Before 1911 until the Qing Dynasty, China was still ruled by a feudal dynasty; after 1911, Chinese feudal society ended. Although the Revolution of 1911 was not a completely successful revolution, at least on the surface, China was still in line with the world. One of the big changes in
is that Chinese officials have begun to adopt international standards for calendars and weights and measures.
unified weights and measures. China has been doing this since the Qin Dynasty.
has a great influence. Until now, every aspect of Chinese life has been affected by it. For example, the calendar. China now uses the Gregorian calendar, but folk festivals and so on. The traditional lunar calendar is used, so it has Chinese characteristics: two New Years a year. This sometimes surprises foreigners.
The same is true in terms of weights and measures. The weights and measures currently used in our country are actually in line with international standards, such as kilograms, square meters, meters, hectares, and so on. However, there is usually another set of weights and measures in China: catty, two, mu This kind.
"Shijin" is the most commonly used unit in China.
When most people buy food, they are still used to saying how many kilograms, not kilograms, right. Such traditional Chinese weights and measures are usually prefixed with the word "市", such as "市" Jin.
However, there is a very interesting place. Think about it, everyone. Although Jin, Liang, Mu, etc. are traditional Chinese units, how about? It is in line with international units! For example, one catty is 500 grams; one inch is 3.33 cm; one mu of land is 666.67 square meters.
Uh, why is it so coincidental? Is it true that ancient Chinese weights and measures are just in line with international standards? Of course it is impossible. This is actually a coincidence.
Let’s say “mu”, Qin and Han Dynasty is about 461 square meters per mu. Of course, this is not calculated according to international standards. What about the current mu? This was promulgated in 1959 by the "Methods of Using the Legal Units of Measurement of the People's Republic of China". The traditional municipal system in the area of area was completely abolished. The only area unit reserved was "mu", but this is just borrowing the ancient name and the actual size is also It’s changed. Now the city stipulates that one mu is equal to 60 square meters, which is approximately equal to 667 square meters; 15 mu is equal to one hectare.
Because it involves the division of farmland, the unit of "mu" is very important.
Let's talk about the unit of weight. Use "jin". Since the Zhou Dynasty, there have been units of weight in China: Jin, Liang, Qian, and cent. There was an official title in ancient China. "Sima", Sima is mainly in charge of the military. Among them, because grain management needs to be weighed, "Sima" is related to the unit of weight, so this is also called "Simajin." The "jin" of
is different in different periods. You may remember the term "half catty and eight liang", which means that everyone is of the same level, because in ancient times a catty was probably 16 taels, but now a catty is 12 taels. All regions and industries in China have their own catty and two weight standards, which are not uniform, which often causes confusion.
However, the Ministry of Standards certainly did not work, and the Qing Dynasty adopted the construction ruler and the Kuping ruler. One catty is about 596.816 grams, which is 16 taels, that is, one tael is about 37.301 grams. In the 52nd year of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (1713), the "Imperial Law of Lu Zhengyi" and "The Essence of Mathematics and Physics" of the Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty all set weights and measures, and the 34th year of Guangxu (1908) "Forty Articles of the Implementation of Uniform Weights and Measures" , Forming the standardization of construction ruler and Kuping.
sixteen taels per catty, this is the traditional
what is the modern catty? This still has a set of changes.
From 1912 to 1915, the Beiyang government continued to use the Qing dynasty to create a ruler flat system, that is, 1 catty is about 596.816 grams, but it is really inconvenient to think about it (inches, gallons, and bushels used in the United States often cause confusion) , On January 7, 1915, the Beiyang government promulgated the "Power Law", stipulating that in addition to the original construction rule library flat system to continue to be used, an additional universal system of power (that is, the International System of Units) was also implemented. After the National Revolution, the National Government, which replaced the Beiyang government, replaced the construction of the Chiku flat system with the municipal system, and the construction of the Chiku flat system entered history. According to the law, 1 catty is equal to 500 grams, and 16 taels is 1 catty (that is, 1 tael is equal to 31.25 grams).
"The length of the municipal system is one-third of the meter as the city ruler (abbreviated as the ruler), and the weight is one-half of the kilogram.One is Shijin (Jin Zuojin), and the capacity is changed to Shisheng (Jin Zuosheng). One Jin is divided into 16 taels. One thousand five hundred feet is defined as one li, and six thousand square feet is defined as one mu. Decimal into . "—The "Law of Weights and Measures of the Republic of China" enacted in February 1929 and implemented on January 1, 1930 stipulates
. At the same time, Article 6 stipulates, "Two: equal to one sixteenth of a catty, which is ten dollars. (0.0625 kg)".
Article 6 of the "Law of Weights and Measures" in the 18th year of the Republic of China (1929), the measurement that came into effect on January 1, 1930, has been used until
in 1959. The weight has changed and became 500 catties, but a catty is still 16 taels. According to tradition.
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, on June 25, 1959, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China issued the "Order on the Unified Measurement System", retaining the municipal system, "The city system originally set 16 taels as one catty, because conversion is troublesome, so it should be changed to ten taels as one catty. So, has been used in mainland China until now. Z1z
, however, is different in Taiwan. Taiwan now uses 600 grams per catty. This is affected by Japan’s "rule penetration method"; Hong Kong and Macau are also different. In the original Hong Kong law, Article 22 of 1884, one catty is 1 1⁄3 constant weight (that is, 3 catties is equivalent to 4 pounds). The current Hong Kong law stipulates that one catty is equal to one percent or 16 taels, which is 0.60478982 kilograms. Macau also followed suit.
In other words, in theory, the traditional municipal system in mainland China has been abolished, just borrowing the name of the ancient unit. However, this is not the case in all fields in China. When weights and measures were unified, there was a The field is “on the Internet”. This is traditional Chinese medicine. In order to prevent calculation errors, the original measurement unit can be used without reform (of course, it was gradually changed to the international system of units measured in grams).
At the beginning, traditional Chinese medicine was allowed to use traditional
. On May 27, 1977, China issued the "Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Metrology (Trial)", Article 3, paragraph 2, : "The retained municipal system must be gradually reformed. "Z61z
"Order of the State Council on the Unified Implementation of Legal Measurement Units in China" of February 27, 1984 : "2. The municipal measurement units currently used in people's lives in China can continue to be used until 1990 and will be completed before the end of 1990. The transition to the national legal unit of measurement. For the reform of the measurement unit of farmland land area, a reform plan shall be formulated on the basis of investigation and research, and shall be announced separately. "Z61z
So, although our country folk still practice with the" burden "as a unit of weight, most shops for the convenience of our customers, will use 500 grams as price marking and other units, but the size of the unit of length are atypical .
Author: Yun-Fan
