ChineseLandrush.com is back with another post on their number series. Today they covered the number 4.
4: 四, Pinyin: Sì
The number four in Chinese culture is widely known as being a number that carries a negative, superstitious, and relatively gloomy meaning. The number four didn’t quite have this negative cultural significance until later on in China’s history.
Let me explain why:
In Chinese culture, the pronunciation for “4” (sì) and “死” (sǐ, meaning “to die”) are very similar. This coincidence has led the Chinese culture (as it probably would in most any culture!) to become very superstitious about the number four, due to its similarity to death and dying.
To put things into perspective about the superstitious nature of the number four in Chinese culture, it can be compared to the number thirteen in the western world. Many superstitions and urban legends in the western world deem the number thirteen unlucky and negative. Much like the western world’s ghost stories and urban legends that promulgate haunted 13th floors, luck-lacking Friday the 13th’s, and horror movies depicting the 13th as a day of death, many buildings in the Chinese world don’t have a 4th floor for this very same reason.
Read the full article here
One thing left out of the article was the numbers in front of 4 that can make it a positive.
54 and 84 are considered lucky.
54 means no death
84 means forever prosperous
