Chinese Idioms Related to Number 10

The word 十[shí] means "ten." It's the last number when counting the fingers of both hands.

The word 十[shí] is always related to the meaning of "well-done, perfect, abundant and comprehensive."

Why? Let's take a closer look at the original pictographs of 十[shí].

Around 2,500 &emdash; 3,000 years ago, there were two groups of pictograms to indicate the meaning of "ten."

1. "Ten" was a vertical stroke as the following pictures, like a tree branch:

   

2. "Ten" was like the images of the knot as follows:

   

Around 2,000 years ago, the modern form of 十[shí] was created and getting popular.

Here is a story that probably will help you make a sense of why the word 十[shí] is always related to the meanings of "abundant." When I was a kid, I used to make a little money by knitting some designed patterns on sweaters. Then the sweaters were tied by every ten pieces into one bundle. At that moment, I totally understood 十[shí] is a number with the meaning of "complete and integrated." That also represents the meanings of "well-done, perfect, and abundant."

Here are three 4-word idioms introduced as follows:

十全十美[shí quán shí měi] /perfect 世界上没有十全十美的人。 [shì jiè shàng méi yǒu shí quán shí měi de rén.] There is no perfect person in the world.

一五一十[yī wǔ yī shí] /complete; whole; in full details 请把事件经过一五一十的写下来。 [qǐng bǎ shì jiàn jīng guò yī wǔ yī shí de xiě xià lái.] Please write down what happened in full details.

五光十色[wǔ guāng shí sè] /colorful 灯光照耀下的水面，五光十色，非常美。 [dēng guāng zhào yào xià de shuǐ miàn, wǔ guāng shí sè, fēi cháng měi.] The water surface illuminated by the light is very colorful and beautiful.

谢谢[xiè xiè] for reading.