Number System and Calculation Tools
Archaeologic finds from the Shang dynasty (fourteenth to eleventh century BCE) show the earliest number symbols inscribed on bones and tortoise shells. By then, different decimal and sexagesimal systems were in use. The use of rod‐numerals is also attested on coins as early as from the Wang Mang period (9–23 AD). These are related to the instruments in use. For calculations, numbers were represented on a calculation surface by counting rods. The representation follows a decimal positional notation, where nine different signs for the numbers from 1 to 10 consist of either vertical or horizontal bars used to mark units, hundreds, myriads, etc. or tens, thousands, and other odd powers of ten. Three hundred twenty‐six for example was thus put down in the following way: III = T. For negative numbers, black instead of red counting rods were used. In printed records (from the eleventh century onwards) they were marked by an oblique bar (Fig. 1).
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Eberhard‐Bréard, A. (2008). Mathematics in China. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9453
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