San 三 literally means three, while in classic Chinese, it sometimes refers to “several”. The text here means the cock crowed several times. Besides, san 三 [three] still has three more abstract meanings.
- few, little, small or short
When three appears in a context of comparison, it usually means “few”, “little”, “small” or “short”: When appearing together with wu 五 [five] or qi 七 [seven], three usually means few, little, small or short while five and seven refers to many, much, big or long. When three is directly or indirectly compared with a huge whole, it also means few, little, small, or long. For example, in “楚虽三户，亡秦必楚” (though Chu Kingdom only has three families, Chu Kingdom must be the one to destroy Qin Kingdom), three families is said under the background of the whole kingdom, thus three here refers to few.
When followed by a measure word, three usually is a general saying to describe something small or short. For example, people usually use sansui 三岁 [three-year-old] to represent the condition of being young or childish, and three here refers to the young age.
- ultimate or extreme
When three is followed by a noun, three usually means ultimate or extreme. For example, in chuan sanquan 穿三泉 [pass three springs], three refers to the ultimate; thus, chuan sanquan here means pass the springs and go to the deepest place (《史记·秦始皇本纪》).
- A fictional number to fit people’s beliefs in nature.
In ancient China, people tended to believe that “three” is the first combination of all things in the universe (“道生一，一生二，二生三，三生万物” (The Dao gave birth to the one. The one gave birth to the two. The two gave birth to the three. The three gave birth to the myriad things)). Therefore, people sometimes used three as an abstract starting point for changes.
See this webpage for further explanation of “three”.
