Historical Origins of Chinese Numerals in Full Form

The use of Chinese numerals in written form originated during the Ming Dynasty. Following the major corruption case known as the “Guo Han Affair,” Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict explicitly mandating that accounting records must replace the numerals “一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八、九、十、百、千” with the characters “壹、貳、叁、肆、五、六、七、八、九、十、佰（陌）、仟（阡）”. hundred, thousand.“ This complex system made it harder to alter ledgers. Later, ”陌“ and ”阡“ were simplified to ‘佰’ and ”仟," respectively, and these forms remain in use today.

Common Numerical Words in Chinese Script

Numerical amount	Capital Chinese numerals	Numerical amount	Capital Chinese numerals	Numerical amount	Capital Chinese numerals	Numerical amount	Capital Chinese numerals	Numerical amount	Capital Chinese numerals
0	零元整	1	壹元整	2	贰元整	3	叁元整	4	肆元整
5	伍元整	6	陆元整	7	柒元整	8	捌元整	9	玖元整
10	壹拾元整	11	壹拾壹元整	12	壹拾贰元整	13	壹拾叁元整	14	壹拾肆元整
15	壹拾伍元整	16	壹拾陆元整	17	壹拾柒元整	18	壹拾捌元整	19	壹拾玖元整
20	贰拾元整	30	叁拾元整	40	肆拾元整	50	伍拾元整	60	陆拾元整
70	柒拾元整	80	捌拾元整	90	玖拾元整	100	壹佰元整	200	贰佰元整
300	叁佰元整	400	肆佰元整	500	伍佰元整	600	陆佰元整	700	柒佰元整
800	捌佰元整	900	玖佰元整	1000	壹仟元整	2000	贰仟元整	3000	叁仟元整
4000	肆仟元整	5000	伍仟元整	6000	陆仟元整	7000	柒仟元整	8000	捌仟元整
9000	玖仟元整	10000	壹万元整	20000	贰万元整	30000	叁万元整	40000	肆万元整
50000	伍万元整	60000	陆万元整	0.1	壹角	0.2	贰角	0.3	叁角
0.4	肆角	0.5	伍角	0.6	陆角	0.7	柒角	0.8	捌角
0.9	玖角	1.1	壹元壹角	1.2	壹元贰角	1.3	壹元叁角	1.4	壹元肆角
1.5	壹元伍角	1.6	壹元陆角	1.7	壹元柒角	1.8	壹元捌角	1.9	壹元玖角

RMB Capital Chinese Numerals Notes
Chinese numerals for amounts shall be written in regular script or semi-cursive script, using characters such as: 壹 (Yi), 贰 (Er), 叁 (San), 肆 (Si), 伍 (Wu), 陆 (Lu), 柒 (Qi), 捌 (Ba), 玖 (Jiu), 拾 (Shi), 佰 (Bai), 仟 (Qian), 万 (Wan), 亿 (Yi), 元 (Yuan), 角 (Jiao), 分 (Fen), 零 (Zero), 整 (Zheng). Do not use the simplified characters 一 (one), 二 (two), 三 (three), 四 (four), 五 (five), 六 (six), 七 (seven), 八 (eight), 九 (nine), 十 (ten), 念 (ten thousand), 毛 (mao), or 另 (or 0). Do not invent simplified characters. If traditional characters are used in writing the amount, such as 贰 (two), 陆 (six), 亿 (hundred million), 万 (ten thousand), or 圆 (yuan), they shall also be accepted.

I. For amounts written in Chinese characters up to “yuan,” the character “整” (or “正”) should follow “元.” After “角,” the character “整” (or “正”) may be omitted. For amounts including “fen,” the character “整” (or ‘正’) should not follow “分.”

II. The words “Renminbi” shall be indicated before the Chinese numerals for amounts. When the amount includes “fen” (cents), the character “整” (or ‘正’) shall not be written after “fen”.

III. The words “Renminbi” shall be printed before the Chinese numerals for amounts in words. The numerals shall be written immediately following “Renminbi” without any blank space. If the words “Renminbi” are not pre-printed before the amount in words, they shall be added manually. The amount-in-words field on bills and settlement vouchers shall not contain pre-printed fixed denominations such as “千、百、十、万、千、百、十、元、角、分.”

IV. When Arabic numerals for amounts in lowercase contain a “0,” the Chinese full-word form should be written according to Chinese language conventions, the structure of monetary figures, and requirements for preventing tampering. Examples are as follows:
1. When Arabic numerals contain a “0,” the Chinese numeral should be written as “零.” For example, ¥1409.50 should be written as “RMB Six Thousand One Hundred Forty-Nine Yuan Five Jiao.”
2. When Arabic numerals contain consecutive zeros, the Chinese written amount may use only one “零” character. For example, ￥6007.14 should be written as: RMB Six Thousand and Seven Yuan, One Jiao and Four Fen.
3. When the ten-thousand and yuan positions in an Arabic numeral amount are “0”, or when there are consecutive zeros in the middle of the number and the ten-thousand and yuan positions are also “0” but the thousand and jiao positions are not “0”, the Chinese full-word amount may use only one character for ‘zero’ or omit the character for “zero” entirely. For example, ￥1680.32 should be written as: RMB One Thousand Six Hundred Eighty Yuan Zero Three Jiao Two Fen, or RMB One Thousand Six Hundred Eighty Yuan Three Jiao Two Fen. Similarly, ￥107,000.53 should be written as “RMB One Hundred and Seven Thousand Yuan Zero Five Jiao Three Fen” or “RMB One Hundred Thousand and Seven Thousand Yuan Five Jiao Three Fen.”
4. When the Arab numeral for the yuan position is “0” but the fen position is not “0,” the Chinese written-out amount should include the character ‘零’ after “元.” For example, ¥16,409.02 should be written as: RMB 一万六千四百零九元零二分; Similarly, ￥325.04 should be written as: Three hundred twenty-five yuan zero four fen.

Origin of the Numbers
The earliest tools humans used for counting were their fingers and toes, but these could only represent numbers up to twenty. When dealing with larger quantities, most primitive people resorted to using small pebbles for counting. Gradually, people invented methods like tying knots on ropes, or carving marks on animal hides, trees, and stones to keep track. In ancient China, small sticks made of wood, bamboo, or bone were used for counting, known as suanchou. These counting methods and symbols gradually evolved into the earliest numerical symbols (digits). Today, Arabic numerals are used as the standard numerals worldwide.