Multiplication Tables Exist in China 2,200 Years Ago

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, June 27, 2002

Multiplication Tables Exist in China 2,200 Years Ago

Chinese archaeologists have unearthed proof that the times tables were being drummed into the heads of pupils more than 2,000 years ago.

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Chinese archaeologists have unearthed proof that the times tables were being drummed into the heads of pupils more than 2,000 years ago.

A set of multiplication tables engraved on a wooden tablet have been found at a historical site dating from the Warring States period (BC.475-BC.221), it was announced Wednesday.

The 2,200-year-old tables were inscribed on a 22 cm-long and 4. 5 cm-wide tablet, which was unearthed at Liyegu village of Longshan county in south China's Hunan province.

Experts have confirmed that the formulas are the earliest record in China of the multiplication formulas.

Archaeologists so far can only figure out the equations concerning number "eight" from the six lines.

The two-sided tablet has been soaked in a special liquid to make blurred characters reveal themselves and yield more clues.

Yuan Jiarong, director of the local Institute of Archaeology, said that it seemed the tablet contained only some of the equations. Remaining information may be engraved on other tablets.

Gao Chongwen, of the archaeological institute of Beijing University, said that the new discovery could prove that multiplication formulas were invented and widely used in China as early as the Spring and Autumn period (BC.770-BC.476) and the Warring States period.

Liu Dun, director of the Institute of History of Natural Sciences under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that similar multiplication formulas had also been discovered in ancient Babylon's mud-plate books. But the formulas, when read in Chinese, should be more rhythmical thanks to the language's monosyllabic character.

In addition, China's exclusive abacus calculation formula which followed the multiplication formula was also in rhythm.

Liu believed that the rhythmical formulas of both multiplication and abacus calculation may have helped Chinese people enhance calculation speed and improve their method.

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