the ubiquitous system of , along with two ancient Chinese numeral systems.
One such system is the Suzhou numerals or ''huama'' system. It has gradually been supplanted by the Arabic system in writing numbers. It is the only surviving variation of the system, was once popular in use only in Chinese markets, such as those in Hong Kong before the 1990s.
The other Chinese numeral system is the . It is still in use when writing numbers in long form, such as on cheques to hinder forgery. This character system is roughly analogous to spelling out a number in English text. The Chinese character system can be classified as part of the language, but it still counts as a number system. Most people in China now use the Arabic system for convenience.
Individual Chinese characters in this article link to their dictionary entries.
Written numbers
The Chinese character numeral system consists of the Chinese characters used by the Chinese written language to write spoken numerals. Similarly to spelled-out numbers in English , it is not an independent system ''per se''. And since it reflects spoken language, it does not use the positional system as is done in Arabic numerals, in the same way that spelling out numbers in English does not.
Characters used to represent numbers
Standard numbers
There are characters representing the numbers zero through nine, and other characters representing larger numbers such as tens, hundreds, thousands and so on. There are two sets of characters for Chinese numerals: one for everyday writing and one for use in commercial or financial contexts known as dàxiě . The latter arose because the characters used for writing numerals are geometrically simple, so simply using those numerals cannot prevent forgeries in the same way spelling numbers out in English would. A forger could easily change everyday characters to by adding just a few strokes. That would not be possible when writing using the financial characters and .
S denotes Simplified, T denotes Traditional
Characters with regional usage
Large numbers
Similar to the long and short scales in the west, for numeral characters greater than , there have been four systems in ancient and modern usage:
In modern Chinese, only the second system is used in expressing numbers. Although there is some dispute on the value of 兆 zhào, the usage is still consistent through Chinese communities, as well as , . However, most people do not recognize numerals beyond 亿 yì and dictionary definitions on the words of larger number may not be consistent
Numbers from Buddhism
The numerals beyond 载 zài come from Buddhist texts in Sanskrit, but these "Buddhist numerals" have become "ancient usage".
Small numbers
The following are characters used to denote small order of magnitude in Chinese historically. With the introduction of SI units, some of them have been incorporated as SI prefixes, while the rest has fallen into disuse.
SI prefixes
The translations for the SI prefixes in earlier days were different from those used today. The larger , and smaller Chinese numerals were defined as translations for the SI prefixes. For instance, 京 jīng was defined as ''giga'', and 纤 xiān was defined as ''nano''. This resulted in the creation of more values for each numeral.
By the time of "early translation", a dispute had arisen over the value of 兆 . The government of the PRC used ''a part'' of this translation, and defined zhào as the translation for the SI prefix ''mega'' . Because of this, the translation has caused much confusion.
In addition, Taiwanese defined 百万 as the translation for ''mega''. This translation is widely used in official documents, academic communities, informational industries, etc. However, the civil broadcasting industries sometimes use to represent "megahertz".
Today, both the governments of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China use phonetic transliterations for the SI prefixes. However, the governments have each chosen different Chinese characters for certain prefixes. The following table lists the two different standards together with the early translation.
Reading and transcribing numbers
Whole numbers
Multiple-digit numbers are constructed using a multiplicative principle; first the digit itself , then the place ; then the next digit.
In Mandarin, the multiplier is used rather than for all numbers greater than 200 with the "2" numeral. Use of both 两 or 二 are acceptable for the number 200. When writing in the Cantonese dialect, 二 is used to represent the "2" numeral for all numbers. In the southern Min dialect of Chaozhou , 两 is used to represent the "2" numeral in all numbers from 200 onwards. Thus:
For the numbers 11 through 19, the leading "one" is usually omitted. In some dialects, like Shanghainese, when there are only two significant digits in the number, the leading "one" and the trailing zeroes are omitted. Sometimes, the one before "ten" in the middle of a number, such as 213, is omitted. Thus:
Notes:
# Nothing is ever omitted in large and more complicated numbers such as this.
In certain older texts like the Protestant Bible or in poetic usage, numbers such as 114 may be ''written'' as .
For numbers larger than a myriad, the same grouping system used in English applies, except in groups of four places rather than in groups of three . Hence it is more convenient to think of numbers here as in groups of four, thus 1,234,567,890 is regrouped here as 12,3456,7890. Larger than a myriad, each number is therefore four zeroes longer than the one before it, thus 10000 × wàn = yì . If one of the numbers is between 10 and 19, the leading "one" is omitted as per the above point. Hence :
Interior zeroes before the unit position must be spelt explicitly. The reason for this is that trailing zeroes are often omitted as shorthand, so ambiguity occurs. One zero is sufficient to resolve the ambiguity. Where the zero is before a digit other than the units digit, the explicit zero is not ambiguous and is therefore optional, but preferred. Thus:
Fractional values
To construct a fraction, the denominator is written first, followed by and then the numerator. This is the opposite of how fractions are read in English, which is numerator first. Each half of the fraction is written the same as a whole number. are written with the whole-number part first, followed by , then the fractional part.
Percentages are constructed similarly, using 百 as the denominator. The 一 before 百 is omitted.
Decimal numbers are constructed by first writing the whole number part, then inserting or , and finally the decimal expression. The decimal expression is written using only the digits for 0 to 9, without multiplicative words.
Ordinal numbers
Ordinal numbers are formed by adding before the number.
Negative numbers
Negative numbers are formed by adding before the number.
Suzhou numerals
In the same way that Roman numerals were standard in ancient and medieval Europe for mathematics and commerce, the Chinese formerly used the , which is a positional system. The Suzhou or ''huāmǎ'' system is a variation of the rod numerals. Nowadays, the ''huāmǎ'' system is only used for displaying prices in Chinese markets or on traditional handwritten invoices.
Hand gestures
There is a common method of using of one hand to signify the numbers one to ten. While the five digits on one hand can express the numbers one to five, six to ten have special signs that can be used in commerce or day-to-day communication.
Cultural influences
During and dynasties , some Chinese mathematicians used Chinese numeral characters as positional system digits. After Qing dynasty, both the Chinese numeral characters and the Suzhou numerals were replaced by Arabic numerals in mathematical writings.
Traditional Chinese numeric characters are also used in Japan and Korea. In vertical text , using characters for numbers is the norm, while in horizontal text, Arabic numerals are most common. Chinese numeric characters are also used in much the same formal or decorative fashion that Roman numerals are in Western cultures. Chinese numerals may appear together with Arabic numbers on the same sign or document.
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