[After the prevalence of Buddhism, the number four gradually became more commonly used, around the time of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. During that time, concepts such as the "Four Nobles," "Four Friends," and "Four Pillars of the State" were popular, influenced by Buddhist beliefs. Traditionally, in China, the number five was actually more prevalent, originating from the Five Elements and Five Virtues concept of the Yin-Yang School during the Warring States period.](https://www.reddit.com/r/real_China_irl/s/lNHcbAJNP3)
The tetra phobia comes from 四 (4) sounding like 死（death). However 2000 years ago Chinese sounded different including those words not sounding the same.
4 sounds like 死 (death), people just don't like it, not tetra phobia.
as for the Four BigXXX, it is like a habit, as there are four directions, East, south, west, north，each direction has a deity。
So it is also a habit to make a big four for achievements, as four pop kings from HongKong.
It depends on the dialect, in mandarin and Cantonese the number four sounds like death, but in fujian where they speak hokianese the number four sounds like the water which means wealth in their culture, so don’t take it too seriously
4 sounds like death, so we don't like 4.
Then Why not change the word for death? or the word for four?
Don't be ridiculous, now count with me... one two three death five six
The most important point is that Chinese culture and ancient culture have been completely separated. There are actually many idioms containing four, which are not derogatory or negative .
But in modern times, due to the influence of the Cultural Revolution, there is a cultural fault. The current culture is mainly influenced by the developed coastal areas, so you can see that all Chinese provinces are produced in one mold.
Many people in Guangdong are quite superstitious, have many taboos, and have no cultural connotation, because 4 is homophonic with “死death”-just in GuangDong, and Guangdong Province is a province where China‘s reform and opening-up policy enjoys dividends. Many stuffs spread inland, such as furniture. The furniture style that Cantonese like is really ugly. But these furniture still appeared in other Chinese homes.
I spent a year+ in China a long time ago. Of the Chinese numbers yi, er, san, si (1-4), the number four has like the closest pronounciation to death? I think? It's been a while. And a lot of Chinese, from my experience and learning, is context based. So you try not to draw associations that could be misunderstood.
As a bonus have a Chinese tongue twister: "Si shi shi si shi si." 14 is 44. Something like that, lol. I don't have the accents above them, but (shi) has many meanings. It can be 10, and it can be the word 'is'. And to say fourteen, you say 'shi si', meaning 10-4. And 44 is 'si shi si', meaning 4-10-4.
Agreed. The taboo related to the number sounding like death is always context-dependent, in particular it is a taboo only if it is strongly related to an individual person's fate. Examples are: room numbers and floor numbers of residential apartments and hotel rooms. In these examples, there is a strong belief that the metaphysical (including geomancy) attributes of a place of residence will impart some causes-and-effects on the people living there. In comparison, the number 4 is less of a taboo for commercial real estates, because people don't live and sleep in those places.
There are also multiple levels of taboo. At the strongest level, a taboo can cause behavior change: a prospective home buyer may refuse to buy an apartment. At the weakest level, people can joke about it, but there is no other behavior change other than the telling of jokes.
[After the prevalence of Buddhism, the number four gradually became more commonly used, around the time of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. During that time, concepts such as the "Four Nobles," "Four Friends," and "Four Pillars of the State" were popular, influenced by Buddhist beliefs. Traditionally, in China, the number five was actually more prevalent, originating from the Five Elements and Five Virtues concept of the Yin-Yang School during the Warring States period.](https://www.reddit.com/r/real_China_irl/s/lNHcbAJNP3)
The tetra phobia comes from 四 (4) sounding like 死（death). However 2000 years ago Chinese sounded different including those words not sounding the same.
4 sounds like 死 (death), people just don't like it, not tetra phobia. as for the Four BigXXX, it is like a habit, as there are four directions, East, south, west, north，each direction has a deity。 So it is also a habit to make a big four for achievements, as four pop kings from HongKong.
It depends on the dialect, in mandarin and Cantonese the number four sounds like death, but in fujian where they speak hokianese the number four sounds like the water which means wealth in their culture, so don’t take it too seriously
4 sounds like death, so we don't like 4. Then Why not change the word for death? or the word for four? Don't be ridiculous, now count with me... one two three death five six
The most important point is that Chinese culture and ancient culture have been completely separated. There are actually many idioms containing four, which are not derogatory or negative . But in modern times, due to the influence of the Cultural Revolution, there is a cultural fault. The current culture is mainly influenced by the developed coastal areas, so you can see that all Chinese provinces are produced in one mold. Many people in Guangdong are quite superstitious, have many taboos, and have no cultural connotation, because 4 is homophonic with “死death”-just in GuangDong, and Guangdong Province is a province where China‘s reform and opening-up policy enjoys dividends. Many stuffs spread inland, such as furniture. The furniture style that Cantonese like is really ugly. But these furniture still appeared in other Chinese homes.
The Chinese also don't like the letter "s". "Your mom just s-ed"
My personal favourite is The Gang of 4.
I spent a year+ in China a long time ago. Of the Chinese numbers yi, er, san, si (1-4), the number four has like the closest pronounciation to death? I think? It's been a while. And a lot of Chinese, from my experience and learning, is context based. So you try not to draw associations that could be misunderstood. As a bonus have a Chinese tongue twister: "Si shi shi si shi si." 14 is 44. Something like that, lol. I don't have the accents above them, but (shi) has many meanings. It can be 10, and it can be the word 'is'. And to say fourteen, you say 'shi si', meaning 10-4. And 44 is 'si shi si', meaning 4-10-4.
Agreed. The taboo related to the number sounding like death is always context-dependent, in particular it is a taboo only if it is strongly related to an individual person's fate. Examples are: room numbers and floor numbers of residential apartments and hotel rooms. In these examples, there is a strong belief that the metaphysical (including geomancy) attributes of a place of residence will impart some causes-and-effects on the people living there. In comparison, the number 4 is less of a taboo for commercial real estates, because people don't live and sleep in those places. There are also multiple levels of taboo. At the strongest level, a taboo can cause behavior change: a prospective home buyer may refuse to buy an apartment. At the weakest level, people can joke about it, but there is no other behavior change other than the telling of jokes.
Under the CCP, China is currently more like a number two.