A Chinese Pi Story

Growing up in China, I encountered an interesting mnemonic story for remembering digits of pi. It utilizes the four-tone system of Mandarin along with rhymes. For example, the number three in Mandarin is san¹ (三), where the superscript 1 indicates the tone at which to pronounce san. Taking a different tone, say the third tone, we obtain san³ (伞), meaning umbrella. However, even with the different tones, there is not a one-to-one correspondence between the sounds and meanings. The word scattered (散) for example, is also pronounced san³. When further allowing rhymes, we obtain a plethora of meanings associated with each digit zero through nine, giving enough ingredients for a full mnemonic story, which goes as follows.

3 . 1 4 1 5 9
shan¹ ding³ yi¹ si⁴ yi¹ hu² jiu³
山 顶 一 寺 一 壶 酒。
On a mountain there was a temple and jar of wine.

2 6 5 3 5 8 9 7
er² le⁴ wo³ san¹ hu² bu² gou⁴ chi¹.
儿 乐，我 三 壶 不 够 吃。
The boy was glad. "Three jars wouldn't be enough for me."

9 3 2 3 8 4 6 2 6
jiu³ sha¹ er² sha¹ bu⁴ si³ le⁴ er² le⁴
酒 杀 儿! 杀 不 死, 乐 而 乐。
The wine killed him! But he did not die, oh joy.

4 3 3 8 3 2 7 9
si³ le suan⁴ ba⁴ le er³ ji¹ gou¹
死 了 算 罢 了，儿 弃 沟。
He might as well have died, he fell into a ravine.

The story continues with the father finding out about the tragedy, and looking for his son.

5 0 2
wu² teng² er²
吾 疼 儿
I dearly love my son.

8 8 4 1 9 7 1
bai² bai² si³ yi³ gou⁴ qi¹ yi³
白 白 死 已 够 凄 矣，
It's tragic enough that he's white and dead,

6 9 3 9 9
liu² gei³ shan¹ gou¹ gou¹
留 给 山 沟 沟。
he's been left in a ravine.

3 7 5 1 0
shan¹ qi¹ wo³ yao¹ tong⁴
山 拐 我 腰 痛
The mountain turns hurt my lower back，

5 8 2 0 9
wu² pa⁴ er² dong⁴ jiu³
吾 怕 儿 冻 久
I'm afraid my son is long frozen.

7 4 9 4 4
qi¹ shi⁴ jiu³ si¹ si¹
凄 事 久 思 思。
He dwelled on the tragic thought.

However, the father finds the son in the ravine and revives him.

5 9 2 3 0 7 8 1 6
wo³ jiu⁴ er² shan¹dong⁴ qi¹ bu⁴ yi² liu²
吾 救 儿, 山 洞 拐, 不 宜 留。
I've saved my son. He couldn't be left in the turn of a cave.

4 0 6 2 8 6
si⁴ lin² le³ er³ bu⁴ le⁴
四 邻 乐, 儿 不 乐,
The four neighbors rejoiced, but the son did not rejoice.

2 0 8 9 9
er² teng² ba⁴ jiu³jiu³
儿 疼 爸 久 久。
The son had painfully missed his father for so long.

8 6 2 8 0
ba⁴ le⁴ er² bu⁴ dong³
爸 乐 儿 不 懂。
The son did not comprehend the father's joy.

3 4 8 2 5
san¹ si¹ ba! er² wu³
三 思 吧！儿 悟。
"Think about it!" The son understood.

3 4 2 1 1
san¹ si¹ er² yi¹ yi¹
三 思 而 依 依，
He considered and complied,

7 0 6 7 9
qi¹ deng³ le⁴ qi¹ jiu³
妻 等 乐 其 久。
while his wife waited long for the joy to return.

That is the first 100 digits of pi in story form. Of course, with some creativity the story goes on as long as we wish. Despite the story having no ending, it is rumored to never become repetitive.