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bookkeeping and accounting, and were popular in markets, particularly in Hong Kong, until the s, since when they have been replaced by Western numerals.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. Large numbers are divided into units of ten thousand, so 1 million is one hundred ten-thousands. Books about Chinese characters and calligraphy Mandarin, Shanghainese, Hokkien, Taiwanese and Cantonese language learning material. Get 3 months Audible membership for just 99p. These numerals, like I stated at the top, come from the Oracle Bones.
They use a Base system, though it's not quite as developed as ours. Take a look at how the numbers are written below:. Labels: Counting Systems , history. Unknown June 20, at PM. Ray August 23, at PM. Newer Post Older Post Home.
Here are two possible representations: The biggest problem with this notation was that it could lead to possible confusion. What was? 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 is represented on the counting board by: and 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 would be represented as: Ancient arithmetic texts described how to perform arithmetic operations on the counting board. Similarly to divide by 10 , , , or the rods are moved to the right by 1 , 2 , 3 , or 4 squares.
What is significant here is that Xiahou Yang seems to understand not only positive powers of 10 but also decimal fractions as negative powers of This illustrates the significance of using counting board numerals. Now the Chinese counting board numbers were not just used on a counting board, although this is clearly their origin. They were used in written texts, particularly mathematical texts, and the power of the place valued notation led to the Chinese making significant advances.
In particular the "tian yuan" or "coefficient array method" or "method of the celestial unknown" developed out of the counting board representation of numbers.
This was a notation for an equation and Li Zhi gives the earliest source of the method, although it must have been invented before his time.
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.
Arithmetical rules for the abacus were analogous to those of the counting board even square roots and cube roots of numbers could be calculated but it appears that the 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 For numbers up to 4 slide the required number of beads in the lower part up to the middle bar.
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