View source for Suzhou numerals

{{Short description|Numeral system formerly used in China}}
{{more citations needed|date=July 2009}}
{{Infobox Chinese|pic=Huama numerals.svg|title=Suzhou numerals|t=蘇州碼子|s=苏州码子|p=sūzhōu mǎzi|j=sou1 zau1 maa5 zi2|suz=Sou1tseu1 Mo6tsy3|s2=花码|t2=花碼|p2=huāmǎ|j2=faa1 maa5|suz2=hua1 mo6|l2=flowery or fancy numbers}}
{{Numeral systems}}
The '''Suzhou numerals''', also known as '''''{{Transliteration|zh|Sūzhōu mǎzi}}''''' ({{lang|zh|蘇州碼子}}), is a [[numeral system]] used in China before the introduction of [[Hindu numerals]]. The Suzhou numerals are also known as ''Soochow numerals'',<ref>Pages [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.70563/page/n339/mode/2up 325] and [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.70563/page/n345/mode/2up 330], ''The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland for the Second Half‑year of 1916'' (‘The Chinese Numerals and Their Notational System’, L. C. Hopkins)</ref> ''ma‑tzu'',<ref>[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.70563/page/n329/mode/2up Page 315], ''The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland for the Second Half-year of 1916'' (‘The Chinese Numerals and Their Notational System’, L. C. Hopkins)</ref> ''{{Transliteration|zh|huāmǎ}}'' ({{lang|zh|花碼}}),<ref name="Mandarin Wikipedia">Wikipedia entry in Chinese [[:zh-tw:苏州码子|苏州码子]]</ref>{{Better source needed|date=July 2020}} ''{{Transliteration|zh|cǎomǎ}}'' ({{lang|zh|草碼}}),<ref name="Mandarin Wikipedia"/>{{Better source needed|date=July 2020}} ''{{Transliteration|zh|jīngzǐmǎ}}'' ({{lang|zh|菁仔碼}}),<ref name="Mandarin Wikipedia"/>{{Better source needed|date=July 2020}} ''{{Transliteration|zh|fānzǐmǎ}}'' ({{lang|zh|番仔碼}})<ref name="Mandarin Wikipedia"/>{{Better source needed|date=July 2020}} and ''{{Transliteration|zh|shāngmǎ}}'' ({{lang|zh|商碼}}).<ref name="Mandarin Wikipedia"/>{{Better source needed|date=July 2020}}

==History==
[[File:蘇州碼子五及九的來源.svg|thumb|150px|The Suzhou numerals for 5 and 9 come from their respective horizontal forms of the rod numerals, combining a vertical rod for 5 and a circle for 0 or a cross for 4 respectively. Note that circles are written clockwise traditionally in China.]]
The Suzhou numeral system is the only surviving variation of the [[rod numeral]] system. The rod numeral system is a [[positional notation|positional]] numeral system used by the Chinese in mathematics. Suzhou numerals are a variation of the [[Song dynasty|Southern Song]] rod numerals.

Suzhou numerals were used as shorthand in number-intensive areas of commerce such as accounting and bookkeeping. At the same time, standard [[Chinese numerals]] were used in formal writing, akin to spelling out the numbers in English. Suzhou numerals were once popular in Chinese marketplaces, such as those in [[Hong Kong]] and Chinese restaurants in [[Malaysia]] before the 1990s, but they have gradually been supplanted by Hindu numerals.{{Citation needed|date=May 2011}} This is similar to what had happened in Europe with [[Roman numerals]] used in ancient and medieval Europe for mathematics and commerce. Nowadays, the Suzhou numeral system is only used for displaying prices in Chinese markets<ref name="UTN27" /> or on traditional handwritten invoices.{{Citation needed|date=June 2013}}

==Symbols==
In the Suzhou numeral system, special symbols are used for digits instead of the Chinese characters. The digits of the Suzhou numerals are defined between U+3021 and U+3029 in [[Unicode]]. An additional three code points starting from U+3038 were added later.

{| class="wikitable" border="1" style="text-align:center"
|+ Unicode for Suzhou numerals
! rowspan="2" | Number
! colspan="2" | "Suzhou"
! colspan="2" | [[CJK Unified Ideographs|CJK ideographs]]
|-
! Character !! Unicode !! Character !! Unicode
|-
! 0
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|〇}}</span> || U+3007
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|零}}</span> || U+96F6
|-
! 1
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|〡}}</span> || U+3021
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|一}}</span> || U+4E00
|-
! 2
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|〢}}</span> || U+3022
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|二}}</span> || U+4E8C
|-
! 3
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|〣}}</span> || U+3023
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|三}}</span> || U+4E09
|-
! 4
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|〤}}</span> || U+3024
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|四}}</span> || U+56DB
|-
! 5
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|〥}}</span> || U+3025
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|五}}</span> || U+4E94
|-
! 6
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|〦}}</span> || U+3026
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|六}}</span> || U+516D
|-
! 7
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|〧}}</span> || U+3027
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|七}}</span> || U+4E03
|-
! 8
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|〨}}</span> || U+3028
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|八}}</span> || U+516B
|-
! 9
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|〩}}</span> || U+3029
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|九}}</span> || U+4E5D
|-
! 10
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|〸}}</span> || U+3038
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|十}}</span> || U+5341
|-
! 20
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|〹}}</span> || U+3039
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|廿}}</span> || U+5EFF
|-
! 30
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|〺}}</span> || U+303A
| <span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|卅}}</span> || U+5345
|}

The symbols for 5 to 9 are derived from those for 0 to 4 by adding a vertical bar on top, which is similar to adding an upper bead which represents a value of 5 in an abacus. The resemblance makes the Suzhou numerals intuitive to use together with the abacus as the traditional calculation tool.

The numbers one, two, and three are all represented by vertical bars. This can cause confusion when they appear next to each other. Standard Chinese ideographs are often used in this situation to avoid ambiguity. For example, "21" is written as "{{lang|zh|〢一}}" instead of "{{lang|zh|〢〡}}" which can be confused with "3" ({{lang|zh|〣}}). The first character of such sequences is usually represented by the Suzhou numeral, while the second character is represented by the Chinese ideograph.

==Notations==
The digits are [[positional notation|positional]]. The full numerical notations are written in two lines to indicate numerical value, [[order of magnitude]], and [[unit of measurement]]. Following the rod numeral system, the digits of the Suzhou numerals are always written horizontally from left to right, just like how numbers are represented in an abacus, even when used within vertically written documents.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5JdAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA277|title=The Chinese Commercial Guide|author=Samuel Wells Williams|authorlink=Samuel Wells Williams|location=Hongkong|year=1863|pages=277–278|publisher=A. Shortrede & Co.|edition=5th}}</ref>
[[File:Suzhou numerals on banquet invoices (HKMH).jpg|thumb|Suzhou numerals on banquet invoices issued by restaurants circa 1910–1920s. Although the invoices use [[Horizontal and vertical writing in East Asian scripts|traditional right-to-left vertical writing]], the Suzhou numerals recording the amounts are written horizontally from left to right.]]

For example:
{| border="0" style="text-align: center; border: 1px solid #dddddd; margin-left: 1.5em;"
| {{lang|zh|〤}} || {{lang|zh|〇}} || {{lang|zh|〢}} || {{lang|zh|二}}
|-
| {{lang|zh|十}} || {{lang|zh|元}}
|}
The first line contains the numerical values, in this example, "{{lang|zh|〤〇〢二}}" stands for "4022". The second line consists of Chinese characters that represents the [[order of magnitude]] and [[unit of measurement]] of the first digit in the numerical representation. In this case "{{lang|zh|十元}}" which stands for "ten [[Chinese yuan|yuan]]". When put together, it is then read as "40.22 yuan".

[[File:HK Wan Chai Lockhart Road Canal Road Seafood shop evening 海花螺 spiral shells.JPG|thumb|Suzhou numerals on a market in [[Wan Chai]]]]
[[File:Lin Heung Kui handwritten menu in Suzhou numerals.jpg|thumb|A menu with prices in Suzhou numerals in a Hong Kong Chinese restaurant]]
[[File:蘇州碼子寫的兩個幻方.png|thumb|Two [[magic squares]] in Suzhou numerals in a 19th-century Chinese Catholic journal]]
Possible characters denoting order of magnitude include:
* ''wàn'' (<span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|万}}</span>) for myriads (As a variant of the traditional character {{linktext|lang=zh|萬}}, it is used for speed of writing in Suzhou numerals even before simplification of Chinese characters.)<ref>{{cite journal|title=我所知道的"苏州码" Wo suo zhidao de "Suzhouma" |author=赵宁渌 Zhao Ninglu|journal=商业文化 Shangye Wenhua [Business Culture]|year=1996|issue=2|pages=64, 60|language=zh}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=A Grammar of the Chinese Language |author=Robert Morrison|author-link=Robert Morrison (missionary)|publisher= Mission-Press|year= 1815|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ciUtAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA81}}</ref>
* ''qiān'' (<span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|千}}</span>) for thousands
* ''bǎi'' (<span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|百}}</span>) for hundreds
* ''shí'' (<span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|十}}</span>) for tens
* blank for ones

Other possible characters denoting unit of measurement include:
* ''yuán'' (<span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|元}}</span>) for dollar
* ''máo'' (<span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|毫}} or {{linktext|lang=zh|毛}}</span>) for 10 cents
* ''lǐ'' (<span class="nounderlines">{{linktext|lang=zh|里}}</span>) for the [[Li (length)|Chinese mile]]
* any other [[Chinese units of measurement|Chinese measurement unit]]

Notice that the decimal point is implicit when the first digit is set at the [[10 (number)|ten position]]. Zero is represented by the character for zero ({{lang|zh|〇}}). Leading and trailing zeros are unnecessary in this system.

This is very similar to the modern [[scientific notation]] for [[floating point]] numbers where the significant digits are represented in the mantissa and the order of magnitude is specified in the exponent. Also, the unit of measurement, with the first digit indicator, is usually aligned to the middle of the "numbers" row.

[[File:Suzhoudollars.jpg|thumb|500px|center| Several examples of the pricing values present in Suzhou numerals.]]

==Hangzhou misnomer==
In the [[Unicode]] standard version 3.0, these characters are incorrectly named [[Hangzhou]] style numerals. In the Unicode standard 4.0, an [[erratum]] was added which stated:<ref name="UTN27">{{cite web|url=http://unicode.org/notes/tn27/|title=UTN #27: Known anomalies in Unicode Character Names|last=Freytag|first=Asmus |author2=Rick McGowan |author3=Ken Whistler|date=2006-05-08|work=Technical Notes|publisher=Unicode Consortium|accessdate=2008-06-13}}</ref>

{{blockquote|The Suzhou numerals (Chinese ''su1zhou1ma3zi'') are special numeric forms used by traders to display the prices of goods. The use of "HANGZHOU" in the names is a misnomer.}}

All references to "Hangzhou" in the Unicode standard have been corrected to "Suzhou" except for the character names themselves, which cannot be changed once assigned, in accordance with the Unicode Stability Policy.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/policies/stability_policy.html#Name|title=Name Stability|date=2008-02-28|work=Unicode Character Encoding Stability Policy|publisher=Unicode Consortium|accessdate=2008-06-13}}</ref> (This policy allows software to use the names as unique identifiers.)

== See also ==
* [[Unicode numerals]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Numerals]]
[[Category:Chinese mathematics]]
[[Category:Numeral systems]]
[[Category:Culture in Suzhou]]