be connected with a Chinese work, namely, the Nine Chapters on the

MODULE 6: CHINESE MATHEMATICS Mathematical Arts, is 150 B.C. Much of the difference in availability of sources of
information is to be ascribed to differences in climate between the Near East and
At the end you are expected to:
the Far East. The dry climate and soil of Egypt and Babylonia preserved materials
a) Determine the contributions of Chinese Mathematics in the development of
that would long since have perished in more moist climates, materials that make
mathematics;
b) Use historical facts to solve and represent numbers; and it possible for us to trace the progress of these cultures from the barbarism of the
c) Manifest appreciation for mathematics as a dynamic field through sharing
remote past to the full flower of civilization. No other countries provide so rich a
of personal experiences of enlightenment relative to the evolution of the
different branches of mathematics. harvest of information about the origin and transmission of mathematics. “The
Egyptians who lived in the cultivated part of the country,” wrote Herodotus in his
Introduction
History, “by their practice of keeping records of the past, have made themselves
Even as mathematical developments in the ancient Greek world were beginning
much the best historians of any nation that I have experienced.” If China had had
to falter during the final centuries BCE, the burgeoning trade empire of China was
Egypt’s climate, there is no question that many records would have survived from
leading Chinese mathematics to ever greater heights.
antiquity, each with its story to tell of the intellectual life of earlier generations. But
the ancient Orient was a “bamboo civilization,” and among the manifold uses of
Writing in Ancient China
this plant was making books. The small bamboo slips used were prepared by
Our study of early mathematics is limited mostly to the peoples of splitting the smooth section between two knots into thin strips, which were then
Mediterranean antiquity, chief by the Greeks, and their debt to the Egyptians and dried over a re and scraped off. The narrowness of the bamboo strips made it
the inhabitants of the Fertile Crescent. Nevertheless, some general comment is necessary to arrange the written characters in vertical lines running from top to
called for about the civilizations of the Far East, and especially about its oldest bottom, a practice that continues to this day. The opened, dried, and scraped strips
and most central civilization, that of China. Although Chinese society was no older of bamboo were laid side by side, joined, and kept in proper place by four
than the other river valley civilizations of the ancient world, it flourished long before crosswise cords. Naturally enough the joining cords often rotted and broke, with
those of Greece and Rome. In the middle of the second millennium B.C., the the result that the order of the slips was lost and could be reestablished only by a
Chinese were already keeping records of astronomical events on bone fragments, careful reading of the text. (Another material used about that time for writing was
some of which are extant. Indeed, by 1400 B.C., the Chinese had a positional silk, which presumably came into use because bamboo books or wooden tablets
numeration system that used nine signs were too heavy and cumbersome.) The great majority of these ancient books was
The scarcity of reliable sources of information almost completely seals from irretrievably lost to the ravages of time and nature. Those few available today are
us the history of the ancient Orient. In India, no mathematical text exists that can known only as brief fragments. Another factor making chronological accounts less
be ascribed with any certainty to the pre-Christian era; and the rst rm date that can trustworthy for China than for Egypt and Babylonia is that books tended to
accumulate in palace or government libraries, where they disappeared in the great mathematics is due to the Jesuit missionaries who arrived in Peking in the early
interdynastic upheavals. There is a story that in 221 B.C., when China was united 1600s. Finding that one of the most important governmental departments was
under the despotic emperor Shih Huang-ti, he tried to destroy all books of learning known as the Office of Mathematics, they assumed that its function was to
and nearly succeeded. Fortunately, many books were preserved in secret hiding promote mathematical studies throughout the empire. Actually, it consisted of
places or in the memory of scholars, who feverishly reproduced them in the minor officials trained in preparing the calendar. Throughout Chinese history the
following dynasty. But such events make the dating of mathematical discoveries main importance of mathematics was in making the calendar, for its promulgation
far from easy. Modern science and technology, as all the world knows, grew up in was considered a right of the emperor, corresponding to the issue of minted coins.
western Europe, with the life of Galileo marking the great turning point. Yet In an agricultural economy so dependent on artificial irrigation, it was necessary
between the first and fifteenth centuries, the Chinese who experienced nothing to be forewarned of the beginning and end of the rainy monsoon season, as well
comparable to Europe’s Dark Ages, were generally much in advance of the West. as of the melting of the snows and the consequent rise of the rivers. The person
Not until the scientific revolution of the later stages of the Renaissance did Europe who could give an accurate calendar to the people could thereby claim great
rapidly draw ahead. Before China’s isolation and inhibition, she transmitted to importance. Because the establishment of the calendar was a jealously guarded
Europe a veritable abundance of inventions and technological discoveries, which prerogative, it is not surprising that the emperor was likely to view any independent
were often received by the West with no clear idea of where they originated. No investigations with alarm. “In China,” wrote the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci (died
doubt the three greatest discoveries of the Chinese—ones that changed Western 1610), “it is forbidden under pain of death to study mathematics, without the
civilization, and indeed the civilization of the whole world—were gunpowder, the Emperor’s authorization.” Regarded as a servant of the more important science
magnetic compass, and paper and printing. The subject of paper is of great astronomy, mathematics acquired a practical orientation that precluded the
interest; and we know almost to the day when the discovery was first made. A consideration of abstract ideas. Little mathematics was undertaken for its own
popular account of the time tells that Tshai Lun, the director of imperial workshops sake in China.
in A.D. 105, went to the emperor and said, “Bamboo tablets are so heavy and silk The Chinese Number System
so expensive that I sought for a way of mixing together the fragments of bark,
The simple but efficient ancient Chinese numbering system, which dates back to
bamboo, and fishnets, and I have made a very thin material that is suitable for
at least the 2nd millennium BCE, used small bamboo rods arranged to represent
writing.” It took more than a thousand years for paper to make its way from China
the numbers 1 to 9, which were then places in columns representing units, tens,
to Europe, first appearing in Egypt about 900 and then in Spain about 1150. All
hundreds, thousands, etc. It was, therefore, a decimal place value system, very
the while mathematics was overwhelmingly concerned with practical matters that
similar to the one we use today – indeed it was the first such number system,
were important to a bureaucratic government: land measurement and surveying,
adopted by the Chinese over a thousand years before it was adopted in the
taxation, the making of canals and dikes, granary dimensions, and so on. The
West – and it made even quite complex calculations very quick and easy.
misconception that the Chinese made considerable progress in theoretical
 10. The digits 1, 2, 3, …., 9 are ciphered in this system, thus avoiding the repetition
Written numbers, however, employed the slightly less efficient system of using a
of symbols, and special characters exist for 100, 1000, 10,000, and 100,000.
different symbol for tens, hundreds, thousands, etc. This was largely because
there was no concept or symbol of zero, and it had the effect of limiting the
usefulness of the written number in Chinese.

The use of the abacus is often thought of as a Chinese idea, although some type
of abacus was in use in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece, probably much earlier
than in China (the first Chinese abacus, or “suanpan”, we know of dates to about
the 2nd Century BCE).

Thus, for example, the number 36,278 would be written

The circular symbol O for zero was introduced relatively late, first appearing in
print in the 1200s.

The fifth century Chinese (brush form) numeral system shares some of the best
features of both Egyptian hieroglyphic and Greek alphabetic numerals. It is an
example of a vertically written multiplicative grouping system based on powers of
Numerals are written from the top downward, so that

YOUR TURN
NAME: _____________________________ DATE: ______________________

COURSE/SECTION: __________________ SCORE: ____________________

Problem 6.

1. Write the Chinese counting-rod numerals corresponding to

(a) 1492. (d) 57,942.

(b) 1999. (e) 123,456.

(c) 1606. (f) 3,040,279.

2. Convert these into our numerals.

represents

Notice that if only one of a certain power of 10 is intended, then the multiplier 1 is 3. Multiply by 10 and express the result in
omitted.
Chinese rod numerals. Describe a simple rule for multiplying any
Chinese rod numerals by 10; by 102 .
4. Perform the indicated operations.
JOURNAL ENTRY #6
In your journal, summarize CHINESE Mathematics. Write your reflection
about the topic in the end of the summary.

REFERENCES
A. THE STORY OF MATHEMATICS. Retrieved from https://www.storyofmathematics.com

B. Burton, D, The History of Mathematics: An Introduction 7 th Edition. 2011. 978-0-07-338315-5

C. Hodgkin, L. A history of Mathematics: From Mesopotamia to Modernity. Oxford University

5. Express each of the given numbers in traditional Chinese numerals.

(a) 236. (d) 1066.

(b) 1492. (e) 57,942.

(c) 1999. (f) 123,456.

6. Translate each of these numerals from the Chinese system to our