four 四[si] (the fourth tone) This character is composed of two primitive elements, mouth 口 and human legs 儿, both of which we will meet in the coming lessons. Assuming that you already knew how to write this character, we will pass over the “story” connected with it until later.
Note how the second stroke is written left-to-right and then top-to-bottom. This is consistent with what we have already seen in the first three numbers and leads us to a general principle that will be helpful when we come to more complicated characters later on: write north-to-south, west-to-east, northwest-to-southeast.