Suzhou numerals

The Suzhou numerals are also known as huāmǎ (花碼), cǎomǎ (草碼), jīngzǐmǎ (菁仔碼), fānzǐmǎ (番仔碼) and shāngmǎ (商碼).

At the same time, standard Chinese numerals were used in formal writing, akin to spelling out the numbers in English.

Nowadays, the Suzhou numeral system is only used for displaying prices in Chinese markets[2] or on traditional handwritten invoices.

[citation needed] In the Suzhou numeral system, special symbols are used for digits instead of the Chinese characters.

The resemblance makes the Suzhou numerals intuitive to use together with the abacus as the traditional calculation tool.

The second line consists of Chinese characters that represents the order of magnitude and unit of measurement of the first digit in the numerical representation.

This is very similar to the modern scientific notation for floating point numbers where the significant digits are represented in the mantissa and the order of magnitude is specified in the exponent.

The Suzhou numerals for 5 and 9 come from their respective horizontal forms of the rod numerals, combining a vertical rod for 5 and a circle for 0 or a cross for 4 respectively. Note that circles are written clockwise traditionally in China.
Suzhou numerals on banquet invoices issued by restaurants circa 1910–1920s. Although the invoices use traditional right-to-left vertical writing , the Suzhou numerals recording the amounts are written horizontally from left to right.
Suzhou numerals on a market in Wan Chai
A menu with prices in Suzhou numerals in a Hong Kong Chinese restaurant
Two magic squares in Suzhou numerals in a 19th-century Chinese Catholic journal
Several examples of the pricing values present in Suzhou numerals.