tuesdays with moriarty

The Speculative Grammarian.

"The cardinal importance accruing to number symbolism in ancient China may be gauged from the fact that every dynasty selected a number as a kind of modulus for its reign. The chosen number might be one of the numbered tones in the old pentatonic music, which automatically linked it to one of the five colours. It followed from this that when a change in dynasty took place, the colour of court dress had to be altered, and a new scale chosen for the court music..." --Wolfram Eberhard, A Dictionary of Chinese Symbols (1983)

Song of Inversion.

(by Etienne Delessert, via)