Sinograph Addenda · Signs

七seven · qī · seven

seven

Where it comes from

A horizontal stroke cut through by another — the stated account makes it the original of “to cut,” which later grew a knife of its own to keep that job. The graph itself was lent to the number seven so early that no classical text remembers it meaning anything else. Taught in the counting chapter.

How to remember it

One stroke cut by another: seven, the number that won’t divide.

In the wild