Zi Collection, Page Position: Upper Radical: One (yī) Three Kangxi Stroke Count: 3 Page 76, Number 05 Ancient script form: sān. Tang Rhymes (Tangyun), Collected Rhymes (Jiyun), and Rhyme Assembly (Yunhui): Initial s- and final -an. Correct Rhymes (Zhengyun): Initial s- and final -an, level tone. Explaining Graphs (Shuowen Jiezi): Three represents the Way of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity. It means combining the one of yang with the two of yin and stacking them in sequence; its number is three. Laozi's Classic of the Way and Virtue (Daodejing): One produced two, two produced three, and three produced all things. Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji), Book of Pitch-pipes (Lushu): Numbers begin at one, end at ten, and are completed at three. Rites of Zhou (Zhouli), Winter Offices, Record of Trades (Kaogongji): In general, weapons should not exceed three times the length of one's body. Zuo Tradition (Zuozhuan), Seventh Year of Duke Zhao: Shi Wenbo said: Governance must be handled with caution, attending to three matters only. First, selecting the right people; second, following the will of the people; third, acting according to the season. Discourses of the States (Guoyu), Discourses of Jin: The people are sustained by three things, and they should serve them as one. Discourses of Zhou: Three people make a crowd, three women make a beauty, and three beasts make a herd. Also a surname. In the Ming dynasty, there was San Chengzhi. Also a compound surname of the Han dynasty. Descendants of Qu Yuan included the Sanlü clan; descendants of Sanfan Liao included the Sanfan clan; and descendants of the filial son of Sanzhou included the Sanzhou clan. Also read in the departing tone. Rhyme Assembly: Initial s- and final -an. Analects (Lunyu): Think three times before acting. Also originally written as cān. Broad Elegance (Boya): Cān means three. Rites of Zhou, Winter Offices, Record of Trades: Divide the circumference of its thigh into three parts. History of the Former Han (Qianhan Shu), Treatise on Law: The Qin dynasty created the punishment of exterminating three generations of relatives. It is synonymous with the character for three. Also, in the Rhyme Supplement (Yunbu), it rhymes with the sound sēn. Book of Odes (Shijing), Odes of Shao and the South: The plums are falling from the tree, only three-tenths of them remain. Here it rhymes with the following word jin. Another variant form: sān.