Chinese numerals

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Chinese numerals

Chinese numerals are characters for writing number

Number

A number is a mathematical object used in counting and measurement. A notational symbol which represents a number is called a Numeral system, but in common usage the word number is used for both the abstract object and the symbol, as well as for the numeral for the number....
s in Chinese

Chinese language

Chinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of language mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan languages of languages....
. Today, speakers of Chinese use three numeral system

Numeral system

A numeral system is a writing system for expressing numerals , and a mathematical notation for representing numbers of a given set, using graphemes or symbols in a consistent manner....
s: the ubiquitous system of Arabic numerals, along with two ancient Chinese numeral systems.

One such system is the Suzhou numerals

Suzhou numerals

The Suzhou numerals or huama is a numeral system used in China before the introduction of Arabic numerals....
or huama system. It has gradually been supplanted by the Arabic system in writing numbers. It is the only surviving variation of the rod numeral system; this system has been popular only in Chinese markets, such as those in Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located in Southern China in East Asia, bordering the province of Guangdong to the north and facing the South China Sea to the east, west and south....
before the 1990s.

The other Chinese numeral system is the written numbers system

Number names

In linguistics, a number name, or numeral, is a word in a natural language that signifi? a number.In history of writing, numerals are symbols representing numeral systems....
.

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Encyclopedia

Chinese numerals are characters for writing number

Number

Chinese language

Numeral system

Suzhou numerals

Hong Kong

Number names

In linguistics, a number name, or numeral, is a word in a natural language that signifi? a number.In history of writing, numerals are symbols representing numeral systems....
. 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

Chinese written language

Written Chinese comprises the written symbols used to represent spoken Chinese and the rules about how they are arranged and punctuated. These symbols are commonly known as Chinese characters ....
to write spoken numerals. Similarly to spelled-out numbers in English (e.g., "one thousand nine hundred forty-five"), it is not an independent system per se. 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 dàxie (?? in traditional Chinese, ?? in simplified Chinese). 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 ?? (30) to ?? (5000) by adding just a few strokes. That would not be possible when writing using the financial characters ?? (30) and ?? (5000).

S denotes Simplified, T denotes Traditional

Financial	Normal	Value	Pinyin	Notes
?	?	0 0 (number) 0 is both a number and the numerical digit used to represent that number in numeral system. It plays a central role in mathematics as the additive identity of the integers, real numbers, and many other algebraic structures....	líng	? is a common informal way to represent zero, but the traditional ? is more often used in schools.
?	?	1 1 (number) 1 is a number, number names, and the name of the glyph representing that number.It represents a single entity, the unit of counting or measurement....	yi	also ? (obsolete financial), can be easily manipulated into ? (two) or ? (three).
?(T) or ?(S)	?	2 2 (number) 2 is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3 ....	èr	also ? (obsolete financial), can be easily manipulated into ? (one) or ? (three). also ?(T) or ?(S), see Characters with regional usage section.
?(T) or ?(S)	?	3 3 (number) ----3 is a number, Numeral system, and glyph. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4 ....	san	also ? (obsolete financial), can be easily manipulated into ? (one) or ? (two). also ?(T) or ?(S) san.
?	?	4 4 (number) This article discusses the number Four. For the year 4 AD, see 4. For other uses of 4, see 4 4 is a number, numeral, and glyph....	sì
?	?	5 5 (number) 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the natural number following 4 and preceding 6 ....	wu
?(T) or ?(S)	?	6 6 (number) 6 is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7 .The SI prefix for 10006 is exa , and for its reciprocal atto ....	liù
?	?	7 7 (number) 7 is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8 . It is the smallest positive integer to be spoken with two syllables when pronounced in English....	qi
?	?	8 8 (number) 8 is the natural number, following 7 and preceding 9 . The SI prefix for 10008 is yotta , and for its reciprocal yocto . It is the root of two other numbers: eighteen and eighty ....	ba
?	?	9 9 (number) 9 is the natural number following 8 and preceding 10 . The ordinal adjective is ninth....	jiu

?	?	10 10 (number) 10 is an Even and odd numbers natural number following 9 and preceding 11 ....	shí	Although some people use ? as financial, it is not acceptable because it can be easily manipulated into ? or ?.
?	?	100 100 (number) 100 is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101 ....	bai
?	?	1,000 1000 (number) 1000 is the natural number following 999 and preceding 1001 ....	qian
?	?(T) or ?(S)	10⁴ 10000 (number) 10000 is the natural number following 9999 and preceding 10001....	wàn	Chinese numbers group by ten-thousands see Reading and transcribing numbers section below.
?	?(T) or ?(S)	10⁸	yì	See large numbers section below.

Characters with regional usage

Normal	Value	Pinyin (Mandarin)	Standard alternative	Notes
?	1 1 (number) 1 is a number, number names, and the name of the glyph representing that number.It represents a single entity, the unit of counting or measurement....	yao	?	Literally means "the smallest". It is used in Mandarin to unambiguously pronounce "#1" in series of digits (such as phone numbers and ID numbers), because one rhymes with seven. It is never used in counting or reading values. In Taiwan Taiwan Taiwan is an island in East Asia. "Taiwan" is also commonly used to refer to the country governed by the Republic of China and to the ROC itself, which governs the island of Taiwan, Orchid Island and Green Island, Taiwan in the Pacific Ocean off the Taiwan coast, the Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait, and Kinmen and the Matsu Islands... , it is only used by soldier Soldier A soldier is a general English term that refers to a land component of national armed forces.In most societies of the world, "soldier" is also a general term for any member of the land forces including Commissioned officer and non-commissioned officers.... s, police Police Police are agents or agencies, usually of the executive , empowered to enforce the law and to ensure public and social order through the legitimized use of force.... , and emergency service Emergency service Emergency services are organizations which ensure public safety by addressing different emergencies. Some agencies exist solely for addressing certain types of emergencies whilst others deal with ad hoc emergencies as part of their normal responsibilities.... s. This usage is not observed in Cantonese.
?(T) or ?(S)	2 2 (number) 2 is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3 ....	liang	?	A very common alternative way of saying "two". Its usage varies from dialect to dialect, even person to person. For example "2222" can read as "???????", "???????" or even "???????" in Mandarin. See Reading and transcribing numbers section below.
?	10 10 (number) 10 is an Even and odd numbers natural number following 9 and preceding 11 ....	ya	?	In Cantonese speech, when ? is used in the middle of a number, preceded by a multiplier and followed by a ones digit, ? becomes ? (aa⁶), e.g. ???, 63. This usage is not observed in Mandarin.
?	? 20 20 (number) 20 is the natural number following 19 and preceding 21 . A group of twenty units may also be referred to as a score....	niàn	??	The written form is still used to refer to dates, especially Chinese calendar dates. Spoken form is still used in various dialects of Chinese. See Reading and transcribing numbers section below. In Cantonese, ? (jaa⁶) must be followed by another digit 1-9 (e.g. ??, 23), or in a phrase like ?? ("twenty-something"); it is not used by itself to mean 20. ? is a rare variant.
?	30 30 (number) 30 is the natural number following 29 and preceding 31 ....	sà	??	The written form is still used to abbreviate date references in Chinese. For example, May 30 Movement. Spoken form is still used in various dialects of Chinese. See Reading and transcribing numbers section below.
?	40 40 (number) 40 is the natural number following 39 and preceding 41 .Despite being related to the word "four" , 40 is spelled "forty", not "". This is because etymologically , the words have different vowels, "forty" containing a contraction in the same way that "fifty" contains a contraction of "five"....	xì	??	Spoken form is still used in various dialects of Chinese, albeit very rare.
?	200 200 (number) 200 is the natural number following 199 and preceding 201 . Roman numerals: CCThe number appears in the Padovan sequence, preceded by 86, 114, 151 ....	bì	??	Very rarely used, one common example is the literature «???».

Large numbers

Similar to the long and short scales

Long and short scales

The long and short scales are two different numerical systems used throughout the world:Note that the difference between the two scales grows as numbers get larger....
in the west, for numeral characters greater than ? (wàn), there have been four systems in ancient and modern usage:

System	? yì	? zhào	? jing	? gai	? zi	? ráng	? gou	? jiàn	? zheng	? zài	Factor of increase
Alternative			?/?		?	?
1	10⁵	10⁶	10⁷	10⁸	10⁹	10¹⁰	10¹¹	10¹²	10¹³	10¹⁴	Each numeral is 10 (? shí) times the previous.
2	10⁸	10¹²	10¹⁶	10²⁰	10²⁴	10²⁸	10³²	10³⁶	10⁴⁰	10⁴⁴	Each numeral is 10,000 (? wàn) times the previous.
3	10⁸	10¹⁶	10²⁴	10³²	10⁴⁰	10⁴⁸	10⁵⁶	10⁶⁴	10⁷²	10⁸⁰	Each numeral is 10⁸ (?? wànwàn) times the previous.
4	10⁸	10¹⁶	10³²	10⁶⁴	10¹²⁸	10²⁵⁶	10⁵¹²	10¹⁰²⁴	10²⁰⁴⁸	10⁴⁰⁹⁶	Each numeral is the square Square (algebra) In algebra, the square of a number is that number multiplication by itself. To square a quantity is to multiply it by itself.Its notation is a superscripted "2"; a number x squared is written as x?.... of the previous.

In modern Chinese, only the second system is used in expressing numbers. Although there is some dispute on the value of ? zhào, the usage (representing 10¹²) is still consistent through Chinese communities, as well as Japan

Japanese numerals

The system of Japanese numerals is the system of number names used in the Japanese language. The Japanese numerals in writing are entirely based on the Chinese numerals and the grouping of large numbers follow the China Culture of China of grouping by 10,000....
, Korea

Korean numerals

The Korean language has two regularly used sets of numerals, a Sino-Korean vocabulary system and a native Korean language system....
. However, most people do not recognize numerals beyond ? yì (10⁸) and dictionary definitions on the words of larger number may not be consistent (except Korea where ?zhào and ?jing are frequently used).

One example of ambiguity is ?zhào, which traditionally means 10¹² but is also used for 10⁶ in information technology in recent years (esp. in mainland China). To avoid problems arising from the ambiguity, the PRC government never uses this character in official documents, but uses ??wànyì instead. (On the other hand, the ROC

ROC

The word Roc may refer to:*Roc , a mythical giant bird*Roc , an American television sitcom starring Charles S. Dutton which aired 1991 – 1994...
government in Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan is an island in East Asia. "Taiwan" is also commonly used to refer to the country governed by the Republic of China and to the ROC itself, which governs the island of Taiwan, Orchid Island and Green Island, Taiwan in the Pacific Ocean off the Taiwan coast, the Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait, and Kinmen and the Matsu Islands...
uses ?zhào to mean 10¹² in official documents.)

Numbers from Buddhism

The numerals beyond ? zài come from Buddhist texts

Buddhist texts

Buddhist texts can be categorized in a number of ways. The Western terms "scripture" and "canonical" are applied to Buddhism in inconsistent ways by Western scholars: for example, one authority refers to "scriptures and other canonical texts", while another says that scriptures can be categorized into canonical, commentarial and pseudo-canon...
in Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
, but these "Buddhist numerals" have become "ancient usage".

Name	Value	Notes
?(T) or ?(S)	10⁴⁸
???	10⁵²	Literally means "Sands of the Ganges", a metaphor used in number of Buddhist texts Buddhist texts Buddhist texts can be categorized in a number of ways. The Western terms "scripture" and "canonical" are applied to Buddhism in inconsistent ways by Western scholars: for example, one authority refers to "scriptures and other canonical texts", while another says that scriptures can be categorized into canonical, commentarial and pseudo-canon... to convey a quantity equal to the number of grains of sand in the Ganges river.
???	10⁵⁶	From Sanskrit Asa?khyeya Asa?khyeya An is a Buddhist name for the number 10140.The word "" literally means "innumerable" in Sanskrit.The word also comes up in Vishnu Sahasranama Stanza 27, "Asankyeyo-aprameyaatmaa" One who has innumerable names and forms....
???	10⁶⁰	From Sanskrit Nayuta
????(T) or ????(S)	10⁶⁴	Literally translated as "unfathomable" or "unthinkable".
??(T) or ??(S)	10⁶⁸	Literally translated "without limit"
??(T) or ??(S)	10⁷²	Literally translated "big number"

Small numbers

The following are characters used to denote small order of magnitude

Order of magnitude

An order of magnitude is the class of scale or magnitude of any amount, where each class contains values of a fixed Geometric progression to the class preceding it....
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.

Character	Value	Notes
?	10^-12	(Ancient Chinese) ? corresponds to the SI prefix pico Pico pico is a SI prefix denoting a factor of 10-12 in the International System of Units .Derived from the Italian piccolo, meaning small, this was one of the original 12 prefixes defined in 1960 when the SI was established.... .
?	10^-11	(Ancient Chinese)
?	10^-10	(Ancient Chinese)
?	10^-9	(Ancient Chinese) ? (T) or ? (S) corresponds to the SI prefix nano Nano nano is a SI prefix in the SI system of Units of measurements denoting a factor of 10-9. It is frequently encountered in science and electronics for prefixing units of time and length, like 30 nanoseconds , 100 nanometres or in the case of electrical capacitance, 100 nanofarads .... .
?	10^-8	(Ancient Chinese)
?	10^-7	(Ancient Chinese)
?	10^-6	still in use, corresponds to the SI prefix micro.
?	10^-5	(Ancient Chinese)
?	10^-4	(Ancient Chinese)
?	1/1,000	also ?. still in use, corresponds to the SI prefix milli Milli milli is a SI prefix in the SI and other systems of Units of measurements denoting a factor of 10-3, or 1/1,000 .Adopted in 1795, the prefix comes from the Latin mille, meaning one thousand .... .
?	1/100 Hundredth In mathematics and arithmetic, a hundredth is one part of a unit or one divided equally into one 100 parts. A hundredth is the multiplicative inverse of one hundred....	also ?. still in use, corresponds to the SI prefix centi Centi centi is a SI prefix in the SI system of Units of measurements denoting a factor of 10-2, or 1/100.Adopted in 1795, the prefix comes from the Latin centum, meaning hundred.... .
?	1/10 Tenth Tenth can mean:Tenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution to the U.S. ConstitutionIn mathematics: 10th, an ordinal number; as in the item in an order ten places from the beginning, following the ninth and preceding the eleventh....	still in use, corresponds to the SI prefix deci Deci deci is a SI prefix in the SI system of Units of measurements denoting a factor of 10-1 .Adopted in 1795, the prefix comes from the Latin decimus, meaning tenth.... .

SI prefixes

The translations for the SI prefix

SI prefix

An SI prefix is a name or associated symbol that precedes a basic unit of measure to form a decimal multiple . The abbreviation SI is from the French language name Syst?me International d?Unit?s ....
es 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, ? jing was defined as giga, and ? xian 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 ? . The government of the PRC used a part of this translation, and defined ? zhào as the translation for the SI prefix mega
Mega

mega is an SI prefix in the SI system of Units of measurements denoting a factor of 1 E6, 1,000,000 .For example, 1 MW = 1,000,000 watts = 1,000 kilowatts....
(10⁶). (Perhaps the government was not aware of the common usage of ?, and thus did not consider an alternative single Chinese character, such as ?, to represent mega.) Because of this, the translation has caused much confusion.

In addition, Taiwanese defined ?? 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

People's Republic of China

The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the List of countries by population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately a fifth of the world's population....
(Mainland China

Mainland China

Mainland China, Continental China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China , excluding Hong Kong and Macau, which run on One Country, Two Systems....
, Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Macau

The Macau Special Administrative Region, , commonly known as Macau or Macao , is one of the two special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, the other being Hong Kong....
) and Republic of China

Republic of China

The Republic of China , also known as Nationalist China is a country in East Asia that has evolved from a single-party state with full global recognition into a multi-party democratic state with Political status of Taiwan....
(Taiwan) 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.

**SI Prefixes**
Value	Symbol	English	Early translation	PRC People's Republic of China The People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the List of countries by population in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately a fifth of the world's population.... standard	ROC Republic of China The Republic of China , also known as Nationalist China is a country in East Asia that has evolved from a single-party state with full global recognition into a multi-party democratic state with Political status of Taiwan.... standard
10²⁴	Y	yotta Yotta yotta is an SI prefix in the SI denoting 1024 or 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000.Adopted in 1991, it comes from the Ancient Greek , meaning eight, because it is equal to 10008....		? yáo	? yòu
10²¹	Z	zetta Zetta zetta is an SI prefix in the SI denoting 1 E21 or 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000.Adopted in 1991, it comes from the Latin septem, meaning seven, because it is equal to 10007....		? zé	? jie
10¹⁸	E	exa Exa exa is a SI prefix in the SI system of Units of measurements denoting 1 E18 or 1 000 000 000 000 000 000.Adopted in 1975, it comes from the Greek language ??, meaning six , because it is equal to 10006....	? ráng	? ài	? ài
10¹⁵	P	peta Peta (prefix) In physics and mathematics, peta- is a SI prefix in the SI denoting 1 E15, or 1,000,000,000,000,000. For example:1 petametre = 1015 metres...	? zi	? pai	? pai
10¹²	T	tera Tera tera- is a SI prefix in the SI system of units denoting 1012, or 1,000,000,000,000 .Confirmed in 1960, it comes from the Greek language wikt:t??a?, meaning monster....	? gai	? tài	? zhào
10⁹	G	giga Giga Giga is a SI prefix in the SI system of units denoting Orders of magnitude , or 1,000,000,000. The Oxford English Dictionary reports the earliest written use of giga- in this sense to be in the Reports of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry 14th Conference in 1947: "The following prefixes to abbreviations for the names...	? jing	? jí	? jí
10⁶	M	mega Mega mega is an SI prefix in the SI system of Units of measurements denoting a factor of 1 E6, 1,000,000 .For example, 1 MW = 1,000,000 watts = 1,000 kilowatts....	? zhào	? zhào	?? baiwàn
10³	k	kilo Kilo Kilo is a SI prefix in the SI and other systems of units denoting 1 E3 or 1,000. For example:* one kilogram is 1,000 grams* one kilometre is 1,000 metres...	? qian	? qian	? qian
10²	h	hecta	? bai	? bai	? bai
10¹	da	deca Deca deca or deka is an SI prefix in the SI system of units, also a numerical prefix , denoting a factor of 1 E1 or 10 .The prefix was a part of the original metric system in 1795....	? shí	? shí	? shí
10^-1	d	deci Deci deci is a SI prefix in the SI system of Units of measurements denoting a factor of 10-1 .Adopted in 1795, the prefix comes from the Latin decimus, meaning tenth....	? fen	? fen	? fen
10^-2	c	centi Centi centi is a SI prefix in the SI system of Units of measurements denoting a factor of 10-2, or 1/100.Adopted in 1795, the prefix comes from the Latin centum, meaning hundred....	? lí	? lí	? lí
10^-3	m	milli Milli milli is a SI prefix in the SI and other systems of Units of measurements denoting a factor of 10-3, or 1/1,000 .Adopted in 1795, the prefix comes from the Latin mille, meaning one thousand ....	? háo	? háo	? háo
10^-6	µ	micro	? wei	? wei	? wei
10^-9	n	nano Nano nano is a SI prefix in the SI system of Units of measurements denoting a factor of 10-9. It is frequently encountered in science and electronics for prefixing units of time and length, like 30 nanoseconds , 100 nanometres or in the case of electrical capacitance, 100 nanofarads ....	? xian	? nà	? nài
10^-12	p	pico Pico pico is a SI prefix denoting a factor of 10-12 in the International System of Units .Derived from the Italian piccolo, meaning small, this was one of the original 12 prefixes defined in 1960 when the SI was established....	? sha	? pí	? pí
10^-15	f	femto Femto femto is an SI prefix in the International System of Units system of units denoting a factor of 10-15 or 0.000 000 000 000 001....	? chén	? fei	? fei
10^-18	a	atto Atto atto is an SI prefix to a unit and means that it is 10-18 times this unit. Examples are one attosecond or one attometre .Adopted in 1964, it comes from the Danish language word atten, meaning eighteen....	? miao	? à	? à
10^-21	z	zepto Zepto zepto is a SI prefix in the SI system of Units of measurements denoting a factor of 10-21.Adopted in 1991, it comes from the France sept or Latin septem, meaning seven, since it is equal to 1/10007....		? zè	? jiè
10^-24	y	yocto Yocto yocto is an SI prefix in the SI system of Units of measurements denoting a factor of 10-24 or 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 001.Adopted in 1991, it comes from the Greece οκτώ, meaning eight, because it is equal to 1/10008....		? yao	? you

Reading and transcribing numbers

Whole numbers

Multiple-digit numbers are constructed using a multiplicative principle; first the digit itself (from 1 to 9), then the place (such as 10 or 100); then the next digit.

In Mandarin, the multiplier ? (liang) is used rather than ? (èr) for all numbers greater than 200 with the "2" numeral. Use of both ? (liang) or ? (èr) are acceptable for the number 200. When writing in the Cantonese dialect, ? (yi⁶) is used to represent the "2" numeral for all numbers. In the southern Min dialect of Chaozhou (Teochew), ? (no⁶) is used to represent the "2" numeral in all numbers from 200 onwards. Thus:

Number	Structure	Characters
Number	Structure	Mandarin	Cantonese Cantonese Cantonese generally refers to people or things associated with a region around the Chinese province of Guangdong or its capital, Guangzhou.* Cantonese, a branch of the Chinese language family, spoken in Guangdong and neighboring provinces...	Chaozhou	Shanghainese Shanghainese Shanghainese , sometimes referred to as the Shanghai dialect, is a dialect of Wu Chinese spoken in the city of Shanghai, and the surrounding region....
60	[6] [10]	??	??	??	??
20	[2] [10] or [20]	??	?? or ?	??	?
200	[2] (èr) or (liang) [100]	?? or ??	?? or ??	??	??
2000	[2] (liang) [1000]	?? or ??	?? or ??	??	??
45	[4] [10] [5]	???	??? or ??	???	???
2,362	[2] [1,000] [3] [100] [6] [10] [2]	???????	???????	???????	???????

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:

Number	Strict Putonghua		Colloquial or dialect usage
Number	Structure	Characters	Structure	Characters
14	[10] [4]	??
12000	[1] [10000] [2] [1000]	????	[1] [10000] [2] or [10000] [2]	??? or ??
114	[1] [100] [1] [10] [4]	?????	[1] [100] [10] [4]	????
1158	[1] [1000] [1] [100] [5] [10] [8]	???????	See note 1 below

Notes:

Nothing is ever omitted in large and more complicated numbers such as this.

In certain older texts like the Protestant Bible

Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
or in poetic usage, numbers such as 114 may be written as [100] [10] [4].

For numbers larger than a myriad

Myriad

Myriad is a classical Greek language name for the number 104 = 10000 . In modern English language the word refers to an unspecified large quantity....
, the same grouping system used in English applies, except in groups of four places (myriads) rather than in groups of three (thousands). 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 (numbers in parentheses indicate that the number has been written as one number rather than expanded):

Number	Structure	Characters
12,345,678,902,345 (12,3456,7890,2345)	(12) [1,0000,0000,0000] (3456) [1,0000,0000] (7890) [1,0000] (2345)	?????????????????????????

Interior zeroes before the unit position (as in 1002) must be spelt explicitly. The reason for this is that trailing zeroes (as in 1200) 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:

Number	Structure	Characters
205	[2] [100] [0] [5]	????
100,004 (10,0004)	[10] [10,000] [0] [4]	????
10,050,026 (1005,0026)	(1005) [10,000] (26) or (1005) [10,000] (026)	????????? or ????????

Fractional values

To construct a fraction, the denominator is written first, followed by ?? ("parts of") and then the numerator

Numerator

Numerator may refer to:* A numeral used to indicate a count, particularly of the equal parts in a fraction . A numerator is the number on top of the fraction....
. 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. Mixed numbers

Fraction (mathematics)

A fraction is a number that can represent part of a whole.The earliest fractions were reciprocals of integers, symbols representing one half, one third, one quarter, and so on....
are written with the whole-number part first, followed by ? ("again"), then the fractional part.

Fraction	Structure	Characters
²/₃	[3] [parts of] [2]	????
¹⁵/₃₂	[3] [10] [2] [parts of] [10] [5]	???????
¹/₃₀₀₀	[3] [1000] [parts of] [1]	?????
3 ⁵/₆	[3] [again] [6] [parts of] [5]	??????

Percentages are constructed similarly, using ? (100) as the denominator. The ? (one) before ? is omitted.

Percentage	Structure	Characters
25%	[100] [parts of] [2] [10] [5]	??????
110%	[100] [parts of] [1] [100] [1] [10]	???????

Decimal numbers are constructed by first writing the whole number part, then inserting ? (traditional) or ? (simplified) ("point"), and finally the decimal expression. The decimal expression is written using only the digits for 0 to 9, without multiplicative words.

Decimal expression	Structure	Characters
16.98	[10] [6] [point] [9] [8]	?????
12345.6789	[1] [10000] [2] [1000] [3] [100] [4] [10] [5] [point] [6] [7] [8] [9]	??????????????
75.4025	[7] [10] [5] [point] [4] [0] [2] [5]	????????
0.1	[0] [point] [1]	???

Ordinal numbers

Ordinal numbers are formed by adding ? ("sequence") before the number.

Ordinal	Structure	Characters
1st	[sequence] [1]	??
2nd	[sequence] [2]	??
82nd	[sequence] [8] [10] [2]	????

Negative numbers

Negative numbers are formed by adding ? (traditional) ? (simplified) ("negative") before the number.

Number	Structure	Characters
-1158	[negative] [1] [1000] [1] [100] [5] [10] [8]	????????
-3 ⁵/₆	[negative] [3] [again] [6] [parts of] [5]	???????
-75.4025	[negative] [7] [10] [5] [point] [4] [0] [2] [5]	?????????

Suzhou numerals

In the same way that Roman numerals

Roman numerals

Roman numerals are a numeral system of ancient Rome based on letters of the alphabet, which are combined to signify the sum of their values. The system is decimal but not directly Positional notation and does not include a zero....
were standard in ancient and medieval Europe for mathematics and commerce, the Chinese formerly used the rod numerals

Counting rods

Counting rods are small bars, typically 3-14 cm long, used by mathematicians for calculation in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. They are placed either horizontally or vertically to represent any number and any fraction....
, which is a positional system. The Suzhou

Suzhou

Suzhou is a city on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores of Lake Taihu in the province of Jiangsu, China. The city is renowned for its beautiful stone bridges, pagodas, and meticulously designed Chinese garden which have contributed to its status as a great tourist attraction....
or huama system is a variation of the Southern Song

Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty was a ruling Chinese dynasty in China between 960–1279 AD; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty....
rod numerals. Nowadays, the huama 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 Ming

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty , or Empire of the Great Ming , was the ruling Dynasties in Chinese history of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty....
and Qing

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty , also known as the Manchu Dynasty, followed the Ming Dynasty in History of China, and was the last ruling Chinese Dynasties of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 ....
dynasties (when Arabic numerals

Arabic numerals

The 'arabic numerals', or 'Hindu numerals' are the ten digits , which?along with Decimal Number System by which a sequence was read as a number?were originally defined by Indian mathematics, later modified and transferred to North African Islamic mathematics and transmitted to Europe in the Middle Ages, whence they spread around the wo...
were first introduced into China), 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

Arabic numerals

The 'arabic numerals', or 'Hindu numerals' are the ten digits , which?along with Decimal Number System by which a sequence was read as a number?were originally defined by Indian mathematics, later modified and transferred to North African Islamic mathematics and transmitted to Europe in the Middle Ages, whence they spread around the wo...
in mathematical writings.

Traditional Chinese numeric characters are also used in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
and Korea

Korea

Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries, a civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia....
. In vertical text (that is, read top to bottom), 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.

Chinese numerals

Written numbers

Characters used to represent numbers

Standard numbers

Characters with regional usage

Large numbers

Numbers from Buddhism

Small numbers

SI prefixes

Reading and transcribing numbers

Whole numbers

Fractional values

Ordinal numbers

Negative numbers

Suzhou numerals

Hand gestures

Cultural influences

See also

External links