These numerical symbols were originally invented by ancient Indians, and later spread to Arabia and Europe. Europeans mistakenly think that it was invented by Arabs, so it is called "Arabic numerals". Because they have been circulating for many years, people still call them Arabic numerals.
Now, Arabic numerals have become the universal numeric characters all over the world. Arabic numerals are a genius invention. Before the invention and spread of Arabic numerals, how could people count them without these ten symbols? At that time, smart people will use one vertical line to represent 1 and two vertical lines to represent 2. If it is 10, it is represented by the symbol n, as for hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands and so on. , which is represented by other symbols. Of course, it's troublesome. For example, 98 must be represented by nine n's and eight vertical lines. Later, the Romans improved one step. The method they use is to add a low value symbol to the left of the high value symbol to represent the number obtained by subtracting the low value from the high value. For example, if l stands for 50 and x stands for 10, then XL stands for 40. On the other hand, putting the low-value symbol to the right of the high-value symbol indicates the added value, for example, LX means 60. But this method is still inconvenient, and people's troubles were alleviated until Arabic numerals appeared.
Around 500 AD, with the rise and development of economy, culture and Buddhism, Punjab in the northwest of Indian subcontinent has been in a leading position in mathematics. Astronomer Ye Bo Hite made a new breakthrough in simplifying numbers: he recorded numbers with cells. If there is a symbol in the first cell, such as a dot representing 1, then the same dot in the second cell represents ten, and the dot in the third cell represents one hundred. In this way, not only the digital symbols themselves, but also their position order is of great significance. Later, Indian scholars introduced the symbol zero. It can be said that these symbols and representations are the old ancestors of Arabic numerals today. Indians first invented 1 ~ 9 in the present Arabic numerals, and used spaces to indicate no, but it was easy to make mistakes. Later, after India's counting method was introduced into Arabia, Arabs replaced India's "."and brought it to Europe, and got the present Arabic numerals 0 ~ 9. The writing of numbers has developed, which is different from the early days. It should be said that Indians invented the existing counting method and Arabs improved it. Arabs transformed the shape of numbers, which spread all over Europe and finally swept the world. The digital system is popularized all over the world, and Arabs make great contributions, so it is called Arabic numerals.
So how did the numbers of Chinese characters originate? There are different sayings in history. Modern scholar Guo Moruo believes that the ancients used fingers to represent numbers and gradually formed Chinese characters. He said: "Numbers are born in hands, and the ancient China word 1234 is 1234. This finger is also pictographic. Why do you cross your fingers on the book? Say, please count by hand. If you don't care, you must first take the right palm, the thumb becomes one, the second finger becomes two, the middle finger becomes three, the ring finger becomes four, the fist becomes five, and the sixth finger becomes the little finger, that is, one palm becomes ten. " One, two, three and four all point backwards, so the book is horizontal. "
Similar to the development history of numbers in other languages, the numbers in Chinese characters are produced by the Han nationality in the primitive counting activities. In ancient times, people also used jade shells, knots and bamboo as counting tools. The "number" in Oracle Bone Inscriptions represents the image of tying a rope to count. In ancient China, counting was used for a long time, and bamboo was the main tool, which can be seen from the radical "bamboo" of the characters "suan" and "Yang". Its manifestations are as follows:
The Chinese numerals "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, hundred, thousand and ten thousand" are all derived from the above-mentioned Oracle Bone Inscriptions.
With the deepening of ancient people's understanding and the development of thinking, the number of Chinese characters has been increasing, such as high digits: billion, trillion, Beijing, sorrow, jealousy, frugality, righteousness and elegance.
Arabic numerals were introduced into China in the13rd century, but they were not adopted. It was not until the beginning of the twentieth century that people began to use Arabic numerals in cultural life.