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Chinese Numeration System

The document summarizes the history and evolution of the Chinese numeration system. It describes early numeration systems using bones and tortoise shells, as well as rod numerals represented on counting boards. Later, the abacus was introduced, representing numbers using beads on wires. Modern Chinese numerals are now used, with complex numerals for writing out numbers and simple numerals for other uses.

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99 views

Chinese Numeration System

The document summarizes the history and evolution of the Chinese numeration system. It describes early numeration systems using bones and tortoise shells, as well as rod numerals represented on counting boards. Later, the abacus was introduced, representing numbers using beads on wires. Modern Chinese numerals are now used, with complex numerals for writing out numbers and simple numerals for other uses.

Uploaded by

anon_360636795
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CHINESE

NUMERATION
SYSTEM
Presenter: Heidi Grizzel R. Herrera
BSED III-A
Systems of Numeration
A number is a quantity. It answers the question
“How many?”

A numeral is a symbol such as , 10 or used to


represent the number (amount).
Systems of Numeration

A system of numeration consists of a set of


numerals and a scheme or rule for
combining the numerals to represent
numbers.
Additive Systems

An additive system is one in which the number


represented by a set of numerals is simply the
sum of the values of the numerals.
It is one of the oldest and most primitive types
of systems.

Examples: Egyptian hieroglyphics and Roman


numerals.
Multiplicative Systems
Multiplicative systems are more similar to the
Hindu-Arabic system which we use today.
Shang numerals
In 1899 a major discovery was made at the archaeological
site at the village of Xiao dun in the An-yang district of
Henan province. Thousands of bones and tortoise shells
were discovered there which had been inscribed with
ancient Chinese characters. The site had been the capital of
the kings of the Late Shang dynasty (this Late Shang is also
called the Yin) from the 14th century BC. The last twelve of
the Shang kings ruled here until about 1045 BC and the
bones and tortoise shells discovered there had been used as
part of religious ceremonies. Questions were inscribed on
one side of a tortoise shell, the other side of the shell was
then subjected to the heat of a fire, and the cracks which
appeared were interpreted as the answers to the questions
coming from ancient ancestors.
The importance of these finds, as far as learning about the
ancient Chinese numeral system, was that many of the
inscriptions contained numerical information about

•men lost in battle


•prisoners taken in battle
•the number of sacrifices made
•the number of animals killed on hunts
•the number of days or months, etc.
By having multiplicative properties we mean
that 200 is represented by the symbol for 2 and
the symbol for 100, 300 is represented by the
symbol for 3 and the symbol for 100, 400 is
represented by the symbol for 4 and the symbol
for 100, etc. Similarly 2000 is represented by
the symbol for 2 and the symbol for 1000, 3000
is represented by the symbol for 3 and the
symbol for 1000, 4000 is represented by the
symbol for 4 and the symbol for 1000, etc.
There was also a symbol for 10000 which we
have not included in the illustration above but it
took the form of a scorpion. However larger
numbers have not been found, the largest
number discovered on the Shang bones and
tortoise shells being 30000.
The additive nature of the system was that symbols were
juxtaposed to indicate addition, so that 4359 was represented by
the symbol for 4000 followed by the symbol for 300, followed by
the symbol of 50 followed by the symbol for 9. Here is the way
4359 would appear:

Now this system is not a positional system so it had no need for


a zero. For example the number 5080 is represented by:
Rod numerals ( 筹 [ 籌 ] chóu)

Rod numerals or counting rods were a


positional numeral system used by merchants,
mathematicians and astronomers from the Han
Dynasty to the 16th century.
The symbols we have illustrated evolved somewhat over
time but were surprisingly stable in form. However a second
form of Chinese numerals began to be used from the 4th
century BC when counting boards came into use. A counting
board consisted of a checker board with rows and columns.
Numbers were represented by little rods made from bamboo
or ivory. A number was formed in a row with the units
placed in the right most column, the tens in the next column
to the left, the hundreds in the next column to the left etc.
The most significant property of representing numbers this
way on the counting board was that it was a natural place
valued system. One in the right most column represented 1,
while one in the adjacent column to the left represented 10
etc.
Now the numbers from 1 to 9 had to be formed from the
rods and a fairly natural way was found.
The biggest problem with this notation was that it could lead to
possible confusion. What was ||| ? It could be 3, or 21, or 12, or
even 111.

Rods moving slightly along the row, or not being placed centrally
in the squares, would lead to the incorrect number being
represented. The Chinese adopted a clever way to avoid this
problem. They used both forms of the numbers given in the
above illustration. In the units column they used the form in the
lower row, while in the tens column they used the form in the
upper row, continuing alternately.

For example 1234 is represented on the counting board by:


45698 by:

There was still no need for a zero on the counting board for a
square was simply left blank. The alternating forms of the
numbers again helped to show that there was indeed a space.

For example 60390 would be represented as:


In about the fourteenth century AD the abacus came into use in
China. Certainly this, like the counting board, seems to have
been a Chinese invention. In many ways it was similar to the
counting board, except instead of using rods to represent
numbers, they were represented by beads sliding on a wire.
Abacus was used almost exclusively by merchants who only used
the operations of addition and subtraction.
Here is an illustration of an abacus showing
the number 46802.

One might reasonably ask why each wire contains enough beads
to represent 15. This was to make the intermediate working
easier so that in fact numbers bigger than 9 could be stored on a
single wire during a calculation, although by the end such
"carries" would have to be taken over to the wire to the left.
Suzhou numerals ( 蘇州碼子 [ 苏州
码子 ])
The Suzhou numerals system is a version of the rod numeral
systems that were formerly used in China. The Suzhou
numerals developed from the Southern Song rod numerals.
They were a positional system used as a form of shorthand in
bookkeeping and accounting, and were popular in markets,
particularly in Hong Kong, until the 1990s, since when they
have been replaced by Western numerals. These numerals are
also known as 花碼 [ 花码 ] (huā mă)
Modern Chinese numerals
The complex numerals are used on cheques, banknotes and
coins and are the equivalent of writing 'one', 'two', 'three',
etc, rather than 1, 2, 3. The simple numerals are used for
everything else.
Chinese Pinyin
1 一 yī
2 二 èr
3 三 sān
4 四 sì
5 五 wǔ
6 六 liù
7 七 qī
8 八 bā
9 九 jiǔ
10 十 shí

0 零 / 〇 líng
Chinese Pinyin
100 一百 yībǎi
1 000 一千 yīqiān
10 000 一万 yīwàn

1 000 000 一百万 yībǎiwàn


100 000
一亿 yīyì
000

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