Origin abacus

Abacus is a precious cultural heritage of the Chinese nation. The question of the origin of the abacus has been put forward for debate for over a hundred years and there is no unanimous conclusion. Since the Qing dynasty, many mathematicians have conducted this study, Japanese scholars have also spent a lot of searching and concentrating, there are 3 main ideas:

The most knowledgeable idea of the policy is that abacus appears in the middle of Trieu Nguyen.

Modern calculator (Photo: Gallery)

At the end of Nguyen Dau Minh has been widely used.Canh Chu, the 29th book in the book "The South Village Turns the Farm" by Tong Nghia Nguyen, leads the adage describing slaves, bringing slaves with a long-standing status compared to abacus, automatically choosing the automatic work , proving that at that time the abacus was very popular. At the end of Song Dynasty, in the beginning of Nguyen Dynasty in Luu Nhan's book "Tinh Moc Tien student" , there are 4 verses taking abacus as a subject:

"He was incompetent
Huu Bang poems poetic
Acceptable but numb
Bodhisattva's physical suffering "

This is also a proof for abacus that appeared in the Nguyen Dynasty. Until the Ming Dynasty, the book "Lu Ban Moc Kinh" was written in the year Vinh Lac had a rule, a measure of manufacturing abacus. In addition, it was also found at this time that the manuals of abacus use such as "Mathematics of the Legislative Law" of Tu Tan Luu, "The directives of the general legal system" of Trinh Dai Ve. Thus, in Minh dynasty abacus was widely applied.

The second opinion of Mai Kha Chien, Thanh's algebraist, is that the abacus appeared in the time of the Southern North and Dong Han. This opinion is based on the mathematician of the Eastern Han period, Tu Nhac wrote the book "Number of eccentricity" in which he recorded 14 ways to calculate the so-called "calculation of abacus". Later, the Northern Chu Dynasty mathematician annotated this passage as follows: "Engraving is 3 parts, 2 upper and lower to roll, middle part to locate calculation. Position 5 marbles and tablets The ball on the other side with 4 members under each member is 1 unit, 4 members under the band called "No time at all". Vien was run 3 places called "Three talents" . But some scholars argue that the abacus calculation described in this book is just a tool for counting or calculating simple addition and subtraction operations. Compared to the abacus that appears later, cannot be one.

Abacus balls (Photo: Tuaw)

From the discovery of the latest historical documents formed a third opinion that is the origin of the abacus from Tang, popular in Song Dynasty. Because, in the famous "Thanh minh Thượng hà" painting during the Song period, there was a pharmacy, right in the middle of the counter, there was an abacus. Chinese-Japanese experts took the picture back and zoomed in, realizing that the object in the painting is a modern-day calculation. In 1921 archaeologists excavated a wooden abacus at the residence of the Song Dynasty. Despite being buried in sandy soil for 800 years, it still has a blank image in the middle of a hole that is not much different from the modern abacus. Moreover, Luu Nhan is the last person of Tong Tong Nguyen who had the poem "Abacus" mentioned above also depicting things of the Yuan period (or to say that the reflection of the Song life is more accurate).

And in the book "The Mind of Relativity", the book of breaking the Nguyen Dynasty, the abacus is the content of the heart, it is very likely that it has become a normal object so its appearance must at least be Song life. In addition, the abacus of the Tong period from the external form has been relatively complete, no longer the appearance of a novel object with a clumsy or rough form. Besides, during the war of rebellion, in the ten-country house, before the Song Dynasty, the development of new culture and technology was stalled, the possibility of the abacus at that time was very small. Tang Dynasty is a flourishing period in Chinese history, the cultural economy has developed, the Tang people need new calculation tools. The rods used for 2 thousand years during this period have been transformed into abacus. Therefore, mathematicians believe that the birth of the abacus may enter the Tang Dynasty.

China is home to the abacus. In the age of popular computer use today, the ancient abacus was not discarded but because of its precise flexibility, in many places still in vogue. So the world still ranks abacus inventions as one of the four greatest inventions of ancient Chinese people. It is also a great contribution of the Chinese people to humanity.