Thursday, December 9, 2010

Question - 580


What is the significance of these color mappings? (courtesy: Dinky)

Answer: The cardinal directions (NESW and Center -- the columns in the color matrix) in Far-East cultures were associated with certain colors that were used to name various geographical features, e.g. Red Sea, Black Sea etc. Krithi, Dinesh, Manix, Divya Shankar, and mekie got it. Well done.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cardinal directions in world cultures -Dynastic Chinese culture and some other Central Asian cultures
Krithi

Dinesh said...

I saw the question in a QFI quiz - so credit goes to whoever came up with it there.

Anonymous said...

Cardinal directions are represented as colors amongst East Asian cultures.

Divya Shankar said...

The color mappings represent the five cardinal directions(North, East, South, West and Centre) as practiced in ancient Chinese dynasties and Central Asian countries. Each direction is denoted by a color. This mapping is used in nomenclature of places/rivers - like black sea, red sea, belarus (white russia) etc

mekie said...

Colors representing N, E, S, W and C (center) in Asia...