四的双面：为什么中文里「四」谐音「死」，却又有「四季平安」
The Number That Is Both Omen and Blessing – Why 四 Sounds Like Death, Yet Means 四季平安
English
In the lift of a residential building in a Chinese city, the buttons read 1, 2, 3, 3A, 5. The fourth floor exists; it is simply not named. Two streets away, on a spring couplet pasted beside someone’s door, four large characters wish the household 四季平安 — peace through all four seasons.
The same number is being avoided in one place and invoked as a blessing in the other. An English-reading observer, noting the first fact and missing the second, will file the whole thing under superstition and close the drawer.
The drawer does not close. 四 is not simply feared in Chinese, and it is not simply honoured. It is both, at once, and the coincidence is worth more attention than the label.
中文
在中国某座城市一栋住宅楼的电梯里，按钮依次是 1、2、3、3A、5。四楼是存在的，只是没有被命名。隔着两条街，某户人家门边的春联上，四个大字祝愿这家四季平安。
同一个数字，在一处被回避，在另一处被当作祝福请出来。一位只读到前一件事实、漏掉后一件的英文观察者，会把整件事归档在 superstition（迷信）之下，然后关上抽屉。
这个抽屉关不上。中文里的「四」不只是被忌讳，也不只是被推崇。它两者皆是，同时皆是，而这并存本身，比那个标签更值得一看。
Two facts, one number
两个事实，同一个数字
English
Fact one: the avoidance is real. In parts of the Chinese-speaking world, buildings skip or rename the fourth floor, hospitals omit bed four, licence plates ending in 444 are shunned in some markets, and gifts are not given in sets of four. The intensity varies by region and by decade, but the practice is observable.
Fact two: the blessing is just as real. 四 is also one of the most honoured numbers in the language. 四书 the Four Books, 四君子 the Four Gentlemen (orchid, bamboo, plum, chrysanthemum), 文房四宝 the Four Treasures of the Scholar’s Studio, 四大名著 the Four Great Classical Novels, 四时 the four seasons, 四平八稳 steady and square, 四通八达 open on every side, 四世同堂 four generations in one house. New Year pictures wish 四季平安; a cook shapes 四喜丸子 for a wedding table; someone hands over a bunch of 四季豆 because the name carries the word 四季.
Neither fact cancels the other. A culture that hides the number 4 in its lift shaft is the same culture that built the 四库全书 and called its greatest novels the 四大名著.
中文
事实一：回避是真实存在的。 在华人世界的不少地方，楼宇跳过或改写四楼，医院不设四号床，尾号 444 的车牌在某些市场被回避，礼物不送四件。强度因地区与年代而异，但这一现象是可观察的。
事实二：祝福同样真实。「四」也是这门语言里最受尊崇的数字之一。四书、四君子（梅兰竹菊）、文房四宝、四大名著、四时、四平八稳、四通八达、四世同堂。年画上写着四季平安；厨下为喜宴捏出四喜丸子；有人递上一把四季豆，取的是「四季」这两个字。
两件事实互不抵消。一个把数字4藏在电梯井里的文化，与那个修纂四库全书、并把最伟大的小说称为四大名著的文化，是同一个文化。
Where the taboo begins
禁忌从哪里开始
English
The usual explanation is a homophone: 四 sì and 死 sǐ. In Mandarin the two are not identical — they differ by tone — but they are close enough to be heard as a pair, and in several Chinese languages they are closer still. In Cantonese, 四 is sei3 and 死 is sei2: the same syllable, distinguished by tone alone. Where the languages are tonal and the syllables are short, a number can brush against a word and never quite come unstuck.
The pattern is not unique to Chinese. Japanese shi is both 四 and 死, and Korean sa (사) carries both meanings as well; both cultures developed their own avoidances — Japanese buildings and hospitals have long skipped four. This suggests a regional susceptibility rather than a Chinese peculiarity: where a number and a death-word share a syllable, the number grows a shadow.
How old and how deep the Chinese practice is, however, is genuinely debated, and this site does not propose to settle it. One view holds that 四 was throughout most of Chinese history an auspicious number of wholeness, that classical sources record no taboo against it, and that the modern avoidance arrived late — reinforced by Japanese practice in areas under Japanese influence during the twentieth century, and later amplified by commercial marketing, when developers found that skipping the fourth floor made units easier to sell. Another view points to the phonetic nearness in southern varieties of Chinese as a sufficient and older cause on its own.
What can be said without taking a side: the phonetic basis exists, the practice is modern and unevenly distributed, and commerce has demonstrably thickened it. A taboo can have a real acoustic root and still have been pruned into its present shape by a property market.
中文
通行的解释是谐音：四 sì 与 死 sǐ。在普通话里二者并不完全相同——声调有别——但近到足以被听成一对；而在若干种汉语里，它们还要更近。粤语中「四」读 sei3，「死」读 sei2：同一个音节，只靠声调区分。在有声调、音节又短的语言里，一个数字擦过一个字，就再也甩不干净了。
这种模式并非中文独有。日语的 shi 既是「四」也是「死」，韩语的 sa（사）同样身兼二义，两种文化都各自发展出回避——日本的楼宇与医院长期跳过四。这提示的是一种区域性的易感，而非中国独有的怪癖：凡数字与死亡之字共用一个音节处，数字便会长出影子。
然而，中国的这一习俗究竟有多古老、多深，确实存在争议，本站不打算作出裁决。一种看法认为，「四」在中国历史的大部分时间里是象征周全的吉数，古典文献中并无忌四的记载，而近现代的回避来得较晚——二十世纪在某些受日本影响的地区因日本习俗而强化，其后又被商业营销放大：开发商发现跳过四楼能让房子更好卖。另一种看法则指出，南方汉语方言中的语音相近本身，已足以构成一个更古老的成因。
不持立场也能说的话是：谐音的基础存在，这一习俗是近现代且分布不均的，而商业确实把它养得更壮。一个禁忌可以有真实的语音之根，同时又被一个房地产市场修剪成今天的形状。
Why four is also auspicious
「四」为什么同时是吉数
English
Because four, in Chinese, is the number of a completed world. 四方 the four directions, 四时 the four seasons, 四象 the four symbols: four is what you get when a space or a cycle has been fully accounted for. There is no loose end. This is why 四平八稳 (steady on all four sides) and 四通八达 (reachable in every direction) are praise, and why 四季平安 is not a contradiction at all but the same logic applied to time — completeness, therefore peace.
So the number is pulled in two directions by two different parts of itself. Its sound drags it toward death. Its shape and sense — the closed square, the four counted corners — drag it toward wholeness. The taboo lives in the ear; the blessing lives in the mind.
中文
因为在中文里，「四」是一个完成了的世界之数。四方、四时、四象：当一片空间或一个循环被完整清点之后，你得到的就是四。没有遗漏的一头。这就是为什么「四平八稳」与「四通八达」是褒义，也是为什么「四季平安」根本不是矛盾，而是同一套逻辑在时间上的运用——周全，故平安。
于是这个数字被自身的两个不同部分朝两个方向拉扯。它的音把它拖向死亡，它的形与义——闭合的方形，被数尽的四角——把它拖向周全。禁忌住在耳朵里，祝福住在心里。
A note on English four: a different weight, not an empty one
关于英文 four 的一点说明：重量不同，但并非没有
English
English does not fear four. Its anxious number is thirteen — triskaidekaphobia — and hotels, airlines and tall buildings in the English-speaking world skip the thirteenth instead. This is worth saying plainly, because the contrast is often drawn as “superstitious East, rational West,” which is a binary no serious comparison supports. English simply has a different number in the shadow.
But four in English is not empty either. The four corners of the earth means everywhere. The four winds means every direction. The Four Horsemen of the Book of Revelation arrive as conquest, war, famine and death. Four-letter words are the words one does not say in company. And four-square — square, solid, upright — carries a sense of firmness and straight dealing.
That last one is the quiet surprise. Two traditions, working independently, took the same geometry and drew the same moral from it: what is square does not wobble, and therefore what is square can be trusted. 四平八稳 and four-square are not translations of each other. They are neighbours who arrived at the same door separately.
中文
英文不忌四。它焦虑的数字是十三——triskaidekaphobia（十三恐惧症）——英语世界的酒店、航班与高楼跳过的是十三楼。这一点值得直说，因为这个对比常被画成「迷信的东方、理性的西方」，而任何严肃的比较都不支持这种二元对立。英文不过是让另一个数字站在阴影里。
但英文里的 four 也并不空。The four corners of the earth（大地的四角）意指处处；the four winds（四方之风）意指各个方向；《启示录》中的 Four Horsemen（四骑士）以征服、战争、饥荒、死亡降临；four-letter words（四字母词）是在社交场合不宜出口的词。而 four-square——方正、坚实、端正——带着稳固与正直的意味。
最后那个是个安静的惊喜。两个传统各自独立地取用同一种几何，从中得出同一个道德：方的东西不摇晃，因此方的东西可以信任。「四平八稳」与 four-square 并非互译关系，而是各自走到同一扇门前的邻居。
What a translator does with the contradiction
译者如何处置这个矛盾
English
A translator facing 四 has three moves, and each costs something.
Transliterate and annotate. Keep the number, add a footnote explaining that some Chinese speakers avoid it. The tension survives, but the reading stops. Footnotes protect meaning by interrupting it.
Translate for sense and let the weight go. Render 四季平安 as “peace through the four seasons.” The English reader receives a calm, seasonal, entirely neutral blessing. Nothing is wrong; nothing is heavy. The homophone has simply failed to cross, because English ears do not hear death in four.
Pick a side. Decide that 四 is ominous here and auspicious there, and translate accordingly. This reads most smoothly, and it is the choice most translations make — because a text that keeps both at once sounds, in English, like a text that cannot make up its mind.
The honest answer is that the contradiction is not a problem to be solved but the actual content. 四 means something in Chinese precisely because it is feared and honoured in the same breath. A translation that resolves the tension has translated the number and dropped the culture.
中文
面对「四」，译者有三步可走，每一步都要付代价。
音译加注。 保留数字，加一条脚注说明部分中文使用者回避此数。张力保住了，阅读却停下了。脚注以打断阅读的方式保护意义。
译意，放走重量。 把「四季平安」译为 “peace through the four seasons”。英文读者收到的是一个安宁的、季节性的、完全中性的祝福。没有错处，也没有重量。谐音就是没能过来，因为英文的耳朵在 four 里听不到死亡。
选一边。 断定此处的「四」为不祥、彼处的为吉祥，然后依此翻译。这样读起来最顺，也是大多数译本的选择——因为一个同时保留两边的文本，在英文里听起来像一个拿不定主意的人。
诚实的回答是：这个矛盾不是待解的难题，它就是内容本身。「四」在中文里有意义，恰恰因为它在同一次呼吸里既被畏惧又被敬重。一个化解了张力的译本，译出了数字，丢下了文化。
A closing note
尾声
English
A lift that has no fourth floor and a door that asks for peace in all four seasons are not two civilisations contradicting themselves. They are one civilisation holding a single syllable in both hands and refusing to put it down.
What is lost in translation here is not a meaning. It is a reflex — the small bodily flinch of hearing a number and thinking of the end. Meanings can be carried across languages. Reflexes mostly cannot.
The good or ill of a number is not in the number. It is in the ear that hears it.
中文
一部没有四楼的电梯，与一扇祈求四季平安的门，不是一个文明在自相矛盾。它们是同一个文明用两只手捧着同一个音节，不肯放下。
此处翻译所失的不是意义，而是一种反射——听见一个数字便想到终点的那一下轻微的身子一缩。意义可以跨语言搬运，反射多半不行。
一个数字的吉凶不在数字里，在听它的那只耳朵里。
References / 引用出处
English
1. Cantonese pronunciations: 四 sei3, 死 sei2; Mandarin 四 sì / 死 sǐ — given in the usual romanisation of each variety.
2. Japanese shi / 死 and Korean sa (사) homophones; the practice of skipping four in Japanese buildings and hospitals — well-documented features of those cultures.
3. The debate over the age and origin of the Chinese taboo — whether essentially modern, reinforced by Japanese practice in the twentieth century and later amplified by property marketing, or whether southern Chinese phonetics provide an older sufficient cause — summarised here as a live disagreement rather than a settled question.
4. English triskaidekaphobia; idioms the four corners of the earth, the four winds, the Four Horsemen, four-letter words, four-square — standard English usage. The interpretation of each as evidence about how numbers acquire weight is the author’s own.
中文
1. 粤语「四」sei3 与「死」sei2、普通话「四」sì / 「死」sǐ，依各自通行的罗马转写。
2. 日语 shi＝死、韩语 sa（사）兼表四与死，以及日本楼宇与医院跳过四的习俗，在各自文化中均有充分记载。
3. 关于中国这一禁忌的年代与起源之争——究竟本质上是近现代现象、在二十世纪受日本习俗强化并被房地产营销放大，抑或南方汉语的语音本身已构成更古老的充分成因——此处作为仍在争论的问题概述，而非已定之论。
4. 英文 triskaidekaphobia（十三恐惧）以及 the four corners of the earth、the four winds、the Four Horsemen、four-letter words、four-square 等习语，均为英文中的通行用法。把这些用法当作「数字如何获得重量」的证据来解读，属作者本人的阐释。