven” is mysterious in both Chinese andEnglish culture. The main source of Western culture is Christian culture. InGenesis of Bible, God created everything and human beings in six days, when theseventh day comes, God has a rest. So the seventh day is called “Sabbath Day”.In the West, a week is settled for seven days in astronomical calendar of ancientculture. Besides, some stories in Bible and some legends also indicate that“seven” is mysterious and is used frequently. Virgin Mary has seven happyaffairs and seven sad affairs; a prayer is constituted of seven parts. The SnowWhite and seven dwarfs, in fairy tale there are seven fairy maidens. There areseven musical notes, etc.
In Chinese numericalculture, “seven” also plays an important role. From the records of classicalbooks, “seven” is much more mysterious than other numbers. “Seven” is a typical“Mode Number” in Chinese culture. Chinese and western culture reflected by“seven” has astonishing similarities. In 《易经》, there are “反复其道，七日来复，天行也。”Sevendays are a cycle. In the West, seven days are a week. In ancient China,especially in the records of early Qin Dynasty, seven days are the deadline ofsome important events. For example, “七日不火食”wasrecorded in 《荀子》and 《天运》, 《让王》and 《山木》of 《庄子》. “七日而后去”was recorded in 《史记·高帝本纪》. Such records are too numerous to mentionindividually.
Here are some moreexamples. Nowadays a kind of medicine is called “七珍丹”. “周代七贤”and “竹林七贤”refer to sevenpersons who were outstanding. In poems, there are “七言”，“七绝”and “七律”. There are sevendirections: 东、西、南、北、中、上、下. There is one sentence in 《易经》：“勿逐，七日得。”
Why does “seven”has such a wide range of the usage? The following are the major points of view.Firstly, from “one” to “ten”, “seven” is the only number, which is neither themultiple of other numbers nor the divisor of other numbers. It is a primenumber. A regular heptagon is the only regular polygon, which cannot be drawnwell by a ruler and a compass. Therefore, “seven” is regarded as the symbol ofpurity, a mysterious and unconceivable number. Secondly, in ancient times, thefood, clothing, shelter and transportation of many nationalities had close andmysterious connection with seven stars (七星), and theseven stars bring light, warmth and life to mankind. In ancient times, there isa statement: there are seven stars in the sky, there are seven treasures (七珍) on earth.
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