在古代早期社会中，数字既能指明事物的具体数量，也可作为神秘主义的代表符号为人们所信仰。而具有后一种职能的数字被后世的人们称为神秘数。神秘数是一类指涉和象征特定事物及其分组和性质，以及某些特殊概念和价值的数字，它与计数数、相数和数学数并列为数字史上的四种数字类型。而对于神秘数的信仰现象，在众多古代文明中几乎都存在过，例如在战国至汉代的中国以及公元前4-6世纪的古希腊，都盛行着对于一些重要数字的神秘信仰。虽然双方信奉不同的神秘数，但背后却有类似却不尽相同的原因和解释方式可资比较。从当时这样一类特殊的数字的基本职能来看，首先，奇偶神秘数成为了事物基本的二元分类类型的代表，在这一点上，中希双方的共同点在于，即二者都用不同的数去表达对立的范畴，又都将具有男性特征的事物和性质与奇数相联系。而这种价值倾向的共同性在根本上是由于二者的基本哲学原则都采用了二元性的概念；但是，这样基本价值倾向的共同特点背后的原因却是不同的。再者，数字也作为思考宇宙空间的思想媒介，不同的神秘数成为对宇宙的不同感知与认识的代表，而在根本上，这是由于双方对于宇宙概念的理解并不相同。其次，在与音乐相关的神秘数的方面，战国至汉代中国乐律学中的神秘数元素相对于毕达哥拉斯学派是较为稀少的。前者主要集中在神秘数对于音律数量的影响之上；而后者则渗透进入了毕达哥拉斯学派乐律学律数设置的内部，这部分是由于包括毕达哥拉斯学派在内的古希腊哲学对于感官的不信任倾向。最后，涉及到神秘数的运算过程及其结果也由于神秘数所含有的丰富所指而被赋予了更加复杂的神圣意义。例如在战国至汉代的中国，以河图、洛书为代表的数字构型在根本上象征着天地之间的神圣互动过程；而毕达哥拉斯学派则将数字赋予一些品德、概念与神秘力量，而且，不同的算法代表着不同的人物关系以及特殊的道德品质。基于此对比分析可见，神秘数并不仅仅是一种纯粹用于计算的纯粹单元，而是代表着特定社会性认知和所指的神秘符号和秩序性体现。将古代中国和古希腊的神秘数字进行对比，不仅可以观及数在近代科学诞生以前的历史，从而进一步反思数这一概念的真正含义，而且也可以看到中西方以神秘数为媒介所反映的不同古代社会背景下的基本文化差异。

In early ancient societies, numbers can not only indicate the specific quantity of things, but also can become a representative symbol of mysticism which were believed by people. The numbers with the latter function were called mysterious numbers later. mystical numbers are a class of numbers which refer to and symbolize specific things and their groupings and properties, as well as some special concepts and values. They are listed as four types of numbers in the history of numbers alongside counting numbers, Ideal numbers and mathematical numbers. The phenomenon of belief in mystical numbers has existed in many ancient civilizations. For example, in China from the Warring States to the Han Dynasty and ancient Greece from the 4th to 6th centuries BC, the mystical belief in some important figures prevailed. Although the two sides believe in different mystical numbers, there were similar but different reasons and explanations behind, which were suitable for being compared. From the perspective of the basic functions of such a special type of numbers at that time, first of all, the odd-even mystical number became the representative of the basic binary classification of things. In this regard, what Chinese and Greek sides had in common is that they both used different numbers to express the opposite categories, and they all associated the things and properties which had masculine characteristics with the odd numbers. And the commonality of this value tendency is fundamentally due to the basic philosophical principles of the two adopt the concept of duality. However, the reasons behind the common characteristics of such basic value tendencies are different. Secondly, numbers also served as a thought medium for thinking about the universe, and different mysterious numbers became the representatives of different perceptions and understandings of the universe in China and Greece. The different mystical numbers of the universe in China and Greece were fundamentally due to their different understandings of the concept of the universe. Furthermore, in terms of mystical numbers related to music, the elements of mystical numbers in Chinese rhythm from the Warring States period to the Han Dynasty were relatively rare compared to those of the Pythagorean school. The former mainly focused on the influence of the mystical number on the quantity of temperaments; while the latter used the mystical numbers to set the number of different temperament concepts, which was partly due to the ancient Greek philosophy's tendency to distrust the senses. Finally, the calculation process and results involving the mysterious numbers are also endowed with more complicated sacred meanings due to the rich signification contained in the mystical numbers. For example, in China from the Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty, the digital configuration represented by Hetu and Luoshu fundamentally symbolized the sacred interaction process between the Heaven and Earth;The Pythagoreans endowed numbers with some moral, conceptual and mystical powers, and different calculation processes represented different character relationships and special moral qualities.Based on these comparative analyses, it can be seen that the mystical numbers were not just pure units used for calculation, but the mystical symbols for specific social cognition and the representative of the order. Comparing the mystical numbers of ancient China and ancient Greece, we can not only observe the history of numbers before the birth of modern science and further reflect on the true meaning of the concept of number, but also see the basic differences of cultural cognitions in ancient China and Greece.