Page 69 - 국제학술문화제-천부경/국제 분과

『천부경』의 수리 철학적 해석 김태화

Mathematical Philosophical Interpretation of the Cheonbugyeong

Kim Tae-Hwa

This study attempts to make a mathematical philosophical interpretation of the numbers
that are relevant to the whole structure of the Cheonbugyeong(天符經) with consistency.
Existing studies have largely been conducted in terms of the Y-ching(易經) and Five

Elements(五行) of Eastern philosophy, but I first divided the 81 letters of the the
Cheonbugyeong into semiotic semantic paragraphs, divided them into 7 sequences, and

then, as a mathematician, looked at the number of the Cheonbugyeong on the basis of the
archetypes and iconography of numbers in comparison with the interpretation of numbers
from 1 to 10 introduced in the geometric scholar Michael Schneider’s book, “A beginner’s

guide to constructing the universe: The mathematical archetypes of Nature, Art and Science”
published in 1994, (Translated in Hangul by Chungho Lee in 2002). Chapter 2 is a

preparation for the interpretation of the Cheonbugyeong, in section 2.1 we note the
archetypes and iconography of geometric numbers based on numerology, and in section 2.2
we examine the relationship between circles and squares from the perspective of an ancient

mathematical philosopher who is deeply concerned with the Egyptian triangle or the
Pythagorean triangle. And in chapter 3, the mathematical philosophical interpretation of the

whole structure of the Cheonbugyeong is aimed at grouping the similarities and contrasts of
sequences or some of its passages together, examining the principle of harmony of the three
and the law of the 9-9 stairs(九九段) in section 3.1, the characteristics of number 6 in section

3.2, and the last section 3.3 revealing that the entire structure of the Cheonbugyeong
generates the natural numbers from a decimal number system.

Keywords : Cheonbugyeong, Y-ching, Five Elements, mathematical philosophers,
numerology, decimal number system

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