1、Chinese Abacus - the oldest calculating machine in the worldGroup 3Chinese AbacusAn abacus is essentially an array of beads threaded on string or held in grooves, with each row representing a different digit. Chinese AbacusChinese AbacusUNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Org

2、anization) claimed that Chinese abacus become alternate item on the Non-material cultural heritage list on 31st Oct. 2013. They also said that Chinese abacus was called the oldest calculating machine in the world. Chinese AbacusThis picture shows the common abacus we used to see. Look at it, which r

3、emind me of my first abacus when I was a child. Actually abacuses often turn up in Chinese literature, just as we used to say “he calculates on an abacus jingle jingle” “he is smart by the means of calculating on the abacus”. We also often see the pictures of a bookkeeper calculating on the abacus f

4、rom TV or films. That is to say the businessman calculate well so that he gains much money. Chinese Abacus“Once sound abacus ringing, there is a ton of gold.”“An abacus to his waist ” It sounds irony and means that he just calculate his personal tip. “A little abacus” If a person just considers for

5、himself, we will say he has a little abacus.Chinese Abacus“Irony abacus” “Irony abacus” means “greedy for money” “Dirty abacus”“Dirty abacus” means full of dirty tricks.“Wishful abacus ”“Wishful abacus” means wishful thoughts.How long history does abacus has?Chinese AbacusAccording to UNESCO (United

6、 Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), abacus has 1800 years of history.But it maybe wrong, because there isnt any evidence to prove it. And it maybe longer according to the legend. Chinese AbacusDuring the Spring and Autumn Period, Wu and Yue competed for the overlord. Fuchai,

7、 the king of Wu was dead and then the king of Yue, Gouqian, won. But just because of his competitors death? Of course not.We have to mention a beauty Xi Shi, one of the four beauties in Chinese history. She was Yues minister Fan Lis wife. But she was sent to Wu as a tool of honey trap.Chinese Abacus

8、When the war came to over, Xi Shi went back home and decided with his husband to leave the king to do business. As a result, they earned much money, but dont know how to calculate. According to the legend, her husband Fan Li made a lot of clay balls. Then Xi Shi put the clay balls on bamboo sticks,

9、and every five balls marked a notation,in which way they count clearly. As everyone knows that Fan Li, also called Zhu Gong, was a millionaire in Chineses history. Chinese AbacusAnother legend said it was Confucius who invented the abacus. His wife helped him thread beads on string. So actually the

10、inventor of abacus was Confuciuss wife. However, as for the two legends, neither of them was convincing. Chinese AbacusChinese AbacusThis is a piece of famous painting called Riverside Scene at Qing Ming Festival from Song Dynasty, from which you can see abacus.Therefore, at latest abacus appeared i

11、n the end of Tang Dynasty, at least 1200-year history from now.Chinese AbacusWho invented abacus rhymes? In the Ming Dynasty, there were so many businessmen in Hui Zhou. And one of the famous businessmen was Cheng Dawei, who invented all the systematic arithmetic of abacus. At that time, different p

12、eople had different ways to calculate, and abacuses had different types, 4 beads, 5 beads or 6 beads on a stick. When Cheng Dawei was more than 40 years old, with rich experience he unified the abacus, just as it looks like now and then make the rhymes. He wrote a book in 1592 AD, called Algorithm T

13、ong Zong, including all the abacus techniques. In the ancient times, if you want to do business, you have to begin with learning how to use abacus. Chinese AbacusHuizhou businessman respect abacus highly, and they had many taboos about abacus: Firstly you have to wash your hand before using abacus. Secondly dont turn the abacus upside down, playing it as