related to division of payment. The Chinese did not focus on theoretical proofs based on geometry or algebra in the modern sense of proving equations to find area or volume. The Book of Computations and The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art provide numerous practical examples that would be used in daily life. Suan shu shu The Suàn shù shū (Writings on Reckoning or The Book of Computations) is an ancient Chinese text on mathematics approximately seven thousand characters in length, written on 190 bamboo strips. It was discovered together with other writings in 1984 when archaeologists opened a tomb at Zhangjiashan in Hubei province. From documentary evidence this tomb is known to have been closed in 186 BC, early in the Western Han dynasty. While its relationship to the Nine Chapters is still under discussion by scholars, some of its contents are clearly paralleled there. The text of the Suan shu shu is however much less systematic than the Nine Chapters, and appears to consist of a number of more or less independent short sections of text drawn from a number of sources. The Book of Computations contains many perquisites to problems that would be expanded upon in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. An example of the elementary mathematics in the Suàn shù shū, the square root is approximated by using false position method which says to "combine the excess and deficiency as the divisor; (taking) the deficiency numerator multiplied by the excess denominator and the excess numerator times the deficiency denominator, combine them as the dividend." Furthermore, The Book of Computations solves systems of two equations and two unknowns using the same false position method. The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art is a Chinese mathematics book, its oldest archeological date being 179 AD (traditionally dated 1000 BC), but perhaps as early as 300–200 BC. Although the author(s) are unknown, they made a major contribution in the eastern world. Problems are set up with questions immediately followed by answers and procedure. There are no formal mathematical proofs within the text, just a step-by-step procedure. The commentary of Liu Hui provided geometrical and algebraic proofs to the problems given within the text. The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art was one of the most influential of all Chinese mathematical books and it is composed of 246 problems. It was later