Significant Numbers In East Asian Culture

Ke Peng| Student’s Presentations for Languages & Cultures of East Asia

Hyunwoo Jung University of Arizona

The Number That People Like
The Number That People Dislike
Why?



8(八 八,

bā)
9(九 九, jiǔ)
6(六 六, liù | lù)




8(八, bā)’s pronunciation is similar to 發(fā). 




發財(fā cái) has the meaning “to earn money”.

9(九, jiǔ)’s pronunciation is similar to 久(jiǔ). 九 has the meaning “perfect”.  久(jiǔ) has the meaning “lasts long”. 







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNbpvdO KuiM This video shows how much significance Chinese impose on lucky number 8




6(六, liù | lù)’s pronunciation is similar to 流 (liú). 流 (liú) has the meaning “It’s going well ”.  Especially 66 has the meaning “It’s going very well”. 




It’s because the numbers (8, 9, 6) have the similar pronunciation of the letter which have a good meaning.


4(四 四,

sì)
3(三 三, sān)
7(七 七, qī)




4(四, sì)’s pronunciation is similar to 死(sǐ). 




死(sǐ) has the meaning “death”.

3(三 三 , sān)’s pronunciation is similar to 散(sǎn). 

散(sǎn) has the meaning “to spread out ”




7(七, qī)’s pronunciation is similar to 氣(qì) 

生氣(shēng qì) has the meaning “be upse 生氣 t”




It’s because the numbers (4, 3, 7) have the similar pronunciation of the letter which have a bad meaning.


3(삼,

sam)
7(칠, chil)




In ancient Korea, ‘3’ symbolized “person” 1 => sky  2 => earth  1+2 = 3 => “sky + earth” = “person” 




7 has the meaning “lucky” 

Lucky seven







Unlike China, it is not always related to the pronunciation. Because of the symbolization that the numbers have


4(사,

sa)







It is because of the same reason as Chinese. 4(사, sa) has the similar pronunciation as 死(사, ( , sa)











Korean focuses less on the numbers than Chinese. How about Japanese? Japanese rarely care about the numbers. How about US?













Chinese sell the vehicle plate number and the phone number which include a lot of 8, 6. In Taobao.com 1391-880-8888 was sold at $3300 In EachNet.com 135-8585-8585 was sold at $1.2 million The numbers that have 4 might be sold for free.







Previously, in China, people get the car number randomly. Nowadays, the numbers that have 4 are not issued because those who got the number protested.










In China, some hotels use “G” instead of “14” for displaying the floor. 14(一四) has the similar pronunciation with 要死 that has the meaning “to want to die” In Korea, they also sometimes replace 4 to some shapes like star.







In Korea, they have preference for some numbers but they do not sell number like China. Korean care less about numbers than Chinese.