The origin of mathematics: Mathematics, which was called arithmetic in ancient China, was later called arithmetic mathematics. In recent decades, it has been determined that unification is called mathematics. In ancient times, the word "calculation" was written in three ways: raising, mixing and calculating. From the structure of glyphs, we can see traces of the evolution of some things.

Xu Shen's Shuo Wen Jie Zi explains these words in this way: "Yi" and "He who is six inches long and gets the word from bamboo for several times is always right". "Count, count also, from bamboo, read if". "Display" or "calculation" used to be a bamboo tool, a few inches long bamboo stick, also called a chip. Used for counting, calculating or divination. Playing these "calculations" has a set of basic technical knowledge, which is naturally called "arithmetic" or "arithmetic".

China is rich in bamboo, which is the best country in the world. The use of bamboo as a calculation tool makes ancient mathematics in China have many characteristics different from those in the West. "Instruction" consists of two characters. Shuowen explains the word "show" as follows: "Show is also a fetish." "Two" is the last word in ancient Chinese, and the three vertical (later written as one vertical and two points) are the sun, the moon and the stars. The ancients believed that there was a God in the sky, and the expression of God came down from above. Correction is also used for divination, so it is not surprising that the word "finger" is superstitious.

When did the word "calculate" come into use? Needham believed that this number had never been found in Oracle Bone Inscriptions or inscriptions on bronze, so it could not have appeared before the 3rd century BC. Anyway, the name "Arithmetic" was very popular in the Han Dynasty. Officially used, it is in the book "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic". It means that mathematics at that time was different from modern arithmetic. During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the development of mathematics in China was in the forefront of the world. At that time, "arithmetic" and "mathematics" were used together.

The combination of arithmetic and mathematics has lasted for hundreds of years. In 1935, "chinese mathematical society Terminology Review Board" still advocates the combination of the two words. It was not until June of 1939 that we decided to use "mathematics" instead of "arithmetic" in order to draw together.