Thirty The total number of sheep in this example.

One hundred and twenty Dividend (實) original: 二十 (twenty). The math requires 120, suggesting an OCR error or a simplified shorthand for the difference in wool amounts.. Additionally, take the large sheep’s wool of 8 taels and subtract the small sheep’s wool of 2 taels; the remainder of 6 taels is the divisor (法): the number used to divide the dividend. Dividing yields 20 small sheep. Subtracting this from the total number of sheep leaves 10 large sheep. This matches the inquiry.

Song of Inquiring the Price of Two Fruits Sweet Peaches and Bitter Plums

Nine hundred and ninety-nine cash coins,

Nine sweet fruits cost eleven;

Buying one thousand sweet and bitter fruits together;

Seven bitter fruits cost four cash.

Try asking: how many sweet and bitter fruits are there?
And how much money is spent on each?

The Answer says: 657 sweet fruits, costing 803 cash.
343 bitter fruits, costing 196 cash.

The Method says: Arrange the 9 fruits out of 1,000 fruits total
and the 11 cash 7 bitter fruits, 4 cash.
First, take the upper-right 9 fruits and mutually multiply (互乘): a method of cross-multiplication to find a common base by the middle-left 4 cash to get 36. Next, take the middle-right 7 fruits and mutually multiply by the upper-left 11 cash to get 77.