Watch Out for Those 不三不四 Not Three Not Four Weirdos!

Gisela Jia

On Monday, in a Level 2 class, I got students to write characters they had learned. I tried to put together some interesting phrases for them.

So they wrote 好山好水 (Literal: good mountain and good water; Actual: beautiful nature scenery), followed by 马上上马 (Literal: horse up up horse; Actual: immediately get on the horse). Students liked particularly the second one.

Then, a phrase came to my mind 不三不四 (Literal: not three not four; Actual: a weird person). 

Having taught Chinese for many years, with breakthroughs here and there, one thing I'm stuck with is how to teach students derogatory and curse words. I've been asked by students quite a number of times for these. I've bought a thick English book from Barnes and Noble introducing a big collection of Chinese curse words. Although my parents were two gentle scholars from southern China, I had my share of tough language growing up in villages in northern China. Still I never gathered enough confidence to teach any of it to my students.

But this Monday, I decided to try.  So, students wrote 不三不四 several times, accompanied by lively chats (not all in Mandarin when the topic was so intriguing) -

Student A: Why "three" and "four"? Why not "seven" and "eight"?

Student B: "Four" (si) is not good. It also means die. "Eight" is a lucky number.

Student C: (looking at the four characters he just wrote with a big smile) I can say this to my dad. (seeing his teacher immediately got alarmed) He doesn't know Chinese.

Student D: If I say this to my dad, he'll slap me! (his father knows Chinese)

After the class, I found myself worried. What if a student calls a person 不三不四? To a Chinese speaker, these four naive sounding syllables make a strong expression. Anyone (if clear-headed) being called 不三不四 would feel strongly offended.

I grew up hearing adults telling their children -

那个人不三不四，别和他在一块儿！That person is a weirdo. Don't hang out with him!

见到不三不四的人，马上走开！Anytime you see a weirdo, immediately get away!

I never thought of the origin of this expression, until hearing my students' questioning - "why not seven and eight"?

Upon checking, I learned that, in 《易经》 I-Ching (Book of Changes)  (written around year 1000 BC), the number 3 and 4 are right in the middle of number 6, which represents the 6 stages of development of matters. So, 3 and 4 being at the center, refer to the correct ways of doing things. Note that it's about being "right", not about being "in the middle".

The exact expression 不三不四 first appeared in  the Chinese classic《水浒传》 Outlaws of the Marsh, describing street characters who were up to no good.  The book was written around 1200 AD. 

The concepts of 三 and 四 being "correct" were established 3,000 years ago, and then, 2000 years after that, these concepts were used and coined into an expression in a classic novel. And then during the next 900 years, that expression seeped into commoners' daily language. We can very likely count on 不三不四 being used exactly as it is now after another 1000 years (if the Earth is lenient enough to our descents). 

I guess this is what's called a continuous civilization.

Back to Monday. After class, in the night shadows, I got on the subway platform. I found myself more alert than usual. That morning, my husband told me that two days before a 40-year old Asian woman were pushed onto the subway tracks and killed. (When I was leaving home that morning, he took an extra longer stare at me, looked at our dog and said "Don't worry Cece! Gisela always comes back.) For the entire day, I didn't have time to read about the case. Sitting down in the train, I looked at the news on my phone.

What a tragedy! What a beautiful person the victim was -kind, happy and productive.  And the person who took her life away? Sticking out his tongue when being arrested by the police, with a sister who said he should have been in a mental institution for the past 20 years.

不三不四 - If I had run into him on a subway platform, that would have been the Chinese expression coming to my mind.

To my ancestors - I admire your wisdom. You knew people were complicated and to make things easier for us, you created an expression to lump together all the individuals who do not have clear goals and productive lives. With 不三不四，parents can teach their children to be alert without being mean-sounding. You knew people were not born to be 不三不四, but were molded by their unfortunate surroundings to be 不三不四.

To readers of this note - Stay safe from 不三不四 Not Three Not Four type of people but remain curious about how lives can be turned that way. Do your best for yourselves and others. 

Hope this phrase comes handy in your daily encounters.