买卖东西,当然少不了称重的工具。在这里,我们首先可以看到中国的铁制杆秤和18世纪末到19世纪初的欧洲杆秤。其实这两种杆秤都是利用杠杆原理来进行称重的,您可以实际操作一下,体会体会两种杆秤的异同。
To buy and sell things certainly requires scales. This section first presents the Chinese iron scale and the European scale from the late 18th century to the early 19th century. In fact, two types of scales both use lever principle for weighing objects. Here you all can operate the two scales to find out their similarities and differences if you’re interested.
在古代,秤杆上挂的秤砣被称为权,权衡的权,一般用铜制作,也叫铜权。元代因为幅员辽阔、民族众多,所以它的铜权上刻了四种文字,分别是汉字、八思巴文、回鹘蒙文、波斯文,方便不同地区、不同民族的人来使用。
In ancient times, the scale hung from a weigh beam was called weight or copper weight, as it was generally made of copper. In the Yuan Dynasty, as the Empire expanded its territory and ethnic groups, copper weights were engraved with four languages, namely, Chinese, Phagspa, Uighur Mongolian, and Persian, to facilitate exchanges among different regions and ethnic groups.
除了秤,您还可以在右边的展板上看到不同的计算方式。其中,中国的“九九乘法表”算是中国在世界数学史上的一个巨大贡献,早在两千多年前的里耶秦简上,就记载了“九九乘法口诀”。不过九九乘法口诀不太适合多位数的计算,比如两位数乘以两位数,就比较复杂了。13-15世纪,阿拉伯地区出现了一种“格子乘法”,可以很方便的进行多位数的乘法运算,后传至欧洲。在明朝的时候,这种计算方式从欧洲流传到了中国。
In addition to scales, it also displays different calculation methods on the right display panel. Among them, China’s Multiplication Table is recognized as one of China’s great contributions to world history in mathematics and can be traced back to over two millennia ago in the records written on the Liye Bamboo Slips of the Qin Dynasty. However, the Multiplication Table is not suitable for multi-digit calculations. For example, multiplying 2-digit numbers by 2-digit numbers is quite complicated via the Multiplication Table. In the 13th to 15th centuries, the Lattice Multiplication simplified multi-digit multiplication and first appeared in the Arab region, later spreading to Europe, and finally reaching China in the Ming Dynasty.
那学会了称重和计算,接下来,我们的马可波罗就可以带着商品,踏上丝绸之路,前往遥远的中国了。接下来请您前往下一个展区,踏上丝绸之路。
After acquiring those weighing tools and calculation methods, we, as Marco Polo, can take our goods and travel along the Silk Road to distant China. Please follow me to the next exhibition area to begin our journey on the Silk Road.
