Why did the abacus formula of Ming Dynasty spread to this day?

The abacus has a history of more than 3000 years since the Western Zhou Dynasty. It is the creation of ancient working people, and abacus is known as "the ancient computer of the world". On February 5, 20 13, 13, abacus calculation was officially listed in the list of intangible cultural heritage of mankind by UNESCO. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Cheng Dawei, a Huizhou businessman, edited The Theory of Direct Arithmetic Unity, which is an important work in the development of ancient mathematics in China. At that time, it played a great role in the popularity of abacus in China, and it was widely circulated. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, his books were all over Southeast Asia, Europe and America.

When doing business, improve the abacus formula and write "unified algorithm"

Cheng Dawei (1533 ~ 1606) was a businessman and inventor of abacus in Ming dynasty. The word Rusi, No.,Han nationality, was born in Lingkou, Xiuning County, Anhui Province (now Tunxi, Huangshan City), and was born in a merchant family. As a teenager, he read widely and was interested in calligraphy and mathematics. He has never been an official in his life. He has been doing business in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River since he was 20 years old. Because of the need of business computing, he has been paying attention to mathematics, visiting famous teachers, collecting a large number of mathematics books, studying hard and sometimes gaining experience. In business, because of the inconvenience of the traditional chip counting method, I decided to write a concise and practical math book, which was finally completed at the age of 60.

When Cheng Dawei was forty years old, he was tired of traveling abroad, so he gave up his business and returned to his hometown. Twenty years later, he wrote seventeen volumes "Algorithm Unification" (1592). In the following six years, the book was simplified and written into four volumes, which became the most basic reader of folk computing in later generations. "Arithmetic Tongzong" expounds the traditional rules of abacus calculation, establishes the usage of abacus calculation, improves the formula of abacus calculation, collects 595 mathematical problems circulated in ancient times and records the solutions. Is16-17th century China's masterpiece in the field of mathematics.

The full name of the unified set of algorithms includes all kinds of practical mathematical problems and mathematical methods that can be collected at that time. According to the order of "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic", it is divided into nine chapters, which respectively tell the basic knowledge such as addition and subtraction, division, multiplication, multiplication and square root of integers and fractions. This is the first time to describe the abacus method. While enumerating various calculation methods, the most convenient calculation method is also pointed out. The essence of this book is a comprehensive introduction to abacus, as well as various methods and formulas of abacus. For example, the "Song of Nine Returns", which is still used by the abacus operator, "Twenty-one plus five, every two plus ten ..." is illustrated in detail with graphics. This book is written in the form of formulas and poems, which is easy to understand and remember.

He invented the "measuring walker" and became the prototype of the tape measure.

The first tape measure in the world was invented by Cheng Dawei around 1578. At that time, it was called the "measurer", so Cheng Dawei was called the "father of tape measure". Compared with the current steel tape and leather tape, the "measurer" is much bigger, but from its principle, structure, use and usage, people have to admit that it is the prototype of the tape measure. It consists of a wooden coat, a cross, a bamboo ruler, an iron swivel, a drill foot and a ring. The rod ruler is put in and taken out from the plate hole of the jacket, which is convenient for the drilling foot to be accurately inserted into the field measurement point and easy to carry. The tape measure invented by Cheng Dawei not only has physical objects, but also contains complete parts drawings, assembly drawings, design instructions and modification instructions in the third volume of Algorithm edited by Cheng Dawei, which is quite rare in the history of invention in the world.

According to the records in the History of Ming Dynasty, in the sixth year of Wanli (1578), Zhang, the first assistant of the Cabinet, ordered the whole country to clear farmland, and took "measuring land" and "one whip method" as important measures for its reform. According to "Arithmetic for Unity", Cheng Dawei personally participated in this large-scale land clearing work. Prior to this, "the ancients measured fields wider and longer, and measured them completely by rope ruler", which was not only labor intensive, but also had a high error rate. Therefore, he created a new measuring tool, "Measuring Pedestrians". His idea came from Mo Dou, where carpentry was used.

Cheng Dawei Abacus Museum has a collection of nearly a thousand calculators.

Cheng Dawei Abacus Museum is located in the east of Qukou Canal, Tunxi District, Huangshan City, covering an area of 540 square meters. The main building of this building faces south, with three bays and two entrances. Built in the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty (65438+early 6th century), it is a typical Huizhou residential building. The main building has two bedrooms and three bedrooms, and the ancestor worship building perpendicular to the west side of the main building has a unique architectural style. The main building is connected with the cloister upstairs of the ancestor worship building, and the former residence is integrated. After the ancestor worship building, the back garden-Yuan Bin was built. Cheng Dawei Special Ancestral Temple. Qin Sitang was built by the descendants of Cheng Dawei in the last years of Kangxi. The building is 9.5 meters high, with beam frame, hard mountain horse head wall, front hall and back building, and walking corridor. There are bricks, wood and stone carvings, and the wooden structure is painted with red paint. Now it is set as the main exhibition hall.

The museum consists of four parts: the ancestral hall of the former residence, the information hall (pro-thinking hall) and the Yuan Bin. The whole museum has more than 4,000 pieces of literature and history, and nearly 1,000 pieces of calculators with different shapes and functions (including dozens of materials such as gold, silver, copper, iron, tin, stone, bone, tooth, clay, pottery, glass, plastic, seeds and Haizhu), which fully shows the historical process of the development and evolution of abacus.