四 sì four

Made up of [囗 wéi proud; enclosure; upright radical 31, 八 bā eight; 8 radical 12]
Similar looking characters : 西 xī (west)
Made with 5 strokes.
A square area divided into four parts, it has the division character in the middle

Ancient small seal form

Pronunciation

Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License

Stroke order for character 四, kindly provided under Wikimedia creative commons license ➚

Provinces

四川 Sichuan

Cities

四平 Siping, Jilin

Proverbs

家徒四壁 jiā tú sì bì An empty house with just bare walls. To be very poor. There is a story from the Han dynasty of two rivals for the hand of a young lady. One was rich and the other was very poor, but due to the skill of the poor man on the qin (type of lute) the lady chose the poor man to the astonishment of the rich man
四面楚歌 sì miàn chǔ gē Ambushed from all sides. Hopeless situation. In the battle of Gaixia ➚ troops surrounding the enemy sang songs of home, breaking their spirit. From the classic Shi Ji from 2,200 years ago. After the end of the Qin dynasty the Han general used this tactic against of the Chu kingdom. The Chu songs persuaded the surrounded Chu forces that the Han must have overrun much of the Chu kingdom already
朝三暮四 zhāo sān mù sì Indecisive saying one thing and then changing mind later and saying another. The story is of a monkey trainer who reduced their chestnut rations from 3 in the morning and 4 in the evenings. The monkeys were most unhappy but when the trainer changed it to 4 in the morning and 3 in the evenings they were delighted. And so the phrase can also mean being foolishly deceived.
志在四方 zhì zài sì fāng Willing to travel far and wide to achieve aims. Aspiring to achieve great things in life.

Phrases

四十五个人 sì shí wǔ gè rén 45 people
我们喝了四杯绿茶 wǒ mén hē le sì bēi lù chá We have drunk four cups of green tea