Talk:Chinese numerology

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To-do list for Chinese numerology: edit · history · watch · refresh · Updated 2018-01-23 Here are some tasks awaiting attention: Categorization : Add more specific categories Citing sources : All sections require citations Cleanup : All sections require cleanup and formatting after citing/pruning uncited Collaborate : Attract more editors from related articles Copyedit : Write this article primarily as prose, giving info on the general background, history and cultural significance and reduce the current contents to a smaller section on specific numbers and their meanings. Standardize bilingual components according to MOS Expand : Add and expand sections on general background of subject Infobox : Add info box with info on what numerology is, what Cn Num is a subset of, etc. Photo : Add main image Unreferenced : Almost entirely unreferenced

This article, when referring to "250," it says: 250 can mean "imbecile" if read in a certain way. 二百五 (èr bǎi wǔ), while literally being a correct way of reading 250 in informal speaking, is usually used to insult someone the speaker considers extremely foolish. Alternative ways such as 兩百五 (lǐang bǎi wǔ) and 二百五十 (èr bǎi wǔ shí) do not have this meaning. The first use of Chinese characters for 250, was written as: 二百五, but that actually means 205. While I'm not familiar with the 兩百五, I believe that is 205 as well, only 二百五十, means 250. The 十, (meaning 10), makes the 五, (meaning 5), a 50. Just like the 百, (meaning 100), makes the 二, (meaning 2), a 200. — Preceding unsigned comment added by CDSteffen (talk • contribs) 22:41, 21 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

How can 4, 6 and 7 be in both the "lucky" and "unlucky" numbers column? I think the lucky number section needs to be split up more depending on the geograhical lay of china and attributing that number's qualities to specific regions. Otherwise this issue makes the article look like a nonsense due to its lumping of many disparate regions and cultures into the one label of "chinese". 196.2.111.85 (talk) 12:50, 11 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I came from a region of China where 4 was considered lucky, but people there avoid it now to "not offend" people from other regions of China. Nevertheless, separating regions is near impossible considering how much credible references there are for this thing. Some of the difference is rooted in interpretation. E.g. The number 7, both the lucky and unlucky aspects are derived from the same story/idea, just different interpretation. --Voidvector (talk) 12:14, 2 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Typical contradictory Wikipedia article; the classic case of too many hands messing it up. IMHO the article needs one list showing the numbers that are considered lucky OR unlucky by the majority of Chinese, and then a subsection detailing regional discrepancies. Or just get rid of the binary lucky/unlucky classification and discuss each number in turn, detailing its interpretations and explaining contradictions where they arise. Gunstar hero (talk) 17:39, 19 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Look at the intro mate "different pronunciation in various dialects". 110.174.12.47 (talk) 02:26, 13 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Just a suggestion, but I think the page would be less misleading if it were split into dialects first then followed by its individual categories. --218.111.19.37 19:06, 8 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

This page ignores the fact that the number four is traditionally lucky in some Chinese dialects, such as Teochew. Eight is also bad luck in Chinese divination. Well that's what a Taoist priest told me.

"The number 4 is considered lucky in some regions of China" - in what regions? I heard about Teochew, any other?

I note that 6, 7, and 9 in Cantonese have bawdy meanings especially when used in combination.. is it possible that that is where 69 gets some of it's blue meaning in English?? the influance of cross culture effect should be included if it can be documented

In English (and, I would guess, any culture using what we call Arabic numerals), I believe the meaning comes rather from the fact that each figure represents one person's body: the hole represents the head while the stem represents a hand and arm, and the 6 and 9 are transposed to face one another. I think it's all in the juxtaposition, each number having no special meaning alone. D. F. Schmidt (talk) 19:03, 8 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I have added that a Cantonese (and possibly other cultures) avoid serving meals with seven dishes, as this is what is served at a funeral meal. I'm not sure if this is "Unlucky" per se. I would also like to find a better reference and maybe a reasoning for it, Caffm8 16:37, 7 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Can I ask why there's nothing on the number 3?? Is it considered lucky or unlucky? or nothing?

By the way, I was born in 1984, so I guess by Chinese standards I will have bad luck for the rest of my life! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Punkymonkey987 (talk • contribs) 06:42, 8 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Yes I think this is a glaring ommission. Bad form! :p 196.2.111.85 (talk) 12:51, 11 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I heard that 三八 is no particularly positive combination. Can anyone confirm this? Yaan (talk) 15:07, 14 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

See Mandarin Chinese profanity --Voidvector (talk) 23:48, 15 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

http://www.china2learn.com/board/show.php?qID=10786

Not sure about what is mean "I love you", 520 or 521. -- 202.28.27.6 (talk) 05:24, 21 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Both are fine, depends on the dialect. I think 520 is closer in Mandarin (and more popular according to Google). --Voidvector (talk)

Is said how exactly, as " ye, as in the letter "r" " is utter nonsense... --91.84.200.229 (talk) 14:35, 15 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

LOL, actually both are correct, "ye" is closer to the Cantonese pronunciation, "er" is closer to the mandarin pronunciation. I reverted it to a version that use consistent pronunciation. --Voidvector (talk) 20:23, 15 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Nokia is a Finnish company... Palm is an American company. Why are these used as examples? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.231.120.222 (talk) 02:01, 28 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

It claims that those version numbers are skipped due to Chinese culture influence. I highly doubt it. --Voidvector (talk) 02:30, 28 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Chinese people are dumb. 4 and 14 are lucky numbers, whether 7 is unlucky! 79.132.31.212 (talk) 15:21, 1 August 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas doesn't have a fourth floor, presumably because they have many Asian customers. They also don't have a 13th floor, which is more traditional in the West. This might be worked into the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Grr (talk • contribs) 01:39, 7 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

• http://www.jstor.org/pss/4145877
• http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=174171

--222.64.208.16 (talk) 10:14, 28 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What?

How about 千 (thousand)? How about 万 (10 thousands) and 亿 (100 million)? Am I missing some point here? Seldwiki (talk) 18:09, 8 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've changed it to largest which is maybe clearer. As for those you would normally say, as in English, "one thousand", i.e. 一千, and so on.--JohnBlackburne^words_deeds 18:40, 8 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It should be added that the superstitions around numbers in China are also found in other East Asian cultures. Japan, for example, like China, has many buildings without 4th, 14th, 24'th, etc. floors because shi can mean both four and death. 142.26.194.190 (talk) 17:26, 8 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

"Some Chinese today believe that eight is lucky (or believed by others to be lucky) because it is the largest single-digit (Arabic) number. However, this does not derive from any Chinese tradition, as the largest single-digit Chinese number is ten (十)." This didn't even begin to make sense. Accordingly, I changed 'eight' to nine. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.126.203.251 (talk) 18:29, 17 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

"Some Chinese today believe that eight is lucky (or believed by others to be lucky) because it is the largest single-digit (Arabic) number. However, this does not derive from any Chinese tradition, as the largest single-digit Chinese number is ten (十)." This didn't even begin to make sense. Accordingly, I changed 'eight' to 'nine'.

7 and 49 are both listed as unlucky numbers. However, there is nothing in the article which suggests that either one is unlucky. In fact, the section on 7 explicitly states that "In most of the regions in China number 7 remains neutral or associated with luck." Both should be removed from the list of unlucky numbers.

In fact, the only way these numbers are discussed in the article at all is based on their auspiciousness. There are other ways numbers are used in Chinese culture. 069952497a (talk) 16:25, 16 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]

The bulk of this article is unsourced, unverifiable, primary sourced material. Were I to delete it and the material repeatedly reverted, the editor in question would be sternly rebuked for adding unsourced material. I'm going to try (I promise I will) to find secondary/tertiary sources for everything in the article piece by piece and correct or delete for everything I can. If I can't find a source for something which is verifiable according to wp:rs I will still delete it and an interested editor can check the version history to see if I've hacked something off, which ought to stay. Many thanks Edaham (talk) 05:44, 20 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

• Article in The Register. -- Ohc ^¡digame! 15:31, 17 March 2015 (UTC)[reply]

This article is a posterchild for rewriting, renaming and generally overhauling completely.

Here's a list of the references contained in this article. " ...? " That's right, there aren't any. None of these sources are tertiary (academic text books and dictionaries), none of them are good secondary sources (most of them are "did you know" type articles from news media) and quite a few of them are primary, (when I was on my holidays I found out that...)

'Wikipedia does not* have a dedicated article specifically on Chinese numerology'. Furthermore, the section on Chinese culture in Wikipedia's numerology section is basically a scaled down version of this article, and seriously in need of expansion.

May I suggest (i.e. I'm going to do it right now) moving this page to "Chinese Numerology" (a massively important area of Chinese culture) Where the article could be rewriten with a view to:

• Using the wealth of available secondary and tertiary sources available
• Expanding on history
• Notes on current use - people still use numerology here as a form of fortune telling similar to western astrology
• Modern homophonic usage (which is basically the existing article's list of trivia)

Edaham (talk) 05:39, 20 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

-*did not  Edaham (talk) 05:07, 21 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Please append sources to this list and comment on any sources which are not appropriate.

SECTION 1: GENERAL INFO ON NUMEROLOGY CONTAINING SECTIONS ON CHINESE THOUGHT

• book on fengshui
• Book (written from an in universe perspective) on Numerology
• Compendium of info on Numerology
• Book on [[fengshui]] and [[astrology]]
• The magicl iChing
• The complete book of numerology

IMPORTANT NOTE: When using sources (above) which may present fringe theories and historic beliefs as fact, please have bunkem cap firmly strapped under chin with woo setting on high!

SECTION 2: CHINESE WORKS ON NUMEROLOGY

2.1 Sources shipped over from the wp article on iChing

• Chinese text project
• info on religions with section on iching
• Yixue Bibliography
• Site on iChing - looks primary but has book references
• gutenberg ref
• internet archive

2.2 Found on Google books while searching for "算命"

• Ancient art of chinese astrology - in Chinese
• the laws of fate - your right to know the rights and wrongs of fortune telling

2.3 Shipped from the article on chinese fortune telling and discovered the links to be from blogs or non-rs - leaving template note on that page.

• check source
• check source
• check source

Edaham (talk) 05:25, 21 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Didn't get around to doing anything with these sources. Outstanding tasks include - writing a lead section. Converting much of the contents into prose rather than a list. Providing some general information in the body about how numbers are used to interpret meaning in Chinese culture. Adding citations and removing uncited material where it has remained uncited for a long time. Edaham (talk) 06:27, 20 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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Ken Kemp was born on August 8 1970, making him a very lucky person because every 10 years there is also an 8 in his age, ex: 8-8-88 he was 18, 8-8-2018 he is 48, much luck surrounding this man, just look at his family and the people in his life!

Who is Ken Kemp, and why is he in particular worth mentioning over literally any other person born on August 8th of a year divisible by ten? Also, that exclamation point is jarring. 2600:8800:5981:7CE0:B163:6EA0:47A3:7982 (talk) 04:34, 3 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]