Three (san, “三”)
The Chinese people believe the number “three” is a mystical number. Laozi once said, “Two created three; three created all things”. The world thus had “yin” and “yang”. Later, changes in “yin” and “yang” produced a great many new things. Therefore, the number “three” can represent “many”. According to legend, the beginning of Chinese history saw the existence of three ancestors: Fuxi, Nvwa, and Shennong (also known as the Yan Emperor or the Emperor of the Five Grains). They are also known as the Three Sovereigns. The number “three” can also represent “heaven”, “earth” and “mankind”, known collectively as “three talents”.
There was an interesting story about a rich family’s son learning characters in China. As we know, in Chinese, “one” is one horizontal line, “two” is two horizontal lines, and “three” is three horizontal lines. After his teacher taught him how to write “one, two and three”, he asked his father to send off the teacher, because he said he had learnt everything about Chinese, he thought Chinese is just horizontal lines. And his father was very happy. He was going to have a party, he asked the son to write an invitation to his Uncle Wan. In Chinese, “wan” literally means “ten thousand”. So he began to write ten thousand horizontal lines. Two days ago, his father was very worry, but he still had not finished writing the surname of his uncle. Actually, the character for “wan” just includes three strokes(万). Of course, this is just a story. But it proves that Chinese is interesting but not that simple at all.