In mathematics, the Chinese monoid is a monoid generated by a totally ordered alphabet with the relations cba = cab = bca for every a ≤ b ≤ c. An algorithm similar to Schensted's algorithm yields characterisation of the equivalence classes and a cross-section theorem. It was discovered by Duchamp & Krob (1994) during their classification of monoids with growth similar to that of the plactic monoid, and studied in detail by Julien Cassaigne, Marc Espie, Daniel Krob, Jean-Christophe Novelli, and Florent Hivert in 2001.
The Chinese monoid has a regular language cross-section
and hence polynomial growth of dimension