Men are not three, afraid of being chickens; Women are not four, afraid of being sheep! What does this proverb mean?

Our younger generation of rural people used to listen to the old people in the village talking about various rural proverbs, and many old farmers in the countryside were familiar with them. When I was a child, I was exposed to such a sentence, "Men are not three, afraid of being chickens; Women are not four, afraid of being sheep. " I remember asking the old farmers in the village.

Well, now that this rural proverb is mentioned, Liu Fang also talks about what she learned from her elders and shares it.

If a person is not three, he is afraid of becoming a chicken.

There are many sayings in rural areas, most of which are that old people in rural areas think that men are symbols of masculinity, so it is best for men to be dragon and tiger, which represents good health and can make great achievements in the future. Old people in rural areas often say that children should become dragons and women should become phoenixes. On the one hand, it is said that rural men should not be over three years old, and men who are chickens are not good for rural people. In fact, in the eyes of many farmers, 3 is a bad number, and 3 is homophonic with "3", which means separation. Chicken is not good in the eyes of rural people. Men are masculine and powerful, while chickens are soft and gentle in the eyes of rural people.

▎ women are not four, afraid of being sheep ▎

Similarly, "women are afraid of sheep" old people think that "sheep" and "yang" are connected. In rural areas, old people want girls to be gentle, virtuous and feminine, not like men.

In addition, special emphasis is placed on the preference for numbers. For example, six and eight are all liked by many people, but the homonym of "four" is not good, so many people don't like it. In the countryside, many people think this word is unlucky. Besides, the countryside doesn't like sheep. Farmers often say that "ten sheep are incomplete", which represents a bad moral. The characteristics of sheep are not consistent with women. Of course, "women are afraid of sheep" is actually the same as the current "women will spoil their lives the most".

In short, Liu Fang thinks that most of these statements are of little significance except to satisfy our curiosity. On the other hand, most boys are getting more and more girly now, so they can't all be chickens. Moreover, girls are becoming more and more independent and domineering, living more manly than boys, and they can't all belong to sheep. Proverbs have no scientific basis. It's all word of mouth, and it will gradually fade over time.