Chinese abacus

The abacus, a calculation tool invented by the ancient Chinese over 2 millennia ago.

If the abacus has now fallen somewhat into disuse in everyday use in China, as calculators and computers are widely used in modern times only twenty years ago the abacus was still used as an important calculating tool for every household, not to mention accountants and merchants.

Today, of course, it still has a place in children’s education throughout China and elsewhere, as it makes learning mathematics much easier.

The Chinese abacus is popular with teachers, parents and children alike, and has become an integral part of many educational methods.

Chinese abacus typology

In the Chinese abacus, there are two beads on each row in the upper bridge and five beads on each rod in the lower bridge. This configuration is used for both decimal and hexadecimal calculations. The beads are generally rounded and made of wood or plastic. The beads on the abacus are counted by moving them up or down towards the center of the abacus.

It’s a joy to watch an expert hand use an abacus – the beads strike, the fingers flutter, and after a few seconds, the result comes out. In the past, in addition to being able to write elegant characters with a brush, businessmen also had to know how to use an abacus skilfully. Every time there was a calculation, there was an abacus. The earliest known written documentation on the Chinese abacus dates back to the 2nd century BC (Han dynasty).

The history of the Chinese abacus

The Chinese abacus is an important part of traditional Chinese culture, symbolizing centuries of accumulated knowledge and mathematical practice.

Mankind’s relationship with mathematics began with counting. Earlier counting methods used stones, shells and knots. The practice of using the Chinese abacus called “Zhusuan” is a unique, centuries-old method of performing arithmetic calculations.

Zhusuan is widely recognized as China’s fifth great invention and is also known as Suanpan.

In Chinese, “zhu” means pearl, which is also an integral part of the abacus, while “suan” means counting. By moving the beads, you can add, subtract, multiply, divide, calculate powers, extract roots and even solve higher-degree equations. A special method is used for each operation on an abacus, enabling users to perform difficult calculations.

Because of its speed of calculation, convenience and powerful capabilities, it has been called “the world’s oldest computer”.

Zhusuan is mentioned as early as 190 A.D., in the Supplementary Notes on the Art of Figures written by Xu Yue.

It is the only one of the 14 counting methods mentioned in the book that is still in practice. In the 12th century, zhusuan practice was perfected and it became a common calculation tool.

In a painting by Song dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan, an abacus is clearly visible on the counter of a medicine store near the busy street.

It was during this period that Zhusuan reached its peak as an important tool for mathematics. During the Ming dynasty, the General Source of Cheng Dawei’s calculation methods reached Japan, greatly influencing Japanese mathematics. Historical records show that Zhusuan spread to South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia during the 16th century. Today, Zhusuan is widely used throughout the world.

Founded in Beijing in 2002, the World Association of Abacus and Mental Arithmetic now has 58 branches in 17 countries, including the USA, Australia, Russia and Japan.

On December 4, 2013, Zhusuan was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

In the late 20th century, the Chinese introduced the mental use of Zhusuan calculations. It works on the principle of visualizing the abacus, enabling extremely complex calculations to be solved quickly.

The Chinese have practiced zhusuan throughout the ages and dynasties. Modern practice is a culmination of ancient Chinese wisdom.

Recognized as an intangible cultural heritage, zhusuan is considered a unique way of thinking that will be passed down from generation to generation, and a skill that has the power to change the world.

Advantages of the Chinese abacus

The advantages of the Chinese abacus are many and varied. The most obvious advantage is that it helps children learn math, but there are many other benefits too, including:

• Helps develop fine motor skills in young children by providing a tactile experience. Helps develop dexterity and hand-eye coordination.
• Develops visual memory and concentration.
• Teaches children to think ahead, plan their movements and improve their anticipation skills.
• Improves mental arithmetic skills, especially in young children.
• Gives an intuitive understanding of numbers and basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication).

The Chinese abacus is more than just a calculator: it’s an educational toy that helps children learn to count, add and subtract intuitively. Developing a deep understanding of mathematics. The Chinese abacus allows you to break down each arithmetic operation.

Contrairement à l’usage d’une calculatrice le boulier requiert de compter mentalement et d’avoir une certaine activité, notamment pour compter les retenues, cela encourage l’enfant à bien maîtriser ses tables d’addition puis tables de multiplication.

The Chinese abacus is a fantastic educational toy that greatly enhances children’s development. It enables all families to offer their children a taste of early learning.

The Chinese abacus is suitable for calculations with whole or decimal numbers, and can be used by children from CP to CM2. (Ideally, the abacus should be introduced to children in CE1 or CE2, but it’s perfectly possible to introduce it to toddlers as soon as they’re learning numbers and the numbering system. There’s no minimum age for introducing the abacus into school learning. As soon as the child learns to count, he or she can be allowed to play with the Chinese abacus as a didactic toy to begin representing numbers on the rectangular frame of the abacus. To represent a number, move the unary balls at the bottom and the first quinary ball at the top of each rod along the horizontal crossbar. From right to left according to decimal places: first column = unit, then come columns of tens, hundreds, thousands… (for decimal numbers, the digits before the decimal point are obviously to the left of the units)

The suanpan is the most powerful of all educational games: it facilitates the teaching of elementary mathematics and the concepts of the decimal system. It introduces children to a certain abstraction: instead of counting on their fingers, they have to break down each number on the abacus.

Learning how to use the Chinese abacus is a simple, fun early-learning game that makes calculating and performing operations very easy. Knowing how to count on an abacus gives children an advantage. Many mathematicians use the Chinese abacus as an early math learning toy.