Wu Wisdom: The Math Behind 36 Chambers

The following is an excerpt from the "Wu-Tang Manual" by RZA.

Mathematics is what we live. And the numerology side of it makes you aware of the connections between everything. Even if you talk about the thirty-six chambers: A student of the Wu-Tang sword school would master higher levels of technique. Each level, or chamber, that he climbed, he would near invincibility. If he was able to enter the thirty-six chamber, he was unstoppable to all but a fellow thirty-sixth-chamber Wu-Tang swordsman.

So, break it down. You have the thirty-six chambers, and there's nine members of the Wu-Tang Clan. Each member of Wu-Tang has four chambers of the heart. And what's nine times four? Thirty-six. There are thirty-six fatal points on the body, and that times ten degrees of separation between each point equals 360 degrees. Therefore, the Wu-Tang Clan is a perfect circle, a cipher.

Everyone in the Wu-Tang was alert to these natural connections, even before we made an album. It was part of the power we felt as a unit.

Additional Reading: "Kyushojutsu: Basic Theory" (specifically the numerology section)