Chinese numerals
Chinese numerals are words and characters used to denote numbers in written Chinese. Speakers of Chinese languages use three written numeral systems: the international system of Arabic numerals, and two indigenous systems.
The more familiar indigenous system is based on Chinese characters that correspond to numerals in the spoken language. These may be shared with other languages of the Chinese cultural sphere such as Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese. Most people and institutions in China primarily use the Arabic or mixed Arabic-Chinese systems for convenience, with traditional Chinese numerals used in finance, mainly for writing amounts on cheques, banknotes, some ceremonial occasions, some boxes, and on commercials.
The other indigenous system consists of the Suzhou numerals, or huama, a positional system, the only surviving form of the rod numerals. These were once used by Chinese mathematicians, and later by merchants in Chinese markets, such as those in Hong Kong until the 1990s, but were gradually supplanted by Arabic numerals.
Basic counting in Chinese
Traditionally, the Chinese numeral system is a sign-value notation consisting of the same Chinese characters used by the Chinese written language to write spoken numbers. Similar to spelling-out numbers in English, it is not an independent system per se. Since it reflects spoken language, it generally does not use the positional system as in Arabic numerals, in the same way that spelling out numbers in English does not. In modern times, Chinese numerals may adopt a positional system in some contexts, though this is uncommon.Ordinary numerals
There are characters representing the numbers zero through nine, and other characters representing powers of ten such as tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands and hundred millions. There are two sets of characters for ordinary Chinese numerals: one for everyday writing, known as , and another for use in commercial, accounting or financial contexts, known as .Financial numerals
The financial numerals were developed by Wu Zetian and were further refined by the Hongwu Emperor. They were adopted because the characters used for writing everyday 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 the characters to by adding a few strokes. That would not be possible when writing using the financial characters and . They are also referred to as "banker's numerals" or "anti-fraud numerals". For the same reason, rod numerals were never used in commercial records. Outside China, the financial numerals were adopted in Korea and in Japan for similar purposes.- Wugniu is a pan-Wu romanization scheme, but the exact romanization depends on the variety. The romanization listed here is specifically for Shanghainese.
Regional, contextual, and historic variation
Powers of 10
Large numbers
For numbers larger than 10,000, similarly to the long and short scales in the West, there have been four systems in ancient and modern usage. The original one, with unique names for all powers of ten up to the 14th, is ascribed to the Yellow Emperor in the 6th century book by Zhen Luan,. In modern Chinese, only the second system is used, in which the same ancient names are used, but each represents a myriad, times the previous:| Character | Factor of increase | |||||||||||
| Character | Factor of increase | |||||||||||
| Pinyin | Factor of increase | |||||||||||
| Jyutping | Factor of increase | |||||||||||
| Tai Lo | Factor of increase | |||||||||||
| Wugniu | Factor of increase | |||||||||||
| Alternative | ||||||||||||
| Rank | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | =n |
| "short scale" | 104 | 105 | 106 | 107 | 108 | 109 | 1010 | 1011 | 1012 | 1013 | 1014 | =10n+3 Each numeral is 10 times the previous. |
| "myriad scale" | 104 | 108 | 1012 | 1016 | 1020 | 1024 | 1028 | 1032 | 1036 | 1040 | 1044 | =104n Each numeral is 10,000 times the previous. |
| "mid-scale" | 104 | 108 | 1016 | 1024 | 1032 | 1040 | 1048 | 1056 | 1064 | 1072 | 1080 | =108 Starting with, each numeral is 108 times the previous. |
| "long scale" | 104 | 108 | 1016 | 1032 | 1064 | 10128 | 10256 | 10512 | 101024 | 102048 | 104096 | =102n+1 Each numeral is the square of the previous. This is similar to the -yllion system. |
In practice, this situation does not lead to ambiguity, with the exception of, which means 1012 according to the system in common usage throughout Chinese communities as well as in Japan and Korea, but has also been used for 106 in recent years. To avoid ambiguity, the PRC government never uses this character in official documents, but uses or instead. Partly due to this, combinations of and are often used instead of the larger units of the traditional system as well, for example instead of. The ROC government in Taiwan uses to mean 1012 in official documents.
Large numbers from Buddhism
Numerals beyond zǎi come from Buddhist texts in Sanskrit, but are mostly found in ancient texts. Some of the following words are still being used today, but may have transferred meanings.| Character | Pinyin | Jyutping | Tai Lo | Shanghainese | Value | Notes |
| ke̍k | 1048 | Literally 'extreme'. | ||||
| hîng-hô-sua | 1052 | Literally 'sands of the Ganges', a metaphor used in a number of Buddhist texts referring to many individual grains of sand | ||||
| a-sing-kî | a1-sen-ji | 1056 | From Sanskrit असंख्येय 'innumerable', 'infinite' | |||
| ná-iû-thann | 1060 | From Sanskrit नियुत 'myriad' | ||||
| put-khó-su-gī | 1064 | Literally translated as "unfathomable". This word is commonly used in Chinese as a chengyu, meaning "unimaginable", instead of its original meaning of the number 1064. | ||||
| bû-liōng tāi-siàu | 1068 | literally 'without measure', and can mean 1068. This word is also commonly used in Chinese as a commendatory term, means 'no upper limit'. e.g.: 'a great future'. 'a large number', and can mean 1072. |
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 have fallen into disuse.| Characters | Pinyin | Value | Notes |
| mò | 10−12 | corresponds to the SI prefix pico-. | |
| miǎo | 10−11 | ||
| āi | 10−10 | ||
| chén | 10−9 | Literally 'dust' corresponds to the SI prefix nano-. | |
| shā | 10−8 | Literally, "Sand" | |
| xiān | 10−7 | 'fiber' | |
| wēi | 10−6 | still used, corresponds to the SI prefix micro-. | |
| hū | 10−5 | ||
| sī | 10−4 | also. Literally, "Thread" | |
| háo | 10−3 | also. still in use, corresponds to the SI prefix milli-. | |
| lí | 10−2 | also. still in use, corresponds to the SI prefix centi-. | |
| fēn | 10−1 | still in use, corresponds to the SI prefix deci-. |
Small numbers from Buddhism
SI prefixes
In the People's Republic of China, the early translation for the SI prefixes in 1981 was different from those used today. The larger and smaller Chinese numerals were defined as translation for the SI prefixes as mega, giga, tera, peta, exa, micro, nano, pico, femto, atto, resulting in the creation of yet more values for each numeral.The Republic of China defined as the translation for mega and as the translation for tera. This translation is widely used in official documents, academic communities, informational industries, etc. However, the civil broadcasting industries sometimes use to represent "megahertz".
Today, the governments of both China and Taiwan use phonetic transliterations for the SI prefixes. However, the governments have chosen different Chinese characters for certain prefixes. The following table lists the two different standards together with the early translation.