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On the Chinese origin of the Russian computing device “schyoty” Aleksey Volkov |
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Abstract: Until recently the computing device known as “schyoty” was widely used in Russia to perform relatively simple arithmetical operations (mainly addition and subtraction). Some Western travelers who visited Russia in the second half of the second millennium CE noticed a certain similarity between this device and the Chinese instrument “suanpan” as well as its Japanese version known as “soroban”. This similarity, together with the conviction about the antiquity of the Chinese instrument, led the historians to the hypothesis of the Chinese origin of the Russian “schyoty”. Russian historian I. G. Spasskii (1904–1990) devoted to the history of the Russian instrument a large paper published in 1952; later R. A. Simonov (29.12.1929–7.12.2023) also discussed the Russian instrument in his publications. These two authors did not discuss the hypothetic relationship between the Russian and Chinese computing devices; it is possible that both of them accepted the theory stating that the Chinese device was created much earlier than its Russian counterpart and that the Russian device originated from the Chinese one. In his presentation the author will describe the history of studies of the Chinese and Russian instruments and will discuss the theory of the “Chinese origin” of the Russian instrument "schyoty". Keywords: Russian abacus “schyoty”, suanpan, soroban. References
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