The Weights And Measures In The Traditional Culture Of The Yi Nationality

Yi Nationality is located in the southwest corner of China and has a long history and culture.It is one of the oldest ethnic minorities in China.It started from the second half of the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century about the research of Yi Nationality.During the past more than one hundred years,experts and scholars have made deep investigations and researches on the society,culture,history,technology,religion and astronomical calendars of the Yi Nationality,and they have gained many achievements.Weights and measures is a method to understand nature and produce labor,it is the necessities of human life.It occupies an important position in the history of development about politics,economy,technology and mathematic.But,there is still a lack of research on the weights and measures of ethnic minorities.There is rich cultural connotation and mathematical elements in the weights and measures of the Yi nationality.So,I put the weights and measures of Yi under the background of traditional culture,and research from the following aspects.First,I sorted out the number and calculation of the Yi traditional culture,to understand the mathematical basis of the development of the Yi' s weights and measures;Next,I excavated the weights and measures in the traditional culture of the Yi Nationality,to reflect mathematical thoughts and applications of the Yi people;Finally,I introduced the currency and transactions that accompany the measure of the Yi Nationality,to reflect hexadecimal relation and mathematical operation about these.Literature study,practical study,enquiry method and comparative research were adopted.I read all the local chronicles of Sichuan Yi District,a large number of local chronicles of the Yi District of Yunnan,and the industry chronicles of the Yi District.I also went to Chengdu,Xichang,Beijing to visit the Museum of Southwest University for Nationalities,the Museum of the Yi nationality slave society in Liangshan,and the National Cultural Palace.I looked up the papers more than 180,the books more than 50,ancient works more than 10,and screened out valuable clues from them.I spent one year to collect data.Taking the early period of the founding of new China as the deadline,this paper researched the relatively primitive weights and measures of the Yi people.And my specific work is as follow:(1)A study of the number and calculation of the Yi traditional culture.I divided this part into six parts: the origin of the number,figures,integers,fractions and decimal,hexadecimal systems,multiplication table and four-arithmetic operations.It is worth mentioning that I interviewed the Yi scholars and Yi people with the inquiry method about fractions and decimal.(2)A study of the weights and measures in the Yi traditional culture.Based on collection and analysis of the data,I specifically expound the developments about the weights and measures of Yi nationality from the four aspects of length,area,capacity and weight.I associated them with the traditional culture and refined mathematical elements from them.At the same time,I also compared the similarities and differences between the Yi and the Tibetans in the article from the perspective of social and cultural exchanges.(3)A analysis of the mathematical problem in currency and transaction of the Yi traditional culture.According to the currency circulation and the main trading methods in history of Yi nationality,this section was divided into four parts,they were cowries,salt coin,silver and barter.For the use of the main currency,I combed its usage,devaluation process,and the hexadecimal problems between units.For the barter,I took the transaction ratio in the Yi society as the main object of the study.As the same time as the discussion,I also took them compared with the contents in chapter Limi which contained in the nine chapter of arithmetic.Through the study of the above three parts,we explored the cultural and mathematical elements of the weights and measures in Yi traditional culture.At the same time,we could have a look at the development of Yi nationality's mathematics.We could know the thought and application of Yi nationality's mathematics.And it could enrich the history of Yi nationality's mathematics.