Original Preface to Liu Hui’s Commentary on the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art

In the past, the Pao Xi a legendary sage-king, also known as Fuxi first drew the Eight Trigrams to convey the virtues of the divine and categorize the nature of all things. He created the method of nine-times-nine referring to the multiplication table to match the changes of the six hexagram lines. By the time of the Yellow Emperor legendary ancestor of Chinese civilization, these methods were refined and extended, leading to the establishment of the calendar, the harmonization of the pitch pipes, and the examination of the origins of the Way. Only then could the subtle essences of the Yin and Yang two complementary forces and the Four Images four major phenomena/seasons be demonstrated and utilized. Historical records mention that Li Shou a legendary official credited with inventing mathematics created mathematics, though the details are unknown. According to the rites established by the Duke of Zhou an influential statesman of the early Zhou dynasty, there were the Nine Numbers. The tradition of the Nine Numbers is exactly what the Nine Chapters presents. In the past, the tyrannical Qin dynasty burned books, causing classical learning to fall into decay. Since that time, Zhang Cang a Western Han official and Geng Shouchang a Western Han official and mathematician, both renowned for their mathematical expertise, gathered the remnants of ancient texts, each adding or deleting sections.

Imperial Edition of the Siku Quanshu