Chinese abacus (suanpan)
Ábaco chino (suanpan)
- Date
- c. 1371-1592 · confidence low
- Place
- Xiuning, Huangshan, Anhui, China
- Credited to
- Yuan and Ming calculators; manual by Cheng Dawei (1592)
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A frame with beads strung on rods, two above and five below a crossbar, which replaced counting rods. Cheng Dawei's manual (1592) made it the general-purpose calculator of East Asia.
A 1371 illustration may be the earliest; earlier mentions (Xu Yue, 2nd century) are doubtful.
What it led to
- fast commercial calculation throughout East Asia
- the Japanese soroban