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The number 4 (tetraphobia - East Asia)

Homophone of "death": no 4th floor in Seoul or Tokyo hospitals.

Category : Symbols, numbers, colors, animalsSubcategory : chiffresConfidence level : 2/5 (sourced hypothesis)Identifier : e0335

Meaning

Target direction : The number 4, which is neutral in the West, is simply a counting unit.

Interpreted meaning : In China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, the number 4 is a numeral taboo due to its homophony with "death" (Chinese: sì). Buildings, elevators, hospitals and license plates systematically omit it, often to the dismay of Western visitors.

Geography of misunderstanding

1. The number and its symbolic universe

In most Western cultures, the number 4 is a simple counting unit, emotionally neutral: four seasons, four cardinal points, four hermetic elements, the Pythagorean tetractys. None of these traditions generate systematic behavioural avoidance. In East Asia, by contrast, 4 is struck by a robust taboo called tetraphobia — visible in hospitals that skip the 4th floor, lifts that go from 3 to 5, licence plates, phone numbers, hotel rooms. A few Western hotel chains have imported the avoidance through commercial mimicry, but this remains marginal.

2. Why it is a major taboo

The cause is linguistic: three independent homophonies align "4" and "death" across Sinitic, Sino-Japanese and Sino-Korean languages.

• In Mandarin, sì 四 ("four") and sǐ 死 ("death") differ only by tone (4th descending tone vs 3rd dipping tone) — near-acoustic homophony.
• In Cantonese, sei3 四 and sei2 死 are almost indistinguishable out of context.
• In Sino-Japanese reading, shi 四 and shi 死 are strict homophones — hence the reflex of pronouncing four as yon (native kun-yomi reading) rather than shi (Sino-Japanese reading) whenever a funereal context might be evoked.
• In Sino-Korean reading, sa 사 (四) and sa 사 (死) are strict homophones, although the hanja differ.

Vietnamese, despite its Sino-Vietnamese borrowing (tứ/tư for 4 and tử for death), distinguishes these words by tone and does NOT exhibit marked tetraphobia. Mongolian, an Altaic language without this homophony, does not share the taboo either.

3. Concrete manifestations

(a) Buildings of more than ten floors frequently omit the 4th floor, and sometimes the 14th, 24th, 34th, and the entire 40-49 series. (b) Licence plates in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong containing a 4 are devalued (sold on average 30% cheaper than plates without 4, according to Cantonese and Taiwanese transport regulators cited in the economic press). (c) Hospitals and retirement homes skip the 4th floor: according to several Japanese cultural guides, around 30% of Japanese hospitals and hotels omit the 4 in their numbering. (d) In South Korea, some lifts label the 4th floor "F" (for "Four") rather than "4". The Korail railway company explicitly omitted locomotive number 4444 in its serial numbering starting from 4401. (e) Hotel rooms are frequently numbered 301, 302, 303, 305 — never 304.

4. Origin and diffusion

In Japan, the shi/shi homophony settled into the collective consciousness from the introduction of Buddhism and Sino-Japanese readings in the 6th century, and the avoidance of shi in hospital or gift contexts is documented during the Edo period (17th-19th centuries) through hospital registers and etiquette manuals. The modern crystallisation of the taboo — in the form of floor omission in commercial architecture — is more recent and accompanies post-1960 East Asian urbanisation and the global diffusion of lift standards. A study by Phillips et al. (2001), published in the British Medical Journal, even documented a statistical peak of cardiac mortality on the 4th of the month among Sino-Americans and Japanese-Americans, absent from white controls — that is, a measurable psychosomatic effect of the belief.

5. How to recover

For a Westerner in East Asia: never offer a gift in a series of 4 (4 glasses, 4 ties, 4 flowers), never voluntarily request room 4 in a family hotel, never include the number 4 in a product name, brand or limited edition aimed at the Chinese, Japanese or Korean market. If a host assigns you room 304 (skipping 4), accept without comment: that is precisely the cultural precaution. Conversely, the number 8 (Mandarin bā, homophone of fā 發 "prosperity") is extremely valued — a licence-plate or phone number rich in 8s sometimes sells for several dozen times its face value. For marketing communication in East Asia, systematically check the numbers displayed on packaging and visuals.

Historical origins

A linguistic taboo founded on three independent homophonies in Sinitic and Sino-Japanese/Sino-Korean languages: Mandarin sì 四 / sǐ 死 (close tones), Cantonese sei3 / sei2, Japanese shi 四 / shi 死 (strict homophony in Sino-Japanese reading), and Korean sa 四 / sa 死. In Japan, avoidance of shi is documented from the introduction of Buddhism and Sino-Japanese readings in the 6th century, with Edo-era (17th-19th c.) codification in hospital registers and etiquette manuals. The modern crystallisation (omission of floors in commercial architecture) accompanies post-1960 East Asian urbanisation. Vietnamese (distinct tones) and Mongolian (an Altaic language) do not share the taboo.

Documented incidents

• 2001 — Étude Phillips et al. (2001) ‹The Hound of the Baskervilles effect: natural experiment on the influence of psychological stress on timing of death›, publiée dans le British Medical Journal (BMJ). Sur la base des certificats de décès américains 1973-1998, les chercheurs ont mesuré un pic statistique de mortalité cardiaque le 4 du mois chez les Sino-Américains et Japono-Américains : ratio observé/attendu de 1,13 (IC 95 % 1,06-1,21) pour les décès par maladie cardiaque chronique, et 1,27 (1,15-1,39) spécifiquement en Californie. Aucun pic équivalent chez les contrôles blancs appariés. L'étude conclut à un effet psychosomatique mesurable du tabou tétraphobique sur la timing de mortalité — l'effet ‹Hound of the Baskervilles› par référence au roman de Conan Doyle où le personnage meurt d'une crise cardiaque sur stress psychologique.

Practical recommendations

Neutral alternatives

• Request the room by location ("east side, floor 3") rather than by number.
• Use a reservation app (Booking.com, Expedia) that displays actual room numbers before confirmation.
• Call the hotel in advance to find out its numbering system.

Sources