The highest soil and the lowest earth.

Thirty-six plough and Seventy-two Dungeons originated from The Water Margin, one of the ancient Four Great Classical Novels in China. It has been circulated to this day and has been made into a film and television play, which has a profound influence on modern people. Thirty-six days of Liangshan heroes and seventy-two demons gathered together to unify the country.

What do you mean by thirty-six plough and seventy-two devils? The Taoist color is strong.

In Water Margin, 18 heroes are divided into thirty-six plough and seventy-two devils, and the sum of 36 and 72 is exactly 18, which has obvious traditional Taoist color. Taoism believes that there are 36 plough stars in the Beidou cluster, and each plough star has a god, which is collectively called 36 plough stars. There are 72 earthworms in the Beidou cluster, and there is also a god on each earthworm, which is collectively called seventy-two earthworms.

Thirty-six and seventy-two: magic numbers with five elements of Feng Shui thought

36 and 72 are two mysterious numbers in ancient Chinese traditional culture, which frequently appear in various occasions: Sun Tzu's Art of War has 36 numbers; There are often 36 moves in traditional Wushu routines; There are 36 views in the Royal Garden Summer Resort; Confucius had 3, disciples and 72 sages. It is said that Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang had 72 moles on his left leg. Chiyou has 72 brothers; As the saying goes: seventy-two lines, each line is the champion; There is also the well-known the Monkey King 72 change. In addition, people also like to use 36 and 72 to describe beautiful scenery, such as Wuyishan with 36 peaks, Huangshan, Hengshan and Songshan with 72 peaks. It seems that the numbers 36 and 72 occupy a special position in our traditional culture.

36 is the sum of multiplication of six and six, and six is the auspicious number advocated by ancient Chinese. There are six hexagrams in the Book of Changes, six tones in sound, six Qing in ancient literati and six relatives in family relations. After Qin Shihuang unified the whole country, he counted six as the discipline, with six inches of hat, six feet of car, six horses driving and so on. "Water Margin" was originally 36 generals, so Song Jiang said: 66 geese fly even 89.

72, as a mysterious number, originated from the thought of five elements. In the concept of five elements, a year is divided into five directions: east, west, south, north and middle, and 36 days a year is divided into 72 periods, with 5 days each. Mr. Wen Yiduo specially wrote the article Seventy-two on this issue for textual research. He pointed out: Seventy-two It is a fifth-class score of 36 days a year, and this book is a term evolved from the thought of five elements, which is a representation of cultural activities. It can be seen that 72 is the basic calculation number in the ancient calendar, which is closely related to social production and life, so it has a profound impact on people's concept of quantity.