Binary code The modern binary number system, the basis for binary code, was invented by Gottfried Leibniz in 1689 and appears in his article "Explication de l'Arithmétique Binaire". The full title is translated into English as the "Explanation of the binary arithmetic", which uses only the characters 1 and 0, with some remarks on its usefulness, and on the light it throws on the ancient Chinese figures of Fu Xi." (1703). Leibniz's system uses 0 and 1, like the modern binary numeral system. Leibniz encountered the "I Ching" through French Jesuit Joachim Bouvet and noted with fascination how its hexagrams correspond to
Binary number the binary numbers from 0 to 111111, and concluded that this mapping was evidence of major Chinese accomplishments in the sort of philosophical mathematics he admired. Leibniz was first introduced to the "I Ching" through his contact with the French Jesuit Joachim Bouvet, who visited China in 1685 as a missionary. Leibniz saw the "I Ching" hexagrams as an affirmation of the universality of his own religious beliefs as a Christian. Binary numerals were central to Leibniz's theology. He believed that binary numbers were symbolic of the Christian idea of "creatio ex nihilo" or creation out of nothing. In 1854,