Origin
The Four-Corner Method was invented in the 1920s by Wang Yunwu (王雲五), the editor in chief at Commercial Press Ltd., China. Its development was based mainly on contributions by the Russian scholar Otto Rosenberg in the early 20th century, as well as experiments by Lin Yutang and others. Its original purpose was to aid telegraphers in looking up Chinese telegraph code (CST) numbers in use at that time from long lists of characters. This was mentioned by Wang Yunwu in an introductory pamphlet called Sijiaohaoma Jianzifa in 1926. Introductory essays for this pamphlet were written by Cai Yuanpei and Hu Shi.
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