肆

肆 (Kangxi radical 129, 聿+7, 13 strokes, cangjie input 尸戈中手 (SILQ), four-corner 7570₇, composition ⿰镸聿)

• 蕼

• Kangxi Dictionary: page 971, character 15
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 29226
• Dae Jaweon: page 1423, character 14
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 5, page 3167, character 4
• Unihan data for U+8086

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *hljɯds): semantic 镸 + phonetic 隶 (OC *lɯds).

肆

1. (literary, or in compounds) impudent; undisciplined
2. (literary, or in compounds) shop; store; stall

   • 屠羊說曰：「夫三旌之位，吾知其貴於屠羊之肆也；萬鍾之祿，吾知其富於屠羊之利也。然豈可以食爵祿而使吾君有妄施之名乎！說不敢當，願復反吾屠羊之肆。」 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     屠羊说曰：「夫三旌之位，吾知其贵于屠羊之肆也；万钟之禄，吾知其富于屠羊之利也。然岂可以食爵禄而使吾君有妄施之名乎！说不敢当，愿复反吾屠羊之肆。」 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: Zhuangzi, circa 3^rd – 2^nd centuries BCE

     Tú yáng Yuè yuē: “Fú sān jīng zhī wèi, wú zhī qí guì yú tú yáng zhī sì yě; wàn zhōng zhī lù, wú zhī qí fù yú tú yáng zhī lì yě. Rán qǐ kě yǐ shí jué lù ér shǐ wú jūn yǒu wàng shī zhī míng hū! Yuè bùgǎn dāng, yuàn fù fǎn wú tú yáng zhī sì.” [Pinyin]

     he said, 'I know that the place of such a distinguished noble is nobler than a sheep-butcher's stall, and that the salary of 10,000 zhong is more than its profits. But how should I, through my greed of rank and emolument, bring on our ruler the name of an unlawful dispensation of his gifts? I dare not respond to your wishes, but desire to return to my stall as the sheep-butcher.'

• (shop):

肆

1. (financial) alternative form of 四 (“four”) (used in official documents or checks to avoid forgery)

In Min Nan numbers, the vernacular (白) pronunciation is the more common pronunciation, while the literary (文) reading is used for reading numbers out loud, such as in phone numbers. Please note that this usage is similar to the usage of the variant 幺 for the numeral 一 in Mandarin.

• “肆”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎^[1], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

(Hyōgai kanji)

1. (financial, archaic) four
2. shop or store
3. selfish, self-indulgent

• Go-on: し (shi, 肆)
• Kan-on: し (shi, 肆)
• Kun: いちくら (ichikura, 肆)、いちぐら (ichigura, 肆)、ほしいまま (hoshiimama, 肆)、みせ (mise, 肆)
• Nanori: のぶ (nobu, 肆)

From Middle Chinese 肆 (MC sijH).

The numeral sense is a substitute spelling for 四(し) (shi, “four”), likely borrowed from similar usage of written Chinese 肆 (“four”).

• (Tokyo) し [shíꜜ] (Atamadaka – [1])
• IPA^(key): [ɕi]

肆(し) • (shi) 

1. (financial, archaic) the number four, 4 (used only in legal documents, otherwise 四)

Legal uses arose due to the relative ease with which certain number kanji can be fraudulently altered to look like other number kanji. For instance, 二 (ni, “two”) could be modified to look like 四 (shi, “four”), but it cannot be modified to look like 肆 (shi, “four”, in legal contexts).

• 大字(だいじ) (daiji, “big character”, more-complicated kanji used as phonetic replacements for simpler numeric kanji, in order to prevent fraudulent modification)

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): [it͡ɕikɯ̟ɾa̠]

• IPA^(key): [it͡ɕiɡɯ̟ɾa̠]

肆(いちくら) or 肆(いちぐら) • (ichikura or ichigura) 

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

(The following entries do not have a page created for them yet: 四, 店.)

肆 (eum 사 (sa))

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

肆: Hán Nôm readings: tứ

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.