Numbers play an important role in Chinese people’s life. Many Chinese people are quite particular about numbers. Some numbers are believed to bring luck to people, while some are not. Combining those lucky numbers are considered more auspicious. Therefore, Chinese people always pay attention to which numbers to choose, especially for special occasions, like buying cars, having wedding ceremonies, buying houses, or picking plate numbers for vehicles and phone numbers.

Chinese Lucky Numbers

Number 3

Ancient Chinese people had unique feelings about Number 3. According to Tao Te Ching, the Way begets one, one begets two, two begets three, and three begets everything. Therefore, number 3 is considered the origin of the universe, making it a lucky number. The emperors had three palaces and six courtyards. When making a ceremonial salute, ancient people had to kneel thrice and bow nine times. There are books called Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Three-character Scripture.

Number 9

In Chinese traditional culture, the number "nine" is the most mysterious number. In the feudal society, the number of gates, palaces, doornails, and even the rooms must be nine or multiple times of 9. For example, the Forbidden City was regarded as the Nine-layer Palace, and it has 9999 rooms. There are 81 doornails on the doors of the palaces. Even on the imperial wares and vessels, patterns in 9 or its multiples are used constantly.

There are also many expressions about number nine, like Jiutian (nine heavens), Jiuzhou (nine areas), and Jiuchong (nine layers). People even grew in favor of the nine's multiples, like eighteen arhats, eighteen martial arts, seventy-two disciples of Confucian, thirty-six heavenly abodes and seventy-two sacred places in Taoism, and hitting bells or drums for one hundred and eight times.

Number 6

Number 6 is very popular in Chinese culture. It's pronounced "Liu," meaning that everything goes smoothly. In modern China, number 6 is also connected with Niubi (very awesome). When someone does something funny or crazy or unexpected, people often say 666 (meaning frigging awesome, epic).

Number 8

Although the Chinese liked numbers 3, 6, and 9, the Chinese people's favorite number is definitely number 8. People’s favor of number 8 started since old times. Ancient Chinese people believed that heaven, earth, and human beings must depend on each other. Within single numbers, odd numbers represent heaven, and even numbers represent the earth. On the earth, as the highest sovereigns, ancient emperors were allowed to use things with the number 8 as a unit. Nowadays, people love number 8 for its homophonic allusion of Fa (getting rich). Therefore, number 8 is most frequently used in every possible way.

Chinese Lucky Numbers Combination

888: it sounds like Fa Fa Fa, meaning getting rich continuously.
666: number 6 represents smoothness; three 6s mean that everything goes exceptionally smooth.
158: it sounds like Yao Wo Fa, meaning that even the god wants me to get rich.
186: it sounds like Yao Fa Le, meaning that I’m going to be rich.
1314: it sounds like Yi Sheng Yi Shi, meaning the whole life.
3344: it sounds like Sheng Sheng Shi Shi, meaning forever long.
520: it sounds like Wo Ai Ni, meaning I love you.

Unlucky Number in China: Number 4

In China, number 4 is the least favorable. It sounds like Si in Chinese, which means death. In some buildings, you can’t even find the F4 on the elevator. It’s usually replaced by 3A or 3B.

Lucky Numbers and Unlucky Numbers for 12 Zodiacs

Zodiacs	Lucky Numbers	Unlucky Numbers
Rat	3, 5	2, 4
Ox	1, 4	5, 6
Tiger	3, 9	5, 7
Rabbit	0, 6	5, 9
Dragon	6, 8	4, 9
Snake	1, 2	5, 6
Horse	4, 9	5, 7
Goat	1, 7	2, 9
Monkey	3, 9	6, 7
Rooster	0, 2	1, 3
Dog	4, 8	3, 7
Pig	0, 7	2, 6

Lucky Numbers for 12 Horoscopes

Horoscopes Lucky Numbers

Horoscopes	Lucky Numbers
Aries	6, 7
Taurus	1, 9
Gemini	3, 5, 7
Cancer	8, 3
Leo	5, 9
Virgo	4, 8
Libra	6, 9
Scorpio	3, 5
Sagittarius	9
Capricorn	3, 7
Aquarius	4, 8
Pisces	5, 8

Cultural Connotations of Number 0-9

Number 0: It’s a simple circle, symbolizing both the starting point and the ending point.
Number 1: According to ancient Chinese philosophy, the universe started from Taiji, which begets the Taiyi, which further generated the Yin and Yang ad five elements.
Number 2: As an even number, number 2 is a Yin number, which is not very lucky in Chinese culture. It is also connected to the earth in old times.
Number 3: Ancient Chinese had a special feeling of number 3. Based on the Taoism theory, everything started from number 3.
Number 4: As an even number, instead of symbolizing death in ancient times, number 4 represents the four directions and four seasons.
Number 5: It’s either considered Yin or Yang number. Ancient Chinese people regarded it as a lucky number. However, in modern times, people don’t like the number 5 for Wu's homophonic sound, which means do not have or nothing.
Number 6: It’s nothing special with number 6. It’s mostly related to the six directions (east, west, south, north, heaven, and earth).
Number 7: It’s related to the seven stars (the sun, the moon, and five other planets). It’s also related to female Yin elements because the development pace of females happens to be with seven as a unit. For example, baby girls have their first tooth at seven months old and grow permanent teeth at seven years old. Teenage girls have their first period at around 14 years old, and women’s menopause starts at approximately 49.
Number 8: Number 8 was appreciated since old times, especially after the existence of “Yin and Yang Eight Trigrams." It’s also related to male growth. Baby boys have their first tooth at eight months old and grow permanent teeth at 8. Teenage boys became grown-up at around 16 years old, and men lost their reproductive capability at about 64.
Number 9: It’s the most popular number in ancient China. People take it as the contextualization of totem euphorbia inermis. As the biggest single Yang number, number 9 is the first trigram in I-ching. In feudal society, number 9 was also related to the emperors.

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