Sinograph Addenda · Signs

萬myriad · wàn · ten thousand; myriad, countless

myriad

Where it comes from

A scorpion drawn whole — the classic account: pincers at the top, body banded, the tail’s sting curling below. Why the scorpion came to mean “ten thousand” no early text explains; the loan was already ancient when writing settled, and the creature got a new graph of its own. As a number it means less a count than a totality: 萬myriad · wàn · ten thousand; myriad, countless物thing · wù · thing, creature; the things of the world, the ten thousand things; 萬myriad · wàn · ten thousand; myriad, countless世generation · shì · generation; the age, the world, ten thousand generations — forever. Taught in the having-and-lacking chapter.

How to remember it

A scorpion with countless legs and a curled tail — count them all: ten thousand.

In the wild