Talk:Chinese numerology

Contradictions in article
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)

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)


 * 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)


 * 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)

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

?
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)

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)

Seven
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)

The number 3?
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)

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

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


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

520 or 521?
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)
 * Both are fine, depends on the dialect. I think 520 is closer in Mandarin (and more popular according to Google). --Voidvector (talk)

2
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)
 * 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)

Nokia and Palm
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)
 * 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)

Dumb!
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)

Bellagio
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)

Whoever can access to these articles, please add the info accordingly...
--222.64.208.16 (talk) 10:14, 28 November 2009 (UTC)
 * http://www.jstor.org/pss/4145877
 * http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=174171

"the greatest single-digit Chinese number is ten (十)"
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)
 * 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 wordsdeeds 18:40, 8 September 2011 (UTC)

Correlation in other Asian cultures
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)

"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)

eight [...] is the largest single-digit (Arabic) number.
"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
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)


 * 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)

Source

 * Article in The Register. --  Ohc  ¡digame! 15:31, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Article review and proposed move
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: Edaham (talk) 05:39, 20 April 2017 (UTC)
 * 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)

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

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Ken Kemp
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)

Requested move 16 January 2018

 * The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 

The result of the move request was: MOVED (non-admin closure) Galobtter (pingó mió) 04:02, 23 January 2018 (UTC)

Chinese Numerology → Chinese numerology – "numerology" is not part of a formal title. PseudoSkull (talk) 02:28, 16 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Support per the nom.Primergrey (talk) 14:58, 16 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Support per nom. Paintspot Infez (talk) 17:49, 16 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Support per nom. --Phonet (talk) 07:01, 18 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Support per MOS:CAPS (especially MOS:ISMCAPS), and WP:NCCAPS.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  19:16, 19 January 2018 (UTC)