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Today, speakers of Chinese use three numeral systems: There is the ubiquitous system of Arabic digits and two ancient Chinese numeral systems. The "Hua1 Ma3 (花碼 U+82B1, U+78BC for "flowery or fancy numbers")" system has gradually been supplanted by the Arabic system in writing numbers. The character system is still used and roughly analogous to writing out a number in text.

The "Hua1 Ma3" system, the only surviving variation of the rod numeral system, is nowadays in use only in Chinese markets (e.g. in Hong Kong). The character writing system is still in use when writing numbers in long form such as on cheques, as their complexity thwarts forgery.

Individual Chinese characters mentioned in this article can be looked up graphically in the Unihan database by using the following access URL: http://www.unicode.org/cgi-bin/GetUnihanData.pl?codepoint=UUUU, where UUUU is the Unicode code point. e.g. use 82B1 for 'Hua1'.

1 Written numbers

The Chinese character numeral system is not a positional system. Instead, it is based on decimal bundling. The rules for forming numbers are as follows:

1. The numeral characters are tightly integrated into the language: Each numeral character has a phonetic value and a number is read by pronouncing each individual character it consists of, unlike e.g. English, where the numeral '2' has to be pronounced 'two' or 'twenty' depending on position.
2. There are ten 'basic' numeral characters representing the numbers zero through nine. And there are other characters representing big numbers such as tens, hundreds, thousands etc. There are two sets of characters for Chinese numerals, one in formal writing and one in casual daily use writing. The formal version is much more complex to prevent alteration in legal documents such as promissory notes.
   Their phonetic values in Mandarin are:
   
   

   Pinyin	Formal writing	Casual writing	Value	Notes
   ling2	零	〇	zero	Casual form is a circle (U+3007, Ideographic number zero)
   yi1	壹	一	one	弌 (obsolete) 么 (yao1), "the smallest", is used widely in the People's Republic of China (including Hong Kong and Macau) as a synonym of "one", but never so in the Republic of China on TaiwanFor the political entity commonly known as "Taiwan," see Republic of China. The island of Taiwan ( Traditional: , Simplified: , Pinyin: Taiwn, Wade-Giles: T'ai-wan, Taiwanese: Tai-oan) is located off the coast of China in the Pacific Ocean. It is also kno, except for soldiersCorporal, armed with an MP-5) A soldier is a person who has enlisted with, or was conscripted into, the armed forces of a sovereign country and has undergone training and received equipment to defend that country or its interests. Soldiers are a part of s.
   er4	貳	二	two2 two is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. Prefixes for 2 are di- ( Greek) and duo- ( Latin). Evolution of the glyph The glyph we use today in the Western world to represent the number 2 traces its roots back to the Brahmin Indians, who wrot	弍 (obsolete) 兩 (simplified 两) (liang3) is often used when placed before a quantifier (see measure wordIn language, measure words are words that some languages use in combination with a numeral to indicate the count of nouns. Measure words often classify the noun they modify into some semantic class and consequently measure words are considered a kind of c)
   san1	叄	三	three3 three is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4. Prefixes for 3 include tri- ( Greek) and tre- Latin. Evolution of the glyph Three is often the largest number written with as many lines as the number represents. Even the Romans tired of writing	弎 (obsolete) 參 is also acceptable.
   si4	肆	四	fourThis article discusses the number Four . Four is also the name of a French commune, Four, Isere. 4 four is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. Prefixes for 4 include tetra- ( Greek) and quad- ( Latin). Evolution of the glyph Representing 1, 2
   wu3	伍	五	five5 (five) is the natural number following 4 and preceding 6. Prefixes for 5 include penta- ( Greek) and quinque- / quint- ( Latin). The SI prefix for 10005 is peta (P), and for its reciprocal femto (f). Evolution of the glyph The evolution of our modern gl
   liu4	陸	六	six6 six is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. Prefixes for 6 include hexa- ( Greek) and sex- ( Latin). The SI prefix for 10006 is exa (E), and for its reciprocal atto (a). Evolution of the glyph The evolution of our modern glyph for 6 appears r
   qi1	柒	七	seven
   ba1	捌	八	eight
   jiu3	玖	九	nine
   shi2	拾	十	ten
   nian4	貳拾	卄	twenty	廿 (more common form)
   sa4	叄拾	卅	thirty
   xi4	肆拾	卌	forty	rarely used
   bai3	佰	百	hundred
   qian1	仟	千	thousand
   wan4	萬	万	104 or myriad	Western numbers group by thousands, Chinese numbers group by wan4.
   yi4	億	亿	108 (hundred million)	1 yi4 = 1 wan4 wan4; compare 1 million = 1 thousand thousand in Western numbers. It also means 10 wan4 ( 105) in some ancient context. See explanation below for inconsistency of values for numerals greater than wan4.
   zhao4	兆		1012 ( trillion)	= 1 wan4 yi4; compare 1 billion = 1 thousand million ( 109) in American numbers. It also means 100 wan4 ( 106) when used as an SI prefix to SI units in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, e.g. zhao4he4 兆赫 = Megahertz (MHz). In Taiwan, it is called bai3wan4he4 百萬赫. In some ancient context, 1 zhao4 = 1 yi4 yi4 (1016).
   jing1	京 (or 經)		1016	(Ancient Chinese) Also: 107, 1024, 1032.
   gai1	垓		1020	(Ancient Chinese) Also: 108, 1032, 1064.
   zi3	秭		1024	(Ancient Chinese) Also: 109, 1040, 10128.
   rang2	穰		1028	(Ancient Chinese) Also: 1010, 1048, 10256.
   gou1	溝		1032	(Ancient Chinese) Also: 1011, 1056, 10512.
   jian4	澗		1036	(Ancient Chinese) Also: 1012, 1064, 101024.
   zheng4	正		1040	(Ancient Chinese) Also: 1013, 1072, 102048.
   zai4	載		1044	(Ancient Chinese) Also: 1014, 1080, 104096.
   ji2	極		1048	(Ancient Chinese) Also: 1015, 1088, 108192.
   fen1	分		tenth, deci-
   li2	釐	厘	hundredth, centi-
   hao2	毫		thousandth, milli-
   si1	絲		10-4 (ten-thousandth)	(Uncommon Usage)
   hu1	忽		10-5 (hundred-thousandth)	(Uncommon Usage)
   wei1	微		10-6 (millionth, micro-)
   xian1	纖		10-7	(Ancient Chinese)
   sha1	沙		10-8	(Ancient Chinese)
   chen2	塵		10-9	(Ancient Chinese)
   ai1	埃		10-10	(Ancient Chinese)
   miao3	渺		10-11	(Ancient Chinese)
   mo4	漠		10-12	(Ancient Chinese)

   
   

3. Leading '1' can sometimes be abbreviated when it is understood. The numbers 11 - 19 are often written using two characters, where the first one is the basic numeral '10' and the second one is one of the basic numerals '1' to '9'. (i.e. 14 is written as '10' '4' as an abbreviation from '1' '10' '4'.) The leading '1' in other positions can be abbreviated only in conversation (common in Cantonese). For example, 17000 can be read as '10000' '7', but written as '1' '10000' '7' '1000'. However, when more than two digits are involved, the abbreviation usually does not take place except in Japanese. For example, 114 is read as '1' '100' '1' '10' '4', and definitely not '100' '10' '4'. Although '1' '100' '10' '4' is marginally acceptable, it is not common.
4. The numbers 20, 30, 40 ... 90 are constructed using a multiplicative principle, where, e.g., 60 is represented as '6' '10'; the numbers in between are formed like 11-19, so that, e.g., 42 is written as '4' '10' '2'. However, on calendars, there is a special character (廿 or 卄 pinyin nian4) used for "twenty" in the numbers 21 through 29. (Twenty itself is written '2' '10'.) There are special characters (卅 pinin sa4 and 卌 pinyin xi4) used for "thirty" and "forty" respectively in the same manner.
5. There are also numeral characters for hundred (bai3), thousand (qian1), myriad (wan4) and hundred million (yi4) and trillion (zhao4). The above principles are extended, except a new grouping character is introduced for each myriad (wan4) times of the previous number. For example, one yi4 = 10000 wan4; one zhao4 = 10000 yi4. Hence it is more convenient to read if the digits are separated four in a group. For example, 12,345,678,901,203 is regrouped as 12,3456,7890,1203 to read or write as shi2 er4 zhao4 san1 qian1 si4 bai3 wu3 shi2 liu4 yi4 qi7 qian1 ba1 bai3 jiu3 shi2 wan4 yi1 qian1 er4 bai3 ling2 san1.
   (十二兆三千四百五十六億七千八百九十萬一千二百零三) which is equivalent to say (*) ten 2 trillion 3 thousand 4 hundred 5 ten 6 byriad 7 thousand 8 hundred 9 ten (*) myriad 1 thousand 2 hundred 0 3. (*) denotes where a character is understood and omitted. This may seem very complicated, but it actually is very similar to reading an English number. The only differences are that myriad is used as a grouping unit instead of the usual thousand, and ten is written explicitly instead of appending the suffix ty or teen to the number. Compare to a grouping of three digits in the English system, 12,345,678,901,203 is read as 12 trillion 3 hundred 4ty 5 billion 6 hundred 7ty 8 million 9 hundred 'and' 1 thousand 2 hundred 'oh' 3.
6. 'Interior zeroes' before the unit position (as in 10002) have to be spelt explicitly, so 10002 becomes '1' '10000' '0' '2'; the reason for this is that '1' '10000' '2' is used as a shorthand for '1' '10000' '2' '1000' where the trailing '1000' is abbreviated. One '0' is sufficient to resolve the ambiguity. Same rule applies to the unit position before each grouping character. For example, 10050000 is read '1' '1000' '0' '5' '10000'. However, 1032 can be read as '1' '1000' '0' '3' '10' '2'. In this case, the '0' is preferred but optional because the '3' '10' '2' is not ambiguous -- oh, and try to avoid the use of '2' '100' '5' (er bai wu i.e. 250) in conversational language; it is normally used to mean stupid. Note that 205 is read with the explicit interior zero, i.e. '2' '100' '0' '5' (er bai ling wu).
7. For numeral characters greater than wan4, actually there were four systems in ancient and modern usage:

   System	yi4	zhao4	jing1	gai1	zi3	rang2	Notes
   1	105	106	107	108	109	1010	Each numeral increases by the factor of shi2 (10).
   2	108	1012	1016	1020	1024	1028	Each numeral increases by the factor of wan4 (10000).
   3	108	1016	1024	1032	1040	1048	Each numeral increases by the factor of wan4 wan4 (108).
   4	108	1016	1032	1064	10128	10256	Each numeral increases by the factor of the preceding one.

   Modern Chinese and Japanese use only the second system. The usage is consistent throughout all Chinese communities. However, most people do not recognize numerals beyound zhao4 (10¹²) and their definitions on dictionaries may not be consistent. The definition of zhao4 = 10⁶ survived in the translation for the SI prefix Mega, since there will be no single numeral for that value otherwise. There was also an attempt to use the rarely used numerals jing1, gai1, zi3, rang2... to translate SI prefixes giga (10⁹), tera (10¹²), peta (10¹⁵), exa (10¹⁸)... making the situation even more complicated. Fortunately the current national standard of the People's Republic of China uses phonetic transcriptions ji2 吉, tai4 太, pai1 拍, ai4 艾... instead.

Strictly speaking, the Chinese written numbers should not be considered a numeral system. As an analogy, when the value 3000 is written as two English words "Three Thousand", the English words are not part of the number system. (or are they?)

Just like Ancient Englishman used the Roman numerals for doing mathematics or commerce, Ancient Chinese used the rod numerals which is a positional system. The "Hual Ma3" system is a variation of the rod numeral system. Rod numerals are closely related to the counting rods and the abacus, which is why the numeric symbols for 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8 in "Hual Ma3" system are represented in a similar way as on the abacus.