85
WEIGHTS IN USE AMONG THE CHINESE.
Is China, most unmanufactured articles are sold by weight, not ex- cepting liquids, wood, silk, cloth, grain, and live stock. Grain is however retailed by measure. The minor decimal weights are used in weighing bullion, pearls, precious stones, valuable drugs, &c. There are three instruments for weighing, viz., the balances, steel- yards, and money scales. Balances are used for weighing large sums of money; standard weights made of brass, are furnished the Board of Revenue at Peking, from 100 taels down to one cash. The steelyard is made of wood, marked off into catties, mace, &c.; the largest of them will weigh two or three peculs; it is called dutchin by foreigners, a word corrupted from tok-ching, to weigh. The counterpoise is usually a piece of stone; so common is its use, that no one goes to market without carrying a dotchin. The money scales are merely a small ivory yard like the dotchin, used to weigh money, pearls, and small things.
The chih (cubit, covid, or Chinese foot) fixed by the Mathema- tical Board at Peking is 13.125 English inches; that used by trades- men at Canton varies from 14.625 to 14.81 inches; that employed by the engineers of public works is 12.7 inches, and that by which distance is usually measured is 12.1 nearly. At Canton, an English yard or má is reckoned at 2 chih 4 tsun, which makes the English foot equal to 8 tsun. · The chih is reckoned in the new tariff at 14.1 English inches, which is about the average length of this measure in Canton; this rate makes the cháng to be 141 inches, or 344 yds.: the usual length of a cháng in Canton is a very little over 4 yds, though some of them are but a little over 11 feet. The foot-rule of tailors is called pải tsien chih, and the shorter one of masons chau tung chih. The cháng of these craftsmen varies according the chik.
The weights known among the Chinese are as follows:- 1 kernel of millet (→) in one
is
10 skú or kernels make one & lui;
10 lui
24 chú
鉄
make one chú, or pearl;
shú:
make one taelliáng or 14 oz. avoirdupois.
16 taels inake one catty kin or 14. avoirdupois.
2 catties make one 引yin;
30 catties make one 釣 kiun;
100 catties make one pecultán (lit. a load), weighing 1334 lbs. av.
120 catties make one stone i shik.
The money weights are liáng, tsien, fan, lí, or taels, mace, canda- reens, and cash, decreasing in a decimal proportion; the copper coin called cash is named tsien, because it originally weighed a mace.