The Chinese began using the decimal system very early on. As noted by Hung Wan-sheng of National Taiwan Normal University, "The two up, five down arrangement of the abacus might be related to the hexadecimal notation popularly used to figure catties and taels."
中國人很早便用十進位法，「算盤『上二下五』，可能和民間常用十六進位、計算斤兩有關」，在師範大學教授數學史的洪萬生指出。