THREE    三

The NUMBER which is the successor of TWO.
Old Chinese Criteria
1. The general word for "three"is sān 三 and this word has great syntactic flexibility, and only in a small minority of such usages can the graph be replaced by 參. 2. Sān 參 is to form a triad, and the graph is not replaceable by sān 三.
Hypernym
  • NUMBER　QUANTITY when COUNTED. [THE DEFINITIONS IN THIS FIELD REMAIN CIRCULAR ON MANY LEVELS AND NEED TO BE CAREFULLY REVISED IN COLLABORATION WITH KARINE CHEMLA.] (anc: 6/0, child: 19)
  • QUANTITY　DEGREE of being MANY OR FEW that CAN be MEASURED OR COUNTED. (anc: 5/0, child: 3)
  • DEGREE　FEATURE of MORE or LESS. (anc: 4/0, child: 4)
  • 王力古漢語字典 ( WANG LI 2000) p. 98

    • Words (4 items)

    三  sān OC: saam MC: sɑm 59 Attributions

    The general word for "three" is sān 三 and this word has great syntactic flexibility, and only in a small minority of such usages can the graph be replaced by 參.

      Word relations
    • Epithet: 江/RIVER Jiāng 江 can refer not only to the Yangtse River, but also to its system of tributaries, similarly for hé 河.
    • Epithet: 軍/ARMY Jūn 軍 is a complete army as a unit, from Spring and Autumn times onwards, normally attached to an army camp. Complete parts of an army are always jūn 軍, rarely shī 師. Hence the expressions sān jūn 三軍, zhōng jūn 中軍, shàng jūn 上軍, xià jūn 下軍. An army is counted by the number of jūn 軍 in it, where each jūn 軍 is said to be 10 000 men, at least in the Qi system. Systems have varied in different states. For detals of the early history see the monograph by KOLB. [IMPERSONAL], [LARGE], [OFFICIAL]

      Syntactic words
    • nset of three
    • nabthree kinds, three types, three categories 仁有三
    • nabactthe doing something three times
    • v(adN)cardinalthree contextually determinate itemsDS
    • v(adN)ordinalthe third item
    • v[adN.]postadVthree times
    • v[adN]N=humthree personsCH
    • vadNthree N; three kinds of Nab
    • vadNordinal: the thirdCH
    • vadNanaphoricthe three above mentioned items
    • vadVthird timefor a third time
    • vadVthree timesthree times
    • vadVthreefoldinto three parts
    • viactdo the same thing for a third time; do something three times
    • vieventhappen three times
    • vikindsto be three of kinds; to have three ways
    • vinumberbe three in number
    • vpostadNthree
    • vpostadVthrice
    • vtoNcausativecause to be three
    • vtoNhavehave three N
    • vtoNstativebe three times the amount of
    三  sān MC: sam OC: saam 36 Attributions
      Syntactic words
    • v(adN)the third of the contextually determinate NCH
    • vad.nprobeing three in number, constituting a triadCH
    • vadNthe thirdCH
    • vadVthrice; in three ways; under three aspects
    • v{NUM}(adN)three (of the) contextually determinate Ns, the threeCH
    • v{NUM}[adN]cataphoricbe three in number, regarding the following itemsDS
    • v{NUM}adNnumberthreeLZ
    參  sān MC: sam OC: saam 2 Attributions
      Syntactic words
    • vadVa trois; as three participants, with three participants
    • vt+prep+Nto constitute a triad with NLZ
    錘  chuí OC: dol MC: ɖiɛ 0 Attributions
      Syntactic words
    • none third (see Chen Qitian p. 474)