Il significato augurale (omofonico) dei numeri nella lingua cinese

[Autom. eng. transl.] One of the characteristics of Chinese culture is the belief in a magical power of words, believed to be able to influence reality. In China, much attention is paid to what is said: a named event is an evoked event. Therefore, one usually avoids indulging in conversations about misfortunes or illness, in fear of attracting them. The goal of social relationships is to create harmony, so it is necessary to express / recall positive and auspicious meanings for oneself and for others. But the power of the word is such that even the homophones of the auspicious words have the same effect as the auspicious words. So if fú 福, 'luck', is considered by definition auspicious, so will the homophone fú 蝠, 'bat'. A bat depicted on a plate or on a calligraphic scroll therefore constitutes a wish, or rather, one of those 'silent wishes', wúshēng de zhùfú 无声 的 祝福, which are hidden within a homophony and which are widely reflected in the Chinese. This article reports part of the results obtained from the collection of thirty interviews conducted in Langfang, Hebei, People's Republic of China, between September and December 2017, i.e. the one relating to homophony in numbers.