Concept
The yuan (juːˈɑːn,_-æn; sign: ¥; ; ɥæ̌n) is the base unit of a number of former and present-day currencies in Chinese. A yuan () is also known colloquially as a kuai (; originally a lump of silver). One yuan is divided into 10 jiao () or colloquially mao ( "feather"). One jiao is divided into 10 fen (). Today, the term "yuan" usually refers to the primary unit of account of the renminbi (RMB), the currency of the People's Republic of China. RMB banknotes start at one Yuan and go up to 100 Yuan. It is also used as a synonym of that currency, especially in international contexts – the ISO 4217 standard code for renminbi is CNY, an abbreviation of "Chinese yuan". (A similar case is the use of the terms sterling to designate British currency and pound for the unit of account.) The symbol for the yuan (元) is also used in Chinese to refer to the currency units of Japan (yen) and Korea (won), and is used to translate the currency unit dollar as well as some other currencies; for example, the United States dollar is called Meiyuan () in Chinese, and the euro is called Ouyuan (). When used in English in the context of the modern foreign exchange market, the Chinese yuan (CNY) refers to the renminbi (RMB), which is the official currency used in mainland China. In Standard (Mandarin) Chinese, yuán literally means a "round object" or "round coin". During the Qing Dynasty, the yuan was a round coin made of silver. In informal contexts, the word is written with the simplified Chinese character 元, that literally means "beginning". In formal contexts it is written with the simplified character 圆 or with the traditional version 圓, both meaning "round", after the shape of the coins. These are all pronounced yuán in modern Standard Chinese, but were originally pronounced differently, and remain distinct in Wu Chinese: 元 = nyoe, 圓 = yoe. In the People's Republic of China, '¥' or 'RMB' is often prefixed to the amount to indicate that the currency is the renminbi (e.g. ¥100元 or RMB 100元).
