It was many a long century after the last of the little Chings had learned to count by tens that there lived on the banks of the Hwangho (hwänghō’), or Yellow River, a potter whose plates and cups were known all over Shantung (shän’tŏŏng’) as the best to be found anywhere in that great province.
一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九 十
CHINESE FIGURES
Modern Chinese figures for the numbers from I to I0. These developed from those used by Chang
One day Chang watched his father write with a brush on a palm leaf some marks which showed how many cups there were upon the top shelf in his workshop.
Chang had learned to count the cups, but he could write ten only by making ten marks. So he said to his father, “I want to learn how to write the numbers as you do.”
