page_title: Suzhou numerals
section_title: Notations
hierarchical_section_title: Suzhou numerals / Notations
caption_attribution_description: English: Suzhou numerals on banquet invoices. A banquet invoice issued by Canton Restaurant, 1910-1920s (on the left). A banquet invoice issued by Tai Wu Restaurant, 1910-1920s (on the right). An exhibit of the Hong Kong Museum of History.中文（繁體）‎: 廣州酒家發給客人的開支清單，1910至1920年代(左)。 太湖酒樓發給客人的開支清單，1910至1920年代(右)。 香港歷史博物館展品。
context_page_description: The Suzhou numerals, also known as Sūzhōu mǎzi, is a numeral system used in China before the introduction of Arabic numerals. The Suzhou numerals are also known as huāmǎ, cǎomǎ, jīngzǐmǎ, fānzǐmǎ and shāngmǎ.
context_section_description: The digits are 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, even when used within vertically written documents.
  For example:
  The first line contains the numerical values, in this example, "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 "十元" which stands for "ten yuan". When put together, it is then read as "40.22 yuan".
  Possible characters denoting order of magnitude include:
  qiān (千) for thousands
  bǎi (百) for hundreds
  shí (十) for tens
  blank for ones
  Other possible characters denoting unit of measurement include:
  yuán (元) for dollar
  máo (毫 or 毛) for 10 cents
  lǐ (里) for the Chinese mile
  any other Chinese measurement unit
  Notice that the decimal point is implicit when the first digit is set at the ten position. Zero is represented by the character for zero (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.
caption: Suzhou numerals on banquet invoices issued by restaurants circa 1910–1920s. Although the invoices use traditional right-to-left vertical writing, the Suzhou numerals recording the amounts are written horizontally from left to right.
exif: {"Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "NEX-3", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "ACD Systems Digital Imaging", "Image DateTime": "2011:07:19 21:02:30", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "768", "Image XPTitle": "[83, 0, 117, 0, 122, 0, 104, 0, 111, 0, 117, 0, 32, 0, 110, 0, 117, 0, 109, 0, 101, 0, 114, 0, 97, 0, 108, 0, 115, 0, 32, 0, 7, 134, 222, 93, 188, 120, 80, 91, 0, 0]", "Image XPComment": "[65, 0, 32, 0, 98, 0, 97, 0, 110, 0, 113, 0, 117, 0, 101, 0, 116, 0, 32, 0, ... ]", "Image XPAuthor": "mk2010", "Image CustomRendered": "Normal", "Image ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "Image WhiteBalance": "Auto", "Image FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "24", "Image SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Image Contrast": "Normal", "Image Saturation": "Normal", "Image Sharpness": "Normal", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "43840", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "14375", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/30", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:01:28 14:49:31", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:01:28 14:49:31", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "-13/100", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "16", "EXIF SubSecTime": "259", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1500", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}