Counting Rod Numerals is a
Unicode block
A Unicode block is one of several contiguous ranges of numeric character codes (code points) of the Unicode character set that are defined by the Unicode Consortium for administrative and documentation purposes. Typically, proposals such as the ad ...
containing traditional Chinese
counting rod
Counting rods () are small bars, typically 3–14 cm long, that were used by mathematicians for calculation in ancient East Asia. They are placed either horizontally or vertically to represent any integer or rational number.
The written fo ...
symbols, which mathematicians used for calculation in ancient China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. The orientation of the Unicode characters follows
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
convention, with digits represented as horizontal lines, and tens represented as vertical lines, which differs from
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...
practice which represented digits as vertical lines, and tens as horizontal lines.
The block also contains five ideographic
tally mark
Tally marks, also called hash marks, are a unary numeral system ( arguably).
They are a form of numeral used for counting. They are most useful in counting or tallying ongoing results, such as the score in a game or sport, as no intermediate r ...
s, based on the five strokes of the character
正, which are widely used in East Asia. There are also two characters for use in representing traditional European tally marks (only Tally Mark One and Tally Mark Five are encoded, with tally numbers two through four intended to be represented as a sequence of two through four Tally Mark One characters).
Block
History
The following Unicode-related documents record the purpose and process of defining specific characters in the Counting Rod Numerals block:
See also
*
Numerals in Unicode
A numeral (often called ''number'' in Unicode) is a character that denotes a number. The decimal number digits are used widely in various writing systems throughout the world, however the graphemes representing the decimal digits differ widely. Th ...
References
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Unicode blocks