mathematics

Ten thousand years

Ten thousand years is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ten thousand years rather than just read about it. In short: In various East Asian languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, the phrase wànsuì, banzai, manse, and vạn tuế, respectively, meaning myriad years is used to wish long life, and is typically translated as "long live" in English. The phrase originated in ancient China as an expression used to wish long life to the emperor.

Key takeaways

Ten thousand years belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ten thousand years to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ten thousand years from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

In various East Asian languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, the phrase wànsuì, banzai, manse, and vạn tuế, respectively, meaning myriad years is used to wish long life, and is typically translated as "long live" in English. The phrase originated in ancient China as an expression used to wish long life to the emperor. Due to the historical political and cultural influence of Chinese culture on the East Asian cultural sphere, in the area, and in particular of the Classical Chinese language, cognates with similar meanings and usage patterns have appeared in many East Asian languages and Vietnamese. In some countries, this phrase is mundanely used when expressing feeling of triumph, typically shouted by crowds.

China

In Chinese, ten thousand or "myriad" is the largest numerical order of magnitude in common usage, and is used ubiquitously as a synonym for "indefinitely large number". The term wansui (萬歲), literally meaning "ten thousand years", is thus used to describe a very long life, or even immortality for a person. Although the First Emperor of Qin also wished "ten thousand generations" (万世) for his imperial rule, the use of wansui was probably coined during Han dynasty. In 110 BC, Emperor Wu of Han was addressed by the phrase "Wansui" during a heaven ritual on Mount Song. According to legend, Mount Song itself called out the phrase to address the emperor. During the Tang dynasty, it came to be used exclusively to address the emperor as a prayer for his long life and reign. Then, during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, its use was temporarily extended to include certain higher-ranking members of the imperial court, but this tradition was relatively short-lived: in later imperial history, using it to address someone other than the emperor was considered an act of sedition and was consequently highly dangerous. During certain reigns of weak emperors, powerful eunuchs such as Liu Jin and Wei Zhongxian circumvented this restriction by styling themselves with jiǔ qiān suì (九千歲, literally "9,000 years") so as to display their high positions, which were close to or even exceeded the emperor's, while still remaining reverent to the title of the emperor. Traditionally, empresses consort and empresses dowager were addressed with "thousand years" (千歲) rather than "ten thousand years", which was reserved for the emperor exclusively. However, Empress Dowager Cixi, the de facto supreme ruler of China from 1861 to 1908, was addressed with "ten thousand years". Several photographs of her show a banner on her litter reading "The Incumbent Holy Mother, the Empress Dowager of the Great Qing, [may she live and reign for] ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand of ten thousand years" (大清國當今聖母皇太后萬歲萬歲萬萬歲). The Emperor was addressed by the title "Lord of Ten Thousand Years" (simplified Chinese: 万岁爷; traditional Chinese: 萬歲爺; pinyin: Wànsuìyé).

Usage

Classically, the phrase wansui is repeated multiple times following a person's name or title. For example, in ancient China, the Emperor would be addressed with (Chinese: 吾皇萬歲，萬歲，萬萬歲; pinyin: Wú huáng wànsuì, wànsuì, wànwànsuì; lit. '[May] my Emperor [live and reign for] ten thousand years', 'ten thousand years', 'ten thousand of ten thousand years'). The foregoing phrase is best known to modern Chinese through televised films, but is not historically accurate; in the Ming dynasty, the only occasion during which 萬歲 is used is the great court, which was held one to three times a year. Approaching the end of the ceremony, the attending officials will be asked to shout 萬歲 three times. The significance of "ten thousand" in this context is that "ten thousand" in Chinese and many other East Asian languages represents the largest discrete unit in the counting system, in a manner analogous to "thousand" in English. Thus 100,000 in Chinese is expressed as 10 ten-thousands; similarly, whereas a million is "a thousand thousands" in Western languages, the Chinese word for it is bǎiwàn (simplified Chinese: 百万; traditional Chinese: 百萬), which literally means "hundred ten-thousands". Because of this, Chinese people often use wàn in a manner analogous to "thousand" – whereas an English speaker might exclaim "there are thousands of ants on the ground", the Chinese speaker would substitute it with "ten thousand" in the description. So in the context of wànsuì, a literally incorrect but culturally appropriate translation might be, "may you live for thousands of years". The number simply denotes innumerability, in a manner etymologically similar to the Greek myriad (although the current usage of that word differs). During the Qing, at the entrances of mosques in China, a tablet was placed upon which the characters for Huangdi, wansui, wansui, wanwansui (皇帝萬歲，萬歲，萬萬歲) were inscribed, which means, "The Emperor, may he live ten thousand years". Westerners traveling in China noted the presence of these tablets at mosques in Yunnan and Ningbo.

Modern use

During the Battle of Sihang Warehouse in 1937 during the Second Sino-Japanese War, Chinese civilians cheered "Zhōnghuá Mínguó wànsuì!" (Chinese: 中華民國萬歲！; lit. 'Long live the Republic of China!') after raising the Flag of the Republic of China on a flag-raising ceremony, to celebrate their victory over the Japanese. In August 1945, after Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek announced the defeat of Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War, the people exclaimed "Jiǎng, Zhōngguó, wànsuì, wànwànsuì!" (蔣、中國、萬歲、萬萬歲！), which means, "Chiang, China, [may he/China] live ten thousand years, [may he/China] live for myriads upon myriads of years!".

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ten thousand years

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ten thousand years claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ten thousand years before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ten thousand years ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ten thousand years

In research: Ten thousand years appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ten thousand years in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ten thousand years is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 10000 (number), Ancient institutions in East Asia, Battle cries, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ten thousand years outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Ten thousand years in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ten thousand years means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ten thousand years out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ten thousand years in simple terms?

Why does Ten thousand years matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ten thousand years?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ten thousand years.