Etymology of the Chinese number characters (一二三四五六七八九十百千)
Etymology of 一, 二, and 三


Explanation of 一/二/三 in 象形字典 (Dictionary of Pictographs)


  “一”是特殊指事字，抽象符号“一”既代表最为简单的起源，也代表最为丰富的浑沌整体。造字本义：最小原始单位，最小的正整数。古人认为“道立于一，一生二，二生三，三生万物”。就是说，混沌太初的存在整体是“一”；然后由太初混沌的“一”，分出天地“二”极；天地二极之间，又生出人这第“三”部分；天地人三者，衍化出宇宙万物。一 ，代替混沌太初的整体；二，上面的一横代表“天”，下面的一横代表“地”；三，上下两横代表“天地”，中间的一横代表“人”。
  
  一 is a special self-explanatory character. The abstract symbol 一 presents not only the simplest origin, but also the abundant chaos entirety. The original idea of character construction: the smallest basic unit, the smallest positive integer. Ancient Chinese people thought "Tao stands on 一(one), 一(one) bears 二(two), 二(two) bears 三(three), 三(three) bears everything". That is to say, the entity of original chaos is 一; then the chaos origin 一 differentiates into 二极(two extremes), the sky and the earth; and between the two extremes, there breed humans (the 三); And finally, everything in the universe are derived from the sky, the earth and the humans. In conclusion, 一 presents the whole of the chaos origin; 二, the top bar stands for the sky and the bottom bar stands for the earth; 三, the top and the bottom is respectively the sky and the earth, the middle represents humans.
  
  My Annotation: The statement "道立于一" (Tao stands on one) is a little different from "道生一" (Tao gives birth to one) in Tao Te Ching. This paper “道生一” “道始於一” “道立於一” 合解 offers a further discussion on this issue.

Explanation in 甲骨文字典 (Dictionary of Oracle Scripts)

一


  
  
  【解字】卜辭由一至四，字形作、、、，以積畫為數，當出於古之算籌。甲文金文均同。屬於指事字。從五至九，則利用假借字，其形作（或）、（或）、、、，至十則為豎形。
  
  [Character Forming] The glyphs of one to four in oracle inscriptions are respectively , , , and . The method of counting strokes is used for representing the number. It should originate from the ancient counting rods. Their glyphs in bronze scripts are the same to those in oracle scripts. And they belong to the self-explanatory characters. From five to nine, oracle script uses the loan characters:  (or ),  (or ), , , , and ten is a vertical shape.
  
  Ivory Counting Rods in Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C. -- A.D. 8). Photographed by maverwolf in Shaanxi History Museum.


二


  
  
  [Character Forming] The glyphs of one to four in oracle inscriptions are respectively , , , and . The method of counting strokes is used for representing the number. It should originate from the ancient counting rods. Note that, the two strokes of 二 in oracle script should be of equal length. It is different from  (上) and  (下).


三


  
  
  [Character Forming] See explanation of 一 above.

Rubbings

No. 032013: 貞(divine to predict) ?? 來(come)，一(one) 羌(western shepherd) 一(one) 牛(ox)。


  


No. 034575: 庚午(year of 庚午) 貞(divine to predict) 餗(food in a cooking vessel)，餗 其(, a basket made by bamboo splits; it; its) 二(two) 牛(ox)。


  


No. 032110: 其 一(one) 羌(western shepherd) 三(three) 牛(oxen)


  

Criticism on "Explanation of 一/二/三 in 象形字典 (Dictionary of Pictographs)"

The explanations of 一/二/三 in Dictionary of Pictographs are some concepts from 《周易》(I Ching), 《道德經》(Tao Te Ching) and 《淮南子》(Huainanzi). And such a statement for 一 is similar to that in 《說文解字》(Shuowen):

惟初太始，道立于一，造分天地，化成萬物。


But let's consider these questions:


I Ching was one of the oldest Chinese classic text, written in Western Zhou Dynasty; Tao Te Ching was written in Warring States Period (newer than I Ching); And Huainanzi and Shuowen were even newer. So question 1: was it possible for ancient Chinese people to have such philosophical thinking, before the early period of Shang Dynasty when oracle scripts were invented?
As number characters are very important in communication, they must appear at the early stage of oracle scripts. So question 2: at that early stage, would ancient Chinese people create 一/二/三 by such abstract thinking rather than by concrete images?


Unfortunately these two questions are both based on conjectures. So there isn't a definite "yes" or "no" answer. For question 1, I would say the earliest evidence we have found today is I Ching, and personally I don't believe philosophical thinking like "道立于一" (Tao stands on one) can date from an earlier period before the creation of the writing system. For question 2, it was illogical to invent the "basic characters" utilizing very abstract concepts, or, it would very probably make the communication become more difficult.

Besides, 算籌 (counting rods) were used by ancient Chinese for more than two thousand years. It was possible to appear during or before the creation period of oracle scripts. 


  So in conclusion, for the explanation of etymology of 一/二/三, opinions in Dictionary of Oracle Scripts are more reliable: they should originate from the ancient counting rods.